Platform Factsheet: Reddit

Last updated: 2023-08-25

This platform-specific fact sheet is intended to provide researchers with tips and resources to get started using Reddit in their research.

Researchers should be aware that these platforms can and do change over time. Therefore, for the most up to date information, please refer to Reddit's official documentation. The links below are helpful starting points.

Is there an API?

Yes

Is there a Terms of Service?

Yes: Developer Terms

Yes: Data API Terms

Note: There are several other terms (e.g., User Agreement) which can be navigated to from either of the above links.

Developer guides and documentation

Basic information about the API

There are two ways to access the API: With or without OAuth.

It is highly recommended to use OAuth, as it provides a more generous rate limit (see below). Read more on how to set up OAuth2 for Reddit API here.

As of 1 July 2023 two new rate limits were enforced for API users with API access:

These rate limits will be an average over a time window of 10 minutes to support bursting requests.

As a caveat, Reddit API allows more up-to-date data retrieval, but it is not suitable for getting large quantities of historical data.

Tools