--- title: "Reddit API pricing in 2026: is it free, what it costs, who gets access | Mentio" description: "The free tier and its 100 requests a minute, the $0.24 per 1,000 calls that ended third-party apps, the approval rule that now gates new access, and where the real cost of watching Reddit sits." canonical: https://mentio.dev/blog/reddit-api-pricing/ markdown: https://mentio.dev/blog/reddit-api-pricing/index.md last-updated: 2026-09-23T16:19:37.703Z --- # Reddit API pricing in 2026: is it free, what it costs, who gets access | Mentio > The free tier and its 100 requests a minute, the $0.24 per 1,000 calls that ended third-party apps, the approval rule that now gates new access, and where the real cost of watching Reddit sits. Source: https://mentio.dev/blog/reddit-api-pricing/ Every few weeks someone asks whether Reddit’s API is still free, usually right after a tool they relied on disappeared. The short version: it is free for what most monitoring needs, it is priced for what most third-party apps needed, and since late 2025 it is approved rather than self-serve. Those are three different facts, and most pages about Reddit API pricing only give you the middle one. Here are the numbers, the rules, and what they mean if you want to watch Reddit for your brand. Key takeaways - Reddit’s Data API is free within 100 requests a minute per app for non-commercial use; the commercial rate quoted in 2023 is $0.24 per 1,000 calls. - One keyword searched every 30 minutes is 1,440 requests a month: $0 on the free tier, $0.35 at the commercial rate. - Since November 2025 new apps and tokens need Reddit’s approval (the Responsible Builder Policy); approved apps keep working, and existing apps have until September 30, 2026 to register for the Developer Platform. - The search API covers posts, not comments, and returns what Reddit ranks for the query, not a firehose. - The cost of monitoring is classification and delivery, not the API. On Mentio that is $5 per keyword per month and $0.008 per matched mention. ## Is the Reddit API free? Yes, within limits, and only if Reddit lets you in. The table is the whole pricing page Reddit never published in one place: Access Who it is for Limit Price In 2026 Free tier Non-commercial apps, personal projects, research within limits 100 requests a minute per OAuth client; 10 without OAuth $0 New apps and tokens need approval since November 2025 Commercial Apps above the free limits, or making money from Reddit data Set in the agreement $0.24 per 1,000 calls quoted in 2023; historical data priced separately Written approval, rarely granted to new applicants Moderation and accessibility Approved mod bots and accessibility apps Free-tier limits $0 Unchanged Developer Platform (Devvit) Apps that run on Reddit itself Platform quotas $0 Where Reddit points new builders; existing apps register by September 30, 2026 The rest of this post is the story behind each row. ## What changed in 2023, in numbers? In April 2023 Reddit announced that its Data API would be metered, effective July 1, 2023. The price reported by the developers who were quoted it was **$0.24 per 1,000 API calls**. Apollo, the most popular third-party client, published its own quote: about $12,000 for 50 million requests, which works out to the same $0.24, and to roughly $20 million a year at Apollo’s traffic. Apollo, Sync, BaconReader and RIF shut down on the deadline. ![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Ch6zNEq9fwM/hq720.jpg)[](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ch6zNEq9fwM) Three minutes on why 7,000 subreddits went dark, and what the pricing meant for the apps. [Watch on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ch6zNEq9fwM) What stayed free: non-commercial use within the rate limit, moderation tools, and accessibility apps that Reddit approved. Reddit’s Data API terms put it plainly: commercial use, research beyond the rate limits, or anything the terms do not expressly permit needs a separate agreement, at rates Reddit decides. ## What does the free tier actually give you? The published free access limit is **100 requests per minute per OAuth client**, averaged over a ten-minute window, and 10 per minute without OAuth. That is 144,000 requests a day for one registered app, which is far more than any monitoring workload needs and far less than a client app serving thousands of users needs. That asymmetry is the whole story of 2023: the price was designed for consumer apps, and it hit them. For a monitoring tool the math is small. Reddit’s search endpoint returns up to 100 posts per call. Watching one keyword with a search every 30 minutes is 48 calls a day, 1,440 a month. This is the whole request: ``` curl -G "https://oauth.reddit.com/search" \ --data-urlencode 'q="your product"' \ --data-urlencode "sort=new" \ --data-urlencode "limit=100" \ -H "Authorization: bearer $REDDIT_TOKEN" \ -H "User-Agent: web:your-app:v1.0 (by /u/your-username)" ``` Reddit rejects a missing or generic User-Agent before it counts the call, and the response carries `x-ratelimit-remaining`, `x-ratelimit-used` and `x-ratelimit-reset` so you can see how much of the 100 per minute is left. ![Bar chart: one Reddit keyword watched every 30 minutes is 1,440 requests a month, $0 on the free tier, $0.35 at the commercial rate, and $5 on Mentio including classification and delivery](/blog/reddit-api-pricing/keyword-cost.png) One keyword, one month. The API is not where the cost is. Even at the commercial rate, one keyword is 35 cents a month of API. Where the money goes is everything after the request: deduplicating the same post across keywords, classifying each match for relevance and sentiment, storing it, and delivering the ones that matter to Slack or a webhook. That is why monitoring tools are priced per keyword and per mention rather than per API call. ## Who gets Reddit API access in 2026? This is the row most pricing pages miss, because it changed after they were written. On November 11, 2025 Reddit published its [Responsible Builder Policy](https://support.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/42728983564564-Responsible-Builder-Policy) and closed self-service access to the Data API: a new app or a new OAuth token now needs Reddit’s approval first, and commercial use needs written approval on top. Developers have reported through 2026 that the old app registration page redirects to the policy or fails silently, and that approvals for new commercial or personal use are rare. Two things did not change. Apps approved before the policy keep their access at the same limits, and Reddit has published no shutdown date for the Data API. What Reddit is doing instead is pointing new builders to its Developer Platform, where code runs on Reddit’s own infrastructure: existing Data API apps are asked to register there by **September 30, 2026**, and apps that opt into Reddit’s migration program have until **December 31, 2026**. The platform is built for moderation tools and interactive posts, not for pulling Reddit data into your own systems, which is the job a monitoring tool has. ![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/P3f6xCgC9PM/hq720.jpg)[](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3f6xCgC9PM) A January 2026 look at the newer approval rules, from the perspective of tools that lost access. [Watch on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3f6xCgC9PM) So the honest answer to “can I build a Reddit monitor on the free API this weekend” is: you can write the code this weekend, and you can send the request the day Reddit approves your app. For a tool that will charge customers, that approval is a commercial agreement, and it is the part nobody can shortcut. ## What does the API not expose, at any price? Two limits matter more than the price. **Search covers posts, not comments.** Reddit’s search endpoint indexes titles and self-text. There is no comment search in the official API, so any tool that promises comment alerts within the terms is either polling every comment stream it can reach or using something other than the official API. Mentio watches posts and says so on the [Reddit monitoring page](/reddit/). **Search is not a firehose.** You get what Reddit’s search ranks for your query, sorted by newest, in pages of 100. A very common keyword will produce more than 100 matching posts in 30 minutes and the oldest ones fall off; a quoted phrase (“acme cloud”) keeps the result set honest. This is a coverage question, not a cost one, and cadence is the knob. ## Is free the same as allowed, and is scraping the alternative? The free tier is for non-commercial use. A tool that sells Reddit monitoring is commercial by any reading, which is why serious vendors either hold an agreement with Reddit, use a licensed data provider, or both. When you evaluate a Reddit tool, “which API do you use and under what terms” is a fair question, and a vague answer is an answer. Scraping is not the lawful workaround. Reddit’s Data API terms and its user agreement prohibit collecting Reddit content without a written agreement, and in 2024 Reddit rewrote its robots.txt to say the same to every crawler it has not licensed. The companies that can legitimately supply Reddit data to others are the ones holding those agreements; a monitoring tool that cannot get its own access buys from them. That is what Mentio does where the official API is unavailable, and it is why the price of a keyword does not change with the transport. ## What does building on it really cost? The API call is the cheap line. This is what a working Reddit keyword alert is made of, and what each part costs when you build it against what it costs on Mentio: Part Build it yourself On Mentio Access An approved app, or a licensed provider contract Included Polling A scheduler, a cursor per keyword, rate-limit handling, retries Every 30 minutes, included Storage and dedupe A database, one row per post, deduped across keywords Included Classification An LLM call per match for relevance, sentiment and intent, plus prompts to maintain Included in the $0.008 per matched mention Delivery Slack, email and webhook senders with retries and rate limits Included: Slack, Telegram, email, webhooks, MCP Keeping up Every Reddit policy change lands on you Included Price Your evenings, hosting, and the LLM bill $5 per keyword per month, $0.008 per matched mention Reddit’s own API is $0 to $0.35 of that. Everything else is the product. ## What does this mean for your monitoring budget? - If you want to watch one or two keywords yourself and you already hold an approved app, the free tier and a feed reader cost nothing. The [free tools roundup](/blog/best-free-social-listening-tools/) covers the options, and Reddit’s RSS feeds still work without an app. - If you want the matches classified and delivered, you are paying for compute and judgement, not for Reddit. On Mentio that is [$5 per keyword per month and $0.008 per matched mention](/pricing/), charged from a prepaid balance, with Reddit searched every 30 minutes through the official API and a licensed fallback when it is unavailable. The [five-minute Reddit routine](/blog/find-customers-on-reddit/) is what to do with the mentions once they arrive. - If you are building your own tool on the API, request access before you write the poller, stay inside 100 requests a minute, and read the terms before the first customer pays you. Prices, limits and dates here are as published by Reddit and quoted by developers on the day of the last update. If Reddit changes them again, this page will change with them. ## Frequently asked questions Is the Reddit API free? For non-commercial use within the rate limit, yes: 100 requests a minute per registered OAuth app, 10 a minute without OAuth. What changed is access. Since Reddit's Responsible Builder Policy of November 2025, new apps and new OAuth tokens need Reddit's approval first, so the free tier is free but no longer self-serve. Apps approved before then keep working. How much does the Reddit API cost? The commercial rate Reddit quoted in 2023 is $0.24 per 1,000 API calls, which is what made Apollo's bill about $20 million a year. For monitoring the number is tiny: one keyword searched every 30 minutes is 1,440 calls a month, $0 on the free tier and $0.35 at the commercial rate. Commercial access is by written agreement and rarely granted to new applicants. What is the Reddit API rate limit? 100 queries per minute per OAuth client id, averaged over a ten-minute window, and 10 per minute for requests without OAuth. The response headers x-ratelimit-remaining, x-ratelimit-used and x-ratelimit-reset tell you where you stand. A missing or generic User-Agent is rejected before the call counts. Is the Reddit API closed? Not closed, gated. Existing approved apps keep their access and Reddit has published no shutdown date for the Data API. New access needs approval under the Responsible Builder Policy, self-service app registration no longer works for new developers, and Reddit is pointing new builders to its Developer Platform, with a registration deadline of September 30, 2026 for existing apps. Is scraping Reddit allowed? Not under Reddit's terms. The Data API terms and the user agreement prohibit scraping without a written agreement, and Reddit tightened robots.txt in 2024 to say the same to crawlers. Licensed data providers exist that hold such agreements; that is the lawful path for a tool that cannot get its own API access. Can I still get Reddit API access for monitoring? As a new developer, only with Reddit's approval, and commercial monitoring was never inside the free tier. Mentio reads Reddit through the official API where it can and a licensed data provider where it cannot, so a keyword costs $5 a month and $0.008 per matched mention whichever transport answered. Where this applies - [Reddit monitoringHow Mentio watches every subreddit through the official API.](/reddit/) - [PricingWhat a keyword and a mention cost on Mentio.](/pricing/) - [Find customers on RedditThe five-minute routine that uses the mentions.](/blog/find-customers-on-reddit/) - [GummySearch alternativesThe Reddit tools left standing.](/blog/gummysearch-alternatives/) Written by Pau Guirao, founder of Mentio. Prices and product facts were checked on September 14, 2026; if one has changed, [tell us](/contact/) and we will fix it. ## Related posts [![](/blog/find-customers-on-reddit/cover.png)](/blog/find-customers-on-reddit/) Sep 14, 2026 ## [How to find customers on Reddit with Claude Code (5 minutes a day, no spam)](/blog/find-customers-on-reddit/) Three prompts in Claude Code find the Reddit threads worth answering, draft honest replies and clean up for tomorrow. The routine, the rules that keep it out of spam, and what it costs. - [Playbooks](/blog/tag/playbooks/) - [Reddit](/blog/tag/reddit/) - [Claude Code](/blog/tag/claude-code/) [![](/blog/twitter-keyword-alerts/cover.png)](/blog/twitter-keyword-alerts/) Sep 14, 2026 ## [Twitter keyword alerts in 2026: what still works on X](/blog/twitter-keyword-alerts/) X has no keyword alerts of its own, the API now bills per post read, and the free tools died with the old API. Every way left to monitor a Twitter account or a keyword, what each costs, and a five-minute setup. - [Platforms](/blog/tag/platforms/) - [X](/blog/tag/x/) - [Alerts](/blog/tag/alerts/) [![](/blog/gummysearch-alternatives/cover.png)](/blog/gummysearch-alternatives/) Sep 13, 2026 ## [GummySearch alternatives in 2026: the Reddit tools left standing](/blog/gummysearch-alternatives/) GummySearch closed on November 30, 2025. What it did, which tools now cover each job, and how to choose between free alerts, AI-scored monitoring and audience research. - [Tools](/blog/tag/tools/) - [Reddit](/blog/tag/reddit/) ## Start monitoring brand mentions One request tracks your first keyword. The first scored mention lands within minutes, in Slack, a webhook, or your agent. [Get your API key ›](https://app.mentio.dev/login?mode=signup)[Read the docs ›](https://docs.mentio.dev) $5.80 free credit · no card · no subscription