Reddit Search API

Reddit's Search API and JSON endpoints are the public interfaces that let external tools query Reddit posts and comments programmatically by keyword, subreddit, time range, and other filters. The two main surfaces are the official OAuth-based API and the unauthenticated JSON endpoints exposed by appending `.json` to nearly any Reddit URL (e.g. `www.reddit.com/r/SaaS/new.json`).

The official API supports search, listing fetches, user activity, subreddit metadata, and write operations (posting, commenting, voting) with proper authentication. Since 2023, Reddit has tightened API access and introduced commercial pricing tiers for high-volume use, which materially changed the third-party tooling landscape — several popular Reddit apps shut down rather than pay the new rates.

The unauthenticated JSON endpoints remain freely accessible for read-only use at reasonable volumes. These return the same data the Reddit website renders, in structured JSON, including post body, comments, scores, flair, and metadata. RedNudge and similar monitoring tools rely on these endpoints rather than OAuth-authenticated API access, which avoids both rate-limit headaches and the commercial-tier pricing.

Reddit's search itself is built on a Lucene-backed engine with operators like `subreddit:`, `author:`, `flair:`, `self:`, `site:`, and time-range syntax (`timestamp:1234..5678`). For monitoring tools, polling subreddit `/new` listings is often more reliable than running search queries because Reddit's search index can lag behind by minutes to hours, while the `/new` listing is updated in near real time.

Limitations to know: Reddit doesn't expose deleted content via these endpoints once a post is removed, AutoMod-filtered comments may not appear in fetched listings, and high-velocity polling can trigger rate-limit responses. Well-behaved tools cache aggressively, batch requests, and respect the User-Agent guidelines Reddit publishes.