Reddit Search API for posts and discussions
Search Reddit posts over HTTP and receive the subreddit and the author alongside each result, without registering an OAuth app or managing Reddit rate limits.
Endpoint
Results arrive in the same JSON shape as every other engine, so existing parsing continues to work.
The link points at the thread on reddit.com.
The snippet begins with r/subreddit and the /u/ author handle.
The rest of the snippet is the body of the post.
Useful for
Product research / Sentiment / Support triage
Community context with its source attached
Set `search_service` to `reddit` and the results come from Reddit posts. The endpoint, the authentication, and the response shape are the same as every other engine, and no Reddit OAuth app is involved.
Community named in the snippet
The `snippet` field follows the pattern `r/subreddit | /u/author | post text`, so the community and the poster are parseable without a second call.
Answers where opinions actually live
Reddit threads carry the practical, comparative discussion that vendor pages do not, which is often what a research question is really asking for.
No OAuth app to register
Requests are billed against Search1API credits, so there is no Reddit client ID, refresh token, or per-app rate limit to manage.
Standard Search parameters
`max_results` up to 50, plus `include_sites`, `exclude_sites`, and `time_range`.
What is a Reddit search API?
A Reddit search API is an HTTP interface that returns Reddit posts as structured results. Reddit publishes its own API, but it requires registering an OAuth application, carries usage terms that changed substantially for third-party clients, and returns a listing format that has to be reshaped before a model can use it. Search1API exposes Reddit as one of the search services on its Search endpoint, returning the post title, the thread link, and a snippet that names the subreddit and the author, in the same JSON shape it returns for its other engines. That matters for research workflows, because attribution to a specific community is usually part of the answer rather than metadata.
Typical workflow
Search Reddit posts over HTTP and receive the subreddit and the author alongside each result, without registering an OAuth app or managing Reddit rate limits.
Send a query with `search_service` set to `reddit`.
Split `snippet` on the pipe to separate the subreddit, the author, and the post text.
Set `crawl_results` when the workflow needs the full thread rather than the opening post.
One request, threads with their community
A single call searches Reddit posts and returns the subreddit and author with each result, so a citation can name the community it came from.
bash
Best for
Product research that needs candid comparisons rather than vendor claims.
Sentiment and community monitoring around a brand or a release.
Support triage that looks for users hitting the same failure.
AI assistants that cite which community an opinion came from.
FAQ
How is this different from the Reddit API?
Reddit’s own API requires registering an OAuth application and managing client credentials, and it returns a listing structure that has to be reshaped before use. Search1API bills against its own credits, so there is no Reddit app to register, and it returns a compact result with the subreddit and author already in the snippet.
Do I need a Reddit account or OAuth app?
No. Authentication is your Search1API key. The request is a POST to https://api.search1api.com/search with `search_service` set to `reddit`.
Can I get the full thread text?
Yes. Set `crawl_results` to the number of top results you want fetched, and each page retrieved successfully includes a `content` field with the page text as markdown. Results that cannot be retrieved are returned without `content` and are not charged.
What does a Reddit search cost?
One credit per search, and one additional credit for each page retrieved successfully through `crawl_results`. At the base top-up rate of $1 for 1,000 credits, that is $1 per 1,000 searches. Signup includes 100 free credits with no credit card.
Can I restrict results to one subreddit?
Use `include_sites` to narrow results by domain, and put the community in the query itself when you need one specific subreddit. The subreddit is also returned in the snippet, so results can be filtered after the fact.
Which other community sources are supported?
The same Search endpoint accepts `x` for posts, `github` for repositories, and `youtube` for video, alongside general web engines and the Chinese-language engines, for 17 engines in total on one contract.