Reddit Has a Secret JSON API — Just Add .json to Any URL

#javascript #beginners #api #webdev

Did you know you can get structured JSON from Reddit without any API key, OAuth tokens, or rate limit headaches?

The Trick

Append .json to any Reddit URL:

https://www.reddit.com/r/webdev.json
https://www.reddit.com/r/python/top.json?t=week&limit=25
https://www.reddit.com/r/datascience/search.json?q=web+scraping&sort=new
https://www.reddit.com/user/spez/about.json

Code Example

async function getRedditPosts(subreddit, sort = "hot", limit = 25) {
  const url = `https://www.reddit.com/r/${subreddit}/${sort}.json?limit=${limit}`;
  const res = await fetch(url, {
    headers: { "User-Agent": "MyApp/1.0" }
  });
  const data = await res.json();

  return data.data.children.map(post => ({
    title: post.data.title,
    author: post.data.author,
    score: post.data.score,
    comments: post.data.num_comments,
    url: post.data.url,
    created: new Date(post.data.created_utc * 1000).toISOString()
  }));
}

const posts = await getRedditPosts("startup", "top");
console.log(posts);

Data You Can Extract

Posts: title, score, comments, author, awards, flair
Comments: text, score, author, replies (nested)
Users: karma, account age, recent posts
Search: across all subreddits or within one
Sorting: hot, new, top (hour/day/week/month/year/all)

Important: Add User-Agent

Reddit blocks requests without a User-Agent header. Always include one:

headers: { "User-Agent": "YourAppName/1.0" }

Why Not the Official API?

Reddit's official API now requires OAuth and has strict rate limits (100 requests/minute). The JSON endpoint works without any authentication and is how old.reddit.com loads data.

Use Cases

Market research — what does r/SaaS discuss most?
Competitor monitoring — track mentions of your brand
Content ideas — find top posts in your niche
Sentiment analysis — how does a community feel about a topic?
Lead generation — find people asking for help you can provide

More Free APIs

Need Reddit data extracted at scale? $20 flat rate. I'll deliver structured JSON/CSV with posts, comments, user profiles from any subreddit. Email: Spinov001@gmail.com | All services →

Order custom data via Payoneer ($20)

Full list of hidden endpoints: Hidden JSON APIs. Want to automate Reddit scraping? Try my Reddit Scraper Pro on Apify.