Guides
How to scrape and access social media data with APIs
Evergreen tutorials with runnable examples — when to build it yourself, when to call an API, and how to get real JSON back in minutes.
Where to start
The four most recently updated guides — or browse everything below and filter by platform.
Reddit Search API: how to search Reddit over HTTP (2026)
How to search Reddit programmatically — global keyword search, subreddit-scoped search, pagination, and how it compares to Reddit's own search.
How to scrape Hacker News data with an API
DIY public HN APIs vs a managed Hacker News data API for search, stories, comments, and hiring — tradeoffs and runnable code.
How to scrape Truth Social data with an API
DIY scrapers vs Truth Social's app vs a data API for public profiles and posts — tradeoffs and runnable code.
How to get a Reddit API key (2026)
How Reddit API keys work in 2026: free vs commercial access, OAuth apps, rate limits, and when a public-data API is simpler.
All guides
Filter by platform, or browse everything. Each tutorial uses the same auth and response envelope as production API traffic.
- Reddit Search API: how to search Reddit over HTTP (2026)Reddit
How to search Reddit programmatically — global keyword search, subreddit-scoped search, pagination, and how it compares to Reddit's own search.
Updated
- How to scrape Hacker News data with an APIHacker News
DIY public HN APIs vs a managed Hacker News data API for search, stories, comments, and hiring — tradeoffs and runnable code.
Updated
- How to scrape Truth Social data with an APITruth Social
DIY scrapers vs Truth Social's app vs a data API for public profiles and posts — tradeoffs and runnable code.
Updated
- How to get a Reddit API key (2026)Reddit
How Reddit API keys work in 2026: free vs commercial access, OAuth apps, rate limits, and when a public-data API is simpler.
Updated
- How to Scrape Instagram Data with an API (2026)Instagram
DIY browser scraping vs Meta Graph API vs a data API for public Instagram profiles, posts, and reels — tradeoffs and runnable code.
Updated
- How to Scrape LinkedIn Data with an APILinkedIn
DIY browsers vs LinkedIn partner/MDP APIs vs a data API for public people and company pages — tradeoffs and runnable code.
Updated
- How to scrape TikTok with an API (2026)TikTok
Pull TikTok profiles, videos, and search as JSON — or compare DIY browsers and TikTok's official APIs. Tradeoffs and code.
Updated
- LinkedIn partner API vs public data (2026)LinkedIn
Why LinkedIn Marketing Developer Platform and partner APIs are hard to get, when you actually need them, and when a public-data enrichment API is enough.
Updated
- How to Get TikTok Audience Demographics with an API (2026)TikTok
Pull followers, US audience share, engagement rate, and median views for a public TikTok handle — three GETs into one research row.
Updated
- Cross-Platform Creator Profiles with One API (2026)General
Look up the same creator on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, and X with one schema and one API key — no per-platform scrapers, no drifting field names.
Updated
- Social Fetch with Cursor & Claude (MCP, 2026)General
Connect Cursor, VS Code, or Claude to Social Fetch via MCP — OAuth tools, llms.txt for agents, and the same credit billing as REST.
Updated
- Build a social listening dashboard (2026)General
Watch lists, cron polling, dedupe, spike detection, and Slack alerts — snapshot brand mentions across TikTok, X, YouTube, and Reddit with one JSON schema.
Updated
- How to Pull Facebook Group Posts with an API (2026)Facebook
List posts from a public Facebook group as paginated JSON — sorted feeds, cursors, comments, and cron-friendly workflows.
Updated
- YouTube & TikTok transcripts with one APIGeneral
Pull YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram Reel transcripts as JSON — caption tracks, optional TikTok AI fallback, and batch/RAG patterns.
Updated
- Social Comments for Sentiment Analysis with an API (2026)General
Pull paginated comments from TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Reddit, and more as normalized JSON — ready for keyword rules, classifiers, or LLM batch jobs.
Updated
- Social Fetch vs DIY Scraping — Real Tradeoffs (2026)GeneralPillar
When to run headless browsers vs call an API — maintenance, breakage, schema drift, and credit metering side by side.
Updated
- How to Get a TikTok Video Transcript with an API (2026)TikTok
Pull spoken text from any public TikTok as JSON — caption tracks, optional AI fallback for uncaptioned videos, and WebVTT timestamps.
Updated
- Reddit Product Research with an API (2026)Reddit
Search public Reddit for competitor mentions, switching intent, and feature requests — JSON for spreadsheets, dashboards, or summaries.
Updated
About these guides
These guides are for engineers who already know the job — a transcript, a comment thread, a keyword search — and need the shortest path from curl to something a pipeline can store. Each one names the Social Fetch routes we would call, shows the response fields that matter, and admits where DIY scraping still wins on cost or control.
Most pages include a build-vs-buy section with real maintenance math: proxy bills, DOM breakage, schema drift. Vendor shopping without implementation detail belongs on the compare hub. Workflow pages that map jobs to endpoints without a platform walkthrough live under use cases.
Every guide uses the same response envelope as production traffic: data, meta.creditsCharged, meta.requestId, and typed errors your code can branch on. Check lastUpdated on each row when endpoints change shape.
Production API on every guide
Auth, meta.requestId, meta.creditsCharged, and error codes match what your backend will see. New accounts get 100 free credits with no card.