Reddit Product Research with an API (2026)

Global Reddit search, scoped subreddit passes, comment pulls on high-signal threads, then dedupe and export. Running example: a fictional Notion competitor check — swap in your product and subreddit list.

You'll need an API key. Try a search in the Playground. New to Reddit access? See How to get a Reddit API key or smoke-test in the free Reddit research tool. Search mechanics (parameters, pagination, global vs scoped routes) live in the Reddit search API guide.

Build the query matrix

Write one sentence the sprint must answer, then list 8–15 query variants:

Group variants:

1. Brand — product name, common misspellings.
2. Alternatives — {product} alternative, best {category} tool.
3. Switching — switching from {product}, migrated from {product}, leaving {product}.
4. Pain — {product} slow, {product} pricing, {product} support.

Search Reddit

Start with site-wide GET /v1/reddit/search. This catches cross-posts and communities you would not guess from subreddit names alone.

curl -sS \
  -H "x-api-key: $SOCIALFETCH_API_KEY" \
  -G "https://api.socialfetch.dev/v1/reddit/search" \
  --data-urlencode "query=best project management software" \
  --data-urlencode "sortBy=top"

Full spec and pagination patterns: Reddit search API · API reference.

Paginate until data.page.hasMore is false or you hit your credit budget:

Check data.page.hasMore — do not infer completion from data.totalResults alone.

Scope to subreddits

Global search is noisy. Run a second pass in communities where buyers post.

Tally post.subreddit from global results and promote the top five. Validate before cron jobs:

Reference: Get subreddit.

Scoped keyword search — GET /v1/reddit/subreddits/search when you know the community:

Reference: Subreddit search. Use sort=comments for debate threads. Search frustrated or cancel inside r/YourProductSubreddit before searching competitor names globally.

Browse a feed — when you want hot posts without a keyword:

Reference: Subreddit posts. Subreddit names must match Reddit casing (SaaS not saas). Filter client-side by keyword list or metrics.commentCount threshold.

Pull comment threads

Comments hold objections, workarounds, and switching rationale. Pass a post URL:

Paginate with data.page.nextCursor until hasMore is false. Nested replies on each comment — flatten or walk the tree for your tool.

Reference: Reddit post comments. For scoring at scale, see social comments for sentiment analysis.

Pull selectively to save credits:

• metrics.commentCount above 20
• metrics.score above 50 for niche subreddits (adjust per community)
• Title matches a switching phrase from your query matrix

Batch and dedupe

Run query variants and merge results. Dedupe by post.id or canonical url before analysis.

import { SocialFetchClient } from "@socialfetch/sdk";

const client = new SocialFetchClient({
  apiKey: process.env.SOCIALFETCH_API_KEY!,
});

const product = "notion";
const queries = [
  `${product} alternative`,
  `switching from ${product}`,
  `best ${product} competitor`,
];

const mentions = [];

for (const query of queries) {
  const result = await client.reddit.search({ query, sortBy: "top", timeframe: "year" });
  if (!result.ok) continue;

  for (const post of result.value.data.posts ?? []) {
    mentions.push({
      query,
      title: post.title,
      subreddit: post.subreddit,
      score: post.metrics?.score,
      url: post.url,
    });
  }
}

console.log(mentions.length, "threads to review");

Add timeframe, paginate inner loops when hasMore is true, and write meta.requestId on every row. For weekly monitoring, wrap in cron or QStash — same pattern as the social listening guide, with Reddit query matrices instead of cross-platform brand keywords.

Store rows your PM can sort

Normalize into flat rows for Airtable, Postgres, Sheets, or Notion:

Export to CSV, or pipe title + bodyText + top comments into an LLM summary with the thread URL as citation. Keep requestId for audit.

Troubleshooting

Empty results but the thread exists in a browser

• Try scoped subreddits/search with the subreddit from the URL.
• Check timeframe — day on a year-old thread returns nothing with sortBy=top.
• Query maxes at 512 characters; shorten long boolean strings.

not_found on subreddit or post lookups

• Casing: Fitness and fitness differ. Copy the exact name from the address bar.
• Deleted or quarantined content returns not_found — not a billing bug.
• Pass full https://www.reddit.com/r/.../comments/... URLs to comments.

Duplicate threads in merged results

• Dedupe on post.id before counting mentions.
• Cross-posts share text but have different IDs — dedupe on url if you want one row per discussion.

Scores and counts look stale

• Each response is point-in-time. Re-fetch before quoting in a deck. Store capturedAt alongside score.

lookup_failed or HTTP 503

• Not charged. Retry with backoff; include meta.requestId if you contact support.
• Sequential pagination with modest concurrency is fine — bursting hundreds of parallel requests is unnecessary.

Rate limits

• Credits are the limit on metered routes. Under extreme concurrency you may get 503 with Retry-After (not charged). ~500 concurrent requests is a courtesy ceiling.

Billing and boundaries

Each search page, subreddit feed page, and comment page is one credit (typically 1 per successful request). Completed lookups with zero posts still bill. No charge for pre-send validation errors, lookup_failed, or 503 temporarily_unavailable.

Public data only — lawful use under Terms. See Credits. Official Reddit rates vs Social Fetch: Reddit API pricing.

What you can build

• Competitive battlecards — weekly pull of alternative to {product} and switching from {product} with top comment quotes.
• Feature prioritization — rank request themes by upvote-weighted frequency in product subreddits.
• Launch monitoring — alert on mention spikes (sortBy=new, timeframe=week).
• Churn autopsy feed — tag threads matching cancel, refund, moved to.
• Persona research — same product across r/sysadmin vs r/marketing to compare job-to-be-done language.

Next steps: Playground · Reddit hub · Reddit research recipe · Reddit API pricing · Pricing