Reddit blocks the standard JSON API now use Arctic Shift instead
Mining Reddit posts programmatically for research without an authenticated API client
As of mid-2026, hitting reddit.com/r/X.json or reddit.com/r/X/comments/<id>.json from a script returns HTTP 403 even with realistic User-Agents. The fallback that still works: arctic-shift.photon-reddit.com archive API — query like https://arctic-shift.photon-reddit.com/api/posts/ids?ids=ID1,ID2,ID3 returns full post bodies including selftext, author, score, and comments-archive metadata, no auth required. Confirmed working for posts that were later automod-filtered/deleted (archive preserves them).
Skip the official Reddit JSON endpoint for unauth research — go straight to Arctic Shift via batched ID queries. Batch in chunks of ~15 IDs per request to stay under URL length limits.