What are the Reddit API rate limits?
The official Reddit API free tier is capped at about 100 queries per minute and is licensed for non-commercial use only, with commercial access gated behind a 2 to 4 week app review. Redditapis takes a different model: it is pay-per-call from $0.002 per read, so you are not bound by the 100 QPM non-commercial cap, and throughput scales with usage rather than a fixed free-tier limit.
The official Reddit API rate limit
On the official Reddit API, the free OAuth tier is capped at roughly 100 queries per minute and is licensed for non-commercial use only. To use it commercially you file an application, wait through a 2 to 4 week review, and move to enterprise pricing. That is fine for a research script but a real bottleneck for a product that needs predictable throughput on day one.
How Redditapis handles throughput
Redditapis is pay-per-call, so throughput scales with usage rather than a fixed free-tier cap. A read is $0.002, which means 10,000 reads is $20, and you are not held to the 100 QPM non-commercial limit. You can start with $0.50 in credits, about 250 reads, before adding a card. See the full breakdown on how much the Reddit API costs and the tiers on the pricing page.
So what actually limits you here
Saying there is no QPM cap invites the obvious next question, which is what stops you instead. Three things, and none of them is a quota you have to apply for. Two are ordinary operating limits you can plan around before you write the job, and the third only ever shows up when something in your own code is wrong.
The first is your balance. Calls are billed as they are made, so the real ceiling on a burst is how much credit is sitting on the account. That is a number you control and can change in a minute, which is the difference that matters when a job needs to run tonight rather than after a review.
The second is Reddit itself. Reddit still throttles the accounts any provider reads through, and we absorb that behind a pool rather than passing it to you as a quota. When the pool is momentarily out of capacity the call fails and is booked at $0, so a busy moment upstream costs you a retry rather than money.
The third only ever bites a bug. Requests to a path that does not exist are burst limited per key and also booked at $0, which means a typo in a route name cannot run up a bill while you are still wiring things together.
The two ceilings, side by side
| Dimension | Official Reddit API | Redditapis |
|---|---|---|
| Calls per minute | About 100 QPM on the free OAuth tier | No per-minute ceiling on the endpoints you call |
| What bounds you instead | The quota, then an enterprise contract | Your credit balance, and nothing else |
| Commercial use | Not permitted on the free tier | Permitted from the first call |
| Time to raise the ceiling | A 2 to 4 week approval review | Immediate, spend more and call more |
The practical consequence is how you plan capacity. Against a QPM quota you design the job around the quota, spreading work across a window you did not choose. Against a balance you design the job around the work and then fund it, which is the same calculation as any other line in a build.
Frequently asked
What is the Reddit API rate limit?
The official Reddit API free tier is capped at roughly 100 queries per minute and is limited to non-commercial use. Commercial access is approval-gated and contract-priced, so the free QPM cap does not apply once you are on an enterprise plan.
Does Redditapis have a queries-per-minute cap?
Redditapis is pay-per-call rather than free-tier rate-gated, so you are not held to the official 100 QPM non-commercial cap. You pay $0.002 per read and scale throughput with usage instead of negotiating a commercial contract first.
Why is the official free tier non-commercial?
Reddit moved its API to a paid, approval-gated model in 2023. The free OAuth tier remains for hobby and research use at about 100 QPM, but commercial use requires an application, a 2 to 4 week review, and enterprise pricing.
How do I plan throughput on Redditapis?
Because pricing is per call, throughput is a function of spend, not a hard free-tier cap. A read is $0.002, so 10,000 reads is $20. You start with $0.50 in credits, about 250 reads, to test before you scale.
Skip the QPM cap and the review queue
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