Cut off
Pushshift (public)
Public and self-serve access ended after Reddit's 2023 API changes. The open Pushshift endpoints researchers relied on for years are no longer available to the general public.
The maintained Pushshift alternative
Pushshift lost public access and the free community mirrors are unmaintained and rate-limited. RedditAPI is the replacement that stays up: REST historical and live search of posts, comments, and users, billed per call.
What is the best Pushshift alternative in 2026?
The best Pushshift alternative in 2026 is a maintained REST Reddit data API like RedditAPI. Pushshift was cut off from public and self-serve access, and the free mirrors that replaced it (PullPush, Arctic Shift, archive dumps) are unmaintained, rate-limited, or stale. RedditAPI is actively run: it covers both historical and live search of posts, comments, and users over plain HTTPS, needs no Reddit developer-app approval, and bills a flat rate per call from $0.002 a read.
What happened
Pushshift went dark, and the mirrors are shaky.
For years Pushshift was how developers and researchers pulled historical Reddit data at scale. After Reddit's 2023 API changes, Pushshift lost its public, self-serve access and Reddit restricted public and free-tier access to its data API. The community filled the gap, but every free option that replaced Pushshift has a catch.
Rate-limited
PullPush.io
A community mirror that fills the gap, but it is volunteer-run, throttled, and frequently returns timeouts or gaps under load. No SLA, no support, no guarantee it stays up.
Dump-based
Arctic Shift
A community effort that rebuilds dumps and offers some search. Useful for archival work, but the live coverage lags and ingestion is best-effort, not a production data path.
Static
Academic dumps / torrents
Monthly archive dumps distributed as torrents. Fine for a one-time research corpus, but they are huge, stale by weeks, and give you nothing for live or recent data.
What you get instead.
One maintained REST API that does the Pushshift job and the live job, without the approval gate.
Historical search
Query past posts and comments by subreddit, author, keyword, and time window over a plain REST endpoint, the way Pushshift used to work.
Live search
Search current posts, comments, communities, and users as they happen. One API covers both the archive and the live feed.
No app approval
No Reddit developer-app review, no OAuth dance, no 2-to-4-week wait. Sign up, get a bearer token, make your first call in minutes.
Flat per-call pricing
Pay per request from $0.002 a read. No annual contract, no monthly minimum, costs that track exactly with your volume.
Free mirrors and dumps
- Volunteer-run, no SLA, can go down without notice
- Rate-limited and prone to timeouts under load
- Stale archives or missing recent data
- Read-only, no live writes or DMs
RedditAPI
- Actively maintained with a real support channel
- Historical and live search over one REST API
- No Reddit developer-app approval to start
- Flat per-call pricing from $0.002 a read
How it works
Swap a mirror call for one REST request.
If you were hitting a Pushshift-style endpoint, the migration is a URL and a bearer token. Search historical comments by subreddit and keyword over plain HTTPS:
cURL
curl "https://api.redditapis.com/api/reddit/search/comments?subreddit=python&q=async&limit=100" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"The response is JSON over HTTPS, so it drops into any language. Endpoint paths and parameters live in the API docs. Run the numbers for your volume with the cost calculator, or see the full per-endpoint rates on the pricing page.
Comparing every option, not just the Pushshift mirrors? The full breakdown of scrapers, the official Reddit Data API, and pay-per-call providers lives on the alternatives page.
See all Reddit API alternativesFrequently asked questions
Not for the public. Pushshift's open, self-serve access was cut off after Reddit's 2023 API changes, and Reddit restricted public and free-tier access to its data API around the same time. The endpoints researchers and developers depended on are no longer available, which is why community mirrors like PullPush appeared.
A maintained REST Reddit data API like RedditAPI. Unlike PullPush, Arctic Shift, or static dumps, it is actively run with flat per-call pricing, needs no Reddit app approval, and covers both historical and live search of posts, comments, and users over plain HTTPS.
PullPush is a useful community mirror, but it is volunteer-run and rate-limited. Under load it returns timeouts and data gaps, and it carries no SLA or support. For a hobby query it is fine. For anything production, an unmaintained free mirror is a risk you cannot plan around.
No. There is no Reddit developer-app review, no OAuth client registration, and no approval wait. You create an account, get a bearer token, and call the REST endpoints directly. That removes the 2-to-4-week gate the official Reddit Data API puts in front of new projects.
Yes. RedditAPI exposes historical search of posts and comments by subreddit, author, keyword, and time range, the core job people used Pushshift for, plus live search of current data. Both run over the same REST API, so one integration covers the archive and the live feed.
Pricing is flat and per-call, from $0.002 per read, with no annual contract and no monthly minimum. Votes, writes, and DMs are priced separately. See the per-endpoint breakdown and quick monthly totals on the pricing page to estimate your spend.
Keep reading.
Continue exploring related pages.
Reddit API use cases
14 use cases from AI training to brand monitoring and DMs.
RedditAPI pricing
Endpoint-level costs and quick monthly totals — reads from $0.002 / call.
Reddit API cost calculator
Estimate monthly spend using your request volume.
Reddit API guides and tutorials
Tutorials, walkthroughs, and API deep-dives for developers.
Reddit API alternatives
Evaluate alternatives by cost model, limits, and integration fit.
Affiliate program
Earn 20% lifetime commissions — capped at $5,000/yr.
Replace the mirror with a maintained API.
$0.50 in free credits, no card required. Search historical and live Reddit data over REST, billed per call from $0.002 a read.