Reddit returns 403 to curl — why, and how to fix it
Reddit hard-blocks unauthenticated requests from datacenter address space. curl https://www.reddit.com/search.json returns a 403 block page from any cloud host, and old.reddit 403s the same way — the block is on the IP, not the path, so switching endpoints does not help. The official OAuth API works, but its terms forbid redistributing the data, and the public RSS feed is throttled to roughly one request every 30 seconds.
What people try first
| approach | what happens |
|---|---|
| Adding a browser User-Agent | Does nothing on its own. The block is IP reputation, not the header. |
| Using old.reddit.com | Also 403s from cloud IPs. It helps with parsing, not with access. |
| The .json suffix | Same 403. It is the same origin behind the same edge rules. |
| Official OAuth API | Works, and is the right call for your own account's data — but the Data API terms do not permit redistributing what you pull. |
| Residential proxy | This is what actually works, and it is what this API runs. Expect to maintain the proxy budget and the HTML parser yourself. |
The one-call fix
One request, unified JSON, no proxies or parsers to keep alive. 1 credit a call once you are on credits, and free for your first 5.
curl -H "x-api-key: $SS_KEY" \ "https://api.socialsearchapi.com/v1/reddit/search?query=llm+agents"
Signup is an email and a 6-digit code — no card — and gives you 5 free calls on any platform, so the command above runs as-is.
Real response from that endpoint, captured 2026-07-25:
{
"success": true,
"platform": "reddit",
"served_by": "native",
"data": {
"total": 3,
"items": [
{
"platform": "reddit",
"type": "post",
"title": "I tested every free LLM provider for AI agents. Here's the only 3 worth using.",
"url": "https://old.reddit.com/r/better_claw/comments/1tjuuem/i_tested_every_free_llm_provider_for_ai_agents/",
"author": "ShabzSparq",
"created_at": "2026-05-21T19:17:20Z",
"metrics": {
"comments": 63,
"score": 180
},
"extra": {
"url_path": "/r/better_claw/comments/1tjuuem/i_tested_every_free_llm_provider_for_ai_agents/",
"subreddit": "r/better_claw",
"created_at_raw": "2026-05-21T19:17:20+00:00"
}
}
]
},
"credits_used": 1
}Related
Last verified 2026-07-25. Platform terms and pricing change often — if something here has gone stale, tell us at [email protected].