# Read a subreddit's posts without registering a Reddit developer app

Skip the Reddit developer app, the client id and secret and the OAuth token dance. Name a subreddit and your agent gets its recent public posts: title, body, likes, replies, date and link, as JSON. RouterGrowth is independent of Reddit and works with one key you already have.

HTML page: https://www.routergrowth.com/tools/reddit/developer-api
Part of: [Reddit tools](https://www.routergrowth.com/tools/reddit.md)

## The call

[`social.posts`](https://www.routergrowth.com/catalog/social.posts): Recent public posts for a social handle.

Price on this network: $0.00665 per post plus $0.07 per call, $0.002 minimum a call. The exact quote is shown before every run.

## What a real run returned

Run on 2026-10-19: 2 records in 181.0 s for $0.0833. Personal fields are masked. r/SaaS with a limit of five returned two posts from the last day, a founder essay with 106 upvotes and a question about transactional email providers.

| text | community | likes | replies |
|---|---|---|---|
| You are not dumb enough to succeed. | r/SaaS | 106 | 33 |
| Do you use multiple transactional email providers? | r/SaaS | 0 | 11 |

## How to do it

1. **No app to register.** There is no Reddit developer portal step. The RouterGrowth key or MCP connector is the only credential.
2. **Name the subreddit.** social.posts takes platform reddit and the handle as r/name, with a limit on how many posts to read.
3. **Wait for the read.** A subreddit read runs on a hosted scraper and can take a couple of minutes. The run id lets you fetch the result later.
4. **Use the fields.** Each post comes with likes, replies, the body and its URL, ready for social.comments on the threads worth opening.

## Ask it like this

- Read the newest posts in r/SaaS and flag any that ask for a tool like ours. (`social.posts`)
- Pull this week's posts from three subreddits, pick the one with the most replies in each, and read its comments. (`social.posts`, `social.comments`)

## Connect

MCP server: `https://api.routergrowth.com/mcp`

```bash
claude mcp add --transport http routergrowth https://api.routergrowth.com/mcp
```

```bash
npm install -g routergrowth && routergrowth setup
routergrowth run -c social.posts -i '{"platform": "reddit", "handle": "r/SaaS", "limit": 5}'
```

```bash
curl -X POST https://api.routergrowth.com/v1/run \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ROUTERGROWTH_API_KEY" \
  -d '{"capability": "social.posts", "input": {"platform": "reddit", "handle": "r/SaaS", "limit": 5}}'
```

## Worth knowing

- **Fewer posts than the limit.** A subreddit can return fewer posts than you ask for, as this run did. The charge follows what comes back.
- **Read only.** The call cannot post, comment, vote or moderate. It returns public posts.
- **Not Reddit's developer API.** It is a separate, independent route to public data, so Reddit's app approval and token rules do not apply to it.

## Questions

### Do I need a Reddit client id or secret?

No. The only key is your RouterGrowth key.

### Why did I get fewer posts than my limit?

The subreddit had fewer recent posts the provider could read at that moment. Ask again later or raise the limit.

### How long does a subreddit read take?

Usually under two or three minutes. With the CLI or API, wait on the run or fetch it by run id.

### Can it read comments too?

Yes, through social.comments on a post URL. social.posts returns the posts only.

## Related

- [A hosted Reddit scraper your agent runs by naming a subreddit](https://www.routergrowth.com/tools/reddit/scraper.md)
- [Scrape the newest posts of any public subreddit into clean rows](https://www.routergrowth.com/tools/reddit/post-scraper.md)
- [Scrape the comments on a Reddit thread by pasting its link](https://www.routergrowth.com/tools/reddit/comment-scraper.md)
- [Search every public subreddit for a phrase, in one API call](https://www.routergrowth.com/tools/reddit/search-api.md)
- [What Reddit data costs through RouterGrowth, and how a call is billed](https://www.routergrowth.com/tools/reddit/api-pricing.md)
- [Search Reddit from your agent without a Reddit developer account](https://www.routergrowth.com/tools/reddit/api.md)
- [Read Reddit from a Python script with one HTTP request, no PRAW setup](https://www.routergrowth.com/tools/reddit/python.md)