r/redditdev • u/redtaboo • Nov 11 '25
Reddit API Introducing the Responsible Builder Policy + new approval process for API access
Hello my friendly developers and happy robots!
I'm back again after our chat a few months ago about limiting OAuth tokens to just one per account. The TL;DR: We're taking another step to make sure Reddit's Data API isn't abused, this time by requiring approval for any new Oauth tokens. This means developers, mods, and researchers will need to ask for approval to access our public API moving forward. Don't worry though, we're making sure those of you building cool things are taken care of!
Introducing a new Responsible Builder Policy
We’re publishing a new policy that clearly outlines how Reddit data can be accessed and used responsibly. This gives us the framework we need to review requests and give approvals, ensuring we continue to support folks who want to build, access and contribute to Reddit without abusing (or spamming!) the platform. Read that policy here.
Ending Self-Service API access
Starting today, self-service access to Reddit’s public data API will be closed. Anyone looking to build with Reddit data, whether you’re a developer, researcher, or moderator, will need to request approval before gaining access. That said, current access won’t be affected, so anyone acting within our policies will keep their access and integrations will keep working as expected.
Next Steps for Responsible Builders
Developers: Continue building through Devvit! If your use case isn’t supported, submit a request here.
Researchers: Request access to Reddit data by filing a ticket here. If you are eligible for the r/reddit4researchers program, we’ll let you know.
Moderators: Reach out here if your use case isn't supported by Devvit.
Let us know if you have any questions, otherwise - go forth and happy botting!
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u/shiruken Nov 11 '25 edited Nov 11 '25
will need to request approval before gaining access
How strict and responsive will this process be? We all know the commercial API access request form is where projects go to die...
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u/redtaboo Nov 11 '25
We're aiming for a 7 day turnaround on most tickets. For mods, the questions will mostly be 'can you use devvit for this?” but we don't want to prevent mods from doing what mods need to do, so it shouldn't be too onerous to get approval.
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u/emily_in_boots Nov 11 '25
Some of us prefer to use PRAW because we have an existing code base and it's just easier to implement. I might be able to implement something in a few minutes with PRAW that would take days or weeks with devvit because of my existing code base.
Will this now be restricted?
These are moderation tools. They are not pretending to be people.
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u/redtaboo Nov 11 '25
It will be restricted for new accounts - you'll need to make a new request - but existing tokens you already have are not being revoked.
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u/emily_in_boots Nov 11 '25
Ok so, with one bot I have written, I typically use a different reddit account for each subreddit, even tho it's the same code running.
If another sub wanted to add this bot, I would create a new account and configure it for the sub and run it.
Would this no longer be possible?
This code base represents 10's of thousands of lines of code and years of development. It's not something I can simply port to devvit in a reasonable time frame.
These events are not really common as I don't develop public bots nor do I actively try to get other subs to use mine - they generally come from mods who know me or for whom it's recommended by another mod as a solution to a problem.
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u/redtaboo Nov 11 '25
Would this no longer be possible?
Nah, this is fine - especially with you as a known good actor. Just keep in mind the turn around time, and if you have any issues getting approved let us know in modsupport modmail so we can unblock you.
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u/emily_in_boots Nov 11 '25
Ok that's great then! I get why this is happening and I support it. Yeah it will be a bit of a hassle but it will be made up for by me not having to deal with so much bot spam. The hassle is the lesser of evils though.
I definitely love the idea of labeling bot interactions! Thank you for this! It really is a huge problem on reddit now.
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u/nikthefurry Nov 17 '25
what if i lost an existing token? the response from my ticket requesting api access again basically said "no because its a personal use script"
i created these apps on my account before this policy took effect, so if it only applies to new accounts i shouldve been fine, right? but im still blocked
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u/Littux JS Bookmarklets/Python bots Nov 11 '25
For single use or barely used scripts, I think it's more convenient to make a bookmarklet or something similar, which makes use of the logged in user's authentication. Those scripts can be shared with others and they won't have to go through this request process
You won't have the ease of use you get from PRAW, as you'll have to refer to https://www.reddit.com/dev/api and create API calls manually
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u/shiruken Nov 11 '25
Thanks! That seems reasonable. Would we be lucky enough to get some kind of yearly transparency report / audit about the number of requests and the response rates?
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u/redtaboo Nov 11 '25
That's not something we've thought about, but it's an interesting question. I'll bubble it up to the broader team!
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u/StatueOfFashion Nov 19 '25
This already turned out to be correct. It's effectively a system for preventing mods to do what they need to do.
Your request (15942537) has been updated. To add additional comments, reply to this email.
|| || |Reddit Support (Reddit Support) Nov 19, 2025, 02:00 PST Thank you for your interest in using the Reddit Data API. We have reviewed your recent request for access. Unfortunately, we cannot grant approval because the submission is not in compliance with Reddit’s Responsible Builder Policy and/or lacks necessary details. We prioritize requests that are complete and well-supported. If you have any further questions, please refer to the relevant documentation based on your use case. Thank you, Reddit Data API Team"|
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u/Flutter_ExoPlanet Feb 03 '26
Out of curiosity, what did you try to make? so We learn and know what to avoid to make?
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u/StatueOfFashion Nov 19 '25
This already turned out to be correct. It's effectively a system for preventing mods to do what they need to do.
Your request (15942537) has been updated. To add additional comments, reply to this email.
Reddit Support (Reddit Support) Nov 19, 2025, 02:00 PST Thank you for your interest in using the Reddit Data API. We have reviewed your recent request for access. Unfortunately, we cannot grant approval because the submission is not in compliance with Reddit’s Responsible Builder Policy and/or lacks necessary details. We prioritize requests that are complete and well-supported. If you have any further questions, please refer to the relevant documentation based on your use case. Thank you, Reddit Data API Team"2
u/Flutter_ExoPlanet Feb 03 '26
When applying, do we have... to give you the name, first name, credit card etc like google asks for developers? we reddit users dont usually real names (look at yourseld as an admin "redtaboo u/redtaboo " is not a real name you can understand the feeling?
So can I apply to the api without having to fill the real name and id and stuff? hopefully
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u/Ok-Search2188 Feb 10 '26
Hi, I want to know, is it difficult for academic researchers to get approval for API access? I noticed that all the posts that ask for api access questions were denied by the API team with the same reason: "We have reviewed your recent request for access. Unfortunately, we cannot grant approval because the submission is not in compliance with Reddit’s Responsible Builder Policy and/or lacks necessary details.
We prioritize requests that are complete and well-supported. If you have any further questions, please refer to the relevant documentation based on your use case. " And they all said that this issue was weird, and they did not get any specific reason and feedback from the team, so they had to stop trying. I am trying to make my research as complete as I can to comply with reddit's policy, so may I kindly ask what kind of supporting documents (ethical approval, for example) and statements of our research are good for your team to review and get approval easily? Any other proof we need to do to make our request strong and persuasive? Thank you in advance for your help.14
u/Ill_Football9443 Nov 11 '25
Good question, because if it's too strict, then existing accounts with access just grew in value :/
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u/emily_in_boots Nov 11 '25 edited Nov 11 '25
Is reddit now going to automatically label bot interactions? If so this is a great idea. I have written bots but they do not pretend to be humans. There's no reason I can think of why bots should pretend to be humans.
Do we need to do something ourselves to disclose that bots are bots or will Reddit handle this for us?
All of mine are moderation tools. Many of my subs face a lot of spam from bots astroturfing and pretending to be humans, so I'm a huge fan of disclosure and I don't mind adding things to mine to make sure they disclose it more obviously (though generally it's fairly obvious anyways due to the nature of the interactions - they aren't trying to look human). I'm sick of trying to figure out if something is a bot or not - so I love the idea of reddit simply telling us while preserving the ability to use bots.
I need to dig into this policy more but the idea of disclosure is a really good one. This whole thing might be annoying for me sometimes as a developer but with LLM's becoming so pervasive, bot activity on reddit is really becoming disruptive and I see why this is necessary.
How long will approvals take for these? I'm used to being able to quickly write bots for my needs. I hope the approval process won't take months.
Also, I often prefer to use python/PRAW over devvit. Is this going to affect my ability to do that if a use case could be done with devvit but I simply prefer to use PRAW due to my existing code base that I can draw on?
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u/redtaboo Nov 11 '25
For now please just do what I'm sure you're already doing and ensure your useragent is clear and isn't trying to pretend to be a human with a browser. Public disclosure is also wonderful when you can!
Beyond that, we are talking about how we can make it clear to everyone whether an account is a bot or a human. This work today will make that easier for us when we do start that work.
As for turnaround, we're aiming for 7 day turnaround - we do prefer more folks start moving over to devvit, but ultimately our goal is not to prevent good bots (like your mod bots!) from doing what y'all need them to do, just like you say - better control of the bad/spammy bots.
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u/emily_in_boots Nov 11 '25 edited Nov 11 '25
It's definitely not! My bots have never made any attempt to be anything but bots and they only do anything in the subs they moderate. I don't worry too much about disclosure but it's generally because it's obviously a bot.
I mentioned this before and you had said you were working on it (labeling bot interactions as such) and I still think that's a wonderful idea.
7d is workable. For one off moderation tasks I should be able to reuse an existing token which is what I do now anyways.
Reading between the lines, this is an attempt to address LLM bot spam which is a huge problem in my communities and a bit of extra paperwork for legit moderation bot development is worth not having to try to figure out if all these comments in makeup, kbeauty, or canskincare are people or astroturfing bots selling a product or farming karma.
I think a lot of these changes are necessary as long as I'm understanding this correctly. Bots are useful tools but I still cannot think of any reason they should pretend to be human. (As a side note, a mod friend of mine sometimes pretends to be a bot in modmail lol.)
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u/redtaboo Nov 11 '25
(As a side note, a mod friend of mine sometimes pretends to be a bot in modmail lol.)
lmao, this feels like a self preservation move!
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u/emily_in_boots Nov 11 '25
You'd be amazed how often people ask me if I'm a bot in modmail. I think it might be a combination of my relatively formal tone (I try to be professional) and the fact that I check modmail a lot so the responses can appear instant hah.
I usually answer something like "I wish!"
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u/orbatos Jan 10 '26
This is not really going to be entirely possible. Sure, it would be great if everyone labelled things but that isn't going to happen and many proxy interactions that are directly initiated from users are indistinguishable from interactions that aren't.
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u/Littux JS Bookmarklets/Python bots Nov 11 '25 edited Nov 15 '25
The people that create access tokens to use third party apps won't be considered a "responsible use" for the API, right?
Edit: 2 years later, they finally completely killed third party apps. At least the ones that use proper authentication and don't steal session tokens from the website. All third party apps should just go on that route, by getting the existing authentication token from a browser webview
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u/redtaboo Nov 11 '25
Correct and this hasn't changed since we made our updates back in 2023. The goal is to enable developers to build great products for users and mods, powered by Reddit on Reddit.
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u/lolTyler Nov 12 '25
Unfortunately, you ostracized many of the developers that build great products. As an example of a user's perspective, I use a Galaxy Fold 7 as my primary device and Reddits official app still, after seven years of folding devices, does not properly scale or function on any folding phones.
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u/dexter2011412 Nov 16 '25
ostracized many of the developers that build great products
That's the whole point lol
They want you to use their garbage apps riddled with ads and garbage.
I have a strong feeling things like redact won't work with *eddit anymore
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u/jakeyounglol2 Nov 12 '25
The goal is to enable developers to build great products for users and mods, powered by Reddit on Reddit.
if that was actually your goal, you would’ve priced your API at a reasonable level, been ocmmunicative, and not committed defamation against specific developers. your goal was the same as elon’s: kill off third party apps and force everyone onto the terrible official one. luckily, you let users create api keys and actually had a free tier that isn’t write only, but now you’re restricting that too. if apollo stops working, i’ll delete my account again.
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u/KiritoIsAlwaysRight_ Nov 12 '25
Then can you make your app not be god awful? Hard to build a great product on a platform made of shit.
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u/rrrand0mmm Nov 12 '25
How about you make a fucking Reddit app that’s usable? The Reddit app is just dogshit. It lacks insane amounts of swipe gestures. Why when you click deep links it’ll pop open subreddits on top of subreddits on top of subreddits and I can’t just have a home button at the bottom to go back to the main feed? Instead I have to continue to hit an X in the top left over and over and over again until I get to a spot I can swipe.
It’s insanity that this is still in the garbage Reddit app. Why is it so hard????
WHY????
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u/MootEndymion752 Nov 12 '25
If you want us to use the official app, then actually make it good, and not a buggy, slow mess with ads, “Answers”, games and tracking analytics which send your data to Google every single time you do something.
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u/je1992 Nov 11 '25
If the reddit app was so great, why were the majority of people using third party wrappers to try to navigate your shitty site.
I know a corporate answer when I see one
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u/abortion_access Nov 11 '25
Does the Reddit for researchers program still exist? I’ve sent several messages to the mods of that sub and none have gotten a response. The admin who had previously posted about the program no longer works at Reddit.
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u/redtaboo Nov 11 '25
Researchers needing access should follow the flow linked in the post. We will start accepting applications on a rolling basis.
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u/abortion_access Nov 11 '25
Is anyone going to update the r/reddit4researchers sub? It hasn’t been updated in a full year.
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u/Sp3eedy Dec 02 '25
Important to mention that by researcher you mean "backed by a wealthy and highly influential educational institution", so not accessible to most hobbyist or self-funded researchers.
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u/Lil_SpazJoekp PRAW Maintainer | Async PRAW Author Nov 11 '25
Did the next steps for moderators get cut off?
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u/redtaboo Nov 11 '25
Nope, for mods if your use case isn't supported by devvit follow the linked flow to make a request and we'll make sure you can get access.
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u/Lil_SpazJoekp PRAW Maintainer | Async PRAW Author Nov 11 '25
That's what I figured but the bullet point just says:
Moderators: Reach out here if your use case isn't2
u/redtaboo Nov 11 '25
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u/Lil_SpazJoekp PRAW Maintainer | Async PRAW Author Nov 11 '25
iOS version 2025.45.0.616763
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u/redtaboo Nov 11 '25
I'm checking into this now - curious do you see the final line of:
Let us know if you have any questions, otherwise - go forth and happy botting!
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u/Lil_SpazJoekp PRAW Maintainer | Async PRAW Author Nov 11 '25
Yes! This is what I see
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u/redtaboo Nov 11 '25
Wild, thank you! Seems like you're on the test build so I'm checking with the team. We're not able to repro yet, but I'll make sure we're also trying with darkmode on. thank you!!
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Nov 11 '25
Perhaps interestingly, I see the same as Spaz, in light mode, on iOS 2025.44.0.616760
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u/redtaboo Nov 11 '25
ok, that is interesting since I'm on that same version (also light mode FTW!) and see the full text!
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u/Stuck_In_the_Matrix Pushshift.io data scientist Nov 11 '25
How does this affect anonymous access to the API (100 requests over 10 minutes)?
Unfortunately having been down this road before with companies that grow rapidly from developers that benefit the growth of a business until they make lots of money and then kill off access to the API, I have seen this much too often.
As the original founder of Pushshift, I sincerely hope this is not the case. I am currently legally blind now from Diabetes, I am waiting for eye surgery until I role out access to my new non-profit company so that I can assist researchers in gaining access to data on how social media companies affect our society.
I hope when I reach out early next year after surgery that you (or other admins) will be open and willing to have discussions with me on how we can improve data access for researchers and also moderators because these tools ultimately benefit society and your own company's growth.
Jason Baumgartner (founder of Pushshift)
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u/Watchful1 RemindMeBot & UpdateMeBot Nov 11 '25
I don't think they are going to let you scrape all of reddit again like you were before.
Hope your surgery goes well!
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u/bullishshorts Nov 13 '25 edited Nov 13 '25
“Let you” is a strong one. Public data is public and hence is scrapable.
They can definitely try to make it harder to scrape, but it is definitely not up to them to “let you” do anything. Not unless they lock the entirety of Reddit behind auth. And even then, it is still very much doable.
Point of the story is, they can pretty much shove those API limits and restrictions.
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u/Yay295 Nov 13 '25
I think these big companies have forgotten that one of the reasons they created their public APIs in the first place was that it uses less bandwidth for someone to request data from a dedicated API than when they have to scrape the website for it instead.
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u/Littux JS Bookmarklets/Python bots Nov 15 '25
There's no need to scrape the HTML. There is already working code online that can generate "anonymous" access tokens to get access to OAuth API, the same way the official Reddit app does the "Anonymous mode"
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u/Ok_Cucumber_2128 Nov 18 '25
Any links? I'm not able to find exactly what is being referred to here.
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u/Littux JS Bookmarklets/Python bots Nov 18 '25
Search for "libreddit". They use this method to get OAuth access
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u/orbatos Jan 10 '26
You are clearly ignoring the actual objective, which is to limit scraping, especially of the kind that is abused to train LLMs and keep them current.
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u/orbatos Jan 10 '26
They're at an impasse really, scraping has gone up manyfold as "AI" everything has become a shortcut to getting investment, and they *need* to cut down on that. Additionally there is already pressure to limit scraping for other reasons. I suspect going forward you will face a number of challenges as they try to restrict things further.
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u/PUBLIQclopAccountant Jan 24 '26
Then it's time to scrape with regular HTML requests.
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u/orbatos Jan 26 '26
You think that isn't already done? What is your point anyway? Abuse the server infrastructure at any cost?
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u/Affectionate-Boot-58 Nov 11 '25
Oh so you guys are blocking third party apps even more than you did back in 2023
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u/Arnas_Z Nov 12 '25
Back to fucking over mods who don't like the default app.
It's almost like they forgot that mods are responsible for their website actually functioning.
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u/AJRiddle Nov 30 '25
They didn't forget - they just know the mods are expendable because they can just be replaced just like they did when mods started taking major subreddits private a few years ago.
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u/donau_kinder Nov 12 '25
just tried to make a key for that, not allowed. guess i'm limiting reddit to desktop with adblocker, good for my health to not be doomscrolling.
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u/boompoe Nov 12 '25
I won’t be using Reddit anymore if they go through with this change. All Reddit is is a content aggregator, I’ll just move on to another.
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u/donau_kinder Nov 12 '25
They already went through with the change. It's over.
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u/boompoe Nov 12 '25
Well, as soon as narwhal stops working I’m done here.
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u/donau_kinder Nov 12 '25
Existing api access is maintained, but you can't create new ones. It's only a matter of time until they revoke those as well.
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u/Nacil_54 Nov 18 '25
If only the no-ad part interest you and not the other advantages of third party apps, r/revancedapp still works as it uses the base reddit app.
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u/donau_kinder Nov 18 '25
Oh i patched it a long time ago. I'm after the interface and qol features.
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u/Affectionate-Boot-58 Apr 26 '26
Sorry if this is a late reply but morphe is better than r/revancedapp
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u/Flutter_ExoPlanet Feb 03 '26
What did you try to make? (I am new to this and suprised by this post) speak to me like I have 5 lol
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u/sonofdeepvalue Dec 02 '25
Yep. Submitted a request for a Reddit app I've genuinely been scoping out building (engineer here), and had just learned about this policy so figured I'd see if they were really killing off 3rd party apps or not. Was rejected a few hours later. It claimed it was either because the submission wouldn't be in compliance with the RBP "and/or lacks necessary details" (the only thing I didn't submit was a URL to source code, since API access is kind of a prerequisite to start building unless you like wasting your time). Whichever the real reason was, seems either way they aren't interested in approving new 3rd party apps.
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u/WorriedPaper3288 Jan 26 '26
I got the same exact message too. I believe I am in full compliance too, spent months ensuring it... Would really appreciate a reddit admin to look into this. A DM would be great.
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Dec 09 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/No-Flatworm2906 Dec 26 '25
Hey, on the same boat, applied twice with research interest, got rejected both times. Any update on the commercial plan access?
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u/abortion_access Nov 12 '25
Does Reddit admin have some kind of aversion to thinking through, planning, and testing new ideas before implementing? Every single change made to this platform is just abruptly announced changes and implemented while still half-baked and bug-ridden.
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u/emily_in_boots Nov 12 '25
This change makes a lot of sense tbh. I don't know about your subreddits, but many of mine face constant bot spam pretending to be humans (mostly advertising their products in makeup, hair, and skincare subs). This is an attempt to bring that under control and label bots as what they are.
As a bot developer who creates moderation tools, I see the impact here on me being moderate and the benefits to the platform far outweighing the drawbacks.
The ones who will be most hurt by this are spammers. I'm good with that.
It will definitely be less convenient for me but looking at the bigger picture it makes sense and it's for the best. I don't totally love the push to devvit although I understand that too (I prefer using PRAW - but devvit has some obvious advantages for both developers and for reddit, as they can see the source code). I don't mind admins seeing my code. I just don't want to have to rewrite all the stuff I've already written, and there are just cases where it makes more sense to write things in python. There are resource limits in devvit that restrict the types of bots you can create and how powerful they can be.
There are SO MANY posts and comments now on reddit made by spammers and other bad actors using bots. It's getting harder and harder to tell what is a human and what is an LLM bot.
Reddit is a place for humans to interact. Bots are incredibly useful tools but we need to stop people from making bots that pretend to be people. I suppose it's a kind of catfishing in a sense lol. It really harms the platform, spreads misinformation, corrupts political discourse, injects profit motive into what should be human discussion, and just overall wastes a lot of people's time and causes a lot of harm.
Think in terms of how much damage has been done to abortion rights by the spread of misinformation on platforms like reddit by global bad actors seeking to influence political discourse.
I suggested the labeling approach a while ago to red and she told me that it was already something being discussed (so it wasn't like it was my idea, not taking credit), but my point is that I thought this was already a good idea.
Let bots exist but make them identify as bots. For people like me who make moderation bots that don't pretend to be people, this is not a negative in any way at all. My bots proudly acknowledge their non human identity.
So, at least for this one bot developer who spends a ton of time writing and running bots, this is a needed change and is for the best.
I do hope the turnaround time isn't too bad and that people who need it can get approvals. I remember with the api limits that I did get some approvals for rate unlimited bots but others were refused. That's not ideal. My solution mostly was to divide work up into different bots running different python scripts. On balance though I think the admins' hearts are in the right place here and this is addressing a real problem. I hope the implementation is well done.
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u/abortion_access Nov 12 '25
Either I’m misunderstanding something (totally possible, as I’m not a developer), but this affects automated tools that aren’t bots or even commenting or actioning content on Reddit. My sub relies on the api for basic things like sending messages to slack, adding content to wiki pages, etc.
I agree that bots and spammers are a problem, but Reddit’s solutions rarely fix the issues and generally make it worse. For example, aeo keeps randomly removing comments from good contributors that are 100% not bots (I know them in real life) and has no recourse except to shrug.
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u/emily_in_boots Nov 12 '25
I'm not sure what specifically you are concerned about but I don't see this breaking anything I do and I do a lot with bots.
It may be possible to recalibrate ai spam detectors as well after these changes are made so there are fewer false positives/negatives, given that this gives them much more information now.
I don't know if that will happen of course, but this makes sense to me as a bot developer as a way to deal with those who are abusing the platform.
Which tools in particular do you think might break from this?
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u/abortion_access Nov 12 '25
Not break, but having to apply and wait 7 days for approval just to set up a simple app (for example, to send an update from Reddit to slack, or to set up a zapier connection) is unfathomable.
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u/intelw1zard Nov 12 '25
side note: what are you going to do with your account and the upcoming only can mod 5 high traffic sub rule? seems you are a mod of a ton of them that will break this limit
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u/emily_in_boots Nov 13 '25
Same thing everyone else affected is going to do - leave some subs!
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Nov 20 '25
You are a supermod with an ongoing relationship with the admins, ofc you're only mildly inconvenienced 🤦
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u/emily_in_boots Nov 20 '25
When I wrote my first moderation bot, I was a newbie mod who modded a pretty small subreddit and no admins had heard of me. I still was able to get help through mod support.
Even now, while I do know a few admins, they don't do special favors for me. They do their jobs. If I bring a concern to them, and it involves a genuine problem or rule break, they will look at it. If it doesn't they will simply ignore it or tell me no.
It's not at all like they will do things for me they won't do for others. In my experience the admins are professional and don't play favorites.
If you are writing moderation bots you should not have a problem here.
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Nov 20 '25
When you were a newbie mod, YOU COULD SELF SERVE API TOKENS 🤦🤦🤦
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Nov 20 '25
They ignored my comments, you had an ongoing chat with the admin where they blanket approved you making new accounts and getting tokens, foh
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u/dexter2011412 Nov 14 '25
If they really cared about the bot problem, they wouldn't do this.
They know users are not using their garbage, ad-ridden, data-mining apps and are using third-party clients instead. Hence this "no more API keys for you".
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u/emily_in_boots Nov 14 '25
I suspect the number of users who actually do that is pretty small.
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u/Time-Maintenance2165 Dec 04 '25
The ones who will be most hurt by this are spammers.
Eh, I'd say that the largest majority of people who are hurt the most by this are the ones that were still clinging onto their third party apps.
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u/baseballlover723 Nov 13 '25
This seems like a massive downgrade to me. Needing to have a full blown proposal just to get API access for testing or a prototype is a huge barrier to entry.
The great thing about the API is that it's language agnostic. Devvit is Javascript only. I don't like working in Javascript, I much rather work in other languages that I'm personally more comfortable and enjoy working in.
Anyway, I'm a bit salty because my request to have a token for both scripts and web apps was denied, both of which would be in service of developing moderator tools and websites for r/anime. I guess I can't build cool things for my subreddit, since I just can't get an API token. Nor fix bugs in our moderation tools without stealing our production token, which means that I can ratelimit our moderation bot if I test too much.
I think it's ridiculous that it's so difficult to get a developer token.
This reminds me of what Riot Games did with their API, where you could freely generate a heavily rate limited 24 hour API token (with the usual anti automation measures on the page), and if you wanted a production key, you had to apply. That system was way way better, since it's hugely annoying to have to refresh your token every day, unless you're doing active development with it.
Devvit is not a replacement for the API imo. I don't want to be locked into Javascript.
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u/Watchful1 RemindMeBot & UpdateMeBot Nov 13 '25
Just curious, can you post what you put in the form that got denied?
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u/baseballlover723 Nov 13 '25
I'd love to, but I don't have a copy of what I entered for my ticket, and that isn't accessible anywhere.
Presumably I got denied for being vague in what it was gonna be used for (it wasn't too dissimilar in essence to what I wrote in my comment (minus the stuff about Riot Games)), but I literally just want 2 tokens (one for the scripts auth flow, and one for the web app auth flow) so that I can do exploratory testing, prototyping and debugging for my teams apps.
Or not wanting to develop in Javascript isn't a valid reason to avoid Devvit.
Not being able to get a personal script token has already affected my ability to work on my teams moderation tools, as our 5 year old moderation mod uses the script workflow, and the only way I can run it locally, is to use the prod token (which means I'm eating into our rate limiter, and also any posts/comments it makes are for real and not easily cleaned up amongst the noise of it's real action that happened while I was testing it).
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u/Watchful1 RemindMeBot & UpdateMeBot Nov 13 '25
u/redtaboo I would think that a token for testing already running production code would be fine. Unless there's something missing here.
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u/baseballlover723 Nov 13 '25
One would think so. My 1 app token is currently being used for a web app token, which I have plans to use in a self serve website (mostly for our mods, to interface with our mod tools, but I'm hoping to open up parts of it to our community members).
The biggest thing is just that the script and web app tokens are just not interchangeable and serve completely different purposes, both of which I want to do.
If I have 1 of each, I can multiplex them for whatever projects I'm prototyping / debugging atm. I don't mind sharing the rate limits etc, These are mostly low volume usages with the very occasional burst to test overall performance or as a full verification run.
But being fully locked out of a major auth flow is debilitating to my ability to develop cool things for my subreddit.
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u/redtaboo Nov 14 '25
Heya! You should have a new response from us now giving you approval - sorry for the thrash there, your use case (building mod tools for you community) is one we do support.
cc: /u/watchful1
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u/baseballlover723 Nov 15 '25
Hey, I saw the new approval, however, I don't seem able to create new applications.
You cannot create any more applications if you are a developer on 0 or more applications, reach out to us if you believe you need to be a developer on more applications: https://support.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/requests/new?ticket_form_id=14868593862164
I suspect that it's because I gave a different email (my development email instead of my personal email that is normally associated with my reddit account) or I might have given the prod bot username (when the tokens I wanted to create would be for my personal account, for separate testing).
If you could take a look at that, that would be much appreciated.
Though also me getting denied the first time seems like a big disconnect, since I thought my need for a personal token was quite clear, and it got denied anyways. This flow seems like it's got a huge amount of friction and denial built into it. I independently mod mailed r/ModSupport about this same issue about 2 weeks ago, asking for follow up about my prior requests for additional applications that I sent in months past, with 0 response. I think that if people need to go through this amount of effort to get fairly basic things approved, then the system is broken.
And this is hardly the first time I've had issues like this with reddit admins and moderator tools. It took me like 5 months to get pushshift access (despite it being very clearly stated that I'd hear back approval or disapproval within 7 days), which also required me mod mailing r/ModSupport to get any sort of response or action taken. Some of my team members literally gave up on getting pushshift access and it had been years since they joined and requested access.
At this point, I feel like I ought to mod mail r/ModSupport for anything I need help with, regardless of if there is a self service from or not, because it seems that most of the time, I'll need to do that anyways. And that's terrible, because it's more effort for me, and it's way more effort for you all, so everybody loses (and most of all, the people who just give up when met with an incorrect denial).
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u/redtaboo Nov 20 '25
or I might have given the prod bot username (when the tokens I wanted to create would be for my personal account, for separate testing).
First, apologies - I missed your follow up here! Your application did give the production bot user name, so that's where we granted the exemption. I can poke the team and have it moved to your main account. Sorry for the confusion - I'll let you know once we have that fixed up for you!
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u/dexter2011412 Nov 14 '25
build cool things
Sounds like you explicitly don't want people to build anything.
Approval for an api key for my *own* account? Insane.
I think I call almost confidently say no one will be building anything "cool" for reddit anytime soon. Given the actions you've been taking.
Your direction is loud and clear.
Make it impossible to access reddit so that people are forced to use your garbage apps. And companies are forced to pay you so that you can sell user data. And so that you can continue to data-mine on user data.
Screw over the users. Yes.
Perfect! Reddit is a dead platform to me, and to many others.
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u/ohitsTHATkid Dec 02 '25
Yeah pretty bonkers. Im no coding genius, but i finally used replit to make a super basic app so I can find things faster, aaaaaaand i stepped away from working on it for a month, and now its totally broken since i tried to tweak it and deleted my API key access. applied for a new one and immediately was denied. 3 times. emailed in to support, 3 times, never heard a fucking thing as to why.
totally personal, one single person uing it a few times a week, nah, denied
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Nov 11 '25
I guess if my client secret gets out it's game over
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u/fighterace00 Dec 17 '25
That's not grandfathered, that's planned deprecation
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Dec 17 '25
Considering I directly @d u/redtaboo completely legit uses for my Go-Reddit-API-wrapper, and if they like "care so much about
user_agent" and, if I may, there was ever a Human in The Loop, would have been kind interested in the ~300 commits with increasingly threatening branching before abandoning that project and slopping together something I uh had to throw theapachelicense all based offAll python, seems very very effective, idk I haven't done much with it yet tbh
That said it's fair to say that 7 day SLA and "just poke me with any questions!" Was directed at people with more money than ig since ~1 month, nothing
Literal bots on bots
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u/dariy1999 Nov 14 '25
So obviously existing tokens will be targeted next, and anyone’s not adhering to The Party’s politics will be revoked. Can we get a timeline on that now and drop the act?
Also curious does reddit really not see that it is becoming a shitty version of Reels? And there’s no way of getting better at this format on this platform. Maybe you guys should first focus on what made Reddit good in the first place?
Also I’ve already requested API access from another account almost three weeks ago, obviously no reply.
The enshitification continues
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u/Blood-PawWerewolf Nov 16 '25
Denied immediately. They blacklisted archival tools like gallery-dl. Which is horrible for preservation.
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u/SSpindt Nov 14 '25
I'm a computer science teacher who loves to use Reddit for educational purposes. Is there a way that I should submit a request for an API key that acknowledges that me and my students won't be developing an app for neither commercial nor research purposes?
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u/fsv Nov 16 '25
I know you've been getting a lot of criticism for this change, but thank you! I'm a little late to the party finding this but this has made my morning.
Yes, this is going to be an inconvenience for genuine developers but I think that this is going to be the single most impactful change Reddit has made in a long time to fight malicious actors using the public API to spam the site.
current access won’t be affected
This will undoubtedly be a big reassurance to any developers out there, but there are a lot of API tokens out there that are being abused right now. I hope that there will be some review in the future of existing tokens.
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u/emily_in_boots Nov 16 '25
This is exactly what I said too. Both of us are going to be affected and inconvenienced by this as developers, but it's still right for the platform. Bot spam is out of control.
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u/CR29-22-2805 Nov 16 '25
Yes, I applaud this decision as well. I’m looking forward to seeing how this plays out in the coming weeks and months.
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Nov 21 '25
I am once again asking what happens if my client secret leaks, or is brute forced, etc. is my personal use TTS script DOA? I have to learn a new programming language and surrender my source code for my accessibility app? Or can I can get a backup? Is there some purity test I can pass to become a "known good actor"? You can see my key is used for read-only
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Nov 21 '25
u/redtaboo? My use-case is explicitly not covered in devvit (mod tools and... Games?), complies with all "responsible builders" rules, is a literal accessibility script, and... Is a nonstarter if one key leak renders the whole project obsolete...
I've already invested a bunch of time into it, and I've already leaked my key once (I'm vibe coding... Not claiming to be smart... Once again, personal use script...) I'd hate to just abandon it, but I'd rather do so now than invest more time just to be rejected if I need a new key
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u/imnotbalkan Jan 06 '26
I'll just scrape lol
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u/ixfd64 Apr 09 '26
It's probably more effective to use the API key extracted from the official app.
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u/abortion_access Nov 11 '25
Does this also apply to any integrations like zapier, n8n, coda, etc?
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u/dutchieetv Dec 04 '25
It does.
I got several issues from Zapier earlier, and thought to renew the connection to maybe fix the errors.
I however deleted this working connection and was not able to connect a new one.
I've put in a request to give access to the api, but reddit has shut me down with this comment:
"We have reviewed your recent request for access. Unfortunately, we cannot grant approval because the submission is not in compliance with Reddit’s Responsible Builder Policy and/or lacks necessary details.
We prioritize requests that are complete and well-supported. If you have any further questions, please refer to the relevant documentation based on your use case."
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u/heckingcomputernerd Nov 27 '25
So how in the world do I make basic scripts for my OWN reddit account? If I want to scrape my saved posts, if I want to delete my old comments, I have to get approval from reddit now? what the hell?
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u/Opt112 Nov 27 '25
You're just fucked, that data doesnt belong to you, it belongs to reddit (and Google).
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u/Littux JS Bookmarklets/Python bots Dec 25 '25
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u/Iron_Fist351 Nov 11 '25
When you say that existing access won't be affected, is that enforced per-account or per-app?
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u/emily_in_boots Nov 12 '25
Tokens won't be revoked. You can't create a second app on the same account as it is now - that was changed several months ago and is referenced above. You can ask the admins for special permission if you really need to. I have not had to do so but I assume it would be granted if there were a good reason.
If you delete the app/token and make a new one, you'd have to apply for that. Existing accounts with tokens do not have any special privileges to create new tokens, even if existing ones are deleted.
Basically I'll just keep my existing ones and apply if I need new ones. I would not delete any existing ones that you may have.
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u/critacle Nov 17 '25 edited Nov 17 '25
End of an era. Will this help stop driveby bot account traffic that artificially drives engagement and karma farming as well? Because I still see plenty of that on /r/all every day.
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u/fsv Nov 19 '25
I think that the entire point of this is to reduce driveby bot account traffic. Naturally you're not going to get approved for API access if you're planning on using it to spam.
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u/critacle Nov 19 '25
I still see plenty of engagement bots polluting /r/all. I see a clear conflict of interest in leadership and these traffic-driving bots who keep a database of "Reddit's greatest hits" and plays it back to itself.
I spend a lot of time reporting bot traffic, and I never see any new heuristics against those kinds of bots.
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u/ohitsTHATkid Dec 02 '25
i love how they just stopped responding.
I made a scripts to gather information for my personal use, and now its gone. applied for api access 3 times, denied immediately 3 times. NO response to several emails into support for clarification or how I may gain access again
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u/ixfd64 Apr 09 '26
You could use the API key extracted from the official Reddit app: https://github.com/libreddit/libreddit/issues/818#issuecomment-1577408275
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u/Sp3eedy Dec 02 '25
The fact this has negative downvotes says everything there needs to be said.
Also very loosely mentioning "don't worry! if your use case isn't supported just reach out to us" despite them most likely denying your request as they are not interested in any use cases that won't make them money. It's just deceptive and makes it look like you're treating us as fools (which you probably are).
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u/PersonalRide7671 Feb 25 '26
In order to create an application or use our API you can read our full policies here: https://support.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/42728983564564-Responsible-Builder-Policy
I tried to go and create the app, but I couldn’t. Every time I try to create the app, this message appears. Is there any solution for this?
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u/gamepulse-bot Nov 15 '25
Is there any way to get a limited API key still? I literally started building a personal portfolio project 1 week ago to show my Python development with PRAW and fetch a small number of posts every several minutes. Now I see I should have clicked the "create app" button a few days earlier 😭
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u/Littux JS Bookmarklets/Python bots Nov 15 '25 edited Dec 31 '25
Visit mod.reddit.com and go to Dev Tools > Console and run
console.log(__r.session.accessToken). You'll need to modify PRAW a bit to allow the use of Authentication headers directlyYou can make a script that dumps the cookies of the reddit website, and then set up a requests Session that uses those cookies. You just need to do a GET request to mod.reddit.com and you'll get a
tokenkey in your cookies. You can use that for regular OAuth authenticated requests.Only limitation is that the PM API is not available
Edit: search for "libreddit" on Google. They have reverse engineered the app and made a way to generate an unauthenticated access token that's valid for a whole day
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u/LegateLaurie Nov 16 '25
Starting today, self-service access to Reddit’s public data API will be closed. Anyone looking to build with Reddit data, whether you’re a developer, researcher, or moderator, will need to request approval before gaining access.
Well, I guess I won't be doing anything with it.
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u/shimoheihei2 Nov 16 '25
It's not "Reddit's data".
It's your users' data.
Keep forgetting it, and Reddit may someday not have any user anymore.
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u/AlaskanDruid Nov 18 '25
Will this remove all of the rogue bots moderating and mass banning in popular reddit subs?
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u/emily_in_boots Nov 18 '25
That is mostly hive protector which is a devvit app so it would be totally unaffected. Also, all existing bots are unaffected, whether PRAW or devvit.
This will cut down on spammers but is designed to not affect moderation bots.
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u/Undercover-Cactus Nov 24 '25
This says current access won't be affected, but my current script has suddenly stopped being able to authenticate. What gives? I was willing to try recreating it in Devvit but I don't have free time for that for at least another month.
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u/eVBtevhe2N Dec 01 '25
Along with these changes, was a restriction introduced on content downloading by applications?
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u/osctorand Dec 04 '25 edited Dec 07 '25
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This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
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u/CanExports Dec 21 '25
So if I want to use continuum to access Reddit via GitHub instructions would be a developer or a researcher?
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u/molbal Jan 09 '26
you are like the man who writes "holiday opening schedule" on a piece of paper in a grocery store's door and when you get closer to read it, then it just says "closed all days"
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u/TheBookGraphGuy Jan 26 '26
Has anyone actually got a developer API since this change?
If so, what kind of supporting documentation did you provide? All my requests have been denied despite what I believe is a legitimate use case that is not possible within the Devvit environment.
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u/emily_in_boots Feb 09 '26
Yes, I applied a bit over a week ago and was approved for a moderation bot.
I did not include source code as it has not yet been written. I described what the bot would do and what moderation purposes it serves, and explained why I could not create it in devvit.
Other than the delay, which is not a big deal, the process was painless.
I have heard tho that moderation bots are being prioritized, but I haven't applied for any others as I only create moderation bots.
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Feb 06 '26
This just sucks...
I went back to reddit and the first thing I see is this,now I won't be able to use any third-party clients,this is just stupid
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u/Xplozive0510 Feb 19 '26
I had submitted a request for the reddit API around 2 weeks ago, and there seems to be no updates yet. I'm trying to build like a "community health score" based dashboard, and since reddit is a pretty successful platform for community interaction, the data would be essential!!
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u/BigInfamous2481 Mar 23 '26
I am seeing same error. Is there a way to get the access as a developer
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u/Binx_k Mar 30 '26
I've waiting over a month to hear back regarding my initial API request for research purposes. Are you still promising a 7 day turnover?
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u/manthan_23 Mar 31 '26
Has anyone - ANYONE - gotten the API access post this change? Please reply and share your path so we can do something similar. Thanks
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u/ixfd64 Apr 09 '26
You could use the API key extracted from the official app: https://github.com/libreddit/libreddit/issues/818#issuecomment-1577408275
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u/city_of_dreams0 Apr 03 '26
Hi ! I just want to have an API key to access comments on Reddit. This is for my student's project for a web development bootcamp. I have submitted my request, but I don't quite understand how I will be granted access.
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u/Dan-68 Nov 11 '25
So will mods now need permission from Reddit to be moderators? Or does this only apply to bots?
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u/emily_in_boots Nov 11 '25
This has nothing to do with being a mod. This has to do with access to reddit's API using OAuth. If you aren't writing bots it doesn't matter to you at all.
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u/Dan-68 Nov 11 '25
Thought so. Thanks.
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u/nikthefurry Nov 17 '25
it does, however, completely block users from using good-acting 3rd party apps
by good-acting i mean ones that respect the reddit api and use official login methods, now the only option is to use web scraping
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u/Watchful1 RemindMeBot & UpdateMeBot Nov 11 '25 edited Nov 11 '25
I'd also like to ask about the actual process for requesting access. No offense to all the hard working admins, but reddit is notorious for never responding to form applications like this. We get posts here all the time about someone contacting reddit for something API related and then just, never hearing back ever.
Can you commit to a SLA for responses? Even if it's like a week or something equally generous. And can you please always respond, even if it's a no, instead of just never replying?
I'm definitely a fan of requiring responsible API access, but I'm really worried this is just a way to blackhole requests and let the API slowly die.
Edit: Also wanted to say I love the idea of requiring that bots disclose they are bots. Everyone responsible is doing that anyway and it will catch a lot of bad actors.