How to Get Historical Reddit Data After Pushshift (2026)

Pushshift is gone. It was revoked from public access in May 2023 and is now restricted to Reddit moderators only. By the end of this tutorial, you will know every current option for accessing historical Reddit data — from free bulk archives to searchable APIs — with costs, limitations, and step-by-step setup for each.

The primary replacements are Arctic Shift (free access to Reddit archives from 2005, single-subreddit search) and Xpoz (keyword search across all subreddits, up to 400,000 results/month free via AI assistants like Claude or ChatGPT).

What Happened to Pushshift

Pushshift was the backbone of Reddit research for a decade. Created by Jason Baumgartner, it archived Reddit posts and comments dating back to 2005 and made them searchable via a free API. Over 1,700 scholarly articles cited Pushshift data.

Timeline:

• 2005-2023: Pushshift operated as a free, open archive of Reddit data
• April 2023: Reddit announced new API pricing, putting third-party data access at risk
• May 2, 2023: Reddit revoked Pushshift's public access
• June 2023: Reddit reached an agreement restricting Pushshift to verified moderators for moderation use only
• 2024-2026: Dependent tools (Removeddit, Ceddit, Unddit, redditsearch.io) went defunct

What researchers lost:

• Global keyword search across all subreddits
• Comment-level search (not just post titles)
• Date-range filtering
• Bulk data export
• Free, unauthenticated access

Your Options in 2026

Option 1: Xpoz (Recommended)

Xpoz provides keyword-searchable historical Reddit data through natural language queries. Unlike Arctic Shift, it searches across all subreddits at once — the global keyword search that Pushshift offered and that most replacements lack.

Setup (2 minutes):

1. Connect Xpoz to your AI assistant:
   • Claude Desktop: Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector → URL https://mcp.xpoz.ai/mcp
   • Claude Code: claude mcp add --transport http --scope user xpoz https://mcp.xpoz.ai/mcp
2. Authenticate with your Google account on first use
3. Start querying

Example queries:

"Find all Reddit posts mentioning 'Pushshift' from 2024,
sorted by upvotes"

"Search Reddit comments containing 'machine learning'
in r/datascience from the past year"

"How many Reddit posts mentioned 'GPT-4' per month
across all subreddits in 2025?"

What you get:

• Keyword search across all subreddits (posts and comments)
• Historical data access on all tiers including free
• Up to 400,000 results/month free, up to 5M at $20/month
• Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok data included
• CSV export for offline analysis
• No API coding required

Limitations:

• Pre-indexed database — coverage depends on what's been indexed
• Not a complete archive of all Reddit data ever posted
• Near real-time, not live real-time

Best for: Researchers who need keyword search across all of Reddit without wrangling bulk data dumps.

Option 2: Arctic Shift

Arctic Shift is the primary community-maintained Pushshift successor. It provides free, unauthenticated access to Reddit data from December 2005 to present.

Setup:

• REST API — no authentication required
• Web search interface at the project page
• Bulk data available as DuckDB-queryable Parquet files on Hugging Face

API example:

GET https://arctic-shift.photon-reddit.com/api/posts/search?q=pushshift&subreddit=datascience&limit=100

What you get:

• Reddit data from December 2005 through current month (monthly releases)
• 15+ API endpoints (post search, comment search, aggregation, user data)
• ~120,000 requests/hour sustained
• Bulk Parquet dumps on Hugging Face for offline DuckDB queries

Key limitation: Full-text search is limited to one subreddit or one user at a time. You cannot search globally across all of Reddit — the query that Pushshift was most famous for.

Other limitations:

• Community-maintained with no uptime SLA
• Very active subreddits may time out
• Monthly data releases only (not real-time)

Best for: Academic researchers who know which subreddits to search and need deep historical data from specific communities.

Option 3: Academic Torrents

Academic Torrents hosts a comprehensive Reddit dataset maintained by u/Watchful1 with monthly updates.

What you get:

• 3.97 TB dataset covering 40,000 subreddits from 2005 to 2025
• Selectively downloadable (pick specific subreddits or date ranges)
• Standard torrent download — no API, no rate limits

Setup:

1. Visit the Academic Torrents Reddit dataset page
2. Download the subreddits and date ranges you need
3. Process locally with your own tools (Python, DuckDB, etc.)

Limitations:

• Download-only — no search API
• Requires significant local storage and processing
• No real-time or near-real-time data
• Processing requires technical skills

Best for: Researchers who need complete, raw Reddit data for offline computational analysis (NLP, network analysis, longitudinal studies).

Option 4: PullPush.io

PullPush.io is a drop-in Pushshift API replacement that maintains API compatibility with the original Pushshift endpoints.

What you get:

• Cross-subreddit search (the only free tool that still offers this besides Xpoz)
• Pushshift-compatible API endpoints
• Reddit data from 2005 onward

Limitations:

• Rate-limited to 30 requests per minute
• Frequent outages documented throughout 2024-2025
• No uptime guarantee — community-maintained
• Data may be incomplete or delayed

Best for: Existing Pushshift scripts that need a drop-in replacement and can tolerate unreliability.

Option 5: SocialGrep

SocialGrep provides a Reddit search service with historical data going back to 2010.

What you get: Historical search, keyword monitoring, trend tracking, API access on paid plans.

Pricing: Starter $9/month, Pro $49/month.

Best for: Quick historical searches and ongoing keyword monitoring without bulk data needs.

What the Official Reddit API Can't Do

The official Reddit API has no historical search capability on any tier:

• Free tier: 100 QPM, no date-range search, no comment search, 1,000-item listing cap
• Commercial tier: $12K+/year minimum, same structural limitations
• Enterprise tier: $50K-$500K+/year, historical access may be negotiable

For details on Reddit API pricing, see our Reddit API Pricing in 2026 guide.

Comparison: What Each Tool Does Best

Key Takeaways

• Pushshift is gone — revoked May 2023, restricted to moderators only. It's not coming back.

• Xpoz is the best replacement for keyword search — global cross-subreddit search with up to 400K results/month free, no API coding required.

• Arctic Shift is the best free archive — Reddit data from 2005, but search is limited to one subreddit at a time.

• Academic Torrents is best for bulk offline analysis — 3.97 TB dataset, but download-only with no search API.

• The official Reddit API has no historical search on any tier — alternatives are the only path to old Reddit data.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Pushshift still working in 2026?

No. Pushshift was revoked from public access on May 2, 2023 after Reddit's API pricing changes. It is now restricted to verified Reddit moderators for moderation use only. Over 1,700 scholarly articles relied on Pushshift data. The primary replacement is Arctic Shift (free, 2005-present), and Xpoz offers searchable historical Reddit data on all plans including free.

What is the best Pushshift alternative?

Several tools now replace Pushshift for different use cases. Arctic Shift (free, 2005-present) and Academic Torrents (3.97 TB dataset) serve bulk academic research. Xpoz provides keyword-searchable historical data across all subreddits with up to 400,000 results/month free. PullPush.io offers a Pushshift-compatible API but has reliability issues (30 req/min, frequent outages).

How do I download old Reddit posts?

You have several options: Arctic Shift provides free API access to Reddit data from 2005 onward (single-subreddit search). Academic Torrents hosts a 3.97 TB downloadable dataset. Xpoz offers keyword-searchable historical data via natural language queries (up to 400K results/month free). The official Reddit API has no historical search capability.

Is there a free way to search old Reddit data?

Yes. Arctic Shift provides free, unauthenticated access to Reddit archives from 2005 with ~120,000 requests/hour — but full-text search is limited to one subreddit at a time. Xpoz offers global keyword search across all subreddits with up to 400,000 results/month free. PullPush.io has cross-subreddit search but is unreliable (30 req/min, frequent outages).

Conclusion

The post-Pushshift landscape has stabilized around three main options: Xpoz for searchable cross-subreddit access, Arctic Shift for free single-subreddit archives, and Academic Torrents for bulk offline datasets. Each serves a different workflow.

Start with Xpoz's free tier (up to 400,000 results/month) if you need keyword search across Reddit. Use Arctic Shift if you need deep history from specific subreddits. Download from Academic Torrents if you need raw data for computational research.