SOCIAL MEDIA
Check Reddit Comment Visibility API
Detect shadowban/auto-removal: read a comment's focused permalink JSON as a non-author and report whether it is actually visible to the public.
How to call it
Send one POST to api.upapi.io/reddit-check-comment-visibility.get with your key in the X-Api-Key header and the parameters below as a JSON body. Each call spends 4 weighted units of your monthly quota. The operation times out after 60 seconds. Identical requests are served from cache for 300 seconds, unbilled.
POST https://api.upapi.io/reddit-check-comment-visibility.get
Check Reddit Comment Visibility API reference
Request parameters
- proxyUrl
- string — Exit IP for the view — SHOULD be the reader account's own pinned IP, and differ from the author's for a true third-party check.
- commentId
- string — t1_<id> (or bare id). If omitted, parsed from the permalink.
- permalink
- stringrequired — Comment permalink, e.g. /r/Advice/comments/<postid>/comment/<cid>/ (or full URL)
- readerSessionCookies
- string — A NON-AUTHOR pooled account's session cookie blob. REQUIRED in practice since 2026-07-30: Reddit answers every anonymous surface (HTML and .json) with a reCAPTCHA or 'blocked by network security' wall, so the cookie-less path is blocked and this check cannot run anonymously. Supplying a DIFFERENT account's session reads the comment the way any logged-in third party would — removed/shadowbanned comments are hidden from every non-author user, logged in or out, so the visibility verdict is the same. MUST NOT be the author's own session: Reddit shows an author their own removed comments, which would manufacture a false 'visible'.
Response fields
- removed
- booleanrequired
- commentId
- stringrequired
- elapsedMs
- integerrequired
- fetchedAt
- stringrequired
- permalink
- stringrequired
- threadLoaded
- booleanrequired
- visibleToAnon
- booleanrequired
- shadowSuspected
- booleanrequired
Example request and response
The example response is generated from this operation’s published output schema — it shows the shape and field names, not values from a recorded call.
{
"permalink": "example"
}{
"removed": false,
"commentId": "example",
"elapsedMs": 1,
"fetchedAt": "example",
"permalink": "example",
"threadLoaded": false,
"visibleToAnon": false,
"shadowSuspected": false
}Code snippets
cURL
curl -X POST https://api.upapi.io/reddit-check-comment-visibility.get \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-H 'x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY' \
-d '{ "permalink": "example" }'JavaScript
const response = await fetch('https://api.upapi.io/reddit-check-comment-visibility.get', {
method: 'POST',
headers: {
'Content-Type': 'application/json',
'x-api-key': 'YOUR_API_KEY',
},
body: JSON.stringify({
"permalink": "example"
}),
});
const data = await response.json();
console.log(data);Python
import requests
response = requests.post(
'https://api.upapi.io/reddit-check-comment-visibility.get',
headers={
'Content-Type': 'application/json',
'x-api-key': 'YOUR_API_KEY',
},
json={
"permalink": "example"
},
)
print(response.json())Go
package main
import (
"bytes"
"encoding/json"
"fmt"
"io"
"net/http"
)
func main() {
payload := []byte(`{ "permalink": "example" }`)
req, _ := http.NewRequest("POST", "https://api.upapi.io/reddit-check-comment-visibility.get", bytes.NewBuffer(payload))
req.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/json")
req.Header.Set("x-api-key", "YOUR_API_KEY")
client := &http.Client{}
resp, err := client.Do(req)
if err != nil {
panic(err)
}
defer resp.Body.Close()
body, _ := io.ReadAll(resp.Body)
var result map[string]any
json.Unmarshal(body, &result)
fmt.Println(result)
}PHP
<?php
$payload = json_encode([
'permalink' => 'example',
]);
$ch = curl_init('https://api.upapi.io/reddit-check-comment-visibility.get');
curl_setopt_array($ch, [
CURLOPT_POST => true,
CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => $payload,
CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => [
'Content-Type: application/json',
'x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY',
],
]);
$response = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
$data = json_decode($response, true);
var_dump($data);Ruby
require 'net/http'
require 'uri'
require 'json'
uri = URI('https://api.upapi.io/reddit-check-comment-visibility.get')
http = Net::HTTP.new(uri.host, uri.port)
http.use_ssl = uri.scheme == 'https'
request = Net::HTTP::Post.new(uri.path)
request['Content-Type'] = 'application/json'
request['x-api-key'] = 'YOUR_API_KEY'
request.body = { "permalink": "example" }.to_json
response = http.request(request)
puts JSON.parse(response.body)Java
import okhttp3.*;
import com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.ObjectMapper;
import java.util.Map;
OkHttpClient client = new OkHttpClient();
ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
String json = "{ \"permalink\": \"example\" }";
RequestBody body = RequestBody.create(json, MediaType.get("application/json"));
Request request = new Request.Builder()
.url("https://api.upapi.io/reddit-check-comment-visibility.get")
.post(body)
.addHeader("Content-Type", "application/json")
.addHeader("x-api-key", "YOUR_API_KEY")
.build();
try (Response response = client.newCall(request).execute()) {
Map<?, ?> result = mapper.readValue(response.body().string(), Map.class);
System.out.println(result);
}C#
using System.Net.Http;
using System.Net.Http.Json;
using System.Text.Json;
using var client = new HttpClient();
client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Add("x-api-key", "YOUR_API_KEY");
var payload = JsonSerializer.Deserialize<object>("{ \"permalink\": \"example\" }");
var response = await client.PostAsJsonAsync("https://api.upapi.io/reddit-check-comment-visibility.get", payload);
var result = await response.Content.ReadFromJsonAsync<JsonElement>();
Console.WriteLine(result);Frequently asked questions
How much does the Check Reddit Comment Visibility API cost per call?
Each call spends 4 weighted units of your plan's monthly quota. Full pricing is at https://upapi.io/pricing.
How do I authenticate to the Check Reddit Comment Visibility API?
Send your key in the X-Api-Key header. A free guest key is available without creating an account.
Are Check Reddit Comment Visibility API responses cached?
Yes — identical requests are served from cache for 300 seconds, and a cache hit is not billed.