TCO Report: Cloud Browser Forum Scraping (Compute + Proxies) vs Direct JSON

curl -sS "https://api.forumdataapi.com/v1/posts/search?query=datadog+OR+grafana&sort=new&time_filter=week&limit=50" \
  -H "x-api-key: $FORUMDATAAPI_KEY"

import os
import requests

resp = requests.get(
    "https://api.forumdataapi.com/v1/posts/search",
    headers={"x-api-key": os.environ["FORUMDATAAPI_KEY"]},
    params={"query": "datadog OR grafana", "sort": "new", "time_filter": "week", "limit": 50},
    timeout=10,
)
resp.raise_for_status()
body = resp.json()
print(f"Fetched {body['data']['count']} posts in {body['meta']['latency_ms']}ms | Credits: {body['meta']['credits_used']}")

const res = await fetch(
  "https://api.forumdataapi.com/v1/posts/search?query=datadog+OR+grafana&sort=new&time_filter=week&limit=50",
  { headers: { "x-api-key": process.env.FORUMDATAAPI_KEY! } },
);
const { data, meta } = await res.json();
console.log({ items: data.items.length, latencyMs: meta.latency_ms, creditsUsed: meta.credits_used });

{
  "code": 0,
  "provider": "https://forumdataapi.com",
  "status": "ok",
  "data": {
    "items": [
      {
        "id": "1u2k9mp",
        "post_id": "t3_1u2k9mp",
        "subreddit": "devops",
        "subreddit_name_prefixed": "r/devops",
        "title": "Migrating 40 microservices from Datadog to Grafana Cloud — real 6-month bill breakdown",
        "author": "sre_platform_lead",
        "score": 312,
        "upvote_ratio": 0.97,
        "num_comments": 148,
        "created_utc": 1762582410,
        "created_at": "2026-11-08T06:13:30.000Z",
        "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/devops/comments/1u2k9mp/migrating_40_microservices_from_datadog/"
      }
    ],
    "count": 1,
    "next_cursor": "t3_1u2k9mp",
    "has_more": true
  },
  "meta": {
    "endpoint": "/v1/posts/search",
    "credits_used": 2,
    "cache_hit": false,
    "latency_ms": 181
  }
}

# Step 1: Search posts ($0 if 0 matches, 1 Credit/post returned)
curl -sS "https://api.forumdataapi.com/v1/posts/search?query=clickhouse&sort=top&time_filter=month&limit=25" \
  -H "x-api-key: $FORUMDATAAPI_KEY"

# Step 2: Fetch up to 200 nested comments for a matched thread in 1 call (1 Credit/comment)
curl -sS "https://api.forumdataapi.com/v1/posts/comments?post_id=1u2k9mp&sort=top&limit=200" \
  -H "x-api-key: $FORUMDATAAPI_KEY"

import os, requests

HEADERS = {"x-api-key": os.environ["FORUMDATAAPI_KEY"]}
posts = requests.get("https://api.forumdataapi.com/v1/posts/search",
    params={"query": "clickhouse", "sort": "top", "time_filter": "month", "limit": 25},
    headers=HEADERS, timeout=10).json()["data"]["items"]
top_comments = requests.get("https://api.forumdataapi.com/v1/posts/comments",
    params={"post_id": posts[0]["id"], "sort": "top", "limit": 200},
    headers=HEADERS, timeout=10).json()["data"]["items"]

const headers = { "x-api-key": process.env.FORUMDATAAPI_KEY! };
const { data: search } = await fetch(
  "https://api.forumdataapi.com/v1/posts/search?query=clickhouse&sort=top&time_filter=month&limit=25",
  { headers },
).then((r) => r.json());
const { data: tree } = await fetch(
  `https://api.forumdataapi.com/v1/posts/comments?post_id=${search.items[0].id}&sort=top&limit=200`,
  { headers },
).then((r) => r.json());

{
  "code": 0,
  "provider": "https://forumdataapi.com",
  "status": "ok",
  "data": {
    "post_id": "t3_1u2k9mp",
    "items": [
      {
        "id": "oqm91az",
        "comment_id": "t1_oqm91az",
        "post_id": "t3_1u2k9mp",
        "parent_id": "t3_1u2k9mp",
        "author": "olap_architect",
        "body": "Compression ratio on ClickHouse ZSTD(1) cut our log storage bill by 78%.",
        "score": 94,
        "depth": 0,
        "is_submitter": false,
        "created_utc": 1762584100
      }
    ],
    "count": 1,
    "has_more": false
  },
  "meta": {
    "endpoint": "/v1/posts/comments",
    "credits_used": 2,
    "latency_ms": 194
  }
}