ScrapeCreators Expiring Monthly Credits vs Never-Expiring PAYG Forum Data

curl -sS "https://api.forumdataapi.com/v1/subreddit/posts?subreddit=SaaS&sort=hot&limit=50" \
  -H "x-api-key: $FORUMDATAAPI_KEY"

import os
import requests

resp = requests.get(
    "https://api.forumdataapi.com/v1/subreddit/posts",
    headers={"x-api-key": os.environ["FORUMDATAAPI_KEY"]},
    params={"subreddit": "SaaS", "sort": "hot", "limit": 50},
    timeout=10,
)
resp.raise_for_status()
payload = resp.json()
print("Items:", payload["data"]["count"], "| Credits used:", payload["meta"]["credits_used"])

const res = await fetch(
  "https://api.forumdataapi.com/v1/subreddit/posts?subreddit=SaaS&sort=hot&limit=50",
  { headers: { "x-api-key": process.env.FORUMDATAAPI_KEY! } },
);
const { data, meta } = await res.json();
console.log({ count: data.count, nextCursor: data.next_cursor, creditsUsed: meta.credits_used });

{
  "code": 0,
  "provider": "https://forumdataapi.com",
  "status": "ok",
  "data": {
    "subreddit": "SaaS",
    "sort": "hot",
    "items": [
      {
        "id": "1u0z4vz",
        "post_id": "t3_1u0z4vz",
        "subreddit": "SaaS",
        "subreddit_name_prefixed": "r/SaaS",
        "title": "How we replaced expiring social API subscriptions with item-metered ingestion",
        "author": "growth_eng_io",
        "score": 219,
        "upvote_ratio": 0.96,
        "num_comments": 84,
        "created_utc": 1762579200,
        "created_at": "2026-11-08T05:20:00.000Z",
        "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/SaaS/comments/1u0z4vz/how_we_replaced_expiring_social_api/"
      }
    ],
    "count": 50,
    "next_cursor": "t3_1tzz81k",
    "has_more": true
  },
  "meta": {
    "endpoint": "/v1/subreddit/posts",
    "credits_used": 50,
    "cache_hit": false,
    "latency_ms": 179
  }
}

curl -sS "https://api.forumdataapi.com/v1/posts/search?query=%22alternative+to%22+linear&sort=new&since=1762560000&limit=100" \
  -H "x-api-key: $FORUMDATAAPI_KEY"

import os, requests

res = requests.get(
    "https://api.forumdataapi.com/v1/posts/search",
    headers={"x-api-key": os.environ["FORUMDATAAPI_KEY"]},
    params={"query": '"alternative to" linear', "sort": "new", "since": 1762560000, "limit": 100},
    timeout=10,
)
items = res.json()["data"]["items"]  # 0 Credits charged if items == []

const url = "https://api.forumdataapi.com/v1/posts/search?query=%22alternative+to%22+linear&sort=new&since=1762560000&limit=100";
const res = await fetch(url, {
  headers: { "x-api-key": process.env.FORUMDATAAPI_KEY! },
});
const { data, meta } = await res.json();
// meta.credits_used === 0 when data.items.length === 0
console.log(data.items, meta.credits_used);

{
  "code": 0,
  "provider": "https://forumdataapi.com",
  "status": "ok",
  "data": {
    "items": [],
    "count": 0,
    "next_cursor": null,
    "has_more": false
  },
  "meta": {
    "endpoint": "/v1/posts/search",
    "credits_used": 0,
    "cache_hit": false,
    "latency_ms": 162
  }
}