Have a storage destination ready
Choose where your Node.js service will obtain REDDIT_FETCH_API_KEY before registering. A protected environment setting or secret store can supply it at runtime. Keep the value out of frontend build variables, committed files and diagnostic output. The application needs access to the secret; visitors using its comment preview do not.
Register, then capture the one-time value
Use email and a password of 12–72 UTF-8 bytes. Byte length differs from character count, particularly for multilingual passwords. There is no Google login. The key appears once immediately after successful signup, before payment. Copy it to your chosen secure storage while it is visible; a later login does not redisplay it or send it by email.
Accounts, keys and balances belong to redditfetch.com. A credential from another network domain will not serve this request. The conditional 100-credit trial depends on network-wide anti-abuse eligibility. Check the actual balance in this page’s account panel before expecting a test call to succeed; key issuance itself requires no paid top-up.
Connect the setting to one request
Validate that the server setting exists, then use either Authorization: Bearer <key> or X-API-Key: <key> for the javascript comment example. The account’s Secure HttpOnly session cookie is separate from retrieval authentication. If you regenerate a key while signed in, password confirmation is required and the old key stops working immediately. Update every server process using it.
Fund further previews through a current invoice
Successful retrievals cost $1 per 1000, including empty results. The minimum $50 top-up buys 50000 paid credits; paid credits do not expire and there is no subscription. Sign in and create an invoice before transferring. Use its recipient and exact amount with USDT on TRON TRC20 or USDC on Ethereum mainnet ERC20.
The invoice expires after one hour. Paste the transaction hash and request verification after sending; credit requires a genuine confirmed matching transfer. A pending provider check is not a reason to pay again, and settlement time is not guaranteed. Return to the guide to distinguish credential errors, insufficient credits and a failed network operation.
