Threads API Alternative: Public Posts as JSON

Meta's official Threads API is built for managing your own account: publishing, replies to your posts, and your insights. Reading other people's public posts takes extra permissions that go through Meta's App Review. If you only need public data (profiles, posts, replies and search results), you can read it as JSON with one API key instead.

What Meta's official Threads API is forCopy Anchor Link

The official API works through a Threads user's access token, so everything starts from an account that has logged in to your app:

• Publishing: text, image, video and carousel posts, and replies, for the signed-in account.
• Your own content: that account's posts, the replies to them, and their insights.
• Keyword search: with the threads_keyword_search permission. Until App Review approves it, search covers only the signed-in user's own posts. Approved apps get up to 2,200 queries per user in a rolling 24 hours.

That's the right tool for a scheduling app or a creator dashboard. It's a long road for a research tool, a brand monitor or a trend tracker that only needs to read what's public.

Public Threads data without OAuthCopy Anchor Link

Social Parse reads Threads the way a logged-out visitor does. No Meta app, no access tokens, no App Review:

Set your key and base URL:

export API_KEY="your-api-key"
export API_URL="https://api.socialparse.dev"

Get a Threads profileCopy Anchor Link

curl -H "x-api-key: $API_KEY" "$API_URL/v1/threads/profile?handle=zuck"

The answer, shortened:

{
  "data": {
    "id": "63055343223",
    "username": "zuck",
    "url": "https://www.threads.com/@zuck",
    "name": "Mark Zuckerberg",
    "bio": "Mostly superintelligence and MMA takes",
    "followers": 5754758,
    "verified": true,
    "private": false,
    "picture": "https://...",
    "links": null
  }
}

A user's latest postsCopy Anchor Link

curl -H "x-api-key: $API_KEY" "$API_URL/v1/threads/profiles/posts?handle=zuck"

Each post carries text, score (likes), comment_count, repost_count, quote_count, media_type and its media, with created_at. You get the posts a logged-out visitor sees on the profile; there's no next page.

A post with its repliesCopy Anchor Link

Pass the post's code, the part after /post/ in its link:

curl -H "x-api-key: $API_KEY" "$API_URL/v1/threads/posts?code=DeZtp-TkQHh"

Besides the post's own fields, the answer has views (where Threads shows them), replies, thread (the author's own follow-up posts) and related.

Search Threads by keywordCopy Anchor Link

import os

import requests

response = requests.get(
    f"{os.environ['API_URL']}/v1/threads/search",
    params={"q": "coffee"},
    headers={"x-api-key": os.environ["API_KEY"]},
    timeout=120,
)
for post in response.json()["data"]:
    print(f"@{post['author']}: {post['text']}")
    print(post["url"])

Search answers with Threads' top results for the keyword; there's no next page. To watch a keyword over time, run the search on a schedule and keep the posts you haven't seen yet. The social listening guide has a script that does exactly that.

Things to plan forCopy Anchor Link

• Public only. What only logged-in users may see answers 403 LOGIN_REQUIRED; a deleted post answers 404 NOT_FOUND.
• Picture links expire. Profile pictures and post media are signed links that stop working after a while. Download what you need to keep.
• One credit per call, errors free. New accounts get 100 free credits; see pricing.

FAQCopy Anchor Link

Is the Threads API free?Copy Anchor Link

Meta's Threads API has no fee, but it needs a Meta developer app, user access tokens and App Review for anything beyond the signed-in account. Social Parse charges one credit per call and needs none of that.

Can I search Threads without App Review?Copy Anchor Link

Not with Meta's API: until threads_keyword_search is approved, search covers only your own posts. Social Parse's search endpoint returns public results with an API key.

Can I get the replies to any Threads post?Copy Anchor Link

Yes, the replies its public page shows, from the post endpoint.

Can I read private Threads profiles?Copy Anchor Link

No. Only what a logged-out visitor can see is read; private content answers LOGIN_REQUIRED.

What other platforms work the same way?Copy Anchor Link

Every platform in the API reference answers in the same JSON envelope. Start with the quickstart.