How to get access token? (Reddit API)

Question

I wonder if it is possible to get a permanent access token for personal use on Reddit? It will only be me using the App.

For users, the access token expires after 1 hour

Answer 1

As of right now, you cannot retrieve a permanent access token. You have 2 options that come close.

The first is to request a "refresh" token when using the standard OAuth flow. That's what you're doing by sending "duration" as "permanent" in your code. The refresh token can be used to automatically retrieve new 1 hour access tokens without user intervention; the only manual steps are on the initial retrieval of the refresh token.

The second alternative, which applies only when writing a script for personal use, is to use the password grant type. The steps are described in more detail on reddit's "OAuth Quick Start" wiki page, but I'll summarize here:

1. Create an OAuth client (under https://www.reddit.com/prefs/apps) with type = "script"
2. Make a request to https://www.reddit.com/api/v1/access_token with POST parameters grant_type=password&username=<USERNAME>&password=<PASSWORD>. Send your client ID and secret as HTTP basic authentication. <USERNAME> must be registered as a developer of the OAuth 2 client ID you send.

Answer 2

A client_id and client_secret can be generated for a reddit account by going to https://www.reddit.com/prefs/apps and creating an app:

The part I have hidden is my client_id.

Then you can use a client like praw to access reddit e.g. with Python:

import praw
r = praw.Reddit(client_id='insert id here',
                client_secret='insert secret here',
                user_agent='insert user agent')
page = r.subreddit('aww')
top_posts = page.hot(limit=None)
for post in top_posts:
    print(post.title, post.ups)

You could use your current browser's user agent, which can be easily found by google searching "what is my user agent" (among other ways).