Arctic Shift: what it is, how to use it, and where it stops.

Arctic Shift is the best free Reddit archive available in 2026: an open-source project that publishes monthly dump files, a free API and a search page, and that picks up new posts within seconds. It is the right tool for research on one user, one subreddit or one thread. It stops at three points: keyword search only works inside a single user, subreddit or thread, there is no uptime guarantee, and it collects through Reddit's official API, which Reddit closes to the public in March 2027. For a keyword across all of Reddit, or for work that needs a supported service, use a full archive such as THINKPOL archive search.

Status. On our last check (12 November 2026 at 11:07 UTC), the Arctic Shift API was responding (HTTP 200 in 1.8 s). The newest post it returned was 18 seconds old. We check every hour from a server in the EU: 80.4% of 51 hourly checks answered over the last 30 days. Full history on the status page.

What is Arctic Shift?

Arctic Shift is an open-source project (ArthurHeitmann/arctic_shift on GitHub) that states its purpose in one line: making Reddit data accessible to researchers, moderators and everyone else. It took over where Pushshift stopped in 2023, and it offers the data in three forms.

• Dump files. One compressed file set per month, distributed by torrent, plus a combined set covering June 2005 to December 2024. This is the form researchers cite.
• A free API. Search, ID lookup, comment trees, aggregations and time series, with no key and no account.
• A search page at arctic-shift.photon-reddit.com/search, and a download tool for a single user or a smaller subreddit.

Most of the deleted-post viewers people use in 2026 hold no data of their own. Rosint, Ghostddit and ihsoyct are front ends that query Arctic Shift from your browser. When Arctic Shift is slow or down, so are they.

Is Arctic Shift down?

On our last check (12 November 2026 at 11:07 UTC), the Arctic Shift API was responding (HTTP 200 in 1.8 s). The newest post it returned was 18 seconds old. On our last check (12 November 2026 at 11:07 UTC), the Arctic Shift search page was responding (HTTP 200 in 0.2 s).

The project gives no uptime or performance guarantee and says so at the top of its API documentation. It also runs its own status page at status.arctic-shift.photon-reddit.com. Three failures look alike from the outside:

• "Query timed out". The service is up and the query is too heavy. The documentation says this usually happens with keyword parameters: narrow the date range, lower the limit, or try a second time.
• HTTP 429. You are rate limited. Limits are computed from server load and query cost, and the response headers say when they reset.
• No answer at all. The service is down. The front ends built on it fail at the same moment, so switching from Rosint to Ghostddit will not help.

We request the API and the search page every hour and publish the result, with its history, on the archive tools status page.

How to search Arctic Shift

Open the search page, choose posts or comments, then filter by author, subreddit and date range. Three rules explain most of the confusion.

1. Start from a user, a subreddit or a thread. A keyword on its own is refused. On 10 November 2026 a comment search with a keyword and nothing else returned an error saying that the body parameter requires an author, a subreddit, a post ID or a parent ID.
2. Expect very active users and subreddits to be slow. The documentation says keyword search is not supported on them. In practice it sometimes answers and sometimes times out.
3. Read scores with care for the first 36 hours. Items are archived the moment they are posted, with a score of 0 or 1, then refreshed about 36 hours later.

Dates accept ISO format, epoch seconds, or an offset such as 2d or 1year. Keyword syntax follows the web search style: quotes for a phrase, OR between alternatives, a minus sign to exclude a word. Every endpoint and parameter is listed in our Arctic Shift API reference.

Does Arctic Shift show deleted posts?

Often, yes. Items are archived as they are posted, so a post or comment that is deleted or removed later is usually still in the archive with its original text. Since November 2023 the dump files also carry the result of a second retrieval 36 hours later: a flag when the item was deleted in between, the type of removal, and a flag when the text was edited.

Two things are out of its reach. Content removed before the first retrieval was never captured. And content from private or quarantined subreddits is not included at all, as the project's own data notes state. Edits made after the 36-hour check are not tracked.

People can also ask for their data to be removed, through a form linked from the project's README. An empty result therefore has three possible meanings: never posted, not captured, or removed on request. For what that distinction changes in practice, see how to view deleted Reddit posts.

What happens to Arctic Shift when Reddit closes its public API?

Reddit announced on 30 September 2026, in r/modnews, that it is closing public access to its Data API. The dates that matter: new access requests ended on 31 October 2026, RSS feeds stop on 13 November 2026, apps that have not registered start losing access on 12 January 2027, and all remaining public API access closes in March 2027.

Arctic Shift's data notes say that all its data is retrieved through the official Reddit API. In the project documents we read on 10 November 2026 (README, API documentation, data notes) there was no statement about what happens after the closure. We are not going to guess. The practical points are these:

• Dump files already published stay usable whatever happens: they are static files.
• Anything that depends on the live API, including Rosint, Ghostddit and ihsoyct, depends on a collection method whose future is not documented.
• If your work needs Reddit data after March 2027, ask your source in writing how it collects before you build on it.

When Arctic Shift is the better pick

• You need a fixed, citable corpus: the monthly dumps are the reference for academic work.
• Your question is about one account, one subreddit or one thread, and an occasional timeout costs you nothing.
• You moderate a community and want its history, rules and wikis in one place.
• The budget is zero. It is free and needs no account.

Where it stops, plainly

THINKPOL is the paid end of that table: 30 billion posts and comments since 2005, content deleted by authors and removed by moderators retained, full-text search across the whole archive in under 300 ms, on a supported API. It is commercial and access is vetted. You can test the corpus without an account through archive search, user lookup and deleted post search.

How this page is made

Everything above about Arctic Shift comes from the project's own public documents (README, API documentation, data notes, download list), read on 10 November 2026, and from two requests we ran ourselves that day: a keyword search without a user or subreddit, to record the error, and a latest-post query, to measure freshness. The status lines are refreshed every hour by an automated check. THINKPOL sells a commercial Reddit archive, so read the comparison with that in mind; the Arctic Shift facts can be checked at the source. Corrections: contact us.

Arctic Shift, answered.

Is Arctic Shift down right now?

On our last check (12 November 2026 at 11:07 UTC), the Arctic Shift API was responding (HTTP 200 in 1.8 s). The newest post it returned was 18 seconds old. The project gives no uptime guarantee. Tools built on it, such as Rosint, Ghostddit and ihsoyct, fail when it does. The hourly history is on our Reddit archive tools status page.

Is Arctic Shift free?

Yes. The dump files, the API and the search page are free and need no account. The project asks heavy users to take the monthly dumps instead of the API, and it accepts donations.

Can Arctic Shift search all of Reddit by keyword?

No. Keyword search needs an author, a subreddit or a thread, and the documentation says it is not supported on very active users or subreddits. For a keyword across the whole of Reddit you need a full-text archive, such as THINKPOL's free archive search, or PullPush when it is up.

Does Arctic Shift show deleted Reddit posts and comments?

Usually, when the content was public long enough to be captured. Items are archived as they are posted, and the dump files flag items deleted within 36 hours. Content removed before capture, and anything from private or quarantined subreddits, is not there.

How do I remove my data from Arctic Shift?

Through the removal request form linked from the project's README on GitHub. You can first check whether an account appears in the dataset by searching the username on its search page. Each archive handles removals separately: a request to Arctic Shift removes nothing from PullPush or any other archive.

Will Arctic Shift still work after March 2027?

Unknown. Reddit closes public access to its Data API in March 2027, and Arctic Shift states that it collects through the official Reddit API. We found no statement about the closure in the project's documents on 10 November 2026. Dump files already published remain usable either way.

What is the Arctic Shift rate limit?

There is no fixed number. The documentation says limits are calculated from server load and query complexity, that a couple of requests per second is fine for a normal user, and that an HTTP 429 response carries headers giving the reset time.

THINKPOL is an independent intelligence platform and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Reddit Inc. or any third-party tool named on this page. Platform and tool names belong to their respective owners. Third-party tool descriptions reflect publicly observable functionality on the verification date stated on the page and may change; corrections are welcome via our contact page.