Collectors · Developers & tech

Hacker News API in Python

HN stories by search query or the live front page — points, comments, links. One POST from Python with the input, rows back as JSON with 14 fields, $0.0003 per delivered story. No proxies or parsers to maintain.

Get an API key See the collector

A Python requests snippet that posts { — A Python requests call to the hacker_news collector returns one dict per story, at $0.0003 each.

First call

Install, call, read the rows.

pip install requests

The only dependency.

import os, requests

r = requests.post(
    "https://api.quanticdata.io/v1/scraper/collectors/hacker_news/run",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['QD_API_KEY']}"},
    json={
        "max_results": 30,
    },
    timeout=120,
)
r.raise_for_status()
run = r.json()["payload"]
print(run["count"], "rows,", run["cost"]["usd"], "USD")
for row in run["results"]:
    print(row.get("id"), row.get("title"), row.get("url"), row.get("points"))

Python: one Hacker News stories run (Front page adesso), printing id, title, url, points

The key comes from an environment variable, never from the code. The run answers in the same request when it finishes in time; payload.results holds the rows and payload.cost what they cost.

Request parameters

What the collector takes.

Input of the Hacker News stories collector
Parameter	Type	Required	Meaning
`query`	string	no	What to search. Empty = current front page.
`type`	string: `story`, `ask_hn`, `show_hn`, `front_page`	no	Story type filter (default: story when searching, front_page otherwise).
`sort`	string: `relevance`, `date`	no	relevance (default when searching) or date (newest first).
`max_results`	integer	no (default 30)	How many stories to deliver at most (1–200). You pay only for delivered stories.

Response fields

14 fields per story.

Fields of each row (story)
Field	Type	What it holds
`rank`	integer	1-based position.
`id`	string	HN item id.
`title`	string	Story title.
`url`	string, nullable	Outbound link (null for text posts).
`points`	integer, nullable	Upvotes.
`author`	string, nullable	Submitter.
`comments`	integer, nullable	Comment count.
`created_at`	string, nullable	Submission time (ISO 8601).
`text`	string, nullable	Self-post text (Ask HN), tags stripped.
`hn_url`	string	Link to the HN discussion.
`tags`	string[]	Index tags (story, show_hn…).
`domain`	string, nullable	Host of the linked page (github.com); null for text posts.
`updated_at`	string, nullable	Last time the story changed in the index (ISO 8601).
`type`	string	story, ask_hn, show_hn, job or poll.

Add ?format=csv to the runs endpoint to get the same rows as CSV.

Long runs

Run in the background, then poll.

A run that needs more time can go to the background: send "async": true, get 202 with the run id, and poll the runs endpoint until the status is done. Reading a run is free.

import os, time, requests

H = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['QD_API_KEY']}"}
r = requests.post("https://api.quanticdata.io/v1/scraper/collectors/hacker_news/run", headers=H,
                  json={**{"max_results":30}, "async": True}, timeout=30)
run_id = r.json()["payload"]["run_id"]
while True:
    run = requests.get(f"https://api.quanticdata.io/v1/scraper/collectors/runs/{run_id}", headers=H, timeout=30).json()["payload"]
    if run["status"] in ("done", "failed"):
        break
    time.sleep(5)
print(run["status"], run["count"])

Python: background run and polling

Errors

What can come back, and what is billed.

Collector run errors
Status	Meaning	Billed
`400`	The input does not match the collector (`payload.errors`)	No
`401`	Missing or wrong API key	No
`402`	Balance and free credit do not cover the run: top up	No
`422`	The input can never resolve; retrying the same input cannot help	No
`424`	The run failed at the source (blocked, timed out, layout changed); safe to retry	No
`429`	Rate limit or a per-account brake; wait for `Retry-After`	No

Only delivered rows are billed: a run that delivers nothing costs nothing.

Price

$0.0003 per delivered story.

What Hacker News stories rows cost at list price
Rows	Cost
1	$0.0003
1,000	$0.30
10,000	$3.00

Up to 200 stories per run; split larger jobs into several runs. The $2 free credit every month covers about 6,666 stories. No subscription; paid tiers lower the unit price. All collector prices: collector pricing.

Before you run it

Questions developers ask

Is there a free Hacker News stories API?

Every account gets $2 of free usage each month, about 6,666 stories of this collector at $0.0003 each, with no card.

Do I have to handle proxies, retries or blocks?

No. The collector runs on our network and handles them; a run blocked at the source returns 424 and is not billed.

How many rows can one run return?

Up to 200 stories per run (the max_results input, where the collector has one).

Can an AI agent run it?

Yes: the MCP server exposes it as the run_collector tool, with the same input and price. See the MCP server.

Run it on the free credit.

Create an API key, export it as QD_API_KEY and run the example. $0.0003 per delivered story, no subscription.

Get an API key Hacker News API