# Hacker News, free: Hacker News comment API

> In partnership with Firebase, we're making the public Hacker News data available in near real time.

Hacker News's Hacker News comment API on its Public API plan. It costs $0.00 per 1,000 comments. It returns both key fields we check: Comment and Commenter.
In [our Hacker News comment API benchmark](https://datacircle.dev/best-hacker-news-comment-api.txt), this plan scores 87.3 out of 100. Hacker News ranks 3rd of 6 providers.
Half of the 25 plans we rank by price cost $0.023 per 1,000 comments or less. This plan and 1 other tie for the lowest price per 1,000 comments of the 25 plans.
[Algolia](https://datacircle.dev/hacker-news-comment-apis/algolia/free/llms.txt), [ProLevelMax](https://datacircle.dev/hacker-news-comment-apis/prolevelmax/top-up/llms.txt) and [Hacker News](https://datacircle.dev/hacker-news-comment-apis/hacker-news/free/llms.txt) are the best Hacker News comment API providers in the Datacircle benchmark.

- This page: https://datacircle.dev/hacker-news-comment-apis/hacker-news/free
- [Hacker News comment API: 6 providers compared](https://datacircle.dev/best-hacker-news-comment-api.txt)
- Get it: https://github.com/HackerNews/API?utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=hacker-news-comment-api-pricing
- Request: `GET https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/item/{id}.json`
- API key: not needed
- Its API docs: https://github.com/HackerNews/API?utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=hacker-news-comment-api-pricing#items
- Sold by: Hacker News (https://news.ycombinator.com?utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=hacker-news-comment-api-pricing)
- Checked: 2026-11-04

## In the answer

- Completeness: 100%
- Comment: ✓
- Commenter: ✓

## Score

- Overall score: 87.3
- Price score: 100
- Accuracy score: 100
- Cost to get started score: 100
- Bundle score: 0
- Performance score: 60

## Price

- $ per 1,000 comments: $0.00
- Per: result
- Billing: free

## Charges

- Also pays for: nothing else

## Not found

- $ per 1,000: $0.00

## In their words

- Their pitch: In partnership with Firebase, we're making the public Hacker News data available in near real time.

## Data

- Keep data: no API terms
- Use data: no API terms

## Plan

- Pay: $0

## Rate limit

- Concurrent: no limit

## Speed

- Answer: in the call
- Median: 0.76 s

## The call

- You send: id
- Method: GET
- Path: /v0/item/{id}.json

## About the plan

- Plan: Public API
- Who can get it: anyone

## The 8 fields the plan's answer can hold

comment ID, text, created at, commenter, reply to, replies, deleted, dead

## Hacker News's plans (1)

- [Hacker News, free](https://datacircle.dev/hacker-news-comment-apis/hacker-news/free/llms.txt): $0.00 per 1,000, 100% complete

## Hacker News's calls (1)

- `GET /v0/item/{id}.json`: [Hacker News, free](https://datacircle.dev/hacker-news-comment-apis/hacker-news/free/llms.txt)

## Hacker News's APIs (1)

- [Hacker News: Hacker News comment API pricing, 1 plan](https://datacircle.dev/hacker-news-comment-apis/hacker-news/free/llms.txt)

## Hacker News: Hacker News comment API alternatives

- [Algolia, free](https://datacircle.dev/hacker-news-comment-apis/algolia/free/llms.txt): $0.00 per 1,000, 100% complete
- [ProLevelMax, free](https://datacircle.dev/hacker-news-comment-apis/prolevelmax/free/llms.txt): $0.00 per 1,000, 100% complete, live
- [AnyAPI, free trial key](https://datacircle.dev/hacker-news-comment-apis/anyapi/free-trial-key/llms.txt): $0.00 per 1,000, 100% complete
- [ScrapingIsNotACrime, free](https://datacircle.dev/hacker-news-comment-apis/scrapingisnotacrime/free/llms.txt): $0.00 per 1,000, 100% complete, live
- [ByCrawl, $9 monthly](https://datacircle.dev/hacker-news-comment-apis/bycrawl/9-monthly/llms.txt): 100% complete

## Sources

From each provider's own pricing page and docs, and from what providers tell us. We read this row from these pages on 2026-11-04.

- https://github.com/HackerNews/API?utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=hacker-news-comment-api-pricing
- https://github.com/HackerNews/API?utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=hacker-news-comment-api-pricing#items
- https://github.com/HackerNews/API/blob/master/LICENSE?utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=hacker-news-comment-api-pricing
- https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/item/126809.json?utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=hacker-news-comment-api-pricing
- https://hacker-news.firebaseio.com/v0/item/8863.json?utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=hacker-news-comment-api-pricing
- https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html?utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=hacker-news-comment-api-pricing
- https://www.ycombinator.com/legal?utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=hacker-news-comment-api-pricing