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Substack Trending Posts

Get the posts currently trending across all of Substack, as featured on its explore page. Returns each post’s title, author, publication, publication date, engagement and paywall status.

Endpoint

GET /v1/substack/trending

Price: $0.003 per request Free tier: 50 requests/month

Parameters

Parameter Required Description
get_sentiment No Set to true to add AI emotion analysis (Plutchik’s Wheel) to each result. Adds +$0.001 per request to the cost. Returns emotion scores, dominant emotion, intensity, and polarity.

Response Fields

Field Type Description
posts array Trending posts
posts[].title string Post title
posts[].subtitle string Post subtitle, empty when none
posts[].url string Direct link to the post
posts[].date string Publication date and time (UTC, YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS)
posts[].author string Author’s Substack handle (empty when the byline is the publication itself)
posts[].author_name string Author’s display name
posts[].author_id integer/null Author’s Substack user ID, null when the byline is the publication itself
posts[].author_url string Link to the author’s profile
posts[].source string "Substack"
posts[].domain string "substack.com"
posts[].snippet string Post description or preview text
posts[].likes integer Number of likes (reactions)
posts[].comments integer Number of comments
posts[].restacks integer Number of restacks (shares to Notes)
posts[].reactions object Reaction counts by emoji, e.g. {"❤": 284}
posts[].is_paid boolean Whether the post is for paying subscribers only
posts[].audience string everyone, only_paid or only_founding
posts[].type string newsletter, podcast, video or thread
posts[].wordcount integer Word count of the full post
posts[].lang string Post language code (e.g. en)
posts[].cover_image_url string Cover image URL, empty when none
posts[].podcast_url string Audio file URL for podcast posts, empty otherwise
posts[].podcast_duration number Podcast length in seconds, 0 otherwise
posts[].tags string[] Post tags
posts[].authors array All credited authors (username, name, user_id, url); author is the first
posts[].replies integer Number of replies to comments
posts[].audio_url string Substack’s narrated audio of the post (MP3), empty when none
posts[].podcast_image_url string Episode artwork for podcast posts, empty otherwise
posts[].video_duration number Video length in seconds for video posts, 0 otherwise
posts[].publication string Publication name
posts[].publication_id integer/null Publication ID (pass it as publication_id to the publication endpoints)
posts[].publication_url string Publication home URL
posts[].slug string Post URL slug
posts[].post_id string Post ID (pass it as post_id to the post endpoints)
posts[].sentiment object/null Emotion analysis results. Only present when get_sentiment=true. Returns null if analysis fails.
posts[].sentiment.emotions object Plutchik emotion scores (0-100) for: joy, trust, fear, surprise, sadness, disgust, anger, anticipation.
posts[].sentiment.dominant_emotion string The emotion with the highest score.
posts[].sentiment.emotional_intensity integer Overall emotional intensity on a scale of 0-10.
posts[].sentiment.polarity string Overall sentiment polarity: positive, negative, or neutral.
count integer Number of posts returned

Example Request

cURL

curl "https://apidirect.io/v1/substack/trending" \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_API_KEY"

Python

import requests

response = requests.get(
    "https://apidirect.io/v1/substack/trending",
    headers={"X-API-Key": "YOUR_API_KEY"}
)
print(response.json())

Example Response

{
  "count": 7,
  "posts": [
    {
      "audience": "everyone",
      "audio_url": "",
      "author": "mattstoller",
      "author_id": "759128",
      "author_name": "Matt Stoller",
      "author_url": "https://substack.com/@mattstoller",
      "authors": [
        {
          "name": "Matt Stoller",
          "url": "https://substack.com/@mattstoller",
          "user_id": "759128",
          "username": "mattstoller"
        }
      ],
      "comments": 23,
      "cover_image_url": "https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!uRXI!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F…",
      "date": "2026-10-10 19:18:47",
      "domain": "substack.com",
      "is_paid": false,
      "lang": "en",
      "likes": 172,
      "podcast_duration": 0,
      "podcast_image_url": "",
      "podcast_url": "",
      "post_id": "217288945",
      "publication": "BIG by Matt Stoller",
      "publication_id": "11524",
      "publication_url": "https://www.thebignewsletter.com",
      "reactions": {
        "❤": 172
      },
      "replies": 0,
      "restacks": 33,
      "slug": "how-pharma-middlemen-turned-the-federal",
      "snippet": "Everyone hates pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, the middlemen raising drug prices. So why did Trump FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson issue them a corporate pardon?",
      "source": "Substack",
      "subtitle": "Everyone hates pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, the middlemen raising drug prices. So why did Trump FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson issue them a corporate pardon?",
      "tags": [
        "pharmacy benefit managers"
      ],
      "title": "How Trump Enforcers are Sabotaging Efforts to Bring Down Drug Prices",
      "type": "newsletter",
      "url": "https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/how-pharma-middlemen-turned-the-federal",
      "video_duration": 0,
      "wordcount": 2205
    }
  ]
}
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