# /guardian/articles/comments

`POST /api/guardian/articles/comments`

Price: 20 credits

List reader comments on a Guardian article. Returns comment text, author with avatar and staff badges, post time, recommend count and, for threaded mode, every reply nested under the comment it answers.

## How to use it

Read the comment thread of a Guardian article. article accepts the article url/path or the short_url_id from guardian/articles (the short id is the faster of the two). Threaded mode returns top-level comments with their replies nested in replies[]; set threaded=false to get every comment, replies included, as separate top-level entries. reply_count follows the mode: in threaded mode it is the size of the whole conversation hanging off a top-level comment (the length of its replies[]), in flat mode it is the number of direct answers to that one comment. order_by controls ordering (oldest, newest or mostRecommended). Guardian stops accepting new comments a few days after publication but keeps the thread readable, so old articles still return their full discussion.

## Parameters

- `access-token` (string, required)

## Request body

- `timeout` (integer) — Max scrapping execution timeout (in seconds) (default: 300; min: 20; max: 1500)
- `article` (string, required) — Guardian article URL or path, or the article's short id (the short_url_id returned by guardian/articles) (examples: "commentisfree/2026/aug/05/ai-regulation-donald-trump-artificial-intelligence", "x5k7h6"; minLength: 1)
- `count` (integer, required) — Max number of comments to return (min: 1)
- `order_by` (string) — Order comments are returned in (default: "oldest"; one of: "oldest", "newest", "mostRecommended")
- `threaded` (boolean) — Return conversation threads, with each reply nested under the comment it answers. Set false to get every comment as its own flat entry instead (default: true)

## Response

### 200 — Successful Response

- `@type` (string) (default: "GuardianComment")
- `id` (string, required)
- `text` (string, nullable)
- `created_at` (integer, nullable)
- `web_url` (string, nullable)
- `status` (string, nullable)
- `recommend_count` (integer, nullable)
- `is_highlighted` (boolean) (default: false)
- `author` (object, nullable)
  - `@type` (string) (default: "GuardianCommentAuthor")
  - `id` (string, required)
  - `name` (string, required)
  - `profile_url` (string, nullable)
  - `image` (string, nullable)
  - `badges` (array) (default: [])
- `reply_to_id` (string, nullable)
- `reply_to_author` (string, nullable)
- `reply_count` (integer, nullable)
- `staff_reply_count` (integer, nullable)
- `editors_pick_count` (integer, nullable)
- `blocked_reply_count` (integer, nullable)
- `replies` (array) (default: [])
  - `@type` (string) (default: "GuardianCommentReply")
  - `id` (string, required)
  - `text` (string, nullable)
  - `created_at` (integer, nullable)
  - `web_url` (string, nullable)
  - `status` (string, nullable)
  - `recommend_count` (integer, nullable)
  - `is_highlighted` (boolean) (default: false)
  - `author` (object, nullable)
    - `@type` (string) (default: "GuardianCommentAuthor")
    - `id` (string, required)
    - `name` (string, required)
    - `profile_url` (string, nullable)
    - `image` (string, nullable)
    - `badges` (array) (default: [])
  - `reply_to_id` (string, nullable)
  - `reply_to_author` (string, nullable)

## Errors

### 422 — Validation Error

The request body did not validate

What to do: Check the fields against this schema. A URN with the wrong prefix is the most common cause.

- `detail` (array)
  - `loc` (array, required)
  - `msg` (string, required)
  - `type` (string, required)
  - `input` (any)
  - `ctx` (object)

### 408

The request ran past its time limit

What to do: Raise `timeout` in the request body, up to the maximum this endpoint documents. Lowering `count` or turning off the `with_*` flags also helps, because less work finishes sooner.

### 412

This article has no comment thread — comments were never opened on it

What to do: Retrying will not help: either the entity does not exist, or the input points at a different one.

### 429

Too many requests: a rate limit or a usage window is exhausted

What to do: When the response carries an X-Retry-After header, wait that many seconds and retry: the same number is in the body as `detail.retry_after`, and the limit clears once that window passes. The message in the body names the limit that was hit.

### 500

Something broke on our side

What to do: Retrying will not help. If it keeps happening, send us the X-Request-ID from the response headers.

### 529

Rate limit reached, or the endpoint is overloaded

What to do: Wait at least 30 seconds, then retry.

## Response envelope

Success: Array of objects (may be empty if no results)

Error: Error may coexist with partial results if it occurs mid-execution. Check X-Error header and status code.

Every response carries these headers:

- `X-Error` — Error message text (present only on error)
- `X-Request-ID` — Unique request identifier
- `X-Execution-Time` — Execution time in seconds
- `X-Result-Count` — How many records the body carries. 0 means an empty result, which is a normal answer and not by itself an error. A non-zero count can come back together with X-Error when the failure happened partway through — read this header and X-Error independently.
- `X-Total-Available-Results` — How many records exist for this query, when the endpoint can say. On a `dry_run` request this is the answer and the body is empty. It saturates: the endpoint's documented maximum means 'at least that many', any smaller number is exact.
- `X-Warning` — Present when the request body carried keys this endpoint does not document. They were ignored, so any filter you meant to apply through them did not apply. Check the spelling against this schema and retry.
- `X-Retry-After` — Seconds to wait before retrying. Present only on 429.