You’ve tried it. You find a juicy Reddit thread with 500+ comments, copy the URL, paste it into ChatGPT or Claude, and ask for a summary. The result? A hallucinated guess or an error.
1. Token Limits
Large Reddit threads can easily exceed 2 million tokens. AI context windows typically cap at 128k-200k. They literally cannot "see" the whole conversation.
2. The API Wall
Reddit restricts API access to 60 requests per minute and caps pagination at 1,000 items, hiding the long tail of discussion.
3. Anti-Scraping Defenses
Reddit aggressively blocks bots with CAPTCHAs and dynamic HTML. Extensions run as you, sharing your session and permissions.