---
license: odc-by
task_categories:
- text-generation
- feature-extraction
language:
- en
pretty_name: Hacker News Open Index
size_categories:
- 10M<n<100M
tags:
- hacker-news
- forum
- text
- parquet
configs:
- config_name: default
  data_files:
  - split: train
    path: data/*/*.parquet
- config_name: today
  data_files:
  - split: train
    path: today/*.parquet
---

# Hacker News Open Index

> Every Hacker News item since 2006, updated every 5 minutes — ready for training and retrieval

## What is it?

This dataset contains the full Hacker News archive: **1500933 items** spanning 1970-01 to 2026-03-14 10:05 UTC, published as monthly Parquet files with 5-minute live blocks for today.

Data includes stories, comments, Ask HN, Show HN, jobs, polls, and poll options — all fields preserved exactly as posted.

## Dataset Stats

| Metric | Value |
|--------|-------|
| Total items | 1500933 |
| Historical months | 44 |
| First month | 1970-01 |
| Last committed month | 2010-06 |
| Total size | 303.6 MB |
| Last updated | 2026-03-14 10:05 UTC |

## File Layout

```
data/
  2006/2006-10.parquet    ← first HN month
  ...
  2026/2026-02.parquet
today/
  2026-03-14_00_00.parquet   ← 5-min live blocks
  2026-03-14_00_05.parquet
  ...
stats.csv                    ← one row per committed month
stats_today.csv              ← one row per committed 5-min block
```

## How to Use

### Python (datasets)

```python
from datasets import load_dataset

# Stream the full history
ds = load_dataset("open-index/hacker-news", split="train", streaming=True)
for item in ds:
    print(item["id"], item["type"], item["title"])

# Load a single month
ds = load_dataset(
    "open-index/hacker-news",
    data_files="data/2024/2024-01.parquet",
    split="train",
)
```

### DuckDB

```sql
-- All stories from 2024
SELECT id, by, title, score, url
FROM read_parquet('hf://datasets/open-index/hacker-news/data/2024/*.parquet')
WHERE type = 'story'
ORDER BY score DESC
LIMIT 20;

-- Live blocks for today
SELECT id, by, title, time
FROM read_parquet('hf://datasets/open-index/hacker-news/today/*.parquet')
ORDER BY id DESC
LIMIT 50;
```

### huggingface_hub

```python
from huggingface_hub import snapshot_download

folder = snapshot_download(
    "open-index/hacker-news",
    repo_type="dataset",
    local_dir="./hn/",
    allow_patterns="data/2024/*",
)
```

## Schema

| Column | Type | Description |
|--------|------|-------------|
| `id` | int64 | Item ID (monotonically increasing) |
| `deleted` | bool | Soft-deleted flag |
| `type` | string | story, comment, ask, show, job, poll, pollopt |
| `by` | string | Username of author |
| `time` | DateTime | Post timestamp (UTC) |
| `text` | string | HTML body (comments, Ask HN, jobs) |
| `dead` | bool | Flagged/killed by moderators |
| `parent` | int64 | Parent item ID (for comments) |
| `poll` | int64 | Poll item ID (for pollopts) |
| `kids` | Array(int64) | Direct child item IDs |
| `url` | string | External URL (stories) |
| `score` | int64 | Points |
| `title` | string | Story/Ask/Show/Job title |
| `parts` | Array(int64) | Poll option IDs |
| `descendants` | int64 | Total descendant comment count |

## License

Released under the **Open Data Commons Attribution License (ODC-By) v1.0**.
Original content is subject to the rights of its respective authors.
Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator.