🗄️ Reddit Archive Scraper — Years of Historical Posts & Comments

Pull months or years of historical Reddit posts and comments from one or many subreddits, filtered by date range and keyword. Reddit's official API hard-caps any listing at ~1000 posts — only a few weeks for an active subreddit — so this Actor reads from the public PullPush and Arctic Shift archives to reach the deep history no live API can return. It automatically fails over when one archive is unavailable. Export to JSON/CSV/Excel, run on a schedule, call via API, or connect to Make, Zapier or n8n.

📚 What is the Reddit Archive Scraper?

It turns any subreddit or keyword into a structured historical dataset. Give it a list of subreddits (and/or a keyword), an optional afterDate/beforeDate window and a maxPosts cap, and it pages backward through time from the archive, returning every matching post — and, optionally, its archived comments. Each row carries a type field (post or comment) so you can split or join them effortlessly. Ideal for backfilling a database, building sentiment and AI/RAG datasets, or studying how a topic was discussed over years.

What data does it extract?

Posts (type: "post"):

• id, title, selftext (body), author, subreddit
• score, upvote_ratio, num_comments
• created_utc (epoch) and created_iso (ISO timestamp)
• permalink, url, domain, link_flair_text
• Flags: is_self, is_video, over_18, locked, stickied, spoiler, total_awards_received

Comments (type: "comment", optional):

• id, post_id, parent_id, link_id, body, author, subreddit
• score, created_utc, created_iso, permalink
• is_submitter, total_awards_received

⬇️ Input

Give it at least one subreddit or a keyword, then scope the window and size:

Field	Description
subreddits	One or more subreddits (without r/). Leave empty to search all of Reddit by keyword
searchQuery	Optional keyword — combine with subreddits, or use alone across all of Reddit
afterDate	Earliest date YYYY-MM-DD (lower bound)
beforeDate	Latest date YYYY-MM-DD (start point / upper bound)
maxPosts	Max posts across all subreddits (1–500000)
includeComments	Also fetch archived comments per post (raises result count and cost)
maxCommentsPerPost	Cap comments fetched per post (only when comments are on)

Example input

{
  "subreddits": ["FragranceClones"],
  "searchQuery": "dupe",
  "afterDate": "2024-01-01",
  "beforeDate": "2025-01-01",
  "maxPosts": 5000,
  "includeComments": true,
  "maxCommentsPerPost": 50
}

⬆️ Output

Every post and comment is one clean row (view as a table, or export JSON / CSV / Excel):

{
  "type": "post",
  "id": "1d8bw4c",
  "title": "Best clone of Cool Water?",
  "selftext": "Looking for an affordable alternative...",
  "author": "someuser",
  "subreddit": "FragranceClones",
  "score": 14,
  "upvote_ratio": 0.93,
  "num_comments": 8,
  "created_utc": 1717322040,
  "created_iso": "2024-06-02T10:14:00+00:00",
  "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/FragranceClones/comments/1d8bw4c/...",
  "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/FragranceClones/comments/1d8bw4c/...",
  "domain": "self.FragranceClones",
  "link_flair_text": "Discussion",
  "is_self": true,
  "over_18": false,
  "total_awards_received": 0
}

💡 Use cases

• 🗃️ Historical backfill: seed a database with years of a subreddit's posts and comments in a single run.
• 🤖 AI / RAG training data: build large, topic-specific historical corpora for fine-tuning or retrieval.
• 📈 Research & sentiment datasets: analyse how opinions and trends shifted across long time spans.
• 🔎 Brand & product monitoring: see everything said about a brand, product or keyword over the years.

💰 Cost tips

Pricing is pay-per-result, so you're charged per post or comment returned. Comments are usually the bulk of the count — leave includeComments off if you only need posts, or set maxCommentsPerPost to cap them. Use afterDate/beforeDate to scope exactly the window you need and avoid pulling more than you'll use.

❓ FAQ

How do I scrape historical Reddit data? Enter one or more subreddits (and/or a searchQuery), optionally set a date window, then Run. It pages backward through the archive and returns structured posts (and comments if enabled).

Why not just use Reddit's official API? Reddit's API hard-caps any listing at ~1000 posts — a few weeks for a busy subreddit. The archive lets you reach months or years of history that the live API simply won't return.

Where does the data come from? The public PullPush and Arctic Shift archives. The Actor automatically selects a healthy backend; coverage and freshness depend on those third-party services.

Can I search all of Reddit by keyword? Yes — leave subreddits empty and set searchQuery to search across all of Reddit, or combine both to filter a keyword within specific subreddits.

Can I get comments too? Yes — turn on includeComments. Each post's archived comments are returned as separate rows with type: "comment"; use maxCommentsPerPost to cap them.

How do I separate posts from comments? Every row has a type field set to post or comment, plus post_id/link_id on comments to join them back to their thread.

Do I need an API key or login? No. It reads the public archive — no Reddit account, app credentials or API key required.

How far back does it go? As far as the archive holds for that subreddit or keyword; use afterDate to set the earliest date you want.

Can I run it on a schedule or via API? Yes — schedule recurring runs in Apify, call it via the API/SDK, or connect it to Make, Zapier or n8n.

Is scraping Reddit data legal? It reads publicly archived data. Use it for lawful purposes and follow Reddit's and each archive provider's terms.

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