Reddit Search Scraper | Fast Bulk Keyword Search (2026)

3,000+ results in under 10 seconds — type a keyword, get results from 20+ auto-discovered subreddits. The fastest Reddit search scraper on Apify.

Just enter a keyword. The actor automatically finds the top 20 most relevant subreddits and searches across all of them in parallel. No need to know which subreddits to target. Posts, comments, or both. Five sort orders, time filters.

Clearpath Reddit Suite   •  Search, analyze, and monitor Reddit at scale
➤ You are here Search Scraper Keyword search across Reddit	Post & Comments Full comment tree scraper	Subreddit Posts Feed scraper with 108 fields	Profile Scraper Bulk profile & karma lookup

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Reddit Search Scraper (clearpath/reddit-search-scraper) on Apify searches Reddit posts and comments by keyword at scale. Returns structured results with title, author, subreddit, score, comment count, upvote ratio, creation date, body text, permalink, and status flags. Content types: posts only, comments only, or both. 5 sort orders: relevance, new, top, hot, most comments. Time filters: hour, day, week, month, year. Subreddit scoping: search all of Reddit, one subreddit, or multiple subreddits in parallel. Subreddit input accepts plain names, r/prefix, or full URLs. No hard result limit (set maxResults to 0 for unlimited). Query supports Reddit's full search syntax: boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT), exact phrases, grouping, exclusion, and field operators (author:, title:, selftext:, self:, flair:, url:). Input: query (required), maxResults (default 100, 0 = unlimited), contentType (posts/comments/both), sort, timeFilter, subreddit (single), subreddits (array). Output: JSON array of post rows (52 fields) and/or comment rows (30 fields), including media and video URLs, galleries, polls, full subreddit context (subscriber count, type, icons), author metadata, and parent-post context on comments. Pricing: $0.99 per 1,000 results (pay per event). Apify token required.

Key Features

• Smart subreddit auto-discovery — just type a keyword and the actor automatically finds the top 20 most relevant subreddits and searches across all of them. Get thousands of targeted results without knowing which subreddits to target
• Advanced query syntax: boolean operators, exact phrases, grouping, exclusion, and field operators (author:, title:, selftext:, self:, flair:, url:). Turn a blunt keyword into a precise brand monitor or lead-gen filter. See Query recipes
• Rich 52-field output: every post carries media and video URLs, galleries, polls, full subreddit context (subscriber count, type, icons), and author metadata. Comments add parent-comment linkage and parent-post context
• Posts, comments, or both — a single contentType toggle controls whether you get posts, comments, or both result types in one run. No need to run the actor twice
• 5 sort orders — relevance, new, top, hot, and most comments. Choose how results are ranked to match your use case
• Time filtering — restrict results to the past hour, day, week, month, or year. Combine with any sort order to narrow the window
• Subreddit scoping — search all of Reddit at once, target a single subreddit, or search across multiple subreddits in one run
• Bulk subreddit input — paste subreddit names in any format: python, r/python, https://reddit.com/r/python. Mix formats freely in the same input
• Fast — results stream in within seconds. Multiple subreddits run concurrently, so adding more subs doesn't proportionally increase run time

How to Search Reddit

Auto-discover subreddits (easiest)

Just enter a keyword. The actor finds the top 20 relevant subreddits automatically and searches across them.

{
    "query": "notion alternative",
    "maxResults": 1000
}

Returns ~1,000+ results from across r/notion, r/obsidianmd, r/productivity, r/notetaking, and 16 other relevant communities.

Basic keyword search

Enter a search query. The actor searches all of Reddit and returns up to 100 posts sorted by relevance.

{
    "query": "python web scraping"
}

Search for comments instead of posts

Set contentType to comments to search comment text instead of post titles and bodies.

{
    "query": "best framework for REST APIs",
    "contentType": "comments",
    "maxResults": 200
}

Get both posts and comments

Set contentType to both to retrieve matching posts and comments in a single run. Results are labeled with _type so you can filter them downstream.

{
    "query": "remote work productivity",
    "contentType": "both",
    "maxResults": 500
}

Search within a specific subreddit

Use subreddit to scope results to a single community. Any format works.

{
    "query": "machine learning projects",
    "subreddit": "r/learnpython",
    "sort": "top",
    "timeFilter": "month"
}

Search across multiple subreddits

Use the subreddits array to search several communities in parallel. Mix name formats freely.

{
    "query": "best budget laptop 2026",
    "subreddits": [
        "SuggestALaptop",
        "r/laptops",
        "https://www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad"
    ],
    "sort": "new",
    "maxResults": 300
}

Newest results with time filter

Combine sort: "new" with a time filter to find the most recent discussions within a specific window.

{
    "query": "iPhone 17 review",
    "sort": "new",
    "timeFilter": "week",
    "maxResults": 1000
}

Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
query	string	required	Keywords to search for. Supports boolean operators and quoted phrases (max 700 characters)
maxResults	integer	100	Maximum number of results to return. Set to 0 for unlimited
contentType	enum	posts	What to search: posts, comments, or both
sort	enum	relevance	Sort order: relevance, new, top, hot, comments
timeFilter	enum	all time	Time range: hour, day, week, month, year. Leave empty for all time
subreddit	string	—	Scope search to a single subreddit. Leave empty to search all of Reddit
subreddits	string[]	[]	Search across multiple subreddits. Results are merged and deduplicated
autoDiscoverSubreddits	boolean	true	Auto-find relevant subreddits when none specified
maxSubreddits	integer	20	Max subreddits to auto-discover (1-50)

Sort order reference

Value	Behavior
relevance	Reddit's default. Balances keyword match quality with engagement signals
new	Most recent results first, regardless of score
top	Highest score (upvotes minus downvotes)
hot	Currently trending content. Balances recency and engagement. Posts only
comments	Most commented results first. Posts only

Time filter reference

Value	Window
hour	Past 60 minutes
day	Past 24 hours
week	Past 7 days
month	Past 30 days
year	Past 365 days
(empty)	All time (default)

Subreddit input formats

All of these are equivalent and can be mixed in the same subreddits array:

• python
• r/python
• /r/python
• https://reddit.com/r/python
• https://www.reddit.com/r/python
• https://old.reddit.com/r/python

Search query syntax

The query field supports Reddit's full search syntax: boolean operators, exact phrases, grouping, and field operators that target a specific part of a post. This is what lets you go from a blunt keyword to a precise, repeatable monitor. Maximum query length is 700 characters.

Boolean and phrase operators

Syntax	Example	Behavior
Keywords	kubernetes terraform	All terms must appear, ranked by relevance
Exact phrase	"web scraping"	Matches the exact phrase only
OR	flask OR django	Matches either term
AND	python AND scraping	Both terms must appear
NOT	jaguar NOT car	Excludes results with the second term
Exclude	python -snake	Same as NOT, using a leading -
Grouped	("flask" OR "django") AND "REST API"	Combine operators with parentheses

Field operators scope a term to one part of the post:

Operator	Example	Matches
author:	author:spez	Posts by a specific user
title:	title:"show reddit"	Term appears in the title
selftext:	selftext:"changed my life"	Term appears in the post body
self:	self:yes climate change	Text posts only (self:no for link posts only)
flair:	flair:"Discussion"	Posts with a specific flair (most precise inside one subreddit)
url:	url:youtube.com	Link posts pointing to a domain

Operators stack with grouping and phrases, and they work whether you search all of Reddit or scope to specific subreddits.

Query recipes

Each recipe is a complete, ready-to-run input. Paste it straight into an API call or the Console, then swap in your own terms.

Brand and competitor monitoring. Track your product and every alternative in one run, newest first, to build a live mention feed:

{
    "query": "(\"1Password\" OR \"Bitwarden\" OR \"Dashlane\") \"switched\"",
    "contentType": "both",
    "sort": "new",
    "maxResults": 100
}

Buying-intent lead generation. Surface people actively asking for a recommendation, and drop the noise with an exclusion:

{
    "query": "(\"recommend a VPN\" OR \"best VPN for\" OR \"VPN suggestions\") -free",
    "contentType": "posts",
    "sort": "new",
    "maxResults": 100
}

Title-only topic tracking. Catch posts that are actually about the subject, not ones that mention it in passing:

{
    "query": "title:(\"acquired by\" OR \"merger\")",
    "contentType": "posts",
    "sort": "new",
    "maxResults": 100
}

Account monitoring. Pull everything a specific user posts, newest first:

{
    "query": "author:AutoModerator",
    "contentType": "posts",
    "sort": "new",
    "maxResults": 50
}

Deep body-text search. Match a phrase inside the post body, where keyword search alone would miss it:

{
    "query": "selftext:\"finally quit my job\"",
    "contentType": "posts",
    "sort": "relevance",
    "maxResults": 100
}

Discussion mining in one community. Combine a flair filter with the subreddits field to read just the long-form threads from a single subreddit:

{
    "query": "flair:\"Discussion\"",
    "subreddits": ["MachineLearning"],
    "contentType": "posts",
    "sort": "top",
    "maxResults": 100
}

What Data Can You Extract?

The output contains two row types depending on your contentType setting: post rows and comment rows. Each row includes a _type field so you can distinguish them when using both mode.

Every row is rich by default. Posts carry 52 fields and comments carry 30 fields, including media URLs, full subreddit context (subscriber count, type, icons), author metadata, and parent-post context on comments. Nothing the source exposes is dropped except viewer-specific noise.

Post row (52 fields)

{
    "_type": "post",
    "_status": "found",
    "id": "t3_1a2b3c",
    "title": "Sunrise over the harbor this morning [OC]",
    "author": "coastal_shots",
    "subreddit": "pics",
    "score": 18432,
    "commentCount": 247,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.97,
    "createdAt": "2026-05-12T06:14:07.000000+0000",
    "editedAt": null,
    "permalink": "/r/pics/comments/1a2b3c/sunrise_over_the_harbor_this_morning/",
    "url": "https://i.redd.it/abc123def.jpg",
    "body": "",
    "domain": "i.redd.it",
    "outboundUrl": "https://i.redd.it/abc123def.jpg",
    "postHint": "IMAGE",
    "languageCode": "en",
    "isSelfPost": false,
    "isNsfw": false,
    "isSpoiler": false,
    "isLocked": false,
    "isStickied": false,
    "isArchived": false,
    "isContestMode": false,
    "isCrosspostable": true,
    "isGildable": true,
    "isScoreHidden": false,
    "isPollIncluded": false,
    "isCommercialCommunication": false,
    "isCrowdControlFilterEnabled": false,
    "crowdControlLevel": "OFF",
    "distinguishedAs": null,
    "removedByCategory": null,
    "suggestedCommentSort": null,
    "isTranslated": false,
    "translatedLanguage": null,
    "isThumbnailEnabled": true,
    "flair": "OC",
    "thumbnail": "https://a.thumbs.redditmedia.com/abc123.jpg",
    "authorId": "t2_9q8r7s",
    "authorType": "USER",
    "authorFlair": null,
    "authorIsNsfw": false,
    "authorIsCakeDayNow": false,
    "authorIconUrl": "https://styles.redditmedia.com/t5_aaa/styles/profileIcon_snoo.png",
    "media": {
        "previewMediaId": "VScCw-ziPGUUIHqPw9-OQs9o",
        "still": {
            "source": {
                "url": "https://preview.redd.it/abc123def.jpg?auto=webp&s=5c5f2e",
                "dimensions": { "width": 4032, "height": 3024 }
            }
        },
        "typeHint": "IMAGE"
    },
    "gallery": null,
    "poll": null,
    "postEventInfo": null,
    "crosspostRoot": null,
    "subredditInfo": {
        "id": "t5_2qh0u",
        "name": "pics",
        "prefixedName": "r/pics",
        "title": "Reddit Pics",
        "type": "PUBLIC",
        "subscribersCount": 33431466,
        "isNsfw": false,
        "isQuarantined": false,
        "isThumbnailsEnabled": true,
        "isTitleSafe": true,
        "whitelistStatus": "SOME_ADS",
        "primaryColor": "#553200",
        "iconUrl": "https://b.thumbs.redditmedia.com/VZX_KQLnI1.png",
        "bannerUrl": "https://styles.redditmedia.com/t5_2qh0u/styles/banner.jpg",
        "communityDescription": "A place for photographs, pictures, and other images."
    }
}

The media, gallery, and poll objects are null on text posts and populate by post type. Their shapes (arrays truncated):

// "media" on a video post: still preview + stream + downloadable mp4s
"media": {
    "still": { "source": { "url": "https://external-preview.redd.it/....png", "dimensions": { "width": 720, "height": 900 } } },
    "streaming": {
        "hlsUrl": "https://v.redd.it/wa4bmlccu2e51/HLSPlaylist.m3u8",
        "dashUrl": "https://v.redd.it/wa4bmlccu2e51/DASHPlaylist.mpd",
        "scrubberMediaUrl": "https://v.redd.it/wa4bmlccu2e51/DASH_96.mp4",
        "dimensions": { "width": 720, "height": 900 },
        "duration": 11,
        "isGif": true
    },
    "packagedMedia": { "muxedMp4s": { "low": { "url": "..." }, "medium": { "url": "..." }, "high": { "url": "..." } } },
    "typeHint": "HOSTED_VIDEO"
}

// "gallery" on a multi-image post
"gallery": {
    "items": [
        { "id": "659053946", "caption": "", "media": { "id": "0iht...", "mimetype": "image/jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1415, "status": "VALID", "url": "https://i.redd.it/0iht....jpg" } }
    ]
}

// "poll" on a poll post
"poll": {
    "options": [
        { "id": "16331146", "text": "Coke", "voteCount": 812, "activeCommunityMemberCount": 0 },
        { "id": "16331147", "text": "Pepsi", "voteCount": 436, "activeCommunityMemberCount": 0 }
    ],
    "votingEndsAt": "2026-06-09T14:16:11.000000+0000"
}

Post fields (52): _type, _status, id, title, author, subreddit, score, commentCount, upvoteRatio, createdAt, editedAt, permalink, url, body, domain, outboundUrl, postHint, languageCode, isSelfPost, isNsfw, isSpoiler, isLocked, isStickied, isArchived, isContestMode, isCrosspostable, isGildable, isScoreHidden, isPollIncluded, isCommercialCommunication, isCrowdControlFilterEnabled, crowdControlLevel, distinguishedAs, removedByCategory, suggestedCommentSort, isTranslated, translatedLanguage, isThumbnailEnabled, flair, thumbnail, authorId, authorType, authorFlair, authorIsNsfw, authorIsCakeDayNow, authorIconUrl, media, gallery, poll, postEventInfo, crosspostRoot, subredditInfo

Comment row (30 fields)

{
    "_type": "comment",
    "_status": "found",
    "id": "t1_opf7elc",
    "parentId": "t1_opf1piy",
    "author": "studio_lines",
    "subreddit": "drawing",
    "score": 2651,
    "createdAt": "2026-06-03T00:20:07.000000+0000",
    "editedAt": null,
    "permalink": "/r/drawing/comments/1tv84tc/comment/opf7elc/",
    "body": "That's the best advice. When I started drawing again I stopped...",
    "isScoreHidden": false,
    "isOP": false,
    "authorId": "t2_bkkb9",
    "authorKarma": 49178,
    "authorType": "USER",
    "authorIsAcceptingFollowers": false,
    "authorIconUrl": "https://styles.redditmedia.com/t5_ccc/styles/profileIcon_snoo.png",
    "postId": "t3_1tv84tc",
    "postTitle": "First attempt at portrait shading",
    "postUrl": "https://i.redd.it/c0xd3f6rgy4h1.jpeg",
    "postAuthor": "pencil_novice",
    "postScore": 23505,
    "postCommentCount": 1281,
    "postFlair": "Question",
    "postDomain": "i.redd.it",
    "postIsSelfPost": false,
    "postCreatedAt": "2026-06-02T23:39:02.000000+0000",
    "postLanguageCode": "en",
    "subredditSubscribers": 12150252
}

parentId is the parent comment's ID (or null for a top-level comment), so you can reconstruct full reply threads from a flat result set.

Comment fields (30): _type, _status, id, parentId, author, subreddit, score, createdAt, editedAt, permalink, body, isScoreHidden, isOP, authorId, authorKarma, authorType, authorIsAcceptingFollowers, authorIconUrl, postId, postTitle, postUrl, postAuthor, postScore, postCommentCount, postFlair, postDomain, postIsSelfPost, postCreatedAt, postLanguageCode, subredditSubscribers

Pricing - Pay Per Event (PPE)

$0.99 per 1,000 results

You pay only for what you scrape. Each result (post or comment) counts as one result-scraped event.

Budget controls: Set a spending limit on any run from the Apify Console. The actor stops automatically when the budget is reached, and you keep all data scraped up to that point.

Use Cases

Brand monitoring. Search for your company or product name across all of Reddit. Use sort: "new" to catch mentions as they appear. Schedule daily or hourly runs to build a continuous feed of brand mentions with scores, timestamps, and subreddit context.

Market research. Search keywords related to your industry to understand what real users discuss, recommend, and complain about. The score and commentCount fields reveal which topics generate the most engagement. Scope to relevant subreddits for focused insights.

Content research. Find top-performing discussions on any topic. Use sort: "top" with timeFilter: "month" to surface the highest-scoring content from the past 30 days. The body field gives you the full text, and upvoteRatio tells you how universally the community agrees.

Competitor analysis. Search competitor names and products to see what customers say on Reddit. Compare engagement metrics across different brands. The subreddit field reveals which communities discuss each competitor most.

Sentiment analysis. Pull thousands of comments mentioning a topic and feed them into your NLP pipeline. Each row includes the full text, score, and metadata needed for downstream analysis. Use time filters to segment sentiment by period.

Lead generation. Monitor subreddits where your target audience asks for recommendations. Search for phrases like "looking for", "best tool for", or "alternative to" to find high-intent posts. Export to your CRM or outreach tool via Apify integrations.

Academic research. Build datasets of public Reddit discussions on any topic. The structured output with timestamps, scores, and subreddit metadata supports quantitative analysis of online discourse, community dynamics, and information spread.

SEO and content strategy. Analyze which questions and topics generate engagement in your niche. Use comment search to find the specific advice and recommendations that get upvoted. Map these insights back to your content calendar.

FAQ

How many results can I get per run? No hard limit. Set maxResults to 0 for unlimited. With auto-discovery across 20+ subreddits, a single keyword can return thousands of results. The actual count depends on how many matching posts/comments exist in the discovered subreddits.

What's the difference between searching posts and comments? Post search matches against post titles and body text. Comment search matches against comment text. Use contentType: "both" to search both simultaneously. Each type is returned as separate rows with a _type field.

How does multi-subreddit search work? When you provide multiple subreddits, the actor searches each one in parallel. Results are merged into a single dataset. Each row includes a subreddit field so you can filter or group by community.

What subreddit formats are accepted? Plain name (python), prefixed (r/python), full URL (https://reddit.com/r/python), old/new/mobile URLs, and any combination in the same input. The actor normalizes everything before searching.

Can I search all of Reddit at once? Yes. Leave both subreddit and subreddits empty, and the actor searches across all public subreddits.

How do time filters work? Time filters restrict results to a specific window: past hour, day, week, month, or year. Leave empty to search all time. Time filters work with all sort orders.

What happens if I search a subreddit that doesn't exist? The actor skips it and continues with the remaining subreddits. You are not charged for failed searches.

What does the _status field mean? "found" means the result was successfully scraped. This field is consistent across all actors in the Clearpath Reddit Suite, so you can build pipelines that handle status uniformly.

How does "both" mode split the results? When contentType is "both", the actor runs post search and comment search in parallel. Each type gets up to maxResults results independently. The total output can be up to twice maxResults.

Can I use boolean operators in the search query? Yes. The query supports AND, OR, NOT, quoted phrases for exact matching, a leading - to exclude a term, and parentheses for grouping. For example: ("flask" OR "django") AND "REST API". Maximum query length is 700 characters.

Can I monitor my brand and its competitors in one search? Yes, and it's the most popular use of this actor. Group every name with OR inside parentheses and anchor it with a phrase: ("1Password" OR "Bitwarden" OR "Dashlane") "switched". Set sort: "new" and schedule the run to get a continuous feed of every mention across Reddit.

Can I search only post titles, or only post bodies? Yes. Use title: to require a term in the title (title:"show reddit") and selftext: to require it in the body (selftext:"changed my life"). This cuts out posts that only mention your term in passing.

Can I find every post from a specific user? Yes. Use author:username (for example author:AutoModerator). Combine it with keywords or the subreddits field to narrow further.

Can I limit results to text posts or link posts? Yes. Add self:yes for text (self) posts only, or self:no for link posts only. You can also target link posts by domain with url: (for example url:youtube.com).

Can I filter by post flair? Yes. Use flair:"Discussion" to match a specific flair. Flair filtering is most precise when you also scope the run to one subreddit with the subreddits field, since flairs are defined per community.

What sort orders work for comments? relevance, new, and top work for both posts and comments. hot and comments (most comments) apply only to post search.

Can I schedule recurring searches? Yes. Set up a schedule in the Apify Console to run the actor at any interval. Combine with sort: "new" and a time filter to build a continuous monitoring pipeline without duplicate results.

What output formats are available? The Apify Console lets you download results as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, or RSS. You can also access the dataset via the Apify API in any of these formats.

How does this compare to the Subreddit Posts Scraper? This actor searches by keyword across Reddit. The Subreddit Posts Scraper scrapes a subreddit's feed (hot, new, top, rising, controversial) without a keyword filter. Use this actor when you need to find specific content. Use the Subreddit Posts Scraper when you want everything from a subreddit's feed.

How does this compare to the Post & Comments Scraper? This actor finds posts and comments by keyword. The Post & Comments Scraper starts from specific post URLs and extracts full comment trees with nested replies. Use this actor for discovery, and the other for deep extraction of known threads.

More Clearpath scrapers for Reddit

🔍 Search & discovery

• Reddit Subreddit Posts Scraper
  Full subreddit feeds: hot, new, top, rising

💬 Threads & comments

• Reddit Post Comments Scraper
  Full comment trees and nested replies from any post URL

👤 Users

• Reddit Profile Scraper
  Bulk username, karma, and account lookup
• Reddit User Posts & Comments Scraper
  A single user's full post and comment history

🤖 AI & LLM tools

• Reddit MCP Server
  Live Reddit search inside your AI assistant
• Reddit Answers API
  Reddit's AI answer engine for any question
• Reddit to LLM
  Clean Reddit threads as Markdown for AI pipelines

Support

• Bugs: Issues tab
• Features: Email or issues
• Email: max@mapa.slmail.me

Legal Compliance

Extracts publicly available data. Users must comply with Reddit terms and data protection regulations (GDPR, CCPA).

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