Reddit Subreddit Scraper

Scrape Reddit subreddits without an API key or login. Pull posts (hot, new, top, rising, controversial, best) from any subreddit with 100+ fields per post — score, upvote ratio, author, flairs, media, awards, moderation flags — plus optional full comment threads with nested replies. Filter by date range, post type, score/comment thresholds, keywords, authors and more. A residential proxy is applied automatically on every run — there's nothing to configure.

What this actor does

• Scrape any subreddit by bare name (python), r/-prefixed name (r/python) or full URL — scrape multiple subreddits in a single run
• 100+ fields per post: score, upvotes, upvote ratio, comment count, author + author flair, community + subscriber count, media (images, galleries, video, polls, external embeds), flairs, awards, moderation flags and timestamps
• Optional full comment threads with nested replies, depth, parent links and OP flags, in any of Reddit's 6 comment sort orders
• Rich filtering: 6 sort orders, time windows, date ranges, post type, score/comment-count/upvote-ratio thresholds, keyword and author allow/deny lists, and more
• Empty fields are omitted from the output — no need to defend against null/empty values in your downstream pipeline

Output per post

Identity & context — dataType (always post), subreddit, subreddit_prefixed, subreddit_id, subreddit_subscribers, subreddit_type, post_id, post_name, title, url (canonical reddit.com permalink), permalink, content_url (the external link, or the permalink for text posts), domain, url_overridden_by_dest, post_hint, is_self, post_type (self/link/image/video/gallery/poll), content (self-post body, markdown), content_html (self-post body, HTML)

Author — author, author_id, author_flair, author_flair_background_color, author_flair_text_color, author_flair_type, author_flair_css_class, author_flair_richtext, author_flair_template_id, author_premium, author_is_blocked, author_patreon_flair

Engagement — score, ups, downs (always 0 — Reddit's public API doesn't expose downvotes), upvote_ratio, num_comments

Media — media_type (text/link/image/video/gallery/embed), has_media, images[], gallery_images[] (full resolution), gallery_count, video_url (direct MP4 for Reddit-hosted video), video_duration_seconds, video_width, video_height, video_has_audio, video_bitrate_kbps, poll_data (options, vote count, end time), thumbnail_url, thumbnail_width, thumbnail_height, embed_provider, embed_type, embed_title, embed_author_name, embed_thumbnail_url, embed_html, embed_width, embed_height (oEmbed metadata for link posts to YouTube/Imgur/Twitch/Vimeo/etc., when Reddit has cached it)

Flair — link_flair, link_flair_background_color, link_flair_text_color, link_flair_type, link_flair_css_class, link_flair_richtext, link_flair_template_id

Flags & moderation — is_stickied, is_locked, is_archived, is_pinned, is_nsfw, is_spoiler, is_original_content, is_created_from_ads_ui (posted via Reddit's Ads Manager, even though it looks organic), is_crosspost, is_crosspostable, num_crossposts, num_duplicates, crosspost_parent_id, media_only, is_reddit_media_domain, quarantine, allow_live_comments, send_replies, no_follow, hide_score, content_categories, contest_mode, suggested_sort, is_meta, is_robot_indexable, gilded, total_awards_received, awards (award-type breakdown: name, count, coin price, icon URL), removed_by_category (who removed it: moderator/reddit/author/etc.), distinguished (moderator/admin badge), hidden

Timestamps & metadata — created_utc, created_at (ISO-8601), edited, edited_at, crawled_at, source (json or dom), search_term (only populated on search-sourced runs; empty for subreddit scrapes)

Output per comment

Returned when includeComments is enabled.

Identity — dataType (always comment), subreddit, subreddit_prefixed, subreddit_id, subreddit_type, post_id, comment_id, comment_name, link_id (fullname of the parent post), parent_id (fullname of the parent post or comment), parent_kind, depth (0 = top-level), is_op (author is also the post's author)

Author — author, author_id, author_flair, author_flair_background_color, author_flair_text_color, author_flair_type, author_flair_css_class, author_flair_richtext, author_flair_template_id, author_premium, author_is_blocked, author_patreon_flair

Content — body (markdown), body_html

Engagement — score, ups, downs (always 0), score_hidden, controversiality

Flags & moderation — is_stickied, is_locked, archived (locked from voting/replies after 6 months), collapsed, collapsed_reason, collapsed_reason_code, collapsed_because_crowd_control, can_gild, comment_type, unrepliable_reason, no_follow, send_replies, gilded, total_awards_received, awards, removed_by_category, distinguished

Parent post context — post_url, post_title

Timestamps & metadata — permalink, created_utc, created_at, edited, edited_at, crawled_at, source, search_term

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
subreddits	array	required	Subreddit names, r/-prefixed names or full URLs
maxPosts	int	25	Max posts per subreddit (1–5,000; raise for full-subreddit mode)
maxItems	int	10,000	Global safety cap on total records (posts + comments) for the whole run (1–100,000)
sort	enum	hot	hot, new, top, rising, controversial, best
timeFilter	enum	day	hour, day, week, month, year, all (for top/controversial)
includeComments	bool	false	Collect the full comment thread of every scraped post
maxCommentsPerPost	int	0 (unlimited)	Max comments per post (when includeComments is on)
commentSort	enum	confidence	confidence, top, new, controversial, old, qa
postedAfter	date	–	Only posts created on/after this date (UTC); switches to chronological collection
postedBefore	date	–	Only posts created on/before this date (UTC)
includeNSFW	bool	false	Include 18+ posts
onlyWithFlair	bool	false	Drop posts without a flair tag
postType	enum	–	Keep only self, link, image, video, gallery or poll posts. Leave unset to keep all types
minScore	int	–	Keep only posts with a score at or above this value (-100,000–1,000,000)
maxScore	int	–	Keep only posts with a score at or below this value (-100,000–1,000,000)
minComments	int	–	Keep only posts with at least this many comments (0–1,000,000)
maxComments	int	–	Keep only posts with at most this many comments (0–1,000,000)
minUpvoteRatio	number	–	Keep only posts with an upvote ratio at or above this value (0–1)
excludeStickied	bool	false	Drop mod-stickied/pinned posts
excludeRemoved	bool	false	Drop posts removed by a moderator/Reddit or deleted by their author
excludeCrossposts	bool	false	Drop crossposted posts, keeping only original submissions
excludeSpoilers	bool	false	Drop posts tagged as a spoiler by their author
titleContains	string	–	Keep only posts whose title contains this text (case-insensitive)
contentContains	string	–	Keep only self posts whose body contains this text (case-insensitive)
flairContains	string	–	Keep only posts whose flair text contains this text (case-insensitive)
authorFlairContains	string	–	Keep only posts whose author flair text contains this text (case-insensitive)
distinguished	enum	–	moderator, admin, special (official posts only) or none (exclude all distinguished posts)
authors	array	–	Keep only posts submitted by these usernames
domain	string	–	Keep only posts whose link domain contains this text (e.g. youtube.com)
minAwards	int	–	Keep only posts with at least this many total awards (0–1,000,000)
onlyOriginalContent	bool	false	Keep only posts tagged by their author as original content (OC)
excludeLocked	bool	false	Drop posts whose comments were locked by a moderator
excludeDeletedAuthor	bool	false	Drop posts whose author account was deleted
excludeArchived	bool	false	Drop posts Reddit has archived (locked after 6 months)
excludeAuthors	array	–	Drop posts submitted by these usernames (e.g. bots like AutoModerator)
excludeKeywords	array	–	Drop posts whose title, body or flair contains any of these keywords
minContentLength	int	–	Keep only self posts whose body is at least this many characters (0–1,000,000)
maxContentLength	int	–	Keep only self posts whose body is at most this many characters (0–1,000,000)
fullSubreddit	bool	false	Walk new as deep as Reddit allows instead of the first pages

Example: hot posts from a single subreddit

{
  "subreddits": ["python"],
  "maxPosts": 50,
  "sort": "hot"
}

Example: full comment threads with a keyword filter

{
  "subreddits": ["technology"],
  "maxPosts": 20,
  "includeComments": true,
  "maxCommentsPerPost": 50,
  "commentSort": "top",
  "titleContains": "AI"
}

Example: date-range collection with engagement filters

{
  "subreddits": ["worldnews"],
  "postedAfter": "2025-06-01",
  "postedBefore": "2025-06-30",
  "minScore": 500,
  "minUpvoteRatio": 0.8,
  "excludeStickied": true
}

Example: multi-subreddit brand monitoring

{
  "subreddits": ["startups", "Entrepreneur", "SaaS"],
  "maxPosts": 100,
  "sort": "new",
  "postType": "self",
  "excludeAuthors": ["AutoModerator"],
  "excludeKeywords": ["megathread", "giveaway"]
}

Use cases

• Market research — analyze authentic community opinions and pain points
• Brand monitoring — track mentions of your product across relevant subreddits (schedule daily runs)
• Content ideation — find viral topics and trending questions in your niche
• Training data — build large, clean Reddit corpora for NLP / LLM fine-tuning
• Competitive intelligence — monitor competitor discussions and launches
• Academic & social research — export a subreddit's history for sentiment or discourse analysis

FAQ

Do I need a Reddit API key or login? No. The actor uses Reddit's public web data — no API key, no OAuth, no cookies, no account.

Do I need a proxy? No action needed on your part. Reddit blocks datacenter IPs (the free Apify AUTO group and no-proxy runs get HTTP 403 from the JSON API), so this actor always routes requests through an Apify RESIDENTIAL proxy automatically — it's hardcoded and not a configurable input, so every run is protected without you having to set anything up.

Is Reddit scraping legal? Scraping publicly available data is generally allowed, but you must comply with Reddit's terms of service and use the data responsibly. Don't exceed reasonable request rates, and respect the site's usage policies.

How many posts can I get from one subreddit? Reddit serves roughly 1,000 posts per listing. fullSubreddit mode walks as deep as Reddit allows; combining it with postedAfter lets you target a specific date window.

What is maxItems for? It's a global safety cap on the total number of records (posts + comments) pushed for the run — useful for bounding cost on large multi-subreddit jobs. Collection stops once the cap is reached.

What does removed_by_category mean? It tells you who removed a post or comment: moderator, automod_filtered, reddit, content_takedown (legal), author/deleted. Live posts simply don't have this field.

Can I get subreddit moderator lists or follower/member growth history? No. Only the current subscriber count (subreddit_subscribers) is part of the public data; moderator lists and historical follower counts aren't exposed.

Why is downs always 0? Reddit's public API doesn't expose raw downvote counts to anonymous users — only score and upvote_ratio reflect real voting data.

Can I schedule recurring runs? Yes — set up a schedule in Apify Console for daily/weekly brand monitoring or trend tracking.

How do I integrate the data with other tools? Export to JSON, CSV, Excel, XML or HTML; call via REST API; connect to n8n, Zapier or Make; or expose it to AI agents via the Apify MCP server.