Reddit Scraper — Extract Posts, Comments, Subreddits & User Data

Scrape Reddit posts, comments, subreddit feeds, and user profiles without needing an API key or Reddit account. Get structured data from any public subreddit, search results, post threads, or user history.

Why Use This Reddit Scraper?

Reddit's official API has become increasingly restricted and expensive since the 2023 API changes. Many tools that relied on the free API tier no longer work. This scraper provides:

• No API key required — works without Reddit developer credentials
• No rate limit headaches — built-in rate limiting and retry logic
• All public data — posts, comments, user profiles, search results
• Structured JSON output — clean, consistent data format
• Multiple modes — search, subreddit browsing, comment extraction, user profiling

Whether you're doing brand monitoring, market research, content analysis, or building datasets for NLP, this scraper gets you the data you need.

Use Cases

1. Brand & Product Monitoring

Track mentions of your brand, product, or competitors across Reddit. Search for keywords and analyze sentiment in real-time discussions.

2. Market Research & Consumer Insights

Understand what real users think about products, services, or industries. Reddit discussions are uniquely candid — far more authentic than reviews or surveys.

3. Content Ideas & Trend Discovery

Find trending topics in your niche. Monitor subreddits to discover what questions people are asking, what problems they have, and what content resonates.

4. Academic Research & NLP Datasets

Build text corpora from Reddit for natural language processing, sentiment analysis, topic modeling, or social science research.

5. Lead Generation

Find potential customers discussing problems your product solves. Monitor relevant subreddits for buying-intent keywords like "looking for", "recommend", or "alternative to".

6. Competitive Intelligence

Track what users say about competitor products. Analyze complaints, feature requests, and praise in relevant subreddits.

7. Community Analysis

Analyze subreddit activity patterns, top contributors, posting frequency, and engagement metrics. Understand community dynamics before launching marketing campaigns.

8. Customer Support Intelligence

Monitor subreddits where your customers discuss issues. Proactively identify common problems and sentiment trends before they escalate.

9. SEO & Content Strategy

Discover the exact language your audience uses to describe problems. Find long-tail keywords and content gaps by analyzing Reddit discussions.

Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
mode	string	Yes	subreddit	Scraping mode: search, subreddit, comments, or user
query	string	No	—	Search query (for search mode)
subreddit	string	No	technology	Subreddit name without r/ (for subreddit and search modes)
username	string	No	—	Reddit username (for user mode)
postUrls	array	No	—	List of Reddit post URLs (for comments mode)
sort	string	No	hot	Sort order: hot, new, top, rising
timeFilter	string	No	all	Time filter for top sort: hour, day, week, month, year, all
maxResults	integer	No	5	Maximum number of results (1–1000)

Example Input

Browse a Subreddit

{
  "mode": "subreddit",
  "subreddit": "technology",
  "sort": "top",
  "timeFilter": "week",
  "maxResults": 50
}

Search Reddit

{
  "mode": "search",
  "query": "best CRM software 2026",
  "subreddit": "smallbusiness",
  "sort": "top",
  "timeFilter": "month",
  "maxResults": 100
}

Get Comments from a Post

{
  "mode": "comments",
  "postUrls": [
    "https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/abc123/some_post_title/"
  ]
}

Get User's Post History

{
  "mode": "user",
  "username": "spez",
  "maxResults": 50
}

Sample Output

Post Data

{
  "id": "1abc123",
  "title": "OpenAI releases GPT-5 with real-time reasoning",
  "author": "tech_news_daily",
  "subreddit": "technology",
  "score": 15420,
  "upvoteRatio": 0.94,
  "numComments": 2847,
  "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/1abc123/...",
  "externalUrl": "https://example.com/article",
  "selfText": "",
  "createdAt": "2026-03-15T14:30:00Z",
  "isNSFW": false,
  "isPinned": false,
  "awards": ["Gold", "Silver"],
  "previewImage": "https://preview.redd.it/...",
  "permalink": "/r/technology/comments/1abc123/..."
}

Comment Data

{
  "id": "comment_xyz",
  "postId": "1abc123",
  "author": "insightful_user",
  "body": "This is a game changer for enterprise workflows...",
  "score": 342,
  "createdAt": "2026-03-15T15:45:00Z",
  "parentId": "t3_1abc123",
  "depth": 0,
  "isSubmitter": false
}

Integration Examples

Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_API_TOKEN")

run_input = {
    "mode": "search",
    "query": "best project management tool",
    "subreddit": "productivity",
    "sort": "top",
    "timeFilter": "month",
    "maxResults": 100
}

run = client.actor("cryptosignals/reddit-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(f"[{item['score']}] {item['title']} — r/{item['subreddit']}")

Node.js

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: 'YOUR_API_TOKEN' });

const input = {
    mode: "subreddit",
    subreddit: "webdev",
    sort: "top",
    timeFilter: "week",
    maxResults: 50
};

const run = await client.actor("cryptosignals/reddit-scraper").call(input);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();

items.forEach(item => {
    console.log(`[${item.score}] ${item.title}`);
});

Scheduled Brand Monitoring

Set up automated monitoring to track brand mentions:

1. Navigate to the actor page and click Schedule
2. Choose your frequency (e.g., every 6 hours)
3. Set mode: "search" with your brand name as the query
4. Add a webhook to send results to Slack, email, or your dashboard

Pricing & Cost Estimates

This actor uses Apify's pay-per-event (PPE) pricing model — you only pay for the data you extract.

Use Case	Posts	Estimated Cost
Quick subreddit check	25 posts	~$0.25
Brand mention search	100 posts	~$1.00
Deep research project	500 posts	~$5.00
Full comment threads	50 posts + comments	~$2.00

Free tier: Apify gives $5 in free monthly credits — enough for hundreds of posts.

Tips to minimize costs:

• Set maxResults to only what you need
• Use specific subreddits instead of site-wide search when possible
• Use timeFilter to narrow your date range

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need a Reddit API key or account?

No. This scraper works without any Reddit credentials. It accesses publicly available data only.

Does this work after Reddit's 2023 API changes?

Yes. This scraper does not rely on Reddit's official API. It fetches data from Reddit's public JSON endpoints, which remain accessible.

Can I scrape private or quarantined subreddits?

No. This scraper only accesses publicly visible content. Private, quarantined, and age-gated subreddits are not supported.

How do I get comments from a specific post?

Set mode to comments and provide the full Reddit post URL in the postUrls array. The scraper will return the comment tree.

Can I search within a specific subreddit?

Yes. Set mode to search, provide your query, and specify the subreddit name. Results will be limited to that subreddit.

Is there a limit on how many posts I can scrape?

You can fetch up to 1,000 posts per run. For larger datasets, run multiple times with different queries, subreddits, or time filters.

Can I export results to CSV?

Yes. All Apify datasets can be exported as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, or RSS directly from the platform. No extra tools needed.

What data fields are included for each post?

Each post includes: title, author, subreddit, score, upvote ratio, comment count, URL, self-text, creation date, NSFW flag, awards, and preview image.

How do I handle rate limiting?

The scraper has built-in rate limiting (1.5s between requests) and automatic retry logic. You don't need to configure anything — it handles Reddit's rate limits automatically.

Can I track specific users' posting activity?

Yes. Set mode to user and provide the Reddit username. The scraper returns their recent posts and activity.

Support & Updates

This actor is actively maintained and regularly updated. If you need help:

• Report issues via the Issues tab on this actor's page
• Request features by leaving a comment
• Star this actor if you find it useful

Built and maintained by cryptosignals on Apify.