# Reddit Subreddit & Post Scraper (`emperor1978/reddit-scraper`) Actor

Scrape Reddit posts, comments, and subreddit data. Search by keyword or subreddit. Get titles, body text, upvotes, authors, and timestamps. Supports hot/new/top/rising sort. Export to JSON/CSV.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/emperor1978/reddit-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [The Emperor](https://apify.com/emperor1978) (community)
- **Security:** Limited permissions
- **Stats:** 3 total users, 2 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$2.00 / 1,000 result items

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## Reddit Subreddit & Post Scraper

Scrape posts and comments from any public subreddit using Reddit's public JSON API. No login or API key required.

### Features

- Scrape multiple subreddits in a single run
- Sort by **hot**, **new**, **top**, or **rising**
- Time filtering for top posts (hour/day/week/month/year/all)
- Optionally include top comments for each post
- Extracts: title, score, author, upvote ratio, comment count, flair, self-text, URLs
- Respects Reddit rate limits with automatic retries

### Use Cases

- **Market Research**: Monitor trending topics and sentiment in niche subreddits
- **Content Ideas**: Find what questions people ask in your industry
- **Competitor Analysis**: Track mentions of brands, products, or technologies
- **Lead Generation**: Find users asking for solutions you provide
- **Trend Monitoring**: Track emerging topics before they go mainstream

### Input

| Field | Type | Default | Description |
|-------|------|---------|-------------|
| subreddits | string\[] | \["python"] | Subreddit names (without r/) |
| sort | string | "hot" | Sort: hot, new, top, rising |
| timeFilter | string | "week" | Time period for top sorting |
| limit | integer | 25 | Posts per subreddit (max 500) |
| includeComments | boolean | false | Fetch top comments |
| maxComments | integer | 5 | Comments per post (max 20) |

### Output

Each result contains:

- `subreddit`, `post_id`, `title`, `author`
- `score`, `upvote_ratio`, `num_comments`
- `url`, `permalink`, `selftext`
- `created_utc`, `link_flair_text`, `domain`
- `top_comments` (if enabled): author, body, score

### Example

Scrape top posts from r/python and r/webdev:

```json
{
  "subreddits": ["python", "webdev"],
  "sort": "top",
  "timeFilter": "week",
  "limit": 50,
  "includeComments": true,
  "maxComments": 3
}
```

# Actor input Schema

## `subreddits` (type: `array`):

List of subreddit names to scrape (without r/ prefix). Example: \["python", "webdev", "devops"]

## `sort` (type: `string`):

How to sort posts within each subreddit.

## `timeFilter` (type: `string`):

Time period for 'top' sorting. Ignored for other sort options.

## `limit` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of posts to scrape per subreddit (max 500).

## `includeComments` (type: `boolean`):

Whether to fetch top comments for each post. Slower but more data.

## `maxComments` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of top-level comments to include per post (max 20).

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "subreddits": [
    "python"
  ],
  "sort": "hot",
  "timeFilter": "week",
  "limit": 25,
  "includeComments": false,
  "maxComments": 5
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

Scraped results stored in the default dataset

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("emperor1978/reddit-scraper").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("emperor1978/reddit-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{}' |
apify call emperor1978/reddit-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,emperor1978/reddit-scraper"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/gwg0qowDKIQVKgZNK/builds/XLFvZx4KZUWvvmtfZ/openapi.json