Reddit Post Monitor Lite

Monitor public Reddit posts from subreddits, searches and Reddit URLs. Filter by keywords, dates and engagement, then export structured post and media information for social listening, research or your own automation. Optional cross-run history helps you keep only newly discovered matches.

This is a recent-post monitor, not a complete Reddit archive. Public access and field availability vary by source.

Quick start

1. Open Try for free or Run and enter a small input like this.
2. Start the run, then open its dataset to review the posts.
3. Check RUN-SUMMARY in the key-value store if output is empty or incomplete.

{"subreddits":["apify"],"sort":"new","maxPosts":10}

Prefer a video guide? This short Apify walkthrough shows you how to set up and run an Actor. It uses a different Actor, but the setup steps are the same.

What you get

• Public post titles, visible body text, authors, community names and post links.
• Dates, engagement, flair, flags and media URLs when available.
• Keyword, date, author and engagement filtering.
• Optional remembered post IDs across runs and a baseline-first mode.
• A RUN-SUMMARY record with source outcomes, skip reasons and saved totals.

Who is it for?

• Social-listening and support teams reviewing exposed questions or incidents in selected communities.
• Founders and market researchers finding recommendation requests and stated pain points without inferring verified buying intent.
• Discussion analysts retaining source-linked recent posts and available engagement.
• Automation and AI developers passing structured posts into their own summaries, destinations or notifications.

How you can use the data

• Prepare a small Apify-community reading list. Use the existing apify subreddit input with new ordering and ten saved posts. Keep postTitle, source links and available body text for your own summary rather than requesting comment threads or a complete archive.
• Apply engagement filters with missing-data awareness. Use the existing technology, MachineLearning and programming recipe for a weekly sample with minimum score and comments. Missing metrics can exclude posts, so a filtered export does not rank all discussion or measure every zero.
• Separate a monitoring baseline from delivered posts. The existing SaaS/startups/webscraping keyword recipe can remember IDs in a named store and state key. Initial onlyNew intentionally establishes a baseline without saving matches, while later separately scheduled runs using the same names return new matched IDs.
• Build notifications or analysis in your own tools. Preserve matchedKeywords, missingFields and RUN-SUMMARY outcomes when sending data to a spreadsheet or assistant. Cross-run history tracks post identity rather than score, text or comment changes. It is bounded to fifty thousand IDs, so older IDs can reappear and notifications remain your own integration.

Input settings

Provide at least one valid subreddits, searchQueries, or redditUrls value.

Setting	JSON key	Description
Subreddits	subreddits	Names without r/, such as apify or webscraping.
Reddit search queries	searchQueries	Phrases, products, brands, competitors, or questions to search across Reddit.
Reddit URLs	redditUrls	Public subreddit, listing, search, or individual post URLs.
Maximum posts per run	maxPosts	Hard cap on paid saved rows across all sources. Shared across sources.
Maximum posts per source	maxPostsPerSource	Collection cap for each subreddit, query, or URL before filtering.
Maximum pages per source	maxPagesPerSource	Listing-page request cap for each source.
Sort order	sort	new, hot, top, rising, comments, or relevance. Unsupported combinations use new.
Reddit time window	timeFilter	hour, day, week, month, year, or all for supported sorts.
Required keywords	includeKeywords	Keep posts containing at least one keyword in title or visible body.
Excluded keywords	excludeKeywords	Skip posts containing any excluded keyword.
Maximum age	maxAgeHours	Keep posts no older than this many hours.
Posted from	dateFrom	Inclusive minimum publication date or ISO date-time.
Posted to	dateTo	Inclusive maximum publication date or ISO date-time.
Minimum score	minScore	Minimum Reddit score. Missing score skips the record.
Maximum score	maxScore	Maximum Reddit score. Missing score skips the record.
Minimum comments	minComments	Minimum comment count. Missing count skips the record.
Exact flair	flairFilter	Case-insensitive exact post-flair match.
Outbound domain	domainFilter	Keep link posts whose domain contains the supplied text.
Reddit author	authorFilter	Exact username. u/ is optional.
Include NSFW	includeNsfw	Keep posts Reddit identifies as NSFW. Default: false.
Include spoilers	includeSpoilers	Keep spoiler-marked posts. Default: true.
Include stickied	includeStickied	Keep moderator-pinned posts. Default: true.
Deduplicate across runs	deduplicateAcrossRuns	Skip matching IDs already stored under the same state key.
Establish baseline first	onlyNew	First run stores current matches without output. Later runs return new matches.
Monitoring state key	stateKey	Separates history for different schedules sharing a key-value store.
Persistent state store	stateStoreName	Named key-value store that preserves monitoring history across separate runs.
Fail on no results	failOnNoResults	Fail when no rows are saved, except during an initial onlyNew baseline.
Proxy configuration	proxyConfiguration	Standard Apify Proxy settings. Automatic Apify Proxy is the default.
Request retries	maxRetries	Retries after the first request for blocks, rate limits, server errors, or connection failures.
Legacy proxy switch	useApifyProxy	Backward-compatible setting used only when proxyConfiguration is absent.
Legacy proxy groups	proxyGroups	Backward-compatible group list used only when proxyConfiguration is absent.

Input recipes

These are editable input recipes, not public saved-task links.

Monitor new keyword matches across scheduled runs

{
  "subreddits": ["SaaS", "startups", "webscraping"],
  "includeKeywords": ["Apify", "scraping tool", "alternative"],
  "sort": "new",
  "maxAgeHours": 48,
  "maxPosts": 50,
  "deduplicateAcrossRuns": true,
  "onlyNew": true,
  "stateKey": "brand-monitor",
  "stateStoreName": "reddit-post-monitor-lite-state",
  "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": true }
}

The first onlyNew run establishes a baseline without saving existing matches. Later runs using the same persistent stateStoreName and stateKey return only new matching posts.

Export recent high-engagement posts

{
  "subreddits": ["technology", "MachineLearning", "programming"],
  "sort": "top",
  "timeFilter": "week",
  "minScore": 100,
  "minComments": 20,
  "includeNsfw": false,
  "maxPosts": 100,
  "maxPostsPerSource": 100,
  "maxPagesPerSource": 5
}

Watch Reddit search results

{
  "searchQueries": ["best web scraping API", "Apify alternative"],
  "excludeKeywords": ["giveaway", "coupon"],
  "sort": "new",
  "dateFrom": "2026-10-01",
  "maxPosts": 50
}

Output data

Shape-only example, not a collected Reddit post:

{"recordId":"t3_example","postId":"example","subreddit":"apify","postTitle":"Example post","author":null,"url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/apify/comments/example/","score":null,"numComments":null,"matchedKeywords":[],"metadataCompleteness":"partial","missingFields":["score","numComments"]}

Public Reddit HTML listing and search fragments supply posts, scores, visible comment counts, publication metadata, flair and body previews in a single listing response. Automatic connections try direct access first and use the Apify residential pool (US unless a country is selected) only if needed; explicitly selected groups, custom pools and direct opt-outs remain active. Connections reuse an anonymous visitor session. No feeds, legacy API endpoints, per-post preview requests, browser, comments or child Actors are used. New rows report fetchTransport: reddit-html.

Public fragments can omit historical engagement, awards, gallery counts, flair, media or safety information. Unavailable values are null, not fabricated zeros or false flags; actual reported zeros stay 0. Check missingFields and the summary's explanation. Body previews are limited to 8,192 characters. Metric/date filters skip records when the required value is unknown. Blocked or unrecognized sources are reported as failed, not successful-empty.

Group	Fields
Identity	recordId, postId, name, subreddit, subredditId
Content	postTitle, selftext, contentHtml, postType, flair, author, authorId, authorFlair
Links and media	url, permalink, linkUrl, outboundUrlHost, domain, thumbnail, mediaUrls, isVideo, isGallery, galleryCount
Engagement	score, upvoteRatio, numComments, awards, scorePerHour, commentsPerHour, engagementTotal
Dates	createdAt, editedAt, fetchedAt
Status flags	over18, isSelf, spoiler, stickied, locked, archived, isOriginalContent, isCrosspost, numCrossposts, removedByCategory
Monitoring	matchedKeywords, sourceType, source
Data quality	fetchTransport, metadataCompleteness, missingFields

The default key-value store also contains:

• RUN-SUMMARY — final status, source outcomes, transports, retries, filters, skip reasons, state totals, and saved counts.
• SEEN_IDS_<stateKey> — optional bounded post-ID history in the named persistent state store, not the default run store.

Download your results

Open your run's dataset, choose Export and select JSON, CSV or Excel. JSON keeps nested fields together. CSV and Excel are useful when you want to review the records in a spreadsheet.

See Apify's download and export guide for the available formats and field options.

Pricing

The start event is charged once after the input passes initial validation.

The item event is charged for each post saved to the dataset. Filtered posts, duplicates, failed sources, run summaries and state records are not saved-post charges. maxPosts limits saved posts across all sources. A baseline-first run can incur a start charge without saving posts.

See the live Pricing tab for current rates and discounts.

Tips for best results

• Start small. Try one source before expanding your input.
• Use recent windows. Keep maxAgeHours appropriate for the discussions you need.
• Check missing fields. Engagement filters can exclude records whose metrics are unavailable.
• Separate monitoring histories. Reuse the same stateStoreName and stateKey for one monitor, and a different key for unrelated monitors.

Limits and caveats

• Reddit can block or rate-limit access. Sources can fail independently. Successful sources can still contribute records, but the run currently fails if every source fails.
• Public access is not guaranteed for private, deleted, restricted or otherwise unavailable targets. An access failure alone does not establish why a target is unavailable.
• This Actor does not collect comment threads or private/account-specific data and is not an official Reddit API.
• Public listings generally expose a limited recent history, not a complete archive.
• Sort support differs between subreddits and searches. Unsupported combinations use new. Rich metadata is not always available.
• An initial onlyNew run intentionally saves no posts. With the optional failOnNoResults input enabled, other no-match runs currently fail.

Automation and integrations

Save your settings for next time

Once you have an input that works for you, save it as an Apify task. This keeps your settings together so you can use them again without filling in the form from scratch.

Run on a schedule

Need fresh results regularly? You can schedule the Actor or a saved task to run at a time that suits you.

Each scheduled run collects the data again. If you want to compare results or highlight changes, add that step in your own workflow.

Send results to your other tools

Use n8n, Make or Zapier to connect this scraper to the rest of your workflow. For example, you could pass its results to an AI assistant or add records to a spreadsheet. Follow the Apify integration guides for your chosen tool.

For a custom connection, an Apify webhook can notify your app when a run finishes or fails. Your app can then fetch the results or handle the failure.

API usage

Want to collect this data from your own app or automation? The examples below send input to the scraper and show how to collect its results.

The Node.js and Python examples wait for the run to finish before reading its results. The cURL example starts the run and returns its details. Wait for that run to finish, then use its defaultDatasetId to fetch the results.

For setup instructions, see Apify's JavaScript client guide, Python client guide and Actor runs API reference.

cURL

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/fetch_cat~reddit-post-monitor-lite/runs" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"subreddits":["apify"],"maxPosts":10}'

Node.js

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';
const client = new ApifyClient({ token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN });
const run = await client.actor('fetch_cat/reddit-post-monitor-lite').call({
  subreddits: ['apify'], maxPosts: 10
});
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

Python

import os
from apify_client import ApifyClient
client = ApifyClient(os.environ['APIFY_TOKEN'])
run = client.actor('fetch_cat/reddit-post-monitor-lite').call(
    run_input={'subreddits': ['apify'], 'maxPosts': 10}
)
print(client.dataset(run['defaultDatasetId']).list_items().items)

MCP and AI agents

You can ask your AI assistant to collect data with Reddit Post Monitor Lite and help you work with the results. The scraper returns the data, and your assistant can then summarize it, compare records or prepare notes.

Connect your assistant through the Apify MCP server. MCP gives your assistant a way to find this scraper, run it and read the results. Follow the official setup and sign-in guide for your app.

Easier setup with an Apify plugin

If you use a supported coding assistant, the official Apify plugin can set up the connection for you. It connects your assistant to Apify and includes instructions for common tasks. Follow the guide for your particular app.

Use Apify AI in Console

Prefer to keep everything in Apify? Open Apify AI in Console and ask it to find Fetch Cat's Reddit Post Monitor Lite. You can describe the data you want and ask questions about the results.

Apify AI is currently in beta. It asks for confirmation before starting an Actor, and normal run charges apply.

Choose your assistant

• Claude and Claude Code (Anthropic): Apify setup guide.
• ChatGPT and Codex (OpenAI): Apify setup guides.
• Grok Bot (xAI): Apify plugin guide.
• Gemini CLI (Google): MCP server setup guide. Use the server URL below with the HTTP configuration supported by Gemini CLI.

Connect just this scraper

To keep your setup focused on this scraper, add this server configuration to a compatible MCP client:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apify": {
      "url": "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=fetch_cat/reddit-post-monitor-lite"
    }
  }
}

Sign in to Apify when your client asks. If your client uses a Bearer token instead, follow its setup guide and keep the token in its secure configuration. Configuration formats vary by app, so use the linked guide if your client needs a different format.

Use Apify's general server

Already connected to the general Apify MCP server at https://mcp.apify.com? You can use it to find this scraper without adding another server. Ask your assistant to use Reddit Post Monitor Lite by Fetch Cat, or give it the identifier fetch_cat/reddit-post-monitor-lite.

Your assistant can check the available settings and retrieve the results from the returned run. If the run is still working, it should follow that run rather than start it again. Both connection options use Apify's hosted service.

Example requests

• “Use Fetch Cat’s Reddit Post Monitor Lite to collect up to 5 recent posts from r/apify with new ordering. Keep titles, source links and missing-field warnings for my own discussion summary without collecting comment threads.”
• “Collect up to 5 recent public Reddit search matches for best web scraping API with new ordering and a cutoff of 1 October 2026. Exclude giveaway and coupon matches, retaining source links and any skip or failure reasons.”
• “Retrieve up to 5 new-order posts from r/programming containing Python in the title or visible body. Keep source links and engagement completeness for a reading list without assuming missing scores are measured zero.”

Normal Apify charges apply. Check the live Pricing tab before asking your assistant to run a larger batch.

Pay with x402

If your AI agent has a funded wallet, it can pay for Apify usage through x402. This experimental option lets an agent use Apify without a conventional account.

Apify AGI provides a prepaid API token with a spending cap after payment. Your agent can use that token to run this scraper through the Apify API or an authenticated MCP connection.

Some MCP setups also support paying for each request directly. That is a different payment option, so check the official guide for its availability.

Follow the official guide for wallet setup, supported payment options and current terms. Apify handles the payments. Keep wallet keys and payment tokens in your agent's secure configuration.

Other ways for agents to pay

Apify also supports MPP for prepaid access through AGI and Skyfire for eligible Actors. If your agent already uses one of these, see the agentic payment guide to choose the right setup.

Monitoring history

Enable deduplicateAcrossRuns to skip post IDs remembered under the same stateStoreName and stateKey. Add onlyNew to establish an initial baseline without saving existing matches. Keep both names stable across runs. Changing either starts a separate history.

History is bounded to the most recent 50,000 remembered IDs. Posts outside that history can appear again. This feature tracks post identity, not changes in scores, text or comments.

FAQ

Can I export Reddit posts to CSV or Excel?

Yes. Open the run dataset and use Export. JSON is useful for nested media fields.

Does it require Reddit login or an API key?

No Reddit credentials are required for the public sources supported here. API calls to Apify still need Apify authentication.

Can it return only new posts?

Yes. Enable cross-run history. Baseline-first mode remembers current matches without saving them on its first successful check.

Why are scores missing or zero?

Some public representations lack metadata. Unavailable values are null, not zero. Real reported zeros remain zero. Check missingFields and fetchTransport. Customer cost and short-timeout limits stop new work gracefully, preserve collected affordable rows and explain the stop in RUN-SUMMARY and RUN_SUMMARY. Allow at least 25 seconds for useful work. A run accepts at most 100 sources, retains at most 1,000 discovered posts and has a separate four-minute processing cap.

Why is the dataset empty?

Check RUN-SUMMARY for filtered records, duplicates, empty sources or an initial baseline. Source failures can also prevent collection.

How do I use it from an app or AI assistant?

Use the API or hosted MCP setup above. Check the live Pricing tab before authorizing runs.

What if I need comments?

The related Reddit Scraper supports a broader post-and-comment workflow. Review its current input contract before running it.

Related Actors

• Reddit Scraper — broader Reddit post and comment collection.
• Hacker News Search Scraper — find technology discussions on Hacker News.
• X Profile Tweets Scraper — collect public profile posts from X.
• DEV.to Articles Scraper — discover public developer articles.

Support and feedback

For custom additions or integrations, email hello@fetchcat.dev.

Found an error or have a feature request? Open an issue with the run URL, a non-sensitive input example and what you expected.

Need help sharing it? See Apify’s guide to sharing a run when reporting an issue. Sharing a run can give the developer access to its input, logs and results, so use a run that contains no sensitive data. Please leave out API tokens, passwords, cookies, private documents and personal data. Use a public sample URL or a redacted example instead.

Tried this scraper? We'd love to hear how it worked for you. Leave a review to help others choose the right tool and help us improve it. Your feedback means a lot to us.

Made with care for curious people, AI agents and the possibilities in data. ♥