Reddit Posts & Comments Scraper

Scrape Reddit posts and comments from any subreddit, search query, or user profile — no API key required. Uses Reddit's public JSON API with smart pagination.

Features

• Subreddit scraping — collect posts from any public subreddit (e.g. python, machinelearning, technology)
• Reddit search — global keyword search across all of Reddit
• User profile scraping — collect posts submitted by specific users
• Sort by hot / new / top / rising / controversial
• Time filter for top/controversial: hour / day / week / month / year / all time
• Top comments — optionally fetch the top N comments per post
• NSFW filtering — skip adult content by default
• Bulk input — pass multiple subreddits and users in one run
• Keyless — zero API credentials needed

Output Fields

Field	Description
post_id	Reddit post ID (e.g. abc123)
title	Post title
subreddit	Subreddit name
author	Reddit username
score	Net upvotes
upvote_ratio	Fraction of upvotes (0–1)
num_comments	Total comments on post
flair	Post flair label
is_nsfw	Over-18 flag
url	External link URL (or reddit.com for text posts)
permalink	Full reddit.com URL to the post
created_utc	Post creation time (ISO 8601 UTC)
selftext_preview	First 500 chars of post body
thumbnail	Thumbnail image URL (if available)
domain	Link domain
awards	Number of Reddit awards
source_type	subreddit / search / user
source	Source identifier (e.g. r/python)
top_comments	Array of top comments (when enabled)

Example Input

{
  "subreddits": ["python", "machinelearning"],
  "sort": "top",
  "timeFilter": "week",
  "maxPostsPerSource": 100,
  "includeComments": true,
  "maxCommentsPerPost": 5,
  "skipNsfw": true
}

Scrape the top 100 posts from r/python and r/machinelearning this week, including top 5 comments per post.

Search example

{
  "searchQuery": "ChatGPT alternative",
  "sort": "new",
  "maxPostsPerSource": 200
}

User profile example

{
  "usernames": ["spez", "kn0thing"],
  "sort": "top",
  "timeFilter": "all",
  "maxPostsPerSource": 50
}

Pricing

Event	Price
Actor start	$0.005 (once)
Per post scraped	$0.003

Example: 1,000 posts = $3.005 total.

Rate Limits

Reddit's public JSON API allows approximately 1 request/second for anonymous access. The scraper respects this automatically. For very large jobs (10,000+ posts), consider scheduling multiple smaller runs.

No API Key Needed

This actor uses Reddit's publicly accessible JSON API (append .json to any Reddit URL). No OAuth app, no Reddit account, no API key.

Use Cases

• Sentiment analysis — collect posts about a product/brand/topic
• Research — gather data from niche communities
• Content monitoring — track trending discussions
• Lead generation — find relevant threads in business subreddits
• AI training data — collect community discussions at scale

Notes

• Deleted/removed posts are excluded automatically
• Reddit limits free API to ~1,000 posts per sort order per subreddit
• Private and quarantined subreddits are not accessible

Setup Requirements

Reddit blocks direct requests from datacenter IP addresses. To use this actor, you need one of:

Option A: Apify Proxy (Recommended)

Use the proxyConfiguration input field with "useApifyProxy": true. Apify Proxy routes requests through residential IPs that Reddit allows. Proxy costs are separate from actor usage costs.

{
  "subreddits": ["python"],
  "proxyConfiguration": {"useApifyProxy": true, "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"]}
}

Option B: Your Own Reddit App Credentials

Create a free Reddit app at reddit.com/prefs/apps (type: "script"). Then pass your client_id and client_secret via the redditClientId and redditClientSecret input fields.

{
  "subreddits": ["python"],
  "redditClientId": "your_client_id",
  "redditClientSecret": "your_client_secret"
}

Why is this needed? Reddit's API blocks direct access from server IPs (a common restriction with many scraping targets). Using a proxy or official API credentials is the standard approach used by all production Reddit scrapers.

Keywords: Reddit scraper, subreddit, Reddit posts, comments, Reddit API, social media scraper, Reddit data, Reddit search