# Reddit Search Scraper - Posts by Keyword, No API Key (`headply/reddit-search-scraper`) Actor

Search Reddit posts by keyword across Reddit or inside chosen subreddits. Sort by new, top or relevance, filter by time, add comments. Schedule it for keyword alerts. No login, no API key.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/headply/reddit-search-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Mayowa Ogedengbe](https://apify.com/headply) (community)
- **Categories:** Social media
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $0.95 / 1,000 post scrapeds

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

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 Search Scraper - Posts by Keyword, No API Key

Find **Reddit posts by keyword**, across all of Reddit or only in the communities you care about. Sort by newest,
relevance, top or most comments, filter by time, and add each post's comments if you want them. Put it on a schedule
and it becomes a **keyword alert**: every run brings only the new mentions.

### Why people use it

- ✅ **No Reddit account, no login, no API key.**
- 🔎 **Search all of Reddit or chosen subreddits.** Each result is tagged with the keyword that found it.
- 🔔 **Keyword alerts.** On a schedule it returns only posts you haven't seen yet. Use it for brand mentions,
  competitor names, leads, job posts and product feedback.
- 💬 **Comments too**, if you want the discussion around each result.
- 💸 **From $1.40 per 1,000 results.**

### Quick start

1. Add words or phrases to **Search keywords**, for example `n8n`, `"home assistant" zigbee` or `your brand`.
2. Optional: under **Limit search to subreddits**, add `selfhosted` or `r/homelab` to search only there.
3. Pick a **Search sort** (Newest first, Relevance, Top, Most comments) and a **Time range**.
4. Press **Start**.

Reddit search tricks work as usual: quotes for exact phrases, `subreddit:python`, `author:name`, `title:word`.
You can also paste a Reddit search link copied from your browser.

### What you get for each result

| Field | Example |
|---|---|
| Title | "Product Design Manager (n8n) in Remote" |
| Subreddit, author | `productdesignjobs`, `…` |
| Posted at | `2026-10-03T22:54:00Z` |
| Score, comments | `1`, `0` |
| Reddit link | Link to the post |
| Keyword | `n8n` |
| NSFW, spoiler | `false`, `false` |

Search results show what Reddit's search page shows. To get each post's full text and comments, switch on
**Include comments**, or send the links to the
[Reddit Comments Scraper](https://apify.com/headply/reddit-comments-scraper).

Download results as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML or HTML, or view them in the **Posts** table.

### Pricing

Prices drop on higher Apify plans.

| What | Price per 1,000 (Free plan → Gold and above) |
|---|---|
| Search result | **$1.40** → $0.95 |
| Comment | $1.40 → $0.95 |
| New result since your last run (keyword alerts) | $0.50 → $0.35 |
| Each run | $0.001 |

What that looks like: 1,000 results ≈ **$1.40**. A keyword alert checked hourly with about 50 new mentions a day
≈ **$0.75 for mentions plus $0.72 for runs** a month.

### Set up a keyword alert

1. Add your keywords and keep **Search sort** on *Newest first*.
2. Switch on **Only new since last run**.
3. Click **Schedule** and choose hourly or daily.
4. Send the new mentions to Slack, Discord, email or Google Sheets with n8n, Make or Zapier (see below), or follow
   the RSS link that each run creates (shown in the run log).

### Connect it to your tools

- **n8n:** add the **Apify** node → *Run an Actor and get dataset*, choose this Actor, then post each new result to
  Slack or append it to a Google Sheet.
- **Make / Zapier:** use the Apify app's *Run Actor* action on a schedule and map the results.
- **API:** see the *API* tab on this page for ready-made examples.

### Good to know

- **How far back?** It keeps paging through results until it reaches *Max posts per keyword* or Reddit has no more.
  For broad keywords, try different sorts or time ranges to reach older posts.
- **An empty alert run is good news:** no new mentions since the last check.
- Only public information that anyone can see on Reddit is collected.

### More Reddit tools

- [Reddit RSS Feed Replacement](https://apify.com/headply/reddit-rss-feed): follow subreddits and users, with an RSS
  feed link. Reddit's RSS ends 13 Nov 2026.
- [Reddit Comments Scraper](https://apify.com/headply/reddit-comments-scraper): every comment and reply from any post.

Questions or a search that doesn't work as expected? Open the **Issues** tab and we'll take a look.

# Actor input Schema

## `searchQueries` (type: `array`):

Keywords or phrases to search across Reddit posts. Each keyword is a separate search and every result is tagged with the keyword that found it. Reddit search operators such as "subreddit:python" or quotes work.

## `searchSubreddits` (type: `array`):

Optional. Run every keyword inside each of these subreddits (python or r/python) instead of across all of Reddit.

## `searchSort` (type: `string`):

Order of search results. "Newest first" suits monitoring a keyword on a schedule.

## `time` (type: `string`):

Time window for "Top" feeds and for search. Ignored by the other sorts.

## `maxItemsPerTarget` (type: `integer`):

Upper bound on posts returned for each subreddit, user or search keyword. Pages are fetched until this is reached or the feed ends.

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

Also scrape the comment tree of every post found in subreddit, user and search feeds (post URLs always include comments).

## `maxCommentsPerPost` (type: `integer`):

Upper bound on comments per post, across all depths. "Load more" and "more replies" are expanded until this is reached. 0 skips comments.

## `commentSort` (type: `string`):

Order in which comments are collected. With a comment limit, this decides which comments you get. Use "New" with feed mode to follow a thread.

## `onlyNewSinceLastRun` (type: `boolean`):

For schedules. Returns and bills only items not delivered by an earlier run with the same monitor name, and keeps an RSS/Atom feed at a fixed link. The first run of a feed delivers the latest posts at the standard price; every later run returns only new items, at the lower new-item price.

## `monitorName` (type: `string`):

Label for this feed's memory and RSS file. Runs with the same name share memory; use one name per schedule or client to keep them separate. Change it to start fresh.

## `rssOutput` (type: `boolean`):

Also write the results as RSS 2.0 (FEED.xml) and Atom (FEED.atom) to the run's key-value store. In feed mode the feed is also kept at a fixed link (shown in the log and the run summary) that feed readers and n8n/Zapier RSS steps can follow.

## `startUrls` (type: `array`):

Reddit URLs or shorthand, one per line. Accepts subreddits (r/python, https://www.reddit.com/r/python/new/), users (u/spez), search URLs (https://www.reddit.com/search/?q=n8n\&sort=new) and post URLs. Old RSS links work too (https://www.reddit.com/r/python/new/.rss): paste the feed URLs your reader used. r/a+b multireddits are split into one feed per subreddit.

## `postUrls` (type: `array`):

Reddit post links (https://www.reddit.com/r/<sub>/comments/<id>/<slug>/, redd.it/<id> or t3\_<id>). Returns the post and its comment tree, with depth, parent id and "load more" expansion up to the comment limit.

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

Order for subreddit and user feeds when the URL does not say. "New" is what RSS feeds used.

## `maxConcurrency` (type: `integer`):

Parallel requests. The default is fast and gentle; raise it for large jobs.

## `maxRequestRetries` (type: `integer`):

A page that fails to load is retried automatically up to this many times before it is skipped and listed in the run summary.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Leave as is. The default is the setting that works reliably with Reddit.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "searchQueries": [
    "n8n"
  ],
  "searchSort": "new",
  "time": "none",
  "maxItemsPerTarget": 30,
  "includeComments": false,
  "maxCommentsPerPost": 100,
  "commentSort": "top",
  "onlyNewSinceLastRun": false,
  "monitorName": "default",
  "rssOutput": false,
  "sort": "new",
  "maxConcurrency": 5,
  "maxRequestRetries": 5,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": [
      "RESIDENTIAL"
    ]
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `dataset` (type: `string`):

Dataset containing all posts and comments from this run.

## `summary` (type: `string`):

Counts per target, skipped inputs, request success ratio, bandwidth and the stable RSS URL in feed mode.

## `rss` (type: `string`):

This run's items as RSS 2.0 (when RSS output is on).

# 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 = {
    "searchQueries": [
        "n8n"
    ],
    "maxItemsPerTarget": 30,
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": true,
        "apifyProxyGroups": [
            "RESIDENTIAL"
        ]
    }
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("headply/reddit-search-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 = {
    "searchQueries": ["n8n"],
    "maxItemsPerTarget": 30,
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": True,
        "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"],
    },
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("headply/reddit-search-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 '{
  "searchQueries": [
    "n8n"
  ],
  "maxItemsPerTarget": 30,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": [
      "RESIDENTIAL"
    ]
  }
}' |
apify call headply/reddit-search-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,headply/reddit-search-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/qfkZQ7UyJRCGcSuke/builds/GhTGIlA4hRvQATTFf/openapi.json