Reddit Search Scraper

Search public Reddit posts by keyword, phrase, brand, product, or topic and export structured JSON results. This actor is intentionally specific: it searches Reddit and returns post-level search results only. It does not scrape full comment threads, subreddit analytics, private content, or user profiles.

The actor uses owner-managed provider access through ScrapeCreators first and SociaVault as fallback when configured. Users do not need to supply a Reddit account, Reddit API key, proxy, or browser session.

Compatible with: Apify MCP Server, ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, Make.com, Zapier, n8n, LangChain, and direct REST API.

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What does this Reddit Search Scraper do?

Use this actor when you need to find public Reddit posts matching a keyword or phrase. It supports:

• Search across Reddit by keyword or phrase
• Optional search within a single subreddit
• Sort by relevance, new, top, or comments
• Filter by day, week, month, year, or all time
• Optional post creation cutoff after provider results are returned
• Business-safe default filtering for NSFW posts
• Structured dataset rows for AI agents, monitoring jobs, and spreadsheet exports

Every run writes two key-value store records:

• OUTPUT — compact terminal outcome, item count, warnings, and charged result totals
• RUN_SUMMARY — detailed diagnostics, provider attempts, input summary, warnings, and validation counts

Terminal outcomes follow the actor contract: COMPLETE, PARTIAL, VALID_EMPTY, INVALID_INPUT, UPSTREAM_FAILED, or CONFIG_ERROR.

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Input

Field	Required	Description
searchQuery	Yes	Keyword, phrase, brand, product, or topic to search on Reddit.
withinSubreddit	No	Optional subreddit name such as learnpython or r/MachineLearning.
maxResults	No	Maximum results to save. Default 25; max 10000.
sortBy	No	relevance, new, top, or comments.
timeFilter	No	day, week, month, year, or all.
postDateLimit	No	Optional ISO date cutoff such as 2026-01-01.
includeNsfw	No	Include posts marked NSFW. Default false.

Example input:

{
  "searchQuery": "OpenAI API pricing",
  "withinSubreddit": "OpenAI",
  "maxResults": 25,
  "sortBy": "relevance",
  "timeFilter": "month",
  "includeNsfw": false
}

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Output data

Each dataset item is one Reddit search result.

Field	Example
type	search_result
redditId	t3_abc123
title	OpenAI API pricing discussion
body	I am comparing API pricing for a product launch.
author	u/example_user
subreddit	r/OpenAI
score	128
upvoteRatio	0.92
commentCount	42
url	https://www.reddit.com/r/OpenAI/comments/...
externalUrl	https://openai.com/api/pricing/
flair	Discussion
postType	text, link, image, video, or gallery
isNsfw	false
createdAt	2026-07-14T12:00:00.000Z
sourceQuery	OpenAI API pricing
withinSubreddit	r/OpenAI
scrapedAt	2026-07-14T12:05:00.000Z

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Pricing

Pricing is pay-per-result plus Apify platform usage.

Event	Price
Reddit search result saved	$0.003

Example: saving 100 Reddit search results costs $0.30 in result events, plus Apify platform usage.

The actor logs the maximum event-charge cap at run start and writes the actual charged result count to RUN_SUMMARY.

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API usage

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/khadinakbar~reddit-search-scraper/runs" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "searchQuery": "OpenAI API pricing",
    "maxResults": 25,
    "sortBy": "relevance",
    "timeFilter": "month"
  }'

JavaScript:

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN });

const run = await client.actor('khadinakbar/reddit-search-scraper').call({
  searchQuery: 'OpenAI API pricing',
  withinSubreddit: 'OpenAI',
  maxResults: 25,
  sortBy: 'relevance',
  timeFilter: 'month',
});

const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

Python:

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_API_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("khadinakbar/reddit-search-scraper").call(
    run_input={
        "searchQuery": "OpenAI API pricing",
        "maxResults": 25,
        "timeFilter": "month",
    }
)

items = list(client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items())
print(items[:3])

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Common use cases

Brand monitoring

Search for your brand, product, competitor, or campaign name and export posts where people discuss it.

Product research

Find pain points and buying intent by searching terms such as CRM recommendations for startups, Shopify alternatives, or API pricing.

AI and market research

Collect Reddit post titles, bodies, scores, comment counts, and permalinks for topic clustering, sentiment analysis, or qualitative research.

Subreddit-scoped search

Set withinSubreddit when you already know the community you want to inspect, such as learnpython, OpenAI, MachineLearning, or Entrepreneur.

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Limitations and legal boundaries

This actor is for public Reddit search results only. It does not access private, banned, quarantined, deleted, geo-restricted, or login-only content. It does not provide full comment-thread scraping; use a dedicated comments actor for that.

Use the data only where your rights, approvals, and downstream purpose allow it. Do not use this actor for unauthorized redistribution, private-content access, or AI training unless your permissions explicitly cover that use.

Provider availability and Reddit behavior can affect search coverage. When a provider route fails, the actor tries the configured fallback provider and records diagnostics in RUN_SUMMARY.

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FAQ

Do I need a Reddit account?
No. Users do not provide Reddit credentials. The actor is intended for public Reddit search results.

Can I search inside a subreddit?
Yes. Set withinSubreddit to a subreddit name such as learnpython.

Does it return comments?
No. This actor is intentionally search-result-only and returns post-level records.

What happens when no matches are found?
The run succeeds with VALID_EMPTY, zero dataset rows, and zero result-event charges.

What happens if only some work succeeds?
Useful partial output is preserved and the run succeeds with PARTIAL; see RUN_SUMMARY for warnings.