Reddit Brand & Topic Intelligence

Extract real, unfiltered opinions from Reddit for any brand, product, or topic. Search across subreddits, get full comment trees with scores, filter by time and relevance. Uses Reddit's free JSON API — no proxy costs, no login. Works for market research, competitor analysis, PR monitoring, and content research.

What is Reddit Brand & Topic Intelligence?

This Reddit scraper extracts posts, comments, and discussions about any brand, product, company, or topic from Reddit without requiring an API key or authentication. Unlike Reddit's official API (which requires OAuth and has strict rate limits), this actor uses Reddit's public JSON endpoints to gather data at scale.

Perfect for:

• Brand monitoring and reputation management
• Product research and customer feedback analysis
• Competitive intelligence and market research
• Sentiment analysis and opinion mining
• Investment research and due diligence
• Content ideas and trend discovery
• Crisis PR monitoring

How to Scrape Reddit Without an API Key

This actor uses Reddit's public JSON API (reddit.com/{path}.json), which is freely accessible without authentication. No Reddit account, no API registration, no OAuth tokens required.

Key advantages:

• ✅ No proxy needed - Uses Reddit's public API (no bot detection)
• ✅ No login required - Fully anonymous data collection
• ✅ Full comment trees - Recursively extracts all replies
• ✅ Multi-subreddit search - Search across multiple communities
• ✅ Deduplication - Automatically removes duplicate threads
• ✅ Flexible filtering - Sort by relevance, hot, top, new; filter by time period
• ✅ Cost-effective - $1.50 per 1,000 threads (cheaper than paid Reddit APIs)

Use Cases

1. Brand Monitoring

Track what customers are saying about your brand on Reddit:

{
  "entityName": "Tesla Model Y",
  "subreddits": ["teslamotors", "electricvehicles", "cars"],
  "fetchComments": true,
  "sortBy": "recent",
  "timeFilter": "week"
}

2. Product Research

Discover unfiltered product feedback and feature requests:

{
  "entityName": "iPhone 15 Pro",
  "subreddits": ["apple", "iphone", "technology"],
  "fetchComments": true,
  "maxThreads": 50
}

3. Competitive Intelligence

Monitor competitor mentions and sentiment:

{
  "entityName": "Salesforce",
  "location": "",
  "subreddits": ["sales", "saas", "entrepreneur"],
  "fetchComments": true,
  "sortBy": "relevance"
}

4. Investment Research

Track retail investor sentiment for stocks or cryptocurrencies:

{
  "entityName": "NVDA",
  "subreddits": ["wallstreetbets", "stocks", "investing"],
  "fetchComments": true,
  "sortBy": "top",
  "timeFilter": "day"
}

5. Travel & Hospitality Intelligence

{
  "entityName": "Four Seasons Vail",
  "location": "Vail",
  "subreddits": ["travel", "luxurytravel", "skiing"],
  "fetchComments": true,
  "maxThreads": 20
}

Input Parameters

Field	Type	Required	Description
entityName	String	Yes	Brand, product, company, or topic name to search
location	String	No	Optional location to narrow search (e.g., "New York")
subreddits	Array	No	List of subreddits to search (defaults to site-wide search)
fetchComments	Boolean	No	Fetch full comment trees for each thread (default: false)
sortBy	String	No	Sort order: relevance, hot, top, new, comments (default: relevance)
timeFilter	String	No	Time period: all, year, month, week, day, hour (default: all)
maxThreads	Integer	No	Maximum number of threads to return (default: 20, max: 100)

Output Format

Each thread contains:

{
  "title": "Thread title",
  "url": "Link URL (if external)",
  "permalink": "/r/subreddit/comments/...",
  "selftext": "Post body text",
  "author": "username",
  "subreddit": "subreddit_name",
  "score": 1234,
  "upvote_ratio": 0.95,
  "num_comments": 567,
  "created_utc": 1234567890.0,
  "date": "2024-01-15 10:30 UTC",
  "comments": [
    {
      "author": "commenter",
      "body": "Comment text",
      "score": 45,
      "created_utc": 1234567900.0,
      "date": "2024-01-15 10:32 UTC",
      "depth": 0,
      "replies": [
        {
          "author": "replier",
          "body": "Reply text",
          "score": 12,
          "depth": 1,
          "replies": []
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Pricing & Cost Calculator

Base price: $1.50 per 1,000 threads

Use Case	Threads	Comments	Estimated Cost
Daily brand monitoring	50/day	Yes	$2.25/month
Weekly competitor research	100/week	Yes	$0.60/month
One-time market research	500	Yes	$0.75 one-time
Comprehensive brand audit	1,000	Yes	$1.50 one-time

No additional costs:

• ❌ No proxy fees (uses free API)
• ❌ No authentication overhead
• ❌ No compute time charges for httpx requests

FAQ

Is this a Reddit API alternative?

Yes! This actor uses Reddit's public JSON endpoints instead of the official OAuth API. Key differences:

Feature	This Actor	Official Reddit API
Authentication	None required	OAuth required
Rate limits	Generous (1-2s delays)	Strict (60 requests/minute)
Setup complexity	Zero - just run it	Register app, manage tokens
Cost	$1.50/1K threads	Free tier limits, then paid
Use case	Data extraction at scale	Bot/app integration

Do I need proxies to scrape Reddit?

No! This actor uses Reddit's public JSON API (reddit.com/{path}.json), which is freely accessible without triggering bot detection. No residential proxies, no datacenter IPs, no proxy rotation needed.

Can I scrape Reddit comments?

Yes! Set fetchComments: true to extract full comment trees with all replies. Each comment includes:

• Author, score, timestamp
• Full nested reply chains (recursive)
• Depth level for threading

How much does it cost to scrape Reddit?

$1.50 per 1,000 threads. This is significantly cheaper than:

• Third-party Reddit scrapers ($9-20/month subscriptions)
• Premium Reddit APIs ($50-200/month)
• Building your own infrastructure (server + maintenance costs)

What subreddits can I search?

Any public subreddit! Leave subreddits empty for site-wide search, or specify communities like:

• r/technology, r/programming (tech topics)
• r/wallstreetbets, r/investing (finance)
• r/travel, r/solotravel (travel)
• r/fitness, r/loseit (health)
• r/gaming, r/pcgaming (gaming)
• ... and 2.8 million others!

Can I filter by date range?

Yes! Use timeFilter to limit results:

• hour - Last hour
• day - Last 24 hours
• week - Last 7 days
• month - Last 30 days
• year - Last 365 days
• all - All time (default)

Comparison with Alternatives

Solution	Cost	Setup	Proxies	Auth	This Actor
Official Reddit API	Free tier limited	Complex OAuth	No	Required	✅ Easier
PRAW (Python library)	Free	Moderate	No	Required	✅ No code
Pushshift.io	Free (deprecated)	API key	No	Yes	✅ Still works
Third-party scrapers	$9-20/month	Sign up	Often yes	Often yes	✅ Cheaper
This Apify Actor	$1.50/1K	Zero	No	No	✅ Best value

Limitations & Ethical Scraping

What this actor does NOT do:

• ❌ Scrape private or restricted subreddits
• ❌ Extract user email addresses or PII
• ❌ Bypass Reddit's content policy
• ❌ Enable spam or harassment

Responsible use:

• Rate limiting built-in (1-2 second delays between requests)
• Respects Reddit's public data access terms
• Intended for research, analysis, and monitoring - not spam

Best practices:

• Don't use scraped data to harass users
• Respect copyright and attribution
• Check subreddit rules before using data commercially
• Consider Reddit's API if building a bot that interacts with users

Integration Examples

Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_API_TOKEN")

run_input = {
    "entityName": "Tesla Cybertruck",
    "subreddits": ["teslamotors", "electricvehicles"],
    "fetchComments": True,
    "maxThreads": 50
}

run = client.actor("YOUR_USERNAME/reddit-brand-intelligence").call(run_input=run_input)

for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(f"Thread: {item['title']}")
    print(f"Score: {item['score']}, Comments: {item['num_comments']}")

JavaScript

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: 'YOUR_API_TOKEN' });

const input = {
    entityName: "ChatGPT",
    subreddits: ["openai", "chatgpt", "artificial"],
    fetchComments: true,
    maxThreads: 50
};

const run = await client.actor("YOUR_USERNAME/reddit-brand-intelligence").call(input);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();

items.forEach((item) => {
    console.log(`Thread: ${item.title}`);
    console.log(`Subreddit: r/${item.subreddit}, Score: ${item.score}`);
});

n8n (No-Code Automation)

1. Add "Apify" node
2. Select "reddit-brand-intelligence" actor
3. Configure input JSON
4. Connect to Google Sheets, Slack, or email for alerts

Make.com (Integromat)

1. Add "Apify" module
2. Choose "Run Actor"
3. Select "reddit-brand-intelligence"
4. Map output to CRM, database, or notification service

Support & Feedback

• Issues or bugs? Report at GitHub Issues
• Feature requests? Submit via Apify Console
• Questions? Contact via Apify messaging

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