Reddit Keyword Search

Actor ID: morph_coder~reddit-search

Search public Reddit posts by keywords. Each keyword runs as a separate Reddit search; matching posts are opened for full metadata (title, body, author, votes, subreddit, URL).

Disclaimer: This is an unofficial tool. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Reddit, Inc. Users are responsible for complying with Reddit's User Agreement, applicable laws, and data-protection regulations in their jurisdiction.

What it does

Use this Actor to monitor brand mentions, track topics, or collect publicly visible Reddit posts that match your keywords — for market research, social listening, or content discovery.

• Runs one Reddit search per keyword (e.g. separate searches for adidas and nike)
• Visits each post page and saves structured data to a dataset
• Deduplicates posts found by multiple keywords
• Optional keyword relevance filter for cleaner results
• Residential proxy support (recommended for stable runs)

Legal notice & data privacy

This Actor collects only publicly available information that any visitor can see on Reddit without logging in — for example post titles, public post text, subreddit names, public usernames, vote counts, and public URLs.

It does not:

• Access private messages, private subreddits, or content behind login walls
• Bypass authentication or technical access controls
• Collect special categories of personal data by design

User responsibilities: You must use this Actor lawfully and only for purposes permitted by Reddit's terms and applicable regulations (including GDPR and similar privacy laws where they apply). Do not use collected data to identify, profile, or contact individuals without a valid legal basis. You are responsible for retention, lawful processing, and honoring data-subject rights for any personal data you obtain. The Actor developer does not control how you use the output.

Features

• Separate search per keyword with matchedKeyword and searchQuery in output
• Sort and time range (new, day, week, etc.)
• Optional subreddit filter
• filterByKeywords — save only posts where a keyword appears in title, body, or URL
• postDateLimit — skip posts older than a given date
• Pay per saved post (reddit-post or reddit-post-filtered events)
• Fail-fast crawling (no retries) — tune reliability via delays and proxy

Input

Field	Default	Description
keywords	["adidas", "nike"]	Keywords or phrases — one Reddit search each (required)
sort	new	relevance, hot, top, new, comments
time	day	hour, day, week, month, year, all
maxPosts	10	Maximum posts saved to the dataset (never exceeded)
includeNSFW	true	When true, Reddit search includes 18+ (NSFW) posts (include_over_18=on). Set false to exclude adult-marked content from search results.
subreddit	—	Limit search to one subreddit (name without r/, e.g. soccer)
filterByKeywords	false	When true, only posts containing at least one keyword in title, body, or URL are saved and charged. Recommended for cleaner results.
postDateLimit	—	Skip posts older than this date. ISO 8601, e.g. 2026-05-20 or 2026-05-20T00:00:00.000Z (UTC). Leave empty to disable.
proxy	RESIDENTIAL	Apify proxy — residential recommended
requestDelayMs	1000	Delay before each page load (ms, ±25% jitter). Increase to 1500–3000 if you see rate limits.
maxConcurrency	4	Parallel browser tabs (1–10)
debugMode	false	Verbose logging

Recommended input for Store / production

{
  "keywords": ["your brand", "your product"],
  "sort": "new",
  "time": "day",
  "maxPosts": 50,
  "filterByKeywords": true,
  "includeNSFW": false,
  "proxy": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"]
  }
}

Output

One dataset row per saved post:

Field	Description
dataType	Always post
username	Public Reddit username of the author
authorFlair	Author flair text, or null
title	Post title
body	Post text ("" for link/image posts with no selftext)
upVotes	Upvote count
numberOfComments	Comment count
communityName	Subreddit (e.g. r/soccer)
url	Canonical public post URL
searchQuery	Reddit query that found this post
matchedKeyword	Input keyword from that search

Example

{
  "dataType": "post",
  "username": "example_user",
  "authorFlair": null,
  "title": "Adidas vs Nike running shoes",
  "body": "Looking for recommendations...",
  "upVotes": 42,
  "numberOfComments": 15,
  "communityName": "r/running",
  "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/running/comments/abc123/example/",
  "searchQuery": "adidas",
  "matchedKeyword": "adidas"
}

Keyword filter

When filterByKeywords is true, a post is saved and charged only if at least one input keyword appears in the title, body, or URL (case-insensitive). This removes obvious noise from Reddit search (e.g. posts that matched indirectly). You may receive fewer than maxPosts rows if many candidates are filtered out or fail to load.

Limitations

• Public content only — no private or login-only data
• Fail-fast — failed requests are not retried (maxRequestRetries: 0); expect some loss; increase requestDelayMs or lower maxConcurrency to improve stability
• Fewer than maxPosts — possible when search returns few results, many requests fail, or the keyword filter rejects posts
• Empty body — normal for link posts, videos, and polls
• Rate limits — Reddit may block or throttle; use residential proxy and reasonable delays
• No comments scraping — only post-level fields, not individual comments
• Duplicate keywords across searches — same post appears once; matchedKeyword reflects the first search that enqueued it

Local development

npm install
npm run build
npx apify run

Use scripts/test-input.example.json or set input in Apify Console. For cloud runs, connect the Git repository and deploy from your dev branch.

Troubleshooting

Issue	What to try
Few or zero results	Widen time, change sort, add keywords, or remove subreddit
Slow or failing runs	Enable residential proxy; set requestDelayMs to 2000–3000; reduce maxConcurrency
Noisy results	Set filterByKeywords: true
Adult content in results	Set includeNSFW: false
Empty body fields	Expected for link/media posts — check title and url

Pricing

When pay-per-event is enabled on Apify Store:

Mode	Event	Description
filterByKeywords: false	reddit-post	Each saved post from search (may include off-topic results)
filterByKeywords: true	reddit-post-filtered	Each post verified to contain a keyword in title, body, or URL

Set apify-default-dataset-item price to $0 to avoid double billing with dataset rows. Configure both custom events in Apify Console → Monetization (price the filtered event higher than raw). Platform usage (compute, proxy) is billed separately.

Run via API

POST https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/olek_automate~reddit-search/runs?token=YOUR_TOKEN
Content-Type: application/json
{
  "keywords": ["adidas", "nike"],
  "maxPosts": 10,
  "filterByKeywords": true,
  "includeNSFW": false,
  "proxy": { "useApifyProxy": true, "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"] }
}

Fetch results:

GET https://api.apify.com/v2/datasets/{defaultDatasetId}/items?token=YOUR_TOKEN