Reddit Scraper

Scrape Reddit posts, comments, and subreddit data. Extract posts by subreddit, search query, or direct URL with full comment threads and nested replies.

Features

• Subreddit scraping - Browse any subreddit sorted by hot, new, top, or rising
• Reddit search - Search across all of Reddit or within specific subreddits
• Direct post scraping - Scrape any Reddit post URL with full comments
• Nested comments - Extract full comment threads with configurable depth
• Flexible output - Posts with comments, posts only, comments only, or flat format
• Score filtering - Filter posts by minimum upvote score
• Polite scraping - Built-in rate limiting to respect Reddit's servers

Input

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
subreddits	string[]	[]	Subreddit names to scrape (without r/ prefix)
searchQueries	string[]	[]	Search terms to find posts
postUrls	string[]	[]	Direct Reddit post URLs
sort	string	"hot"	Sort order: hot, new, top, rising
timeFilter	string	"week"	Time range for Top sort: hour, day, week, month, year, all
maxPosts	integer	25	Max posts per subreddit/query (1-500)
includeComments	boolean	true	Whether to scrape comments
maxComments	integer	50	Max top-level comments per post (0 = all)
includeReplies	boolean	true	Include nested comment replies
maxReplyDepth	integer	3	Max reply nesting depth (0-10)
minScore	integer	0	Minimum post score filter
outputFormat	string	"posts_with_comments"	Output format (see below)

Output Formats

posts_with_comments (default)

Each dataset item is a post with embedded comments array:

{
    "type": "post",
    "id": "1abc123",
    "subreddit": "python",
    "title": "What's the best Python web framework in 2026?",
    "author": "dev_user",
    "score": 542,
    "upvoteRatio": 0.95,
    "numComments": 187,
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/python/comments/1abc123/...",
    "selfText": "I've been using Flask but wondering...",
    "createdAt": "2026-02-20T15:30:00+00:00",
    "flair": "Discussion",
    "comments": [
        {
            "type": "comment",
            "id": "comment1",
            "author": "expert_dev",
            "body": "FastAPI is the way to go...",
            "score": 89,
            "depth": 0,
            "replies": [
                {
                    "type": "comment",
                    "body": "Agreed, especially for APIs...",
                    "depth": 1,
                    "replies": []
                }
            ]
        }
    ]
}

posts_only

Posts without comments (faster scraping).

comments_only

Each comment as a separate dataset item, enriched with post title and subreddit.

flat

One item per post and one item per comment (no nesting). Useful for data analysis and CSV export.

Example Usage

Scrape top posts from r/python

{
    "subreddits": ["python"],
    "sort": "top",
    "timeFilter": "month",
    "maxPosts": 50,
    "includeComments": true
}

Search Reddit for a topic

{
    "searchQueries": ["web scraping best practices"],
    "maxPosts": 25,
    "outputFormat": "flat"
}

Scrape specific posts

{
    "postUrls": [
        "https://www.reddit.com/r/python/comments/abc123/example_post/"
    ],
    "maxComments": 100,
    "maxReplyDepth": 5
}

Multiple subreddits, posts only (fast)

{
    "subreddits": ["machinelearning", "datascience", "artificial"],
    "sort": "hot",
    "maxPosts": 100,
    "includeComments": false,
    "outputFormat": "posts_only"
}

How It Works

This actor uses Reddit's public JSON API (appending .json to Reddit URLs) to extract data. No Reddit API credentials are required.

Rate limiting: The actor includes built-in delays between requests (1.5 seconds) to be respectful of Reddit's servers. Using Apify proxy is recommended for larger scraping jobs.

Comment threading: Comments are extracted with their full reply tree structure. The maxReplyDepth parameter controls how deep into reply chains the scraper goes. Replies are nested in a replies array within each comment.

Use Cases

• Market research - Monitor product discussions and sentiment across subreddits
• Content analysis - Analyze trending topics, keywords, and engagement patterns
• Competitive intelligence - Track mentions of brands, products, or competitors
• Academic research - Collect Reddit data for NLP, sentiment analysis, or social studies
• SEO and content - Find popular questions and topics for content creation
• Community monitoring - Track discussions in specific subreddits over time

Limitations

• Reddit may rate-limit requests; use proxy configuration for large jobs
• Some subreddits may be private or restricted
• Deleted posts/comments show as [deleted]
• Maximum ~1000 posts per subreddit listing (Reddit API limitation)