Reddit Scraper

Scrape Reddit posts and comments from any subreddit. Extract titles, scores, comment text, authors, and nested reply threads at scale. No API key or login required.

What It Does

Fetches posts from one or more subreddits using Reddit's public JSON API. Optionally fetches the full comment tree for each post, with configurable depth and comment limits. Posts and comments are returned as separate items in the dataset.

Use with AI Agents (MCP)

Connect this actor to any MCP-compatible AI client — Claude Desktop, Claude.ai, Cursor, VS Code, LangChain, LlamaIndex, or custom agents.

Apify MCP server URL:

https://mcp.apify.com?tools=santamaria-automations/reddit-scraper

Example prompt once connected:

"Use reddit-scraper to get the top 50 posts from r/MachineLearning this week with comments. Return results as a table showing title, score, and comment count."

Features

• Multi-subreddit — scrape multiple subreddits in a single run
• Comments included — fetch full comment trees with nested replies
• Comment depth control — choose how many levels deep to go (1-5)
• Comments per post cap — limit comments per post to control output size
• Sorting options — hot, new, top, rising
• Deduplication — the same post is never returned twice
• Full pagination — follows Reddit's after cursors to collect all matching posts
• Anti-bot resilient — TLS fingerprinted sessions with automatic IP rotation
• Rate-limit aware — stays within Reddit's 60 req/min public API limit
• No credentials needed — uses Reddit's public JSON API
• Pay-per-result — only pay for items you receive

Data Extracted

Posts (type = "post")

Field	Example
id	"abc123"
type	"post"
subreddit	"programming"
title	"Show HN: I built a Go-based Reddit scraper"
author	"john_doe"
text	"Full text of a self post..."
url	"https://github.com/example/repo"
score	1234
num_comments	87
is_stickied	false
created_utc	"2026-04-25T10:00:00Z"
reddit_url	"https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/..."
scraped_at	"2026-04-25T10:30:00Z"

Comments (type = "comment")

Field	Example
id	"xyz789"
type	"comment"
subreddit	"programming"
author	"helpful_user"
text	"Great project! Have you considered..."
score	42
parent_id	"t3_abc123"
post_id	"abc123"
post_title	"Show HN: I built a Go-based Reddit scraper"
is_stickied	false
created_utc	"2026-04-25T11:15:00Z"
reddit_url	"https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/.../xyz789/"
scraped_at	"2026-04-25T11:30:00Z"

Pricing

Pay-per-result pricing. You only pay for items you receive.

Event	Price	Description
Actor start	$0.005	One-time container startup fee
Item scraped	$0.75 / 1,000	Each post or comment returned

Examples:

• 100 posts (no comments) = $0.08 total ($0.005 + $0.075)
• 100 posts + 500 comments = $0.455 total ($0.005 + $0.45)
• 1,000 posts + 5,000 comments = $4.505 total ($0.005 + $4.50)

6x cheaper than competing Reddit scrapers ($5/1k+). No monthly fees. No minimum spend.

No monthly fees. No minimum spend.

Input

Field	Type	Description	Default
subreddits	string[]	Subreddit names to scrape (no r/ prefix)	["programming"]
searchQuery	string	Search Reddit for matching posts (overrides subreddits)	—
usernames	string[]	Scrape all posts/comments from these users (no u/ prefix)	—
sort	string	hot, new, top, rising (or relevance for search)	hot
includeComments	boolean	Fetch comments for each post	false
commentDepth	integer	Nesting depth: 1=top-level, 2=+replies, up to 5	3
maxCommentsPerPost	integer	Max comments per post. 0 = unlimited.	100
maxResults	integer	Max posts to return (across all subreddits). 0 = unlimited.	100
proxyConfiguration	object	Apify proxy settings	Auto

Usage Examples

Scrape hot posts from multiple subreddits

{
  "subreddits": ["programming", "python", "golang"],
  "sort": "hot",
  "maxResults": 200
}

Get top posts with full comment threads

{
  "subreddits": ["MachineLearning"],
  "sort": "top",
  "includeComments": true,
  "commentDepth": 3,
  "maxCommentsPerPost": 50,
  "maxResults": 100
}

Scrape new posts without comments

{
  "subreddits": ["startups", "SaaS"],
  "sort": "new",
  "maxResults": 500
}

Search Reddit

{
  "searchQuery": "artificial intelligence startup",
  "sort": "top",
  "maxResults": 50
}

Scrape a user's activity (experimental)

{
  "usernames": ["AutoModerator"],
  "maxResults": 50
}

Note: Reddit applies stricter rate limiting on user profile pages. Some users may return fewer results.

Deep comment mining from a single subreddit

{
  "subreddits": ["AskReddit"],
  "sort": "hot",
  "includeComments": true,
  "commentDepth": 5,
  "maxCommentsPerPost": 200,
  "maxResults": 20
}

Output

Results are exported to the default dataset. Posts and comments are interleaved — each post is followed by its comments (if includeComments is enabled). Use the type field to filter posts vs comments.

Export to JSON, CSV, Excel, or connect via the Apify API.

FAQ

Do I need a Reddit account or API key? No. This scraper uses Reddit's public JSON API which is accessible without authentication.

What is the rate limit? Reddit allows 60 requests per minute on the public JSON API. The scraper automatically paces requests to stay within this limit.

Can I scrape private subreddits? No. Only public subreddits and posts visible without logging in are accessible.

How are comments structured? Each comment is a separate output item with type: "comment". The parent_id field links to the parent (either the post t3_... or another comment t1_...). The post_id and post_title fields always reference the original post.

Are deleted comments included? No. Comments where both the author and body are [deleted] or [removed] are skipped.

Why do I need a proxy? Reddit blocks some datacenter IPs. The scraper uses Chrome TLS-fingerprinted sessions and rotates proxy IPs until it finds one that passes Reddit's checks. Datacenter proxies work fine — no residential proxy needed.