Reddit Community Scraper

Extract Reddit posts and comments from subreddits, user feeds, and direct thread URLs in a structured dataset. Collect titles, text, engagement metrics, community metadata, comment depth, author details, and source references for research, monitoring, and analysis.

Features

• Subreddit collection — Gather recent posts from one or more Reddit communities
• Thread comment extraction — Collect top-level comments and nested replies from each post
• User feed support — Pull post activity from Reddit user profile URLs
• Rich metadata output — Save author, community, engagement, moderation, flair, and timestamp fields
• Clean datasets — Skip duplicate records and omit null or empty values from saved items
• Flexible limits — Control how many posts and comments to collect in each run

Use Cases

Community Research

Track what specific Reddit communities are discussing right now. Use structured post and comment data to study trends, recurring questions, and audience language.

Competitive Monitoring

Watch how people talk about products, services, and industries inside target subreddits. Capture both original posts and comment responses for a fuller view of sentiment and objections.

Content Analysis

Build datasets for topic clustering, moderation research, or engagement analysis. The actor saves community and author context alongside each record for easier downstream filtering.

User Activity Review

Collect recent post activity from public Reddit user profiles. This is useful for creator research, outreach preparation, and niche account monitoring.

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Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
startUrls	Array	Yes	Community example in actor input	Reddit URLs to scrape. Supports subreddit URLs, user profile URLs, and direct post URLs.
maxPostCount	Integer	No	4	Maximum number of posts to save across the run.
maxCommentsPerPost	Integer	No	2	Maximum number of comments to save for each post. Set 0 to skip comments.
skipComments	Boolean	No	false	Skip comment extraction entirely.
sort	String	No	"new"	Sort order for subreddit listings.
time	String	No	"all"	Time filter used with supported sort modes.
includeNSFW	Boolean	No	false	Include NSFW posts in the results.
maxPostAgeDays	Integer	No	—	Only save posts newer than the specified number of days.
proxy	Object	No	Residential prefill	Proxy settings for higher-volume runs.

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Output Data

Each dataset item is either a post record or a comment record.

Field	Type	Description
dataType	String	Record type: post or comment
id	String	Reddit full identifier such as t3_... or t1_...
parsedId	String	Short Reddit item ID
url	String	Absolute Reddit URL for the record
permalink	String	Relative Reddit permalink
title	String	Post title
body	String	Post or comment text content
html	String	HTML version of the text content when available
username	String	Author username
userId	String	Author full Reddit identifier
communityName	String	Community name such as r/GrowthHacking
parsedCommunityName	String	Community slug without the r/ prefix
subredditId	String	Reddit community identifier
postId	String	Parent post full identifier for comment records
parsedPostId	String	Parent post short ID for comment records
postTitle	String	Parent post title for comment records
postAuthor	String	Parent post author for comment records
postUrl	String	Parent post URL for comment records
parentId	String	Parent item identifier for comment records
numberOfComments	Integer	Total comment count on a post
depth	Integer	Comment nesting depth
upVotes	Integer	Score shown for the record
ups	Integer	Upvote count when available
downs	Integer	Downvote count when available
upVoteRatio	Number	Post upvote ratio
controversiality	Integer	Comment controversiality indicator
flair	String	Post flair text
authorFlairText	String	Comment author flair text
authorFlairRichtext	String	Combined rich-text author flair content
domain	String	Post domain value
link	String	External link for link posts
thumbnailUrl	String	Thumbnail URL or Reddit thumbnail marker
imageUrls	Array	Extracted preview or gallery image URLs
mediaType	String	Derived content type such as text, image, video, or link
totalAwardsReceived	Integer	Number of awards received
gilded	Integer	Gilded count
isVideo	Boolean	Whether the post is a video
isAd	Boolean	Whether the post is promoted
isSelf	Boolean	Whether the post is a self-post
isPinned	Boolean	Whether the post is pinned
isStickied	Boolean	Whether the record is stickied
isLocked	Boolean	Whether the record is locked
isSpoiler	Boolean	Whether the post is marked as spoiler
isArchived	Boolean	Whether the record is archived
isCollapsed	Boolean	Whether the comment is collapsed
isSubmitter	Boolean	Whether the comment author is the original poster
over18	Boolean	NSFW flag
authorIsBlocked	Boolean	Author blocked flag when exposed
authorPremium	Boolean	Reddit premium flag for the author
distinguished	String	Moderator or admin distinction value
discussionType	String	Post discussion type when present
category	String	Category value when present
removedByCategory	String	Removal category when exposed
createdAt	String	Creation timestamp in ISO 8601 format
editedAt	String	Edit timestamp in ISO 8601 format
scrapedAt	String	Extraction timestamp in ISO 8601 format
sourceUrl	String	Source URL from the input run
retrievalSource	String	Extraction path used for the record

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Usage Examples

Scrape a Subreddit

Collect recent posts and comments from one subreddit:

{
    "startUrls": [
        { "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/GrowthHacking/" }
    ],
    "maxPostCount": 20,
    "maxCommentsPerPost": 10,
    "sort": "new"
}

Scrape Multiple Communities

Collect posts from several subreddits in one run:

{
    "startUrls": [
        { "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/" },
        { "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/" }
    ],
    "maxPostCount": 30,
    "maxCommentsPerPost": 5,
    "sort": "top",
    "time": "week"
}

Scrape a Direct Post Thread

Collect a single thread and its comments:

{
    "startUrls": [
        {
            "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/GrowthHacking/comments/1tuorhf/best_inbound_ai_sdr_tools_in_2026_or_are_we_all/"
        }
    ],
    "maxPostCount": 1,
    "maxCommentsPerPost": 50
}

Scrape a User Feed

Collect recent posts from a Reddit user profile:

{
    "startUrls": [
        { "url": "https://www.reddit.com/user/example_user/" }
    ],
    "maxPostCount": 15,
    "skipComments": true
}

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Sample Output

{
    "dataType": "comment",
    "id": "t1_opaxdor",
    "parsedId": "opaxdor",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/GrowthHacking/comments/1tuorhf/best_inbound_ai_sdr_tools_in_2026_or_are_we_all/opaxdor/",
    "permalink": "/r/GrowthHacking/comments/1tuorhf/best_inbound_ai_sdr_tools_in_2026_or_are_we_all/opaxdor/",
    "parentId": "t3_1tuorhf",
    "postId": "t3_1tuorhf",
    "parsedPostId": "1tuorhf",
    "postTitle": "Best inbound ai sdr tools in 2026 or are we all just paying for better dashboards?",
    "postAuthor": "GoldTap9957",
    "postUrl": "https://www.reddit.com/r/GrowthHacking/comments/1tuorhf/best_inbound_ai_sdr_tools_in_2026_or_are_we_all/",
    "username": "LeaderAtLeading",
    "userId": "t2_2c0mv5otpl",
    "communityName": "r/GrowthHacking",
    "parsedCommunityName": "GrowthHacking",
    "subredditId": "t5_2vpgj",
    "body": "Most are dashboards with LLMs glued on. Real signal is still manual to verify.",
    "html": "<div class=\"md\"><p>Most are dashboards with LLMs glued on. Real signal is still manual to verify.</p></div>",
    "depth": 0,
    "upVotes": 1,
    "ups": 1,
    "downs": 0,
    "controversiality": 0,
    "totalAwardsReceived": 0,
    "isSubmitter": false,
    "isStickied": false,
    "isLocked": false,
    "isArchived": false,
    "isCollapsed": false,
    "authorIsBlocked": false,
    "authorPremium": true,
    "createdAt": "2026-06-02T12:06:29.000Z",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-06-02T13:43:02.535Z",
    "sourceUrl": "https://www.reddit.com/r/GrowthHacking",
    "retrievalSource": "comment_thread"
}

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Tips for Best Results

Choose Strong Source URLs

• Use direct subreddit, user, or post URLs from www.reddit.com
• Start with a small maxPostCount when validating a new target
• Use direct post URLs when you care most about one specific thread

Control Dataset Size

• Keep maxCommentsPerPost low for fast monitoring runs
• Increase comment limits only when thread depth matters to your analysis
• Use skipComments: true when you only need post-level data

Improve Signal Quality

• Use sort: "top" with a time filter for high-engagement posts
• Use maxPostAgeDays to focus on fresh discussions
• Leave includeNSFW disabled unless that content is required

Proxy Configuration

For larger or more sensitive runs, configure Apify Proxy in the actor input:

{
    "proxy": {
        "useApifyProxy": true,
        "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"]
    }
}

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Integrations

Connect your Reddit dataset with:

• Google Sheets — Review community activity in a familiar spreadsheet workflow
• Airtable — Build searchable records of posts and comments
• Slack — Share noteworthy thread activity with your team
• Webhooks — Send new records into your own systems
• Make — Automate monitoring and reporting flows
• Zapier — Trigger downstream actions from dataset exports

Export Formats

• JSON — For structured application workflows
• CSV — For spreadsheets and bulk analysis
• Excel — For reporting and review
• XML — For system integrations that require XML

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Frequently Asked Questions

What kinds of Reddit URLs can I use?

You can provide subreddit URLs, user profile URLs, or direct thread URLs. Mixed inputs are supported in the same run.

Does the actor collect comments?

Yes. Comments are collected for saved posts unless you set skipComments to true or set maxCommentsPerPost to 0.

How are duplicate records handled?

The actor tracks seen post and comment IDs during the run and skips repeat records before saving them.

Why do some fields appear only on certain items?

Reddit does not expose every field on every post or comment. Empty values are omitted from saved records to keep the dataset cleaner.

Can I focus on only recent posts?

Yes. Use maxPostAgeDays to restrict the run to newer posts.

What happens when a thread has more hidden comments?

The actor continues expanding thread comments until it reaches your per-post comment limit or the thread has no more retrievable comments.

Do I need a proxy for every run?

Not always. Smaller local runs can work without a proxy, while larger or repeated collection is more reliable with Apify Proxy enabled.

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Support

For issues or feature requests, contact support through the Apify Console.

Resources

• Apify Documentation
• API Reference
• Scheduling Runs

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Legal Notice

This actor is designed for legitimate data collection purposes. Users are responsible for ensuring compliance with Reddit's terms of service and applicable laws. Use data responsibly and respect platform limits.