Reddit Community Scraper 👾

What does Reddit Community Scraper do?

Reddit Community Scraper collects structured posts and comments from public Reddit communities. Enter subreddit, user profile, or direct post URLs and receive fast records containing text, authors, communities, links, media, engagement, moderation flags, and timestamps.

Use the Actor for community research, content analysis, competitor monitoring, creator research, moderation studies, and reporting datasets. Control post and comment counts, sorting, time range, NSFW handling, post age, and proxy configuration.

Why use Reddit Community Scraper?

• Collect posts and discussions together - Save the original post and its comments as separate, structured dataset records.
• Support several Reddit source types - Process communities, public user profiles, direct post threads, or mixed URL lists in one run.
• Keep useful context - Comment records include parent post information, while post records include community, author, media, link, and engagement details when available.
• Focus the dataset - Set post and comment limits, request newest-first activity, restrict posts by age, skip comments, or exclude NSFW content.
• Prepare data for analysis - Export the dataset as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, or connect it to another workflow through Apify integrations and APIs.

What data can you extract from Reddit?

The dataset includes post and comment records. Fields appear when Reddit provides the corresponding information, so metadata can vary by item.

Data area	Important fields	Description
Record identity	dataType, id, parsedId	Identifies whether the item is a post or comment and provides its Reddit identifiers.
Source links	url, permalink, sourceUrl	Direct item URL, relative permalink, and URL used as the run source.
Text	title, body, html	Post title and post or comment content, including formatted content when available.
Author	username, userId, postAuthor	Author information for the item and, on comments, the parent post author.
Community	communityName, parsedCommunityName, subredditId	Community name and Reddit community identifier.
Thread context	postId, parsedPostId, postTitle, postUrl, parentId, depth	Parent post and nesting information.
Engagement	numberOfComments, upVotes, ups, downs, upVoteRatio, controversiality	Scores, vote counts, ratios, and comment counts when available.
Links and media	domain, link, thumbnailUrl, imageUrls, mediaType	External links, domains, thumbnails, image URLs, and derived media type.
Community metadata	flair, authorFlairText, authorFlairRichtext, category, discussionType	Flair and other metadata when exposed by Reddit.
Status flags	isVideo, isAd, isSelf, isPinned, isStickied, isLocked, isSpoiler, isArchived, over18	Content, moderation, and visibility flags.
Dates and provenance	createdAt, editedAt, scrapedAt, retrievalSource	Creation and edit times, collection time, and source category for the record.

How to use Reddit Community Scraper

1. Open the Actor in Apify Console.
2. Add one or more public Reddit URLs to startUrls.
3. Set the number of posts and comments you want to collect.
4. Choose sorting, time, age, NSFW, and comment options as needed.
5. Run the Actor and review the dataset preview.
6. Export the results or connect the dataset to a workflow.

A subreddit URL is the simplest starting point. Use a direct post URL for one discussion, or a user profile URL for recent public activity from one account.

Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
startUrls	Array	Yes	Actor example URL	Reddit URLs to process. Supports subreddit URLs, public user profile URLs, and direct post URLs.
maxPostCount	Integer	No	4	Maximum number of posts to save across all supplied sources. Set to 0 to skip posts.
maxCommentsPerPost	Integer	No	2	Maximum number of comments to save for each post. Set to 0 to skip comments.
skipComments	Boolean	No	false	Skip comment collection entirely when set to true.
sort	String	No	"new"	Accepted sort preference. The selected public data source returns newest-first results; unsupported ranking preferences are reported in the run log.
time	String	No	"all"	Optional date window for supported time-based requests: hour, day, week, month, year, or all.
includeNSFW	Boolean	No	false	Include posts marked as NSFW.
maxPostAgeDays	Integer	No	Not set	Save only posts created within the last specified number of days.
proxy	Object	No	Apify Proxy prefill	Proxy configuration for repeated or higher-volume runs.

These are runtime limits. Availability depends on the supplied URLs, public visibility, thread contents, and the current coverage of the public data source. Engagement values may lag behind live Reddit values.

Output Data

Each dataset item is a JSON object. Key output fields are listed below.

Field	Type	Description
dataType	String	Either post or comment.
id	String	Full Reddit identifier, such as t3_... for a post or t1_... for a comment.
parsedId	String	Short Reddit item identifier.
url	String	Absolute URL for the post or comment.
title	String	Post title. Usually absent from comment records.
body	String	Post or comment text.
username	String	Author username when available.
communityName	String	Community name, such as r/GrowthHacking.
postId	String	Parent post identifier for comment records.
postTitle	String	Parent post title for comment records.
parentId	String	Immediate parent identifier for comments.
depth	Integer	Comment nesting depth.
upVotes	Integer	Score shown for the item.
numberOfComments	Integer	Comment count associated with a post.
link	String	External link for link posts, when available.
imageUrls	Array	Preview or gallery image URLs, when available.
mediaType	String	Content type such as text, image, video, or link.
createdAt	String	Creation time in ISO 8601 format.
scrapedAt	String	Collection time in ISO 8601 format.
sourceUrl	String	Reddit URL that produced the record.
retrievalSource	String	Source category used for the record, such as a comment thread.

Additional fields can include ups, downs, upVoteRatio, flair, awards, author flags, moderation flags, archive status, and edit time. Missing values are omitted.

Usage Examples

Scrape a subreddit

Collect new posts and a small number of comments from one community:

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

Scrape multiple communities

Compare recent activity from several communities in one dataset:

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

Scrape a direct post thread

Collect one discussion and its comments. A direct post URL is useful for focused research or monitoring a known thread:

{
  "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 Reddit user profile

Collect public posts from a user profile without downloading comments:

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

Sample Output

This comment shows a typical item. Fields vary because Reddit does not expose the same metadata on every record.

{
  "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"
}

Tips for Best Results

• Start with a small run - Test one subreddit or post with a low maxPostCount before collecting a larger dataset.
• Use direct URLs for focused work - A direct post URL avoids collecting unrelated community posts when you only need one discussion.
• Choose sorting deliberately - Use new for newest activity. Other accepted sort values are preserved for input compatibility, but results are returned newest-first rather than ranked by live Reddit score.
• Limit comments for speed and size - Use skipComments: true for post-only monitoring, or set maxCommentsPerPost for the depth you need.
• Use maxPostAgeDays for recent research - This helps with trend monitoring and recurring runs.
• Review content settings - Keep includeNSFW disabled unless your use case requires it.
• Use proxy settings when needed - Apify Proxy is optional for the selected source, but can help stabilize larger or repeated runs.
• Expect sparse metadata - Deleted authors, private profiles, removed content, and unavailable media can result in missing fields.

Integrations and Export Formats

• Apify API - Read dataset items programmatically after a run.
• Google Sheets - Review posts and comments in a spreadsheet.
• Webhooks - Notify another service when a run or dataset is ready.
• Make or Zapier - Send Reddit records into reporting, alerts, or enrichment workflows.
• JSON - Use structured records in applications, analysis pipelines, and AI data workflows.
• CSV and Excel - Open the dataset in spreadsheet tools for filtering and reporting.
• XML - Export records for systems that require XML input.

Schedule recurring runs in Apify Console for community monitoring and fresh content collection.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Reddit URLs can I use?

You can use subreddit URLs, public Reddit user profile URLs, and direct post URLs. The startUrls array can contain mixed source types in the same run.

Does the Actor collect comments?

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

Can I collect only recent posts?

Yes. Set maxPostAgeDays to the number of days to include. The actor applies this filter locally after the source returns available records.

Why are some fields missing?

Public Reddit records are not uniform. Deleted users, removed posts, private content, and unavailable engagement details can produce sparse records. Engagement values may also be delayed in the source archive.

Can I collect posts without comments?

Yes. Set skipComments to true or set maxCommentsPerPost to 0.

Can I export the dataset to CSV or Excel?

Yes. Apify datasets can be downloaded as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, and other supported formats. They can also be accessed through the Apify API or connected to integrations.

Can I schedule recurring Reddit collection?

Yes. Create an Apify schedule and choose the frequency that fits your monitoring workflow. Use maxPostAgeDays when each run should focus on fresh posts.

Is scraping Reddit data legal?

Public data collection can involve legal, privacy, and platform-policy requirements. You are responsible for complying with Reddit's terms, applicable laws, and any restrictions that apply to your use of the data.

Related Actors

• Reddit Comments Scraper - Collect Reddit comment data when your workflow is focused specifically on comment threads.

Support

For issues or feature requests, use the Issues tab on the Actor page or contact the developer through Apify. Include the source URL type, input settings, run ID, and a short description of the problem.

Legal Notice

This Actor is intended for responsible collection of publicly available Reddit data. Users are responsible for complying with Reddit's terms, Apify policies, privacy requirements, copyright rules, and applicable laws. Do not use collected data for harassment, unauthorized profiling, spam, or other harmful activity. Respect content removal requests, platform limits, and Reddit users' rights.