Reddit Subreddit Monitor for Posts and Signals

Fast answer: what this Actor is for

Monitor Reddit communities for customer language, market signals, posts, scores, and discussion links without building a custom Reddit pipeline.

• Run it from the Apify UI for one-off exports.
• Schedule it or call it by API for recurring monitoring.
• Use the dataset output directly in spreadsheets, automations, and AI agents.

TL;DR

Monitor public subreddit Atom feeds for new posts and optional thread comments. Returns clean structured JSON with titles, authors, direct links, timestamps, and agent-ready summaries. Watchlist mode emits only new records since the previous run, so daily schedules become a clean diff feed. No Reddit OAuth is required. Pricing starts at $0.0035 per record on GOLD and higher plans.

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Try it on a small dataset, then let us know what you think in a review.

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What does Reddit Subreddit Monitor do?

Reddit Subreddit Monitor extracts posts and optional comments from public subreddit Atom feeds. Pick one or more subreddits and a supported sort order (new, hot, or top); get back stable IDs, titles or comment text, authors, direct links, timestamps, and a short markdown summary ready for an LLM.

Comments are optional. Turn on fetchComments and you get one record per comment with depth, parent linkage, body, score, and author info.

Watchlist mode (watchlistMode: true) makes this scraper schedulable. State persists across runs in the actor's key-value store, so a daily cron only emits posts and comments NEW since the last run.

Why scrape Reddit?

Reddit moves fast and almost every niche, brand, sentiment, and trend has a dedicated subreddit. Brand-listening teams, content marketers, recruiters, investors, and journalists all watch specific subs every day, but the Reddit UI doesn't give you a clean export. The manual workflow is refreshing 10 subreddits a few times a day and copy-pasting interesting posts into a spreadsheet.

We deliver new posts plus optional comments as structured JSON. Watchlist mode runs daily and only emits what changed since yesterday, so a content team or AI agent gets a clean diff instead of re-ingesting the same posts. No Reddit account needed.

Who needs this?

• AI / LLM teams building training corpora, RAG sources, or fine-tuning datasets from high-quality discourse
• Brand monitoring teams watching for new mentions of their products on subreddits where their customers actually live
• Market researchers tracking sentiment on niche subreddits over time (watchlistMode: true + a daily schedule)
• Recruiters and DevRel scanning industry subreddits for hiring or product-launch signals
• Investors and traders mining r/wallstreetbets, r/stocks, r/CryptoCurrency, r/options for sentiment shifts
• AI agent builders (Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, n8n, Make.com) feeding agents a steady stream of normalized Reddit data

How to use Reddit Subreddit Monitor

1. Open the Input tab on the actor page
2. Add one or more subreddit names to the subreddits field (without the r/ prefix; the actor strips it if you include it)
3. Pick a sort order (new is the default; use top with timeFilter: 'week' for the week's best)
4. Set postsPerSubreddit (1-25; default 10) and maxItems (default 50, conservative for the 5-minute auto-test)
5. Optionally enable fetchComments and set commentsPerPost if you want comment threads
6. Optionally enable watchlistMode for daily scheduled runs that only return new records
7. Click Start or call the actor via the Apify REST API or the Apify CLI

You can run this scraper on demand from the Console, schedule it (Apify lets you schedule any actor with cron), call it via API, integrate with Make, Zapier, n8n, Slack, Google Sheets, or pipe it directly into a Claude or ChatGPT custom agent.

How much will scraping Reddit cost?

This actor is priced per event. Two events:

• Actor Start: $0.003 once per run
• Reddit record (post or comment): tiered, charged per record written

Apify plan	$/1000 records
FREE	$5.00
BRONZE	$4.50
SILVER	$4.00
GOLD	$3.50
PLATINUM	$3.50
DIAMOND	$3.50

A typical daily watchlist run on 5 subreddits with postsPerSubreddit: 25 returns up to 125 records, or fewer after watchlist deduplication: about $0.44 on GOLD, including the Actor start event.

You only pay for records actually saved. If a subreddit's listing fails or returns nothing, you don't pay for empty.

Is it legal to scrape Reddit?

Yes, with caveats: this actor only accesses publicly accessible subreddits and public posts (the same data anyone can read in a browser without logging in). It does not access NSFW or quarantined content gated behind logged-in walls; it does not authenticate as a Reddit account; it does not return private messages, modmail, or moderator-only data; it does not bypass any technical access control.

You are responsible for how you use the scraped data. Reddit's content is licensed under Reddit's User Agreement and individual users retain rights to their own content. For commercial redistribution of Reddit content (reselling raw posts), consult Reddit's API terms and your legal counsel. For personal research, AI training, brand monitoring, internal analytics, and similar uses, the scraped data is generally treated the same as any other public web content.

Examples

Example 1: Monitor r/programming for new posts

{
  "subreddits": ["programming"],
  "sort": "new",
  "postsPerSubreddit": 25,
  "maxItems": 25
}

Example 2: Top 25 from r/MachineLearning this week

{
  "subreddits": ["MachineLearning"],
  "sort": "top",
  "timeFilter": "week",
  "postsPerSubreddit": 25,
  "maxItems": 25
}

Example 3: Daily watchlist across 3 finance subreddits

{
  "subreddits": ["wallstreetbets", "stocks", "options"],
  "sort": "new",
  "watchlistMode": true,
  "postsPerSubreddit": 25,
  "maxItems": 75
}

Schedule this with the Apify scheduler at 0 14 * * * (daily at 14:00 UTC). The first run captures everything; subsequent runs only emit posts new since the previous run.

Example 4: Brand mention monitoring across niche subreddits

{
  "subreddits": ["SaaS", "Entrepreneur", "smallbusiness", "marketing"],
  "sort": "new",
  "watchlistMode": true,
  "maxItems": 100
}

Run daily, pipe the output to a Claude agent that scores each post for "mentions our brand" and routes hits to Slack.

Example 5: Pull comments for top 5 posts on r/AskHistorians

{
  "subreddits": ["AskHistorians"],
  "sort": "top",
  "timeFilter": "week",
  "postsPerSubreddit": 5,
  "fetchComments": true,
  "commentsPerPost": 25,
  "maxItems": 130
}

Example 6: Frequent new-post watchlist on r/all

{
  "subreddits": ["all"],
  "sort": "new",
  "watchlistMode": true,
  "postsPerSubreddit": 25
}

Run every 30 minutes and alert downstream when a new post matches your brand keyword.

Example 7: Build an AI training corpus from r/explainlikeimfive

{
  "subreddits": ["explainlikeimfive"],
  "sort": "top",
  "timeFilter": "month",
  "postsPerSubreddit": 25,
  "fetchComments": true,
  "commentsPerPost": 25,
  "maxItems": 650
}

Run weekly to build a bounded, deduplicated sample of public question-and-comment records.

Example 8: Hiring-signal scanner on r/cscareerquestions

{
  "subreddits": ["cscareerquestions", "ExperiencedDevs", "ITCareerQuestions"],
  "sort": "new",
  "watchlistMode": true,
  "postsPerSubreddit": 25
}

Pipe into a recruiter inbox: filter for posts mentioning "looking for" or "where should I apply".

Input parameters

Field	Type	Default	Description
subreddits	string[]	["programming"]	Subreddit names without r/ prefix. One run handles many.
sort	enum	new	new, hot, top
timeFilter	enum	day	Window for top: hour, day, week, month, year, all
postsPerSubreddit	int	10	1-25
fetchComments	bool	false	Walks the comment tree per post
commentsPerPost	int	0	Hard cap on comments per post (max 25)
watchlistMode	bool	false	Idempotent diff against KV-stored seen IDs
maxItems	int	50	Hard cap on total records (posts + comments)
useApifyProxy	bool	true	Apify residential proxy. Recommended.
apifyProxyGroups	string[]	["RESIDENTIAL"]

Reddit output format

The dataset has two record types. Filter by recordType.

reddit_post

Atom feeds reliably provide the stable ID, URL, title, author, subreddit, and timestamp. Fields unavailable in a feed, such as score or subscriber count, are returned as null rather than invented.

Field	Type	Description
outputSchemaVersion	string	Versioned schema literal ('2026-05-08')
recordType	literal	'reddit_post'
recordId	string	reddit:post:<postId> (idempotent, cross-run dedupe-friendly)
postId, fullname	string	Reddit's t3_<id> IDs
url, permalinkPath	string	Direct URL + canonical path
title	string	Post title
selftext, selftextHtml	string	Body text (markdown + HTML)
subreddit, subredditId, subredditSubscribers	string/int	Subreddit context
author	object	{ username, fullname, isPremium, flairText }
createdAt, scrapedAt	ISO 8601	Standard timestamps
score, ups, downs, upvoteRatio	number	Engagement (upvoteRatio is 0-1 float)
numComments, totalAwards, gilded	int	Engagement counts
media	object	{ type (image/video/gallery/link/self), url, thumbnail, domain }
isVideo, isSelf, isOriginalContent	bool	Post-type flags
isPinned, isStickied, isLocked, isArchived, isOver18, isSpoiler	bool	Mod/state flags
linkFlairText, linkFlairBackgroundColor	string	Flair
fieldCompletenessScore	int 0-100	Self-filtering signal
agentMarkdown	string	300-500 char LLM-ready summary

reddit_comment

Field	Type	Description
outputSchemaVersion, recordType, recordId	string	Discriminated identity
commentId, fullname, url, permalinkPath	string	Reddit IDs
postId, parentId, depth	string/int	Tree linkage
body, bodyHtml	string	Markdown + HTML body
subreddit, subredditId	string	Subreddit
author	object	{ username, fullname, isPremium, flairText }
createdAt, scrapedAt	ISO 8601	Timestamps
score, ups, downs, totalAwards, gilded	int	Engagement
isSubmitter, isStickied, isControversial, edited	bool	Status flags
fieldCompletenessScore, agentMarkdown	int / string	Quality signals

Sample record

{
  "outputSchemaVersion": "2026-05-08",
  "recordType": "reddit_post",
  "recordId": "reddit:post:1t7qsfi",
  "postId": "1t7qsfi",
  "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/1t7qsfi/...",
  "title": "How database work pulls you deep into systems engineering",
  "subreddit": "programming",
  "subredditSubscribers": 6874584,
  "author": { "username": "clairegiordano", "isPremium": false, "flairText": null },
  "createdAt": "2026-05-08T19:42:53.000Z",
  "score": 234,
  "upvoteRatio": 0.94,
  "numComments": 89,
  "media": { "type": "link", "url": "https://talkingpostgres.com/...", "domain": "talkingpostgres.com" },
  "isSelf": false,
  "linkFlairText": null,
  "fieldCompletenessScore": 92,
  "agentMarkdown": "**🟠 r/programming · How database work pulls you deep into systems engineering**\n- ⬆ 234 · 94% · 💬 89\n- 👤 u/clairegiordano\n- 👥 6.9M subscribers\n- 📅 posted 2026-05-08\n- 🔗 https://talkingpostgres.com/...",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-05-08T22:30:00.000Z"
}

Reddit scraper output example (comment)

{
  "outputSchemaVersion": "2026-05-08",
  "recordType": "reddit_comment",
  "recordId": "reddit:comment:k7q2xyz",
  "commentId": "k7q2xyz",
  "postId": "1t7qsfi",
  "parentId": "1t7qsfi",
  "depth": 0,
  "body": "Great talk. The MemSQL → HorizonDB story is wild.",
  "subreddit": "programming",
  "author": { "username": "dbnerd", "isPremium": false, "flairText": null },
  "createdAt": "2026-05-08T20:12:15.000Z",
  "score": 17,
  "fieldCompletenessScore": 100,
  "agentMarkdown": "**💬 HN comment by u/dbnerd** (depth 0)\n> Great talk. The MemSQL → HorizonDB story is wild.\n- 🔗 https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/1t7qsfi/_/k7q2xyz/"
}

During the Actor run

Subreddits are fetched serially from public Reddit Atom feeds with bounded retries and response validation. No Reddit OAuth or Reddit account is required.

The actor writes three things to its key-value store:

1. OUTPUT, compact run summary: subreddits queried, posts saved, comments saved, watchlist deltas, error counts, finished timestamp
2. AGENT_BRIEFING, markdown digest with the top 5 posts and top 5 comments by score, ready to paste into an LLM context
3. WATCHLIST_STATE, (only when watchlistMode: true) the seen post and comment IDs, capped at 5,000 each, used to compute the next run's diff

FAQ

How does Reddit Subreddit Monitor work?

Input: a list of subreddits, a sort order, and how many posts per subreddit. Optionally turn on fetchComments to include comment threads. Output: one structured record per post (and optionally per comment) in your Apify dataset, exportable as JSON, CSV, or Excel. No Reddit account, no OAuth, no API quota. Typical runtime is seconds to a minute or two depending on how many subreddits and comments you pull.

Can I scrape multiple subreddits in one run?

Yes. Pass an array to subreddits. The actor iterates each one in order, with rate limiting between requests.

Can I monitor a subreddit for new posts only?

Yes. Set watchlistMode: true. The first run emits everything; subsequent runs emit only posts new since the previous run. Schedule with the Apify cron scheduler.

Can I get comments along with posts?

Yes. Set fetchComments: true and commentsPerPost to the cap you want (max 25 per public thread feed). One additional request is made per post.

Can I use this with the Apify API?

Yes. Every Apify actor exposes a REST API: POST https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/skootle~reddit-subreddit-monitor/runs with your input as JSON body and your Apify API token as the Authorization: Bearer header. Full API docs are linked from the actor page.

Can I integrate this with Make / Zapier / n8n / Slack?

Yes. Apify provides native integrations for all of these. From the actor page, click Integrations and pick your destination.

Can I use this scraper as a Reddit API replacement?

For most read-only use cases on public subreddits, yes. Caveats: this actor does not return private content, modmail, or anything requiring an authenticated Reddit session, and it doesn't write (no posting, no voting, no commenting).

Can I increase the speed?

The actor rate-limits itself to 1.1 seconds between Reddit requests and retries bounded transient failures.

Can I get Reddit data in Python / JavaScript / TypeScript?

Yes. The output is plain JSON in an Apify dataset. Pull it via the Apify Python or JavaScript clients, the REST API, or by exporting from the Console as CSV/JSONL/Excel.

Can the actor return one comment per row?

Yes, that's the default with fetchComments: true. Each comment is a separate record. Filter on recordType: 'reddit_comment' to isolate the comment rows.

What if Reddit changes its layout?

This actor reads Reddit's public Atom feeds rather than scraping rendered HTML. Every response must be a non-empty feed with parseable entries, so an empty or malformed response fails visibly instead of becoming a misleading zero-result dataset.

Why does this actor cost more than a free Reddit scraper?

Free actors trade reliability and feature depth for cost. This actor ships a versioned schema, idempotent record IDs (so cross-run dedupe just works), agentMarkdown for direct LLM consumption, watchlist diff mode, normalized author + media objects, ISO 8601 timestamps, and continuous maintenance. If you're feeding the data into an automated pipeline or AI agent, those features pay back the per-record cost in saved engineering hours.

Your feedback

Hit a bug or want a feature? Open an issue on the Issues tab rather than the reviews page, and we'll fix it fast (typically within 48 hours).

Why choose Reddit Subreddit Monitor

• Replaces refreshing multiple subreddits manually: one run pulls public post and optional comment feed records across every subreddit on your list
• Watchlist mode emits only what's new since last run: safe to schedule daily without paying for duplicates
• No Reddit OAuth required: no account or API quota to manage
• Posts and comments in one dataset: filter on recordType to split them downstream
• Transparent feed limits: unavailable enrichment fields remain null instead of being guessed
• AI agents can self-filter sparse rows and paste the per-record markdown summary straight into Claude or ChatGPT
• Hand-tuned for this source with bounded retries and strict non-empty feed validation
• Safe to dedupe across re-runs, stable reddit:post:<id> and reddit:comment:<id> IDs upsert cleanly
• Schema doesn't break your pipeline, versioned and date-stamped on every record

Other Skootle actors you might want to check

• Hacker News Watchlist, same agent-grade pattern, applied to HN top/new/best/ask/show/jobs streams. Pairs well with this actor for tech-adjacent monitoring.
• SEC EDGAR Filings Monitor, financial-filing watchlist (10-K, 10-Q, 8-K, S-1) for any public company by ticker or CIK.
• Shopify App Store Scraper, Shopify app listings with rating, review count, pricing tiers, BFS badge.
• Apple App Store Reviews Monitor, App Store reviews + app metadata, watchlist-mode for negative-review triage.
• GitHub Trending Repos, daily/weekly/monthly trending repos with API enrichment (license, topics, watchers).

Support and contact

File issues directly on this actor's page (Issues tab), replies within 48 hours. For feature requests, drop them in the same issue tracker tagged enhancement.