💬 Reddit Scraper (Legacy Fallback)

Dive deep into niche communities with the Subreddit & Comment Scraper, a powerful extraction utility built to navigate and capture targeted discussions. Specifically maintained for proxy-sensitive environments, this tool serves as a reliable fallback for workflows that require robust IP management and older routing methods to bypass aggressive scraping countermeasures. It excels at scraping high-volume subreddits, pulling down both parent posts and the complex, nested comment trees that contain valuable user opinions and sentiment.

Research teams, community managers, and OSINT analysts utilize this scraper to conduct historical audits of specific subreddits, track viral topics, and analyze authentic user feedback. By specifying target subreddits and applying granular sort filters (such as Top of All Time or Newest), you can precisely control what data enters your pipeline. The tool bypasses the limitations of standard APIs, ensuring you get unfiltered access to community conversations.

Your resulting datasets will include rich, structured details: accurate timestamps, total upvotes, author handles, full comment bodies, and post URLs. This allows for seamless downstream analysis of social trends. Note that this is a legacy-focused actor prioritizing proxy-aware subreddit flows. If your primary goal involves setting up recurring keyword alerts across the entire site, or broad user-profile scraping, our newer Reddit All-in-One Scraper is recommended. However, for specialized subreddit extraction where you control the residential proxies and demand a straightforward, list-based collection method, this scraper remains a highly effective and fully maintained choice.

Store Quickstart

• Start with store-input.example.json or Legacy Quickstart (Proxy-aware). If running on Apify infrastructure, configure Residential proxy first.
• Then use the legacy ladder from store-input.templates.json:
  1. Legacy Quickstart (Proxy-aware)
  2. Legacy Recurring Refresh (Proxy-aware)
  3. Legacy Webhook Handoff (Proxy-aware)
• Buyer-facing proof assets live in sample-output.example.json and live-proof.example.json.
• New recurring or pack-first users should still move to reddit-all-in-one-scraper / reddit-keyword-monitor-alerts once the legacy need is proven.

Legacy Scope

• Subreddit-based post scraping
• Optional comment extraction
• Basic sort/time controls
• No recurring snapshot diff monitoring

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
subreddits	string[]	(required)	Subreddit names (max 20)
sort	string	hot	hot, new, top, rising
maxItems	integer	25	Max posts per subreddit (1-500)
includeComments	boolean	false	Include nested comments

Input Example

{
  "subreddits": ["programming", "technology"],
  "sort": "hot",
  "maxItems": 50,
  "includeComments": true
}

Input Examples

Example: Top of all time in a subreddit

{
  "subreddits": [
    "DataIsBeautiful"
  ],
  "sort": "top",
  "time": "all",
  "maxPosts": 25,
  "includeComments": true,
  "commentDepth": 2
}

Example: Newest posts (multi-subreddit)

{
  "subreddits": [
    "MachineLearning",
    "datascience"
  ],
  "sort": "new",
  "maxPosts": 50,
  "includeComments": false
}

Example: Specific post + comment tree

{
  "posts": [
    "https://old.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/abc123/"
  ],
  "includeComments": true,
  "commentDepth": 5
}

Output

Field	Type	Description
id	string	Reddit post ID
title	string	Post title
author	string	Username of poster
subreddit	string	Subreddit name
url	string	Permalink to post
score	integer	Upvote score
numComments	integer	Comment count
createdAt	string	ISO timestamp
selftext	string	Post body (for text posts)
comments	object[]	Top comments (if includeComments enabled)

Output Example

{
  "title": "New JavaScript framework released",
  "author": "dev_user",
  "score": 1250,
  "url": "https://example.com/framework",
  "selftext": "Detailed writeup inside...",
  "subreddit": "programming",
  "createdUtc": 1712345678,
  "numComments": 342,
  "comments": [{"author": "...", "body": "..."}]
}

API Usage

Run this actor programmatically using the Apify API. Replace YOUR_API_TOKEN with your token from Apify Console → Settings → Integrations.

cURL

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/taroyamada~reddit-data-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{ "subreddits": ["programming", "technology"], "sort": "hot", "maxItems": 50, "includeComments": true }'

Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_API_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("taroyamada/reddit-data-scraper").call(run_input={
  "subreddits": ["programming", "technology"],
  "sort": "hot",
  "maxItems": 50,
  "includeComments": true
})

for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

JavaScript / Node.js

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: 'YOUR_API_TOKEN' });
const run = await client.actor('taroyamada/reddit-data-scraper').call({
  "subreddits": ["programming", "technology"],
  "sort": "hot",
  "maxItems": 50,
  "includeComments": true
});

const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

Tips & Limitations

⚠️ Proxy Required on Apify Datacenter

Reddit blocks many shared datacenter IPs. Without proxy setup on Apify infra, runs can fail with runStatus: all_blocked and 0 posts.

To fix: enable Apify Residential proxy (APIFY_USE_APIFY_PROXY=true, APIFY_PROXY_GROUPS=RESIDENTIAL) or provide your own residential PROXY_URL.

Legacy Positioning

• This actor is not the recommended first choice for new pack users.
• Prefer reddit-all-in-one-scraper for research/backfill and reddit-keyword-monitor-alerts for recurring alerting.

FAQ

Is this the main Reddit Intelligence Pack actor?

No. This is the legacy fallback actor. New recurring monitor workflows should use reddit-keyword-monitor-alerts.

Does Reddit block this?

Yes, frequently on datacenter IPs. Residential proxy is typically required on Apify cloud.

What is runStatus in output?

Value	Meaning
ok	All subreddits fetched successfully
partial	Some subreddits succeeded; others were blocked/errored
all_blocked	Every subreddit was blocked — no posts collected (exit code 1)

Related Actors

Reddit Intelligence Pack (recommended path):

• 🚨 Reddit Keyword Monitor Alerts — Hero recurring monitor for net-new alerts.
• 📡 Reddit All-in-One Scraper — Research/backfill companion.
• 📰 Article Extractor — Linked URL cleanup add-on.
• 🐘 Mastodon Hashtag & Account Scraper — Federated social listening (Twitter/X-free), same query/result shape on the Fediverse.

Cost

Pay Per Event:

• actor-start: $0.01 (flat fee per run)
• dataset-item: $0.003 per output item

Example: 1,000 items = $0.01 + (1,000 × $0.003) = $3.01

No subscription required — you only pay for what you use.

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