# Reddit Scraper: Posts, Keyword Mentions & New-Post Alerts (`vant47/reddit-keyword-alerts`) Actor

Find Reddit posts mentioning your brand, product or keywords, such as Notion or coffee gear. Search communities and URLs, paginate, and watch new mentions with intent labels. Comments may be unavailable. About $0.0032/post, $0.0015/comment plus $0.005 start. No login, no API key.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/vant47/reddit-keyword-alerts.md
- **Developed by:** [fortbrand](https://apify.com/vant47) (community)
- **Categories:** Social media, Lead generation
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $2.56 / 1,000 posts

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## Reddit Scraper: Posts, Keyword Mentions & New-Post Alerts

For brand researchers, product teams and analysts who need public Reddit discussions and a repeatable way to find new mentions. Search keywords, follow communities or supply known post URLs. Each delivered record includes a plain intent label and the text around a literal keyword match.

About **$0.0032 per post** and **$0.0015 per comment**, plus $0.0025 per GB to start ($0.005 at the default 2 GB). Twenty posts cost **$0.069** including the default start, before plan discounts. A run with 100 posts and 500 comments costs about **$1.08**. No login or API key is required. Failed requests, duplicate IDs, note rows and summaries have no post or comment charge.

### What you get

The Actor reads Reddit's own public search, community and discussion surfaces. Search, community feeds and post URLs use new anonymous sessions. Post retrieval is independent of comment access. Listings can fall back to public HTML and an anonymous browser. It does not depend on RSS feeds, a paid data provider, a signed-in account or your cookies.

Use keyword searches for brand research, community feeds for market monitoring, and known post URLs for ongoing discussions. Named watches return previously undelivered IDs. Local intent labels help triage questions, recommendation requests, complaints and praise.

The default 2 GB memory allows browser fallback; a 512 MB run uses HTTP only. Reddit controls search ranking and accessible result windows. **Comment threads may be unavailable**, including on residential proxy. Optional comments use the existing public HTML route; refusals return free note rows and keep delivered posts. It skips private and quarantined source records, advertisements, and comment bodies marked deleted or removed. A value missing from the source stays `null`.

### Start in three steps

1. Enter one or more `searchTerms`, such as `coffee grinder`, `Notion` or `project management`. Leave `subreddits` empty for a Reddit-wide search.
2. Choose `sort: "new"` and start with `maxItems: 20`. Leave `includeComments` off for the quickest first run.
3. Start the Actor, open the Overview or Mentions dataset view, then export JSON, CSV or Excel. The Output tab also links to the run summary.

Earlier validation included **41 varied cloud inputs**, **10 live page checks**, and a **real reboot with 100 unique rows and matching charges**. A measured 20-post prefill completed in **8.043 seconds**. It returned 20 distinct posts with full source bodies, scores, upvote ratios, comment totals, available flair and match labels. Results and timing vary with Reddit availability, selected sources and comment depth.

```json
{
  "searchTerms": ["coffee grinder"],
  "sort": "new",
  "timeRange": "all",
  "includeComments": false,
  "maxItems": 20
}
```

### Input reference

| Input | What it controls |
| --- | --- |
| `searchTerms` | Keyword strings or Reddit search expressions. Search Reddit-wide or within every selected subreddit. At most 25 terms. |
| `subreddits` | Public community names, such as `Coffee`, `espresso` or `SaaS`. With no search terms, collect community posts directly. At most 25 names. |
| `startUrls` | Optional HTTPS Reddit community, post or search links. Supply an array of URL strings or objects containing `url`. At most 50 links. |
| `sort` | `new`, `hot`, `top` or `relevance`. Relevance applies to search; community-only relevance uses new. Default: new. |
| `timeRange` | `all`, `hour`, `day`, `week`, `month` or `year`. Passed to Reddit search and top listings. It does not exclude replies on an older post. |
| `includeComments` | Also read accessible comments for discovered posts. Default: false. Adds requests and output rows. |
| `maxCommentsPerPost` | Maximum comment candidates considered per post, from 1 to 500. Default: 50. Previously delivered comment IDs are still part of this source window. |
| `maxItems` | Maximum unique delivered posts plus comments across the entire run, from 1 to 10,000. Default: 20. It is a ceiling, not a guaranteed result count. |
| `onlyNewSinceLastRun` | Use a persistent ID history for this watch. The first run establishes its history by delivering the current accessible window. |
| `watchId` | Stable watch name using letters, digits, underscores or hyphens, up to 80 characters. Default: default. |
| `proxyConfiguration` | Apify proxy settings or a custom proxy. Default datacenter access retries on US and UK residential where required. Explicit custom or disabled proxy choices are respected. |

Sources are combined in input order and deduplicated across the run. A small global `maxItems` may be exhausted before later sources are visited. Invalid supported inputs become a free note and summary. The platform can also reject incorrectly typed input before creating a run.

#### Communities and replies

```json
{
  "subreddits": ["Coffee", "espresso"],
  "sort": "new",
  "includeComments": true,
  "maxCommentsPerPost": 20,
  "maxItems": 100
}
```

For a known discussion, supply its full public post URL:

```json
{
  "startUrls": [
    {"url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/Coffee/comments/1xifs1s/mod_the_daily_question_thread/"}
  ],
  "includeComments": true,
  "maxCommentsPerPost": 50,
  "maxItems": 100
}
```

### Post fields

| Field | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| `verdict` | A short readable label leading each row. |
| `type` | `post` for post records. |
| `postId` | Stable Reddit post ID without the `t3_` prefix. |
| `subreddit` | Public community name. |
| `title`, `text` | Source post title and body. HTML search fallback may expose only a snippet; `textIsSnippet` identifies that case. |
| `author` | Public Reddit username as shown by the source. No identity enrichment. |
| `createdAt`, `scrapedAt` | Creation and observation timestamps in UTC. |
| `score`, `upvoteRatio` | Source vote metrics. Hidden or unavailable values remain null. Reddit may fuzz scores. |
| `numComments` | Reddit's displayed comment total, including inaccessible replies. |
| `flair` | Available post flair text. |
| `url`, `permalink`, `domain` | Destination URL, Reddit discussion link and source domain. |
| `isSelf` | Whether the source identifies the post as a text/self post. |
| `media` | Available image or video URLs with a type. Not a download or a guarantee of every media variant. |
| `matchedTerms` | Input terms found literally in the title or available body. |
| `matchSnippet` | Text around the first literal match, or null when there is no literal match. |
| `intent` | One of question, recommendation request, complaint, praise or other. |
| `isNewSinceLastRun` | True for records delivered by an enabled watch; null when watch history was not requested. |
| `source` | Identifies the public surface used for that row. |

Intent labels use transparent text rules, not a language model; sarcasm, mixed opinions and non-English text can be mislabeled.

### A real output example

Selected fields from the 29 October 2026 cloud prefill:

```json
{
  "type": "post",
  "postId": "1xilw6i",
  "subreddit": "espresso",
  "title": "Suggestions for espresso automation [1500USD]",
  "score": 0,
  "upvoteRatio": 0.5,
  "numComments": 0,
  "matchedTerms": [],
  "intent": "recommendation request",
  "createdAt": "2026-10-29T14:42:35.000Z",
  "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/espresso/comments/1xilw6i/suggestions_for_espresso_automation_1500usd/"
}
```

### Comment fields

Comment rows use `type: "comment"`, `commentId`, `postId`, `parentId`, `depth`, `author`, `text`, `score`, `createdAt`, `permalink`, `subreddit` and `scrapedAt`, together with the same matching, intent and watch fields. Parent IDs retain Reddit's `t3_` post or `t1_` comment prefix. Top-level replies have depth 0. If an expansion omits the parent or depth and it cannot be resolved from observed records, the value remains null.

An earlier expanded-thread test returned 75 comments. Availability has since varied. When Reddit refuses the existing route, the Actor keeps posts, writes a free `NOTE`, and skips further refused threads in that run. Available comments retain their hierarchy. Inspect `commentCoverage` and `failures` in the summary.

### Monitor new mentions every day

Create a task with a stable `watchId`, enable `onlyNewSinceLastRun`, and schedule that task in Apify Console. A daily schedule works; a busy topic may need a shorter interval to keep overlap between accessible result windows. Connect your own webhook, Make, Zapier, n8n or spreadsheet workflow to each completed dataset.

```json
{
  "searchTerms": ["Notion"],
  "sort": "new",
  "includeComments": true,
  "maxCommentsPerPost": 25,
  "maxItems": 100,
  "onlyNewSinceLastRun": true,
  "watchId": "notion-product-watch"
}
```

Run watches **sequentially**. An unfinished prior run blocks reuse of its watch ID until that run is resumed, or you choose a different watch ID. Do not launch overlapping runs for the same watch. Different watch IDs maintain independent histories. The history is scoped to the Actor and the running account and survives ordinary builds and task edits.

Posts and comments have separate stable ID keys. With comments enabled, the Actor revisits accessible replies on posts in the current discovery window, even if the post itself was delivered before. This catches new replies on those revisited posts; it does not monitor every post ever seen indefinitely. To keep watching a specific old thread, retain its URL in `startUrls`. Edits to an already delivered ID are not new records. Removing the named watch store resets its history.

### Pricing and spending limits

| Delivered data | Base price | Example |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Post | $0.0032 | 100 posts: $0.32 |
| Comment | $0.0015 | 1,000 comments: $1.50 |
| Mixed run | Both rates | 100 posts and 500 comments: $1.07 |

Bronze receives 5% off data prices, Silver 10%, and Gold and higher tiers 20%. Start costs $0.0025 per GB, minimum one GB; the default 2 GB costs $0.005. Data is saved before its charge. Duplicate IDs within a run, already delivered watch IDs, source failures, retries, notes and the summary do not generate data charges. The Actor stops cleanly when the next record exceeds your spending limit and keeps what it has saved.

A `SUMMARY` record is written to both the dataset and the key-value store. Filter dataset exports to `type == "post"` or `type == "comment"` if you want only paid data rows. The summary reports totals, labels, communities, watch exclusions, source failures and comment coverage. This distinguishes a valid empty search from a source that refused access.

### API use

Start the Actor asynchronously using its Apify API endpoint and your Apify token:

```bash
curl -X POST \
  'https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/vant47~reddit-keyword-alerts/runs' \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"searchTerms":["coffee grinder"],"sort":"new","maxItems":20}'
```

Poll the returned run ID, then read `defaultDatasetId` through the dataset items API. Use the run's default key-value store to fetch `SUMMARY`.

### Use with AI agents (MCP)

Connect an authorized Apify account to `https://mcp.apify.com`. Ask your agent to find Reddit posts or comments, inspect the Actor input schema, estimate the number of posts and comments, then run a small sample. For example: “Search public Reddit for coffee grinder recommendations, newest first, return 20 posts and include literal match snippets.”

Labels and snippets are deterministic extraction aids; use the original post or comment as the evidence for a business decision.

### Limits and FAQ

**Will this return every matching Reddit post?** No. Reddit supplies ranked and bounded windows. Pagination cannot turn those windows into a complete historical database. The run also limits pages and comment expansions to keep work bounded.

**Are comments always available?** No. Reddit may refuse entire threads even through residential proxy. This produces free notes, not a failed run. Available replies and supported expansions remain bounded by your limits; missing comments have no data charge. The standard platform start fee still applies.

**Does the watch send notifications itself?** It produces a dataset of newly delivered IDs and a summary. Add your own schedule and delivery integration in Apify. No messages are sent to other services automatically.

**Why is a field null?** The particular public source did not supply it. Search HTML can omit full text, ratio, flair or media. The Actor does not estimate missing values or copy a score from a different observation time.

**Can I use my account cookies?** They are neither requested nor supported. Private, quarantined and login-only content is outside this Actor's scope. Verification challenges are recorded as refused routes and are never solved.

**What happens during a reboot?** Saved dataset IDs form a durable delivery ledger. The Actor resumes cached work, reconciles accepted per-record charges and avoids delivering or charging the same saved ID again. An interrupted run can be resumed before its watch is reused.

Independent tool, not affiliated with Reddit.

# Actor input Schema

## `searchTerms` (type: `array`):

Keywords or Reddit search expressions, for example coffee grinder or Notion. Searches all Reddit, or each chosen subreddit. Literal matches appear in matchedTerms. No login or API key.

## `subreddits` (type: `array`):

Optional community names, for example Coffee, espresso or SaaS. With search terms, restrict each search to these communities. Without terms, read their public post feeds.

## `startUrls` (type: `array`):

Optional public HTTPS subreddit, post or search URLs. Accepts plain URL strings and objects with a url property. Combined with keywords and subreddits; duplicate posts and comments are charged once.

## `sort` (type: `string`):

new is best for recurring watches. hot, top and relevance use Reddit ranking; relevance applies to search and becomes new for community feeds.

## `timeRange` (type: `string`):

Reddit time filter for search and top feeds. Does not filter replies in an existing post. Not a complete historical archive.

## `includeComments` (type: `boolean`):

Try accessible public replies. Comment threads may be unavailable when Reddit refuses access. Refusals become free note rows; delivered posts are kept. Default off.

## `maxCommentsPerPost` (type: `integer`):

Maximum comment records examined for each post, including already-seen replies on recurring watches. Deleted and removed bodies are skipped. About $0.0015 for each new delivered comment.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Run-wide maximum unique delivered posts plus comments. Known watch IDs do not consume it. Twenty posts cost about $0.064 plus the small start charge. Summary and note rows are free.

## `onlyNewSinceLastRun` (type: `boolean`):

Keep a persistent post and comment ID history in a named key-value store per watchId. The first run delivers the current window; later runs skip IDs already delivered. Run each watch sequentially.

## `watchId` (type: `string`):

Stable name for sequential scheduled runs, such as coffee-brand. Different watch IDs have independent histories. Letters, digits, underscores and hyphens only; 1 to 80 characters. An unfinished watch must be resumed or use a new ID.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Apify datacenter first, with fresh-session retries and US and UK residential fallback where required. A custom proxy or disabled proxy is respected without automatically adding residential.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "searchTerms": [
    "coffee grinder"
  ],
  "sort": "new",
  "timeRange": "all",
  "includeComments": false,
  "maxCommentsPerPost": 50,
  "maxItems": 20,
  "onlyNewSinceLastRun": false,
  "watchId": "default",
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

## `mentions` (type: `string`):

No description

## `summary` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "searchTerms": [
        "coffee grinder"
    ],
    "sort": "new",
    "includeComments": false,
    "maxItems": 20
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("vant47/reddit-keyword-alerts").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "searchTerms": ["coffee grinder"],
    "sort": "new",
    "includeComments": False,
    "maxItems": 20,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("vant47/reddit-keyword-alerts").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "searchTerms": [
    "coffee grinder"
  ],
  "sort": "new",
  "includeComments": false,
  "maxItems": 20
}' |
apify call vant47/reddit-keyword-alerts --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,vant47/reddit-keyword-alerts"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/yUVYIfmDiZSnDTYdd/builds/7wS34mVur2MhSOoR8/openapi.json