Reddit Research Scraper — Posts, Comments, Search, Users & Communities

One run, five ways to read Reddit: subreddit feeds, complete comment trees, keyword search, user profiles, and community details. Apply the filters you need before anything reaches your dataset, so you can go from a broad topic to a clean, analysis-ready table without stitching several tools together.

What this actor does

• Subreddit posts — collect a community's hot, new, top, rising, controversial, or best posts, with native Reddit pagination and optional post body/media details.
• Comment trees — pull a post's comments with nesting depth, parent-comment linkage, scores, awards, edited/deleted flags, and optional expansion of collapsed branches.
• Keyword search — search Reddit posts, comments, or both, globally or inside one community, and sort by relevance, hot, top, new, or comment count.
• User profiles — read a user's profile summary (karma breakdown, cake day, account age, avatar, moderated communities, trophies) plus their posts and/or comments.
• Community details — get a subreddit's description, subscriber and activity counts, creation date, type, icon/banner, and optionally its public rules.
• One shared filter layer — score, age, comment count, upvote ratio, content type, flair, author, domain, keyword, NSFW, and comment depth filters run before records are saved.
• Mixed-mode runs — combine any modes in one execution; every row carries a recordType so you can split the output at a glance.

Modes

Mode	What it reads	Best for
posts	A subreddit's post listing	Community monitoring, trend discovery
comments	Comment trees from post URLs or IDs	Sentiment, moderation, discussion analysis
search	Reddit keyword search results	Topic research across Reddit
users	A user's profile and activity	Author research, influencer vetting
subreddits	Community about pages	Community discovery and comparison

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
mode	string	posts	One mode: posts, comments, search, users, or subreddits.
modes	array	["posts"]	Run several modes in one execution; overrides mode.
subreddits	array	["python"]	Communities for posts, comments, or subreddit details. Accepts names, r/ prefixes, or URLs.
searchQueries	array	["python"]	Keywords for search mode.
searchType	string	posts	posts, comments, or both.
searchSort	string	relevance	relevance, hot, top, new, or comments.
withinCommunity	string	—	Restrict search to one subreddit.
maxSearchResults	integer	50	Maximum search results per query.
enrichSearchResults	boolean	true	Open the first few result posts to fill score, comment count, body, and media.
postUrls	array	—	Post URLs or IDs for comments mode.
usernames	array	—	Users for users mode. Accepts names, u/ prefixes, or URLs.
section	string	submitted	Profile section: overview, submitted, or comments.
sort	string	hot	hot, new, top, rising, controversial, or best.
timeFilter	string	day	hour, day, week, month, year, or all.
commentSort	string	confidence	confidence, top, new, controversial, old, or qa.
maxPosts	integer	25	Posts per community or user.
maxComments	integer	100	Comments per post.
maxItems	integer	1000	Global cap across the whole run.
expandThreads	boolean	true	Load collapsed comment branches and additional profile pages.
includePost	boolean	false	Include the parent post record in comments mode.
includeSubredditInfo	boolean	false	Emit a community record alongside posts.
includeRules	boolean	false	Add public rules to subreddit records.
minScore	integer	—	Minimum post/comment score.
maxScore	integer	—	Maximum post/comment score.
minComments	integer	—	Minimum comment count on a post.
maxPostComments	integer	—	Maximum comment count on a post.
minUpvoteRatio	number	—	Minimum post upvote ratio (0–1).
maxAgeDays	integer	—	Drop records older than this many days.
postedAfter	date	—	Keep posts created on or after this date.
postedBefore	date	—	Keep posts created on or before this date.
postType	string	all	all, self, link, image, video, gallery, poll, crosspost, gif, or multi_media.
excludeStickied	boolean	false	Drop pinned/stickied posts.
excludeNsfw	boolean	false	Drop posts flagged NSFW.
keywordFilter	string	—	Keep records containing this text (title, body, or comment text).
authorFilter	string	—	Keep records whose author name contains this text.
authorAllowlist	array	—	Keep only these exact authors.
authorBlocklist	array	—	Exclude these exact authors.
flairFilter	string	—	Keep posts whose link flair contains this text.
domainFilter	string	—	Keep posts whose link domain contains this text.
maxDepth	integer	—	Maximum comment nesting depth.

Example: top posts from two communities

{
  "mode": "posts",
  "subreddits": ["python", "programming"],
  "sort": "top",
  "timeFilter": "week",
  "maxPosts": 50,
  "minScore": 25,
  "excludeNsfw": true
}

Example: a post's comment tree, shallow only

{
  "mode": "comments",
  "postUrls": ["https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/1abc123/interesting_discussion/"],
  "maxComments": 200,
  "maxDepth": 2,
  "commentSort": "top"
}

Example: search posts and comments, then profile a user

{
  "modes": ["search", "users"],
  "searchQueries": ["vector database"],
  "searchType": "both",
  "maxSearchResults": 30,
  "usernames": ["spez"],
  "section": "overview",
  "maxPosts": 20
}

Example: community details with rules

{
  "mode": "subreddits",
  "subreddits": ["python", "MachineLearning"],
  "includeRules": true
}

Output

Every row includes recordType (subreddit_post, comment, profile, user_profile, subreddit, or summary).

Post records

post_id, post_name, title, author, author_id, author_fullname, author_flair, subreddit, subreddit_prefixed, subreddit_id, subreddit_subscribers, subreddit_type, content, content_html, content_url, url, permalink, external_url, url_overridden_by_dest, domain, post_hint, post_type, media_type, score, ups, upvote_ratio, num_comments, link_flair, thumbnail_url, created_utc, created_at, edited, edited_at, is_self, is_stickied, is_locked, is_archived, is_pinned, is_nsfw, is_spoiler, is_original_content, is_crosspost, is_gallery, total_awards_received, awards, gilded_count, num_crossposts, crosspost_parent, language, has_media, images, gallery_images, gallery_count, video_url, poll_data, title_word_count, post_age_seconds, search_term, crawled_at, source.

Comment records

comment_id, comment_name, post_id, post_title, post_url, author, author_id, author_fullname, text, body_html, score, permalink, parent_id, parent_comment_id, parent_kind, parent_positions, depth, position, replies_count, subreddit, subreddit_prefixed, subreddit_id, is_op, is_edited, edited_at, is_stickied, is_collapsed, is_deleted, is_automod, is_likely_bot, comment_age_seconds, distinguished, controversiality, user_flair, word_count, body_quote_count, body_code_count, body_link_count, awards_count, total_awards_received, gilded_count, content_type, avatar, created_utc, created_at, search_term, crawled_at, source.

Profile post records

Post fields above, plus author_metadata with the profile summary.

User profile records

username, user_id, profile_url, icon_img, snoovatar_img, description, total_karma, post_karma, comment_karma, awardee_karma, awarder_karma, created_utc, created_at, account_created, account_age_years, is_mod, is_gold, has_verified_email, verified, moderated_subreddits, trophies.

Subreddit records

subreddit, subreddit_prefixed, subreddit_id, url, title, description, public_description, subscribers, active_user_count, weekly_active_users, weekly_contributions, created_utc, created_at, subreddit_type, over18, quarantine, community_icon, icon_img, banner_img, primary_color, key_color, lang, rules.

Summary record

One row at the end of every run with modes, modeStats (pushed/dropped/errors per mode), totalPushed, totalErrors, totalDropped, and scrapedAt. If nothing is emitted, a second summary row explains why.

Use cases

• Track a topic across several subreddits and keep only high-scoring, recent posts.
• Pull shallow comment trees for a quick sentiment pass without walking every reply.
• Search Reddit for a product or phrase, then compare how different communities discuss it.
• Vetting an author: see their profile summary, recent posts, and comment history together.
• Compare community size, activity, and rules before launching a campaign or research project.

Limitations

• Reddit may challenge individual post/comment pages on some cloud networks even when feed, search, profile, and community pages load. When that happens, comments mode emits no rows and records a mode error (visible in the summary and run status) rather than partial or fabricated data; retry from another network or use a saved copy of the thread.
• Reddit caps listings and search at a source-side maximum; very large maxItems requests may stop before that number when Reddit stops paginating. Comment search returns Reddit's first server-rendered result page per query (typically 8-10 rows); post search paginates further.
• Private, quarantined, banned, and login-only communities cannot be read anonymously.
• Search results from older archive data may not include the newest posts; live Reddit search is used first when available.

FAQ

Do I need a Reddit account, API key, or login?

No. The actor reads public Reddit pages and public search feeds. No credentials are required.

How many records can I get?

Set maxItems for a global cap, maxPosts per community/user, maxComments per post, and maxSearchResults per query. Reddit itself limits how far a listing or search can paginate; very large requests may stop at the source's own ceiling.

Why is a field missing from some records?

Fields that Reddit does not expose for a particular record are omitted rather than filled with empty values. For example, a text post has no external link domain, and a search-result comment has no post score.

Do the filters apply to every mode?

minScore, maxScore, maxAgeDays, keywordFilter, authorFilter, authorAllowlist, authorBlocklist, excludeNsfw, and the post-level filters apply wherever the corresponding field exists. maxDepth applies to comments. postedAfter and postedBefore apply to posts.

Can I search inside one subreddit?

Yes. Set searchQueries and put the community name in withinCommunity.

What is the difference between mode and modes?

mode runs one mode. modes is a list and can run several modes in one execution. When modes is set, it takes priority.

Why did a mode produce nothing?

Its required input was empty (for example, comments mode without postUrls), the community/post is private or unavailable, or your filters removed every row. Check the summary record's modeStats for counts.

Is this affiliated with Reddit?

No. This is an independent tool that reads Reddit's public pages; it is not operated or endorsed by Reddit.