Reddit Search Scraper

Search Reddit posts by keyword — across all of Reddit or restricted to one subreddit — and stream a clean JSON record per post into your Apify dataset.

Why use this actor

• Global or subreddit-scoped — search the entire Reddit corpus, or narrow to a single community like r/python for higher signal.
• Multiple sort modes — relevance, hot, new, top, and most-commented, paired with a time window (hour / day / week / month / year / all).
• Bulk queries — pass any number of keywords in one run; results from every query land in the same dataset, joinable back to your input via _input.
• No account / no login required — the public path works out of the box. An optional client ID slot is available for users who want higher rate limits on heavy jobs.
• Automatic retries and fallbacks — transient failures retry with exponential backoff, and the actor transparently switches data paths if one is rate-limited.
• Stable JSON output — every row carries _input, _source, and _scrapedAt envelope fields so it slots straight into pipelines, spreadsheets, and databases.

How it works

1. You supply one or more search terms (and optionally a subreddit to restrict to, a sort mode, and a time window).
2. The actor runs each query against Reddit's search and pages through results up to your maxPosts limit per query.
3. Each post is normalized into a flat JSON record and streamed into the run's dataset, ready to download as JSON, CSV, or Excel.

You do not need to manage scrapers, browsers, or rotating IPs — all handled internally.

Input

{
  "queries": ["python", "machine learning"],
  "subreddit": "python",
  "sort": "new",
  "timeFilter": "all",
  "maxPosts": 25,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": ["DATACENTER"]
  }
}

Field	Type	Description
queries	array	One or more search terms. Each query runs independently. Required.
subreddit	string	Optional subreddit name (without r/) to restrict the search to. Leave blank for a global search.
sort	string	relevance (default), hot, new, top, or comments.
timeFilter	string	hour, day, week, month, year, or all. Only meaningful for top / comments sort.
maxPosts	integer	Max posts returned per query. Default 25. Use 0 for unlimited (Reddit caps pagination at ~1,000 per query).
redditClientId	string	Optional Reddit client ID for higher rate limits. Leave blank for the public path.
proxyConfiguration	object	Apify Proxy settings. Datacenter works for most jobs.

Output

Sample command:

python test_local.py python --max 3 --sort new

Three real rows from that run (each Reddit post object has ~100 fields; the most useful ones are shown — full record is what your dataset will contain):

{
  "_input": "python",
  "_subreddit": null,
  "_source": "S3-fallback",
  "_scrapedAt": "2026-05-18T11:09:23.157233+00:00",
  "id": "1tgj61p",
  "name": "t3_1tgj61p",
  "subreddit": "esp32",
  "subreddit_name_prefixed": "r/esp32",
  "subreddit_subscribers": 186169,
  "subreddit_type": "public",
  "title": "Introduction Course for Esp32s3 with  Esp_IDF",
  "selftext": "There are not many guides and tutorials for ESP-IDF, most courses are covered using MicroPython or Arduino IDE and Others are Paid ones, so I built this small showcase and tutorial to be a quick start for ESP-IDF...",
  "author": "Algstud",
  "author_fullname": "t2_y5vowmd5s",
  "score": 1,
  "ups": 1,
  "downs": 0,
  "upvote_ratio": 1.0,
  "num_comments": 0,
  "num_crossposts": 0,
  "created_utc": 1779102116.0,
  "domain": "github.com",
  "url": "https://github.com/Bayt-al-Hikmah/Esp32S3",
  "permalink": "/r/esp32/comments/1tgj61p/introduction_course_for_esp32s3_with_esp_idf/",
  "link_flair_text": "I made a thing!",
  "is_self": false,
  "is_video": false,
  "over_18": false,
  "spoiler": false,
  "locked": false,
  "archived": false,
  "stickied": false,
  "thumbnail": "https://external-preview.redd.it/ytq2ya-Oo2hIRZTRqTrPcF-JSlsz3ewW0GmhJWL1PV4.png?width=140&height=70&auto=webp&s=6dbdbfb056a9edf231166b1f2e84fb410c55be53"
}

{
  "_input": "python",
  "_subreddit": null,
  "_source": "S3-fallback",
  "_scrapedAt": "2026-05-18T11:09:23.158235+00:00",
  "id": "1tgj5uf",
  "name": "t3_1tgj5uf",
  "subreddit": "mcp",
  "subreddit_name_prefixed": "r/mcp",
  "subreddit_subscribers": 108813,
  "title": "Memcord v3.4.1",
  "selftext": "Privacy-first, self-hosted MCP server (python based) helps you organize chat history, summarize messages, search across past chats with AI...",
  "author": "Longjumping_Tie_7758",
  "score": 1,
  "ups": 1,
  "upvote_ratio": 1.0,
  "num_comments": 0,
  "created_utc": 1779102101.0,
  "domain": "self.mcp",
  "url": "https://old.reddit.com/r/mcp/comments/1tgj5uf/memcord_v341/",
  "permalink": "/r/mcp/comments/1tgj5uf/memcord_v341/",
  "link_flair_text": "resource",
  "is_self": true,
  "is_video": false,
  "over_18": false
}

{
  "_input": "python",
  "_subreddit": null,
  "_source": "S3-fallback",
  "_scrapedAt": "2026-05-18T11:09:23.158235+00:00",
  "id": "1tgj4v7",
  "name": "t3_1tgj4v7",
  "subreddit": "grafana",
  "subreddit_name_prefixed": "r/grafana",
  "subreddit_subscribers": 24820,
  "title": "built a grafana dashboard that tracks zestimate drift across my rental portfolio and it caught a $40k valuation drop i would have missed",
  "selftext": "i own 6 rental units and i wanted a way to passively monitor what's happening with property values without manually checking zillow every week...",
  "author": "straightedge23",
  "score": 1,
  "ups": 1,
  "upvote_ratio": 1.0,
  "num_comments": 0,
  "created_utc": 1779102034.0,
  "domain": "self.grafana",
  "url": "https://old.reddit.com/r/grafana/comments/1tgj4v7/built_a_grafana_dashboard_that_tracks_zestimate/",
  "permalink": "/r/grafana/comments/1tgj4v7/built_a_grafana_dashboard_that_tracks_zestimate/",
  "link_flair_text": ":Confused: Miscellaneous",
  "is_self": true,
  "over_18": false
}

Field	Type	Description
_input	string	The query you supplied, exactly as written. Use this to join results back to your input list.
_subreddit	string | null	The subreddit restriction you applied, or null for a global search.
_source	string	Internal tag for the data path used. S1-primary is the fastest path; S2-fallback and S3-fallback indicate a fallback was used (still complete data).
_scrapedAt	string	ISO-8601 UTC timestamp when the record was scraped.
id	string	Reddit post ID (the short form, e.g. 1tgj61p).
name	string	Reddit "fullname" — t3_ prefix + id. Use this when cross-referencing with the comments endpoint.
subreddit	string	Subreddit the post is in (without r/).
subreddit_name_prefixed	string	Display form with the r/ prefix.
subreddit_subscribers	integer	Subscriber count of the host subreddit at scrape time.
subreddit_type	string	public, restricted, private, etc.
title	string	Post title.
selftext	string	Self-post body in Markdown. Empty for link posts.
author	string	Username of the poster. [deleted] if the author removed their account.
author_fullname	string	Reddit fullname of the author (t2_...).
score	integer	Post score (upvotes minus downvotes after fuzzing).
ups	integer	Fuzzed upvote count.
downs	integer	Fuzzed downvote count (Reddit returns 0 in the public API).
upvote_ratio	number	Ratio of upvotes to total votes (0.0–1.0).
num_comments	integer	Number of comments on the post.
num_crossposts	integer	Number of times the post has been crossposted.
created_utc	number	Post creation time as a UNIX timestamp.
domain	string	Outbound domain for link posts; self.<subreddit> for self-posts.
url	string	Outbound URL for link posts, or the Reddit comments URL for self-posts.
permalink	string	Relative path on reddit.com to the post's comments page.
link_flair_text	string | null	Flair text on the post, if any.
is_self	boolean	true for text/self posts.
is_video	boolean	true for video posts.
over_18	boolean	NSFW marker.
spoiler	boolean	Spoiler marker.
locked	boolean	true if comments are locked.
archived	boolean	true if the post is past the archive cutoff.
stickied	boolean	true if the post is pinned at the top of its subreddit.
thumbnail	string	Thumbnail URL, or self / default / nsfw placeholders.

Each post also carries Reddit's full set of supplementary fields (media previews, awards, mod flags, gildings, etc.) — these stream through unchanged into your dataset.

Error envelope

Queries that fail (rate-limit, network error, all fallback paths exhausted) emit a structured error instead of crashing the run:

{
  "_input": "python",
  "_error": "fetch_failed",
  "_errorDetail": "all strategies failed",
  "_source": "S3-fallback",
  "_scrapedAt": "2026-05-18T11:09:23.157233+00:00"
}

Filter on _error to triage failed rows.

Pricing

This actor is billed per result: $3.50 per 1,000 posts. Each post in the dataset = 1 result. Errors are not billed.

Other Sosmed Actors

Platform	Actor	Best for
Reddit	Reddit Subreddit Posts Scraper	Stream the live feed of any subreddit (hot / new / top / rising).
Reddit	Reddit Post Detail Scraper	Pull a post + its full comment tree.
Reddit	Reddit User Profile Scraper	Karma, trophies, submitted/comments history for any user.
YouTube	YouTube Search Scraper	Search YouTube videos by keyword.
Bluesky	Bluesky Search Scraper	Keyword search across the atproto network.
X / Twitter	X Search Scraper	Search tweets by keyword, hashtag, or user filter.
Mastodon	Mastodon Account Scraper	Profile + post counts for any Mastodon handle.

Browse the full catalog at apify.com/xtracto.

Notes

• NSFW filtering — NSFW posts come through with over_18: true. Filter them out in your post-processing if you don't want them.
• Subreddit scope — leave subreddit blank for a global search across all of Reddit, or set it to a community name like python to restrict results to that subreddit only.
• Sort + time window — the timeFilter field only changes results when sort is top or comments. For new, hot, and relevance it is ignored.
• Pagination cap — Reddit limits search pagination to roughly the first 1,000 results per query. To get more breadth, split into narrower queries (e.g. by adding date ranges or topic qualifiers).
• Optional client ID — provide your own Reddit client ID via redditClientId for higher per-IP rate limits on very large jobs. Leave it blank for normal use; the public path is the default and works without any setup.
• Reproducibility — relevance sort can shift opaquely between runs as Reddit re-ranks results. For stable comparisons across runs, prefer new or top.