# Reddit Community Scraper (`backhoe/reddit-community-scraper`) Actor

Scrape subreddit feeds and community information including subscriber counts, descriptions, and post listings. Filter by date, sort by hot/new/top/rising, and monitor multiple communities.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/backhoe/reddit-community-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [D](https://apify.com/backhoe) (community)
- **Categories:** Social media
- **Stats:** 57 total users, 3 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 3 bookmarks
- **User rating**: 5.00 out of 5 stars

## Pricing

Pay per usage

This Actor is paid per platform usage. The Actor is free to use, and you only pay for the Apify platform usage, which gets cheaper the higher subscription plan you have.

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

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
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.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## 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.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## 👥 Reddit Community Scraper

> **🆓 100% FREE** | **📊 Full Subreddit Data** | **🔒 No API Key Required**

A comprehensive tool for collecting information about subreddits and their post feeds with support for date filtering and sorting.

***

### ✨ Why Choose This Scraper?

- ✅ **Completely Free** - No hidden costs or subscriptions
- ✅ **No Reddit API Key Needed** - Works out of the box
- ✅ **Monitor Multiple Communities** - Track unlimited subreddits
- ✅ **Residential Proxies Included** - Avoid rate limits
- ✅ **Date Filtering** - Get posts from specific time periods

***

### 🚀 Key Features

- **Community Metadata**: Subscriber count, description, name
- **Post Feed**: Collect posts with various sorting methods
- **Date Filter**: Limit by publication date
- **Pagination**: Automatic handling of large feeds
- **Post Statistics**: Upvotes, comments, authors

### 📋 Input Parameters

```json
{
  "startUrls": ["https://www.reddit.com/r/python"],
  "sort": "hot",
  "maxItems": 50,
  "postDateLimit": "2025-01-01",
  "skipCommunity": false,
  "debugMode": false
}
```

#### Parameters:

- **startUrls** (array, required): List of subreddit URLs
- **sort** (string): Sorting - `hot`, `new`, `top`, `rising`
- **maxItems** (integer): Maximum number of posts
- **postDateLimit** (string): Date limit in YYYY-MM-DD format (optional)
- **skipCommunity** (boolean): Skip community metadata collection
- **debugMode** (boolean): Debug mode

### 📤 Output Data

#### Community Information:

```json
{
  "dataType": "community_info",
  "url": "https://old.reddit.com/r/python",
  "title": "r/python - Python",
  "members": "1,234,567",
  "description": "News and discussion about Python...",
  "scrapedAt": "2025-01-20T10:30:00.000Z"
}
```

#### Post from Feed:

```json
{
  "dataType": "post_preview",
  "title": "Python 3.13 Released!",
  "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/Python/comments/...",
  "author": "username",
  "subreddit": "Python",
  "id": "t3_abc123",
  "upvotes": "1234",
  "comments_count": "56",
  "created_utc": 1234567890.0,
  "is_pinned": false,
  "scrapedAt": "2025-01-20T10:30:00.000Z"
}
```

### 💡 Usage Examples

#### Top 50 posts from r/Python

```json
{
  "startUrls": ["https://www.reddit.com/r/python"],
  "sort": "top",
  "maxItems": 50
}
```

#### New posts from the last month

```json
{
  "startUrls": ["https://www.reddit.com/r/MachineLearning"],
  "sort": "new",
  "maxItems": 100,
  "postDateLimit": "2025-01-01"
}
```

#### Community metadata only (no posts)

```json
{
  "startUrls": ["https://www.reddit.com/r/programming"],
  "maxItems": 0,
  "skipCommunity": false
}
```

#### Monitor multiple communities

```json
{
  "startUrls": [
    "https://www.reddit.com/r/Python",
    "https://www.reddit.com/r/learnpython",
    "https://www.reddit.com/r/django"
  ],
  "sort": "hot",
  "maxItems": 25
}
```

### ⚙️ Technical Details

- **Memory**: 256 MB (optimized for efficiency)
- **Proxy**: Residential (automatic, included free)
- **Timeout**: 3600 seconds
- **Source**: old.reddit.com
- **Date Format**: ISO 8601

### 📝 Notes

- Support for various URL formats (r/python, /r/python/, full URL)
- Automatic pagination for large feeds
- Date filter stops scraping when limit is reached
- Pinned posts are marked separately
- All timestamps in UTC format

***

### 🎯 Perfect For

- 📈 Community growth tracking
- 🔍 Trend discovery and analysis
- 📊 Competitive research
- 🤖 Content aggregation
- 📰 News monitoring

***

**💬 Questions or Issues?** Feel free to reach out or check the documentation!

## Actor input object example

```json
{}
```

# 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 = {};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("backhoe/reddit-community-scraper").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 = {}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("backhoe/reddit-community-scraper").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 '{}' |
apify call backhoe/reddit-community-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

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

```

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/o36HQL9yVd7T9I8OL/builds/Lr0CfLfKataIFsrpW/openapi.json