Reddit Post Scraper

What does Reddit Post Scraper do?

Reddit Post Scraper extracts structured details from public Reddit post pages at reddit.com. It is a practical Reddit data extraction tool for collecting post metadata, public text, media metadata, and optional comments from a list of post URLs. It uses the rendered public page and does not require a Reddit login or a private API session.

The Actor is designed for specific post URLs rather than broad subreddit crawling. If Reddit presents a CAPTCHA, login wall, rate-limit page, WAF response, or another access-denied page, the Actor stops without manufacturing a result. A run with no successfully saved post fails closed, leaves the dataset empty, and writes explicit availability diagnostics to OUTPUT.

Why use Reddit Post Scraper?

• Collect consistent post records for trend research, content analysis, and social listening.
• Preserve the requested URL, source URL, extraction method, proxy state, and scrape timestamp for provenance.
• Optionally collect up to 20 visible top-level comments and up to 5 replies per collected comment.
• Run with Apify scheduling, API access, webhooks, monitoring, and dataset exports.
• Optionally use an explicitly supplied Apify proxy configuration for an authorized network route. No proxy is enabled by default.

What data can Reddit Post Scraper extract?

Field	Type	Description
postId	string	Reddit post identifier.
postTitle	string	Post title.
permalink	string	Public Reddit permalink.
subreddit	string	Community name.
author	string	Public author name, when shown.
score	number	Post score reported by Reddit.
numComments	number	Reported comment count.
selfText	string	Public body text for self posts.
postType	string	Detected post type such as self, link, image, gallery, or video.
awards	array	Public award details, when available.
comments	array	Optional public comments and bounded replies.
scrapedAt	string	UTC timestamp for the extracted record.

How to scrape Reddit posts

1. Open the Input tab and provide one to ten public Reddit post URLs in postUrls.
2. Choose whether to collect visible comments with includeComments.
3. Keep headless enabled for normal Actor runs, or disable it only for an authorized local debugging session.
4. Configure proxyConfiguration only when you are permitted to collect the public pages and need a different network route. The Actor never escalates proxy groups or bypasses access controls automatically.
5. Start the Actor and review the dataset in the Output tab. A successful result contains one dataset item per post that passed the completeness checks.

For a bounded direct local verification with comments enabled, run apify run --purge --input-file INPUT.json and inspect storage/datasets/default.

How much does it cost?

This Actor uses Apify pay-per-event pricing configured at $0.003 per post result added to the dataset. Compute, proxy, and subscription charges can also depend on your Apify plan and run configuration. Review the current Pricing tab before production use.

Input

See the Input tab for the full configuration. The main fields are:

Field	Type	Default	Description
postUrls	array	none	Required list of 1–10 public reddit.com or redd.it post URL strings; duplicates are removed by post ID.
includeComments	boolean	true	Collect visible comments and bounded nested replies.
headless	boolean	true	Run the browser without a visible window.
proxyConfiguration	object	none	Optional Apify proxy settings.

Output

You can download the dataset in various formats such as JSON, HTML, CSV, or Excel. A simplified item looks like this:

{
  "recordType": "post",
  "position": 1,
  "postId": "t3_example01",
  "postTitle": "Example discussion title",
  "subreddit": "example",
  "author": "exampleuser",
  "score": 128,
  "numComments": 24,
  "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/example/comments/example01/example_discussion/",
  "found": true,
  "dataAvailable": true,
  "scrapedAt": "2025-01-15T13:00:00.000Z"
}

Run summary and storage

Each successful dataset row has recordType: "post". The Actor stores a JSON run summary in the default key-value store under OUTPUT with requested URL count, comment/proxy settings, saved records, failed and blocked requests, and data availability. A fail-closed run stores recordType: "runDiagnostic" and sanitized request errors there, never in the pay-per-event dataset.

Tips and troubleshooting

• Keep input lists bounded so a run remains easy to monitor and stays within the target site's limits.
• A zero-result run is intentionally unsuccessful. Check OUTPUT and the run log for requested, stored, failed, and blocked counts.
• If Reddit blocks the network request, do not try to bypass a CAPTCHA, login wall, or other access control. Use only public pages and an authorized collection setup.
• Optional fields can be absent when Reddit does not expose them on the public page.

FAQ, disclaimers, and support

Does the Actor scrape private Reddit data?

No. It is intended for public post pages and does not use private endpoints, protected sessions, or login credentials.

Can I scrape any Reddit URL?

The input is intended for individual public post URLs. Subreddit listings, user profiles, private communities, and access-denied pages are outside the supported result contract.

Our Actors are ethical and do not extract any private user data, such as email addresses, gender, or location. They only extract what the user has chosen to share publicly. We therefore believe that our Actors, when used for ethical purposes by Apify users, are safe. However, you should be aware that your results could contain personal data. Personal data is protected by the GDPR in the European Union and by other regulations around the world. You should not scrape personal data unless you have a legitimate reason to do so. If you are unsure whether your reason is legitimate, consult your lawyers.

For programmatic use, see the API tab. For feedback or a reproducible issue, use the Issues tab and include the input shape and relevant run diagnostics without sharing credentials.