# Reddit Thread & Comments Scraper (`datara/reddit-thread-comments-scraper`) Actor

Scrape any Reddit post and its complete comment thread — including deeply nested replies — in seconds. Supports bulk URLs, cursor-based pagination for large threads, flat or nested output, score filtering, and depth capping. Perfect for sentiment analysis, AI training data, and community research.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/datara/reddit-thread-comments-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Datara](https://apify.com/datara) (community)
- **Categories:** Automation, Lead generation, Social media
- **Stats:** 9 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $3.00 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event and usage. You are charged both the fixed price for specific events and for Apify platform usage.

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

## 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 Thread & Comments Scraper

Extract any Reddit post and its full comment tree — including nested replies at any depth — in seconds. Supports cursor-based pagination for threads with hundreds or thousands of comments.

***

### What This Actor Does

Given one or more Reddit post URLs, this actor:

1. Fetches the **post metadata** (title, author, score, upvote ratio, subscriber count, etc.)
2. Fetches the **full comment tree** including nested replies, paginating through all available comment pages
3. Pushes each post and comment as a clean, structured dataset record

Output records are typed (`recordType: "post"` or `"comment"`) and immediately usable in spreadsheets, databases, AI pipelines, or downstream automations.

***

### Use Cases

- **Sentiment analysis** — analyse how communities respond to products, brands, or announcements
- **AI training data** — collect high-quality human conversation threads for LLM fine-tuning or RLHF
- **Community research** — surface recurring themes, pain points, and opinions across subreddits
- **Qualitative market research** — understand what real users say about your category
- **Content strategy** — identify high-scoring discussions to inform editorial direction

***

### Input Fields

| Field | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| `postUrl` | string | — | Single Reddit post URL to scrape |
| `postUrls` | array | `[]` | List of Reddit post URLs for bulk scraping (overrides `postUrl`) |
| `maxPages` | integer | `3` | Max comment pages to fetch per post (cursor pagination, ~25 comments/page) |
| `flattenComments` | boolean | `true` | Output comments as individual flat records (true) or with nested replies arrays (false) |
| `includePostRecord` | boolean | `true` | Include the post as a separate dataset record |
| `minCommentScore` | integer | `0` | Skip comments below this score threshold |
| `maxCommentDepth` | integer | `10` | Maximum reply nesting depth to include (0 = top-level only) |
| `maxCommentsPerPost` | integer | `200` | Cap on total comment records per post (1–5000) |

> **Bulk mode:** If `postUrls` is non-empty, the single `postUrl` field is ignored. Duplicate URLs are automatically deduplicated.

***

### Single URL Example Input

```json
{
  "postUrl": "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1abc23/we_just_hit_10k_mrr_heres_what_worked/",
  "maxPages": 5,
  "flattenComments": true,
  "includePostRecord": true,
  "minCommentScore": 5,
  "maxCommentDepth": 5,
  "maxCommentsPerPost": 500
}
```

***

### Bulk URL Example Input

```json
{
  "postUrls": [
    "https://www.reddit.com/r/SaaS/comments/1abc11/thoughts_on_pricing_models/",
    "https://www.reddit.com/r/entrepreneur/comments/1abc22/bootstrapped_to_1m_ama/",
    "https://www.reddit.com/r/startups/comments/1abc33/why_we_shut_down/"
  ],
  "maxPages": 3,
  "flattenComments": true,
  "includePostRecord": true,
  "minCommentScore": 2,
  "maxCommentDepth": 10,
  "maxCommentsPerPost": 300
}
```

***

### Output Schema

#### Post Record (`recordType: "post"`)

| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| `recordType` | string | Always `"post"` |
| `id` | string | Reddit short ID (e.g. `1lfbo7u`) |
| `name` | string | Reddit fullname, prefixed `t3_` (e.g. `t3_1lfbo7u`) |
| `title` | string | Post title |
| `author` | string | Username of the poster |
| `authorFullname` | string | Reddit internal author ID (e.g. `t2_16syu27ar1`) |
| `subreddit` | string | Subreddit name (without `r/`) |
| `url` | string | Full post URL |
| `score` | integer | Net vote score |
| `ups` | integer | Upvote count (fuzzy-rounded by Reddit) |
| `downs` | integer | Downvote count (almost always 0) |
| `upvoteRatio` | number | Ratio of upvotes to total votes (0–1) |
| `numComments` | integer | Total comment count as reported by Reddit |
| `subredditSubscribers` | integer | Subscriber count of the subreddit |
| `isVideo` | boolean | True if the post contains a Reddit-hosted video |
| `totalAwardsReceived` | integer | Number of Reddit awards |
| `createdUtc` | number | Unix timestamp (UTC seconds) of post creation |
| `createdAt` | string | ISO 8601 datetime of post creation |
| `scrapedAt` | string | ISO 8601 datetime when the record was scraped |

**Example post record:**

```json
{
  "recordType": "post",
  "id": "1lfbo7u",
  "name": "t3_1lfbo7u",
  "title": "What is a thing you love that lots of people hate?",
  "author": "Vetro_Nodulare2",
  "authorFullname": "t2_16syu27ar1",
  "subreddit": "AskReddit",
  "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/1lfbo7u/what_is_a_thing_you_love_that_lots_of_people_hate/",
  "score": 47,
  "ups": 47,
  "downs": 0,
  "upvoteRatio": 0.91,
  "numComments": 353,
  "subredditSubscribers": 56146601,
  "isVideo": false,
  "totalAwardsReceived": 0,
  "createdUtc": 1750341959,
  "createdAt": "2025-06-19T14:05:59.000Z",
  "scrapedAt": "2025-06-20T09:45:12.000Z"
}
```

***

#### Comment Record (`recordType: "comment"`)

| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| `recordType` | string | Always `"comment"` |
| `id` | string | Reddit short ID (e.g. `mymupxb`) |
| `name` | string | Reddit fullname, prefixed `t1_` (e.g. `t1_mymupxb`) |
| `postId` | string | Short ID of the parent post |
| `postUrl` | string | Full URL of the parent post |
| `author` | string | Username of the commenter |
| `authorFullname` | string | Reddit internal author ID |
| `body` | string | Plain-text comment body |
| `score` | integer | Net vote score |
| `ups` | integer | Upvote count |
| `downs` | integer | Downvote count |
| `depth` | integer | Nesting depth (0 = top-level, 1 = reply to top-level, etc.) |
| `parentId` | string | Fullname of the parent (`t3_...` if replying to post, `t1_...` if replying to comment) |
| `linkId` | string | Fullname of the parent post (always `t3_...`) |
| `subreddit` | string | Subreddit name |
| `url` | string | Full URL of this comment |
| `permalink` | string | Relative permalink path |
| `gilded` | integer | Number of times gilded |
| `stickied` | boolean | True if pinned by a moderator |
| `locked` | boolean | True if the comment thread is locked |
| `archived` | boolean | True if too old to receive votes |
| `controversiality` | integer | 0 or 1; 1 = high vote split |
| `totalAwardsReceived` | integer | Number of Reddit awards |
| `createdUtc` | number | Unix timestamp (UTC seconds) of comment creation |
| `createdAt` | string | ISO 8601 datetime of comment creation |
| `scrapedAt` | string | ISO 8601 datetime when scraped |
| `replies` | array | \[Nested mode only] Child comment records |

**Example comment record (flat mode):**

```json
{
  "recordType": "comment",
  "id": "mymupxb",
  "name": "t1_mymupxb",
  "postId": "1lfbo7u",
  "postUrl": "https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/1lfbo7u/what_is_a_thing_you_love_that_lots_of_people_hate/",
  "author": "Background-Emu-2890",
  "authorFullname": "t2_efdlposp6",
  "body": "Black cat — I have one and I love her so much!",
  "score": 75,
  "ups": 75,
  "downs": 0,
  "depth": 0,
  "parentId": "t3_1lfbo7u",
  "linkId": "t3_1lfbo7u",
  "subreddit": "AskReddit",
  "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/1lfbo7u/what_is_a_thing_you_love_that_lots_of_people_hate/mymupxb/",
  "permalink": "/r/AskReddit/comments/1lfbo7u/what_is_a_thing_you_love_that_lots_of_people_hate/mymupxb/",
  "gilded": 0,
  "stickied": false,
  "locked": false,
  "archived": false,
  "controversiality": 0,
  "totalAwardsReceived": 0,
  "createdUtc": 1750342221,
  "createdAt": "2025-06-19T14:10:21.000Z",
  "scrapedAt": "2025-06-20T09:45:12.000Z"
}
```

***

### Flat vs Nested Comment Output

**Flat mode** (`flattenComments: true`, default):

- Every comment and reply is pushed as its own dataset record
- Use `depth` to understand nesting level (0 = top-level)
- Use `parentId` to reconstruct the tree (`t1_XXX` = parent comment, `t3_XXX` = direct reply to post)
- Best for: spreadsheet analysis, databases, ML pipelines, CSV export

**Nested mode** (`flattenComments: false`):

- Top-level comment records contain a `replies` array with child records embedded
- Each child also contains its own `replies` array, forming a full tree
- Best for: JSON tree processing, displaying thread structure

***

### Pagination

The ScrapeCreators API uses cursor-based pagination. Each page returns approximately 25 top-level comments. Set `maxPages` to control how many pages to fetch:

- `maxPages: 1` — fast, ~25 top-level comments
- `maxPages: 5` — ~125 top-level comments + all their replies
- `maxPages: 20` — comprehensive extraction for large threads

The actor stops pagination early if `maxCommentsPerPost` is reached or the API signals no more pages available.

***

### Error Handling

- Failed URLs push an error record (`error: true`) and processing continues for remaining URLs
- Posts with no comments push a warning record
- The dataset always contains at least one record per run

***

### Pricing

This actor uses **Pay Per Event (PPE)** pricing:

- **$0.30 per 100 records** (each post and each comment count as one record)
- A thread with 1 post + 199 comments = 200 records ≈ $0.60
- Bulk run: 10 threads × 200 comments = ~2,010 records ≈ $6.03

***

### Support

For questions or feature requests, contact the actor publisher via the Apify Store messaging system.

# Actor input Schema

## `postUrl` (type: `string`):

Full URL of a Reddit post to scrape. Used when scraping a single thread. Example: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/abc123/my\_post/

## `postUrls` (type: `array`):

List of Reddit post URLs for bulk scraping. When this array is non-empty, it overrides the single Post URL field above.

## `maxPages` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of comment pages to fetch per post using cursor-based pagination. Each page returns ~25 top-level comments. Set to 1 for a quick grab, or higher for comprehensive extraction. Range: 1–20.

## `flattenComments` (type: `boolean`):

When enabled, all comments including nested replies are output as individual flat dataset records, each carrying their depth level and parentId. When disabled, top-level comment records include their replies as nested arrays.

## `includePostRecord` (type: `boolean`):

Include the post itself as a separate record (recordType: post) in the output dataset.

## `minCommentScore` (type: `integer`):

Exclude comments with a score below this threshold. Set to 0 to include all comments regardless of score.

## `maxCommentDepth` (type: `integer`):

Maximum nesting depth of replies to include. 0 = top-level only, 1 = top-level plus direct replies, and so on. The API returns a depth field on each comment.

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

Cap on the total number of comment records extracted per post across all pages. Range: 1–5000.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "postUrl": "https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/1lfbo7u/what_is_a_thing_you_love_that_lots_of_people_hate/",
  "postUrls": [],
  "maxPages": 3,
  "flattenComments": true,
  "includePostRecord": true,
  "minCommentScore": 0,
  "maxCommentDepth": 10,
  "maxCommentsPerPost": 200
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (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 = {
    "postUrl": "https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/1lfbo7u/what_is_a_thing_you_love_that_lots_of_people_hate/",
    "postUrls": [],
    "maxPages": 3,
    "flattenComments": true,
    "includePostRecord": true,
    "minCommentScore": 0,
    "maxCommentDepth": 10,
    "maxCommentsPerPost": 200
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("datara/reddit-thread-comments-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 = {
    "postUrl": "https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/1lfbo7u/what_is_a_thing_you_love_that_lots_of_people_hate/",
    "postUrls": [],
    "maxPages": 3,
    "flattenComments": True,
    "includePostRecord": True,
    "minCommentScore": 0,
    "maxCommentDepth": 10,
    "maxCommentsPerPost": 200,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("datara/reddit-thread-comments-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 '{
  "postUrl": "https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/1lfbo7u/what_is_a_thing_you_love_that_lots_of_people_hate/",
  "postUrls": [],
  "maxPages": 3,
  "flattenComments": true,
  "includePostRecord": true,
  "minCommentScore": 0,
  "maxCommentDepth": 10,
  "maxCommentsPerPost": 200
}' |
apify call datara/reddit-thread-comments-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,datara/reddit-thread-comments-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/6RByBMd1VhcVqIBI0/builds/XCSjahUkmQPl3rJXC/openapi.json