# Reddit Post Scraper (`backhoe/reddit-post-scraper`) Actor

Extract detailed information from Reddit posts including title, content, media, and hierarchical comment threads. Supports various comment sorting methods and customizable limits.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/backhoe/reddit-post-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [D](https://apify.com/backhoe) (community)
- **Categories:** Social media
- **Stats:** 88 total users, 1 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/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#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 Post Scraper

> **🆓 100% FREE** | **💬 Full Comment Threads** | **🔒 No API Key Required**

A detailed scraper for collecting information about specific Reddit posts and their comments with support for hierarchical reply structure.

***

### ✨ Why Choose This Scraper?

- ✅ **Completely Free** - No hidden costs or subscriptions
- ✅ **No Reddit API Key Needed** - Works out of the box
- ✅ **Full Comment Trees** - Preserves reply hierarchy
- ✅ **Residential Proxies Included** - Avoid rate limits
- ✅ **Rich Media Support** - Images, videos, and links

***

### 🚀 Key Features

- **Complete Post Information**: Title, author, text, media, statistics
- **Comment Hierarchy**: Preserves reply structure and nested comments
- **Flexible Sorting**: Various comment sorting methods
- **Limits**: Control the number of comments to collect
- **Metadata**: Upvotes, timestamps, authors

### 📋 Input Parameters

```json
{
  "startUrls": [
    "https://www.reddit.com/r/Python/comments/15t8eq0/guido_van_rossum_on_why_python_uses_0based/"
  ],
  "maxComments": 100,
  "skipComments": false,
  "sort": "confidence",
  "includeNSFW": true,
  "debugMode": false
}
```

#### Parameters:

- **startUrls** (array, required): List of post URLs to scrape
- **maxComments** (integer): Maximum number of comments to collect
- **skipComments** (boolean): Skip comment collection (post only)
- **sort** (string): Comment sorting - `confidence`, `new`, `top`, `old`, `qa`
- **includeNSFW** (boolean): Process NSFW content
- **debugMode** (boolean): Detailed logging

### 📤 Output Data

#### Post Structure:

```json
{
  "dataType": "post",
  "id": "t3_15t8eq0",
  "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/Python/comments/...",
  "title": "Post title",
  "subreddit": "Python",
  "author": "username",
  "body": "Post text content",
  "body_html": "<div>HTML content</div>",
  "media": {
    "type": "image",
    "url": "https://..."
  },
  "stats": {
    "upvotes": 1234,
    "upvote_ratio": 0.95,
    "comments_total": 56,
    "comments_scraped": 50
  },
  "created_utc": "1234567890",
  "scrapedAt": "2025-01-20T10:30:00.000Z",
  "comments": [...]
}
```

#### Comment Structure:

```json
{
  "dataType": "comment",
  "id": "t1_abc123",
  "author": "username",
  "body": "Comment text",
  "upvotes": "42",
  "created_utc": "1234567890",
  "scrapedAt": "2025-01-20T10:30:00.000Z",
  "replies": [...]
}
```

### 💡 Usage Examples

#### Collect post with top 100 comments

```json
{
  "startUrls": ["https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/xyz/..."],
  "maxComments": 100,
  "sort": "top"
}
```

#### Post information only (no comments)

```json
{
  "startUrls": ["https://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/..."],
  "skipComments": true
}
```

#### New comments with limit

```json
{
  "startUrls": ["https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/..."],
  "maxComments": 50,
  "sort": "new"
}
```

### ⚙️ Technical Details

- **Memory**: 256 MB (optimized for efficiency)
- **Proxy**: Residential (automatic, included free)
- **Timeout**: 3600 seconds
- **Source**: old.reddit.com
- **Structure**: Hierarchical comment tree

### 📝 Notes

- Comments preserve full hierarchy (replies)
- Support for various media types (images, videos, links)
- Automatic handling of deleted comments
- All timestamps in UTC format

***

### 🎯 Perfect For

- 💬 Sentiment analysis and opinion mining
- 📊 Discussion thread analysis
- 🔬 Social research and studies
- 🤖 Training chatbots and AI models
- 📰 Content moderation and 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-post-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-post-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"])
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).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-post-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=backhoe/reddit-post-scraper",
                "--header",
                "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

```

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/xSgDdQP0Dt0PyaIiV/builds/eMBjVE3mbg8nWE0c3/openapi.json