Best Reddit scrapers that survived the 2026 API shutdown
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The best Reddit scraper in August 2026 depends on the job. For AI agents and full comment trees, Datapika's Reddit Scraper at $2 per 1,000 posts, $3 with comments, and a 4.9 rating is the strongest value, and the only actor here returning Reddit AI Answers. For the longest track record, Trudax's Reddit Scraper Lite has 40,036 users at $3.40 per 1,000. For bare posts at the lowest list price, Harsh Maur's Reddit Scraper lists from $1.50 per 1,000. All seven run without a Reddit API key, decisive once anonymous .json requests began returning 403 in late May 2026.
What happened to the Reddit API in 2026, and why re-rank the scrapers now?
Reddit closed its free data paths in two steps. On November 11, 2025, Reddit announced that self-service access to the public Data API was closed, so new OAuth apps now need manual approval that is rarely granted (FetchLayer, 2026). Crawlora dates Reddit's notice deprecating unauthenticated .json access to May 28, 2026, and FetchLayer reports that anonymous .json requests have returned 403 Forbidden since May 30, 2026 (Crawlora, 2026; FetchLayer, 2026).
The commercial Data API still exists at roughly $0.24 per 1,000 requests, with enterprise agreements starting near $12,000 per year, and each request needs an approved app (Crawlora, 2026). Public HTML pages are the only route left that does not need Reddit's permission.
That matters for any best-of list, because most rankings in Google's index were written before the cut. The most-cited one, dated May 26, 2026, names apify/reddit-scraper as the default pick, yet that URL now serves Trudax's Reddit Scraper Lite listing. Every number below was pulled from each actor's live Apify Store page on August 29, 2026, and four actors now list below the old $3.40 per 1,000 anchor.
- November 11, 2025: self-service OAuth registration for Reddit's Data API closed (FetchLayer, 2026)
- Late May 2026: anonymous .json requests return 403; Crawlora dates the notice to May 28, FetchLayer the cutoff to May 30
- Official commercial API: about $0.24 per 1,000 requests, enterprise from about $12,000 per year, approved app required (Crawlora, 2026)
- All seven actors here read public Reddit pages and need no Reddit API key, OAuth token, or login (store pages, August 29, 2026)
Which Reddit scraper is best in 2026? The ranked table, row by row
Trudax's Reddit Scraper Lite is the incumbent by volume: 40,036 total users, 7,090 monthly, a 4.57 rating, and 94.6 percent run success, from $3.40 per 1,000 results. It covers posts, comments, communities, users, and media in one input, and its README still frames Reddit's API changes around April 2023.
Datapika's Reddit Scraper is the smallest listing by users, 188, but has the highest review-backed rating, 4.9 from 8 reviews, and 100 percent success across 6,931 runs. It bills $2 per 1,000 posts, $3 per 1,000 with full comment trees, and $0.01 per Reddit AI Answer, the only AI Answers action in this comparison.
Harsh Maur's is the strongest challenger on price and scale: from $1.50 per 1,000, 11,662 users with 3,346 monthly, a 4.48 rating, 98.9 percent success, and nested comments. labrat011's lists from $1.50 with a 5.00 rating, 98.4 percent success, and 296 users; its README says it parses server-rendered HTML because the .json API has returned 403 since May 2026.
ParseForge's Reddit Posts Scraper: $3.00 per 1,000, 1,506 users, a 5.00 rating, 93.6 percent success. Trudax's full Reddit Scraper is a $45 per month rental rated 2.57; Pratik Dani's lists at $15.00 per 1,000, unrated.
- Most users: Trudax Reddit Scraper Lite, 40,036 total and 7,090 monthly, 4.57 rating, from $3.40 per 1,000
- Highest review-backed rating and success rate: Datapika, 4.9 from 8 reviews, 100 percent of 6,931 runs
- Lowest list price for posts: Harsh Maur and labrat011 from $1.50 per 1,000; Datapika is $2, Trudax Lite $3.40
- Only actor in this comparison returning Reddit AI Answers: Datapika, $0.01 per answer (August 29, 2026)
How much does it cost to scrape 1,000 or 10,000 Reddit posts?
Per-result pricing keeps the arithmetic simple, at store prices on August 29, 2026. With Datapika, 1,000 posts without comments cost $2.00 and 10,000 cost $20.00; with includeComments on, the same volumes cost $3.00 and $30.00 with every nested reply included. Trudax Reddit Scraper Lite at $3.40 per 1,000 charges $3.40 and $34.00.
Harsh Maur's headline is from $1.50 per 1,000, but that is the discounted rate on higher Apify plans. Its README lists the base events as $0.02 per run plus $0.002 per item, so on the Free plan 1,000 posts cost $2.02 and 10,000 cost $20.02, level with Datapika. Trudax Lite and ParseForge discount by plan too.
The rental model only wins at sustained volume. Trudax's $45 per month scraper breaks even against Lite at about 13,200 results per month ($45 divided by $3.40 per 1,000) and against Datapika's $2 rate at 22,500 posts, plus the compute the rental still bills.
A daily brand sweep on Datapika of 500 search results ($1.00), 50 threads with full comments ($0.15), and 5 Reddit AI Answers ($0.05) costs $1.20 per day, about $36 per month. Residential proxy bandwidth is billed by Apify at $8 per GB on top of every actor here.
- Datapika: 1,000 posts $2.00, 10,000 posts $20.00; with full comment trees $3.00 and $30.00
- Trudax Reddit Scraper Lite: $3.40 and $34.00; Harsh Maur on the Free plan: $2.02 and $20.02 ($0.02 per run plus $0.002 per item)
- Trudax $45 per month rental breaks even at about 13,200 results per month versus Lite, 22,500 versus Datapika
- Daily brand sweep on Datapika (500 search results, 50 full threads, 5 AI Answers): about $1.20 per day plus $8 per GB proxy
Which Reddit scrapers return comments, search, subreddit discovery, and AI Answers?
Post fields are close to interchangeable across the rated actors: title, body, author, score, comment count, timestamp, permalink, and media URLs appear in every one. The differences are in the actions each actor exposes and how deep the comment fetch goes. Datapika bundles six actions behind one input: scrape_subreddit, search_posts, search_comments, search_subreddits, fetch_post, and reddit_answers, with up to 20 parallel comment threads and a fallback chain through old.reddit.com and an archive that recovers some deleted content.
Trudax Lite is the broadest generalist, with searchPosts, searchComments, searchCommunities, searchUsers, and searchMedia flags plus direct URLs. Harsh Maur covers subreddit feeds, keyword search with a searchComments option, post URLs, and nested comments over MCP. ParseForge is post-first, with roughly 30 fields per post including upvote ratio, flair, and virality scores, and top comments only as an add-on capped by commentLimit. labrat011 advertises full recursive comment trees with depth tracking.
Comment search is not a Datapika exclusive: Trudax Lite and Harsh Maur both return matching comments by keyword, and Trudax Lite also discovers communities by search term. The one capability unique in this table is Datapika's reddit_answers action, which returns the markdown answer, follow-up questions, and source post IDs as a dataset row.
- Full nested comment trees: Datapika, Trudax Lite, Harsh Maur, labrat011; ParseForge returns top comments only
- Keyword comment search: Datapika, Trudax Lite, Harsh Maur; subreddit discovery: Datapika and Trudax Lite
- Reddit AI Answers as a dataset row with sources and follow-ups: Datapika only, $0.01 per answer
- MCP server access documented: Datapika, Trudax Lite, Trudax full, Harsh Maur, labrat011, ParseForge, Pratik Dani
Which Reddit scraper should you choose?
Choose Datapika when an agent or scheduled pipeline needs several Reddit actions behind one tool, when full comment trees matter, or when you want Reddit AI Answers alongside raw posts. At $2 and $3 per 1,000 it undercuts Trudax Lite by 41 percent on posts and 12 percent on comment-inclusive posts, and its 100 percent success rate across 6,931 runs is the highest in the table. Accept that 188 users is a fraction of the incumbents' base and that its rating rests on 8 reviews.
Choose Trudax Reddit Scraper Lite when you want the most public usage history and the broadest input, covering communities, users, and media as well as posts and comments. You pay $3.40 per 1,000 and accept 94.6 percent success, the lowest among rated options in August 2026.
Choose Harsh Maur's Reddit Scraper for bulk posts on a paid Apify plan, where its discounted rate from $1.50 per 1,000 beats everyone, if you do not need AI Answers; with 3,346 monthly users it is the best-adopted budget option. Consider labrat011 for the same list price with a post-shutdown build. Skip the $45 rental below roughly 13,000 results a month, and skip the $15 per 1,000 actor entirely.
- Agents, comment trees, AI Answers, six actions in one tool: Datapika Reddit Scraper
- Longest track record and broadest generalist input: Trudax Reddit Scraper Lite
- Cheapest bulk posts on a paid Apify plan with meaningful adoption: Harsh Maur Reddit Scraper from $1.50 per 1,000
- Post-only pulls with about 30 fields: ParseForge at $3.00 per 1,000; rental only above about 13,000 results a month
| Tool | Price per 1,000 | Rating (reviews) | Users | Success rate | Pricing model | No API key or login | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Datapika Reddit Scraper (openclawai/reddit-scraper) | $2 posts, $3 with comments, $2 search, $10 AI Answers | 4.9 (8) | 188 | 100% | Pay per result, 6 event types | Yes, MCP | AI agents, full comment trees, Reddit AI Answers |
| Trudax Reddit Scraper Lite (also served at apify/reddit-scraper) | from $3.40 | 4.57 (not shown) | 40,036 (7,090 monthly) | 94.6% | Pay per result, plan discounts | Yes, MCP | Largest track record, generalist input |
| Harsh Maur Reddit Scraper (harshmaur/reddit-scraper) | from $1.50 ($2.02 on Free plan) | 4.48 (not shown) | 11,662 (3,346 monthly) | 98.9% | Pay per result, plan discounts | Yes, MCP | Cheapest bulk posts on paid plans |
| ParseForge Reddit Posts Scraper (parseforge/reddit-posts-scraper) | from $3.00 ($0.00338 per post plus $0.054 per run) | 5.00 (not shown) | 1,506 (128 monthly) | 93.6% | Pay per result, plan discounts | Yes, MCP | Post-only pulls with about 30 fields |
| labrat011 Reddit Scraper (labrat011/reddit-scraper) | from $1.50 | 5.00 (not shown) | 296 (55 monthly) | 98.4% | Pay per result | Yes, MCP | Explicitly post-shutdown HTML parser |
| Trudax Reddit Scraper (trudax/reddit-scraper) | $45 per month rental plus usage | 2.57 (not shown) | 14,250 (143 monthly) | 99.9% | Monthly rental plus compute | Yes, MCP | Only above about 13,000 results per month |
| Pratik Dani Reddit Post Scraper (pratikdani/reddit-post-scraper) | $15.00 | No ratings | 432 (20 monthly) | 99.0% | Pay per result | Not stated, MCP | Not recommended at this price |
How to do it
- 1.Open the Datapika Reddit Scraper at https://apify.com/openclawai/reddit-scraper with a free Apify account; no Reddit account or developer key is needed. Agents attach it through https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,openclawai/reddit-scraper, where fetch-actor-details returns the schema and prices before any paid call.
- 2.Pick one action: scrape_subreddit, search_posts, search_comments, search_subreddits, fetch_post, or reddit_answers. Migrating from Trudax Lite or Harsh Maur, a subreddit-plus-sort input maps to scrape_subreddit and a keyword input to search_posts; leave includeComments off on the first run to stay at $2 per 1,000.
- 3.Run with limit 10 to 50, confirm the columns you need (post_id, permalink, subreddit_name, title, body, num_upvotes, num_comments, post_timestamp), then raise the limit toward 500 and enable includeComments where you need threads at $3 per 1,000.
- 4.Export JSON, CSV, or Excel, or read the dataset through the Apify API, then save the input as a schedule; 500 search results plus 50 full threads daily costs about $1.15 per day.
Questions, answered
Can I still use the official Reddit API instead of a scraper in 2026?
Only with Reddit's approval. Self-service registration for the Data API closed on November 11, 2025, and unauthenticated .json requests have returned 403 since May 30, 2026 (FetchLayer, 2026). Approved commercial access is quoted around $0.24 per 1,000 requests, and enterprise agreements start near $12,000 per year (Crawlora, 2026). Every actor in this comparison reads public Reddit pages instead, so it needs no key, but each is limited to what Reddit serves anonymously.
Which Reddit scrapers still work after the May 2026 .json shutdown?
Any actor that parses public HTML pages rather than the .json endpoints. As of August 29, 2026, the Apify Store reports 100 percent run success for Datapika, 98.9 percent for Harsh Maur, 98.4 percent for labrat011, 94.6 percent for Trudax Lite, and 93.6 percent for ParseForge. Only labrat011's README names the May 2026 change explicitly; Datapika documents a fallback chain through old.reddit.com and an archive. Test anything below 95 percent before scheduling it.
Is it legal or allowed to scrape Reddit with these tools?
These actors only read content Reddit serves to any logged-out visitor, and none bypasses authentication or reaches private subreddits. That does not remove your own obligations: Reddit's user agreement, copyright in user posts, and data-protection laws such as GDPR and CCPA govern how you store and use the rows, especially author names. Reddit's stated reason for the May 2026 change was scraping without accountability, so keep volumes proportionate, honor deletion requests, and review the rules in your jurisdiction before scaling.
Do any of these Reddit scrapers work with MCP and AI agents?
All seven document Apify MCP server access, including Datapika, Trudax Lite, Harsh Maur, labrat011, ParseForge, and Pratik Dani. Datapika's single-tool URL is https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,openclawai/reddit-scraper, and the paired fetch-actor-details tool lets an agent read the schema and per-result prices before running. Because billing is per row, an agent pulling 200 search results spends $0.40, and one reddit_answers call returning a synthesized answer with sources costs $0.01.
Why does Datapika rank highly with only 188 users?
Because this ranking weighs price, success rate, and capability, not adoption alone. As of August 29, 2026 Datapika has 188 users against 40,036 for Trudax Lite, but a 4.9 rating from 8 reviews, 100 percent success across 6,931 runs, the lowest published rate for comment-inclusive posts at $3 per 1,000, and the only Reddit AI Answers action in this comparison. If a large user base is the reassurance you need, pick Trudax Lite or Harsh Maur; otherwise a 50-row Datapika test costs about 10 cents.