LurkAPI is the best Reddit scraper overall: 1,000 posts from any public subreddit cost $0.04 ($0.02 on the Growth pack), a feed comes back in 0.92 s, and the same key reads search, comment threads and community stats. Of the others, ScrapeCreators suits Reddit video transcripts, Apify no-code schedules, Bright Data large batches of links, Arctic Shift posts from past years, and PRAW apps that already hold a Reddit API key.
The best Reddit scrapers at a glance
| Service | Best for | What it covers | Price per 1,000 posts | Speed | Free to start |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LurkAPI | Every Reddit job | Subreddit feeds, search, comment threads, community stats | $0.04 to $0.02 | 0.92 s (median) | 100 credits, then 20 a day, no card |
| ScrapeCreators | Reddit video transcripts | Subreddits, search, single posts, comments, transcripts | $1.88 to $0.99 per 1,000 requests | 3.12 s average | 100 credits |
| Social Fetch | Budgeting by the month | Subreddits, search, single posts, comments, transcripts | $14 to $1.65 per 1,000 requests | About 3.2 s average | 100 credits, no card |
| Apify (Reddit Scraper Lite) | No-code schedules | Subreddits, posts, comments, users | $4.00 (Free plan) to $3.40 (Business) | Not published | $5 of usage a month |
| Bright Data | Big batches of links | Posts by link, keyword or subreddit, and comments | $1.50, or $1.30 on a $499 monthly plan | Up to a minute, then a batch job | 5,000 records a month |
| Arctic Shift | Posts from past years | An archive of posts and comments since 2005 | Free | Not published | Free, no key |
| PRAW | Apps with an approved Reddit key | Reddit's official API, from Python | Free | Not published | Open source |
1. LurkAPI: the best Reddit scraper overall
LurkAPI turns Reddit's public pages into clean JSON: send a subreddit, a keyword or a post link and get the data back in one request.
- Covers: Subreddit feeds, search across Reddit or inside one subreddit, comment threads with their replies, and community stats: 5 endpoints.
- Price: 1 credit a call (about 25 posts): $0.93 per 1,000 calls on the Pro pack, $0.59 on Growth. That's $0.04 to $0.02 per 1,000 posts.
- Speed: 0.92 s for a subreddit's feed, 0.63 s for a comment thread (medians).
- Best for: Any Reddit job, from one thread's comments to a daily sweep of every subreddit you watch.
Why it's #1
- Cheapest of the paid services: 1,000 posts cost $0.04, or $0.02 on the Growth pack. The lowest per-post price any other service here publishes is Bright Data's $1.30, on its $499 monthly plan.
- Fastest: a feed in 0.92 s and a thread in 0.63 s, against the 3.12 s average ScrapeCreators publishes.
curl "https://api.lurkapi.com/v1/reddit/subreddit?subreddit=marketing&sort=new" \-H "x-api-key: $LURK_KEY"Run it on any subreddit:
GET/v1/reddit/subreddit
1 credit per requestRun it to see live data here.
2. ScrapeCreators: best for Reddit video transcripts
ScrapeCreators is a social media data API billed per request. LurkAPI uses the same paths, so switching is a new base URL and key.
- Covers: Subreddits, search, single posts, comments and video transcripts.
- Price: $1.88 per 1,000 requests, $0.99 on its $497 pack.
- Speed: 3.12 s on average.
- Best for: Transcripts of Reddit videos.
- Limits: The smallest pack costs $47.
- Compared with LurkAPI: LurkAPI costs $0.93 to $0.59 per 1,000 requests and returns a subreddit's posts in 0.92 s.
3. Social Fetch: best for budgeting by the month
Social Fetch is a social media data API sold as credit packs or monthly plans.
- Covers: Subreddits, search, single posts, comments and transcripts.
- Price: $14 per 1,000 requests on its smallest pack, $1.65 on its largest.
- Speed: About 3.2 s on average.
- Best for: Teams that want one monthly bill.
- Limits: A monthly plan's unused credits reset each month.
- Compared with LurkAPI: At $0.93 to $0.59 per 1,000 requests, LurkAPI is under every Social Fetch price.
4. Apify: best for no-code schedules
Apify is a marketplace of ready-made scrapers you run from a form or on a schedule. These prices are for trudax's Reddit Scraper Lite.
- Covers: Subreddits, posts, comments and users.
- Price: $4.00 per 1,000 posts on the Free plan, $3.40 on Business.
- Speed: Not published.
- Best for: Scheduled runs with no code.
- Limits: It bills every result it stores, plus $0.02 to start each run.
- Compared with LurkAPI: The same 1,000 posts cost $0.04 to $0.02 on LurkAPI.
5. Bright Data: best for big batches of links
Bright Data's Reddit scraper takes a batch of links, keywords or subreddits and returns the records.
- Covers: Posts by link, keyword or subreddit, and comments.
- Price: $1.50 per 1,000 posts, or $1.30 on its $499 monthly plan.
- Speed: Runs as a batch job past a minute.
- Best for: Up to 5,000 links in a single job.
- Limits: It bills per record.
- Compared with LurkAPI: LurkAPI answers live, in 0.92 s, at $0.04 to $0.02 per 1,000 posts.
6. Arctic Shift: best for posts from past years
Arctic Shift is a free archive of Reddit, with a public API and monthly downloads.
- Covers: Posts and comments back to 2005, removed ones included.
- Price: Free.
- Speed: Not published.
- Best for: Research on what was posted months or years ago.
- Limits: Scores and comment counts can lag the live post, and text search works only inside one subreddit or user.
- Compared with LurkAPI: For Reddit as it is now, LurkAPI returns each post's current score and comment count in 0.92 s.
7. PRAW: best for apps with an approved Reddit key
PRAW is the open-source Python library for Reddit's official API.
- Covers: Reddit's official API, from Python.
- Price: Free.
- Speed: Not published.
- Best for: Python apps that already hold an approved Reddit API key.
- Limits: It needs that key, and Reddit set October 31, 2026 as the last day for new API requests (more on Reddit API keys).
- Compared with LurkAPI: LurkAPI's 100 free credits read about 2,500 posts, with no Reddit key needed.
Which Reddit scraper for which job
- A subreddit's newest posts: LurkAPI, because 1,000 posts cost $0.04. It also stands in for a subreddit's RSS feed (more on Reddit's RSS feeds).
- Brand and keyword mentions: LurkAPI, because it searches all of Reddit or one subreddit for 1 credit a page.
- What people say in a thread: LurkAPI, because the post and its comments with replies arrive in 0.63 s.
- Transcripts of Reddit videos: ScrapeCreators.
- No-code schedules: Apify.
- Posts from past years: Arctic Shift, because it's free and goes back to 2005.
- Your own app with an approved key: Reddit's Data API, free at 100 queries a minute (Reddit API pricing).
- One subreddit, once: our free Reddit scraper.
Got another job? Run it on 100 free credits, about 2,500 posts, and check the JSON before you pay.
