Send your first Reddit API request

This guide shows you how to send a synchronous request to each Bright Data Reddit Scraper API endpoint. It covers collecting posts, discovering posts and collecting comments.

Prerequisites

A Bright Data account with an active API key
Completed the Quickstart

Request structure

Every synchronous request follows the same pattern:

POST https://api.brightdata.com/datasets/v3/scrape?dataset_id={DATASET_ID}&format=json
Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY
Content-Type: application/json

[{"url": "https://www.reddit.com/..."}]

The only things that change between endpoints are the dataset_id and the input shape.

Synchronous requests support up to 20 URLs and have a 1-minute timeout. If the request takes longer, the API automatically returns a snapshot_id instead. See async requests.

Posts, Collect by URL

Scrape a specific Reddit post by its URL. Dataset ID: gd_lvz8ah06191smkebj4

curl -X POST \
  "https://api.brightdata.com/datasets/v3/scrape?dataset_id=gd_lvz8ah06191smkebj4&format=json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '[{"url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/learnpython/comments/1asdf12/how_do_i_start_learning_python/"}]'

import requests

response = requests.post(
    "https://api.brightdata.com/datasets/v3/scrape",
    params={"dataset_id": "gd_lvz8ah06191smkebj4", "format": "json"},
    headers={
        "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY",
        "Content-Type": "application/json",
    },
    json=[{"url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/learnpython/comments/1asdf12/how_do_i_start_learning_python/"}],
)

print(response.json())

const response = await fetch(
  "https://api.brightdata.com/datasets/v3/scrape?dataset_id=gd_lvz8ah06191smkebj4&format=json",
  {
    method: "POST",
    headers: {
      "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY",
      "Content-Type": "application/json",
    },
    body: JSON.stringify([
      { url: "https://www.reddit.com/r/learnpython/comments/1asdf12/how_do_i_start_learning_python/" }
    ]),
  }
);

const data = await response.json();
console.log(data);

You should see a 200 response. This takes 10 to 30 seconds.

Example response

[
  {
    "post_id": "1asdf12",
    "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/learnpython/comments/1asdf12/how_do_i_start_learning_python/",
    "user_posted": "example_user",
    "title": "How do I start learning Python?",
    "description": "I'm a complete beginner and want to know the best resources...",
    "num_upvotes": 1240,
    "num_comments": 86,
    "date_posted": "2025-03-14T18:22:00Z",
    "tag": "Tutorial",
    "community_name": "learnpython",
    "community_url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/learnpython",
    "community_description": "Subreddit for posting questions...",
    "community_members_num": 1120000,
    "community_rank": "Top 1%",
    "photos": [],
    "videos": []
  }
]

Full Posts - Collect by URL schema

Posts, Discover by subreddit URL

Scrape recent posts from a specific subreddit, optionally sorted by new, top or hot. Dataset ID: gd_lvz8ah06191smkebj4

Discovery endpoints are best used asynchronously via /trigger since they may return many results. The sync example below is for quick testing.

curl -X POST \
  "https://api.brightdata.com/datasets/v3/scrape?dataset_id=gd_lvz8ah06191smkebj4&format=json&type=discover_new&discover_by=subreddit_url" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '[{"url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/learnpython/", "sort_by": "hot"}]'

import requests

response = requests.post(
    "https://api.brightdata.com/datasets/v3/scrape",
    params={
        "dataset_id": "gd_lvz8ah06191smkebj4",
        "format": "json",
        "type": "discover_new",
        "discover_by": "subreddit_url",
    },
    headers={
        "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY",
        "Content-Type": "application/json",
    },
    json=[{"url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/learnpython/", "sort_by": "hot"}],
)

print(response.json())

const response = await fetch(
  "https://api.brightdata.com/datasets/v3/scrape?dataset_id=gd_lvz8ah06191smkebj4&format=json&type=discover_new&discover_by=subreddit_url",
  {
    method: "POST",
    headers: {
      "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY",
      "Content-Type": "application/json",
    },
    body: JSON.stringify([
      { url: "https://www.reddit.com/r/learnpython/", sort_by: "hot" }
    ]),
  }
);

const data = await response.json();
console.log(data);

Full Discover by subreddit URL schema

Posts, Discover by keyword

Find Reddit posts matching a search term, filtered by date. Dataset ID: gd_lvz8ah06191smkebj4

curl -X POST \
  "https://api.brightdata.com/datasets/v3/scrape?dataset_id=gd_lvz8ah06191smkebj4&format=json&type=discover_new&discover_by=keyword" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '[{"keyword": "machine learning", "date": "Past week", "num_of_posts": 20}]'

import requests

response = requests.post(
    "https://api.brightdata.com/datasets/v3/scrape",
    params={
        "dataset_id": "gd_lvz8ah06191smkebj4",
        "format": "json",
        "type": "discover_new",
        "discover_by": "keyword",
    },
    headers={
        "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY",
        "Content-Type": "application/json",
    },
    json=[{"keyword": "machine learning", "date": "Past week", "num_of_posts": 20}],
)

print(response.json())

const response = await fetch(
  "https://api.brightdata.com/datasets/v3/scrape?dataset_id=gd_lvz8ah06191smkebj4&format=json&type=discover_new&discover_by=keyword",
  {
    method: "POST",
    headers: {
      "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY",
      "Content-Type": "application/json",
    },
    body: JSON.stringify([
      { keyword: "machine learning", date: "Past week", num_of_posts: 20 }
    ]),
  }
);

const data = await response.json();
console.log(data);

Full Discover by keyword schema

Comments, Collect by URL

Scrape all comments from a Reddit post or a specific comment thread, with optional filtering by age. Dataset ID: gd_lvzdpsdlw09j6t702

curl -X POST \
  "https://api.brightdata.com/datasets/v3/scrape?dataset_id=gd_lvzdpsdlw09j6t702&format=json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '[{"url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/learnpython/comments/1asdf12/", "days_back": 7}]'

import requests

response = requests.post(
    "https://api.brightdata.com/datasets/v3/scrape",
    params={"dataset_id": "gd_lvzdpsdlw09j6t702", "format": "json"},
    headers={
        "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY",
        "Content-Type": "application/json",
    },
    json=[{"url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/learnpython/comments/1asdf12/", "days_back": 7}],
)

print(response.json())

const response = await fetch(
  "https://api.brightdata.com/datasets/v3/scrape?dataset_id=gd_lvzdpsdlw09j6t702&format=json",
  {
    method: "POST",
    headers: {
      "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY",
      "Content-Type": "application/json",
    },
    body: JSON.stringify([
      { url: "https://www.reddit.com/r/learnpython/comments/1asdf12/", days_back: 7 }
    ]),
  }
);

const data = await response.json();
console.log(data);

Example response

[
  {
    "comment_id": "kabc1de",
    "user_posted": "example_commenter",
    "comment": "Start with the official Python tutorial, it's free and covers all the basics.",
    "date_posted": "2025-03-14T19:02:11Z",
    "num_upvotes": 412,
    "num_replies": 8,
    "replies": [],
    "post_url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/learnpython/comments/1asdf12/",
    "post_id": "1asdf12",
    "post_type": "text",
    "community_name": "learnpython",
    "community_url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/learnpython",
    "is_moderator": false,
    "is_pinned": false,
    "is_locked": false
  }
]

Full Comments - Collect by URL schema

Async batch requests

Scrape thousands of posts or run keyword discovery jobs in a single async request.

API reference

Full endpoint specs, parameters and response schemas.

Get started

Data extraction

Web access

AI training data

Proxy networks

Send your first Reddit API request

Prerequisites

Request structure

Posts, Collect by URL

Posts, Discover by subreddit URL

Posts, Discover by keyword

Comments, Collect by URL

Async batch requests

API reference

​Prerequisites

​Request structure

​Posts, Collect by URL

​Posts, Discover by subreddit URL

​Posts, Discover by keyword

​Comments, Collect by URL

​Related

Async batch requests

API reference

Prerequisites

Request structure

Posts, Collect by URL

Posts, Discover by subreddit URL

Posts, Discover by keyword

Comments, Collect by URL

Related