Scrape a Reddit thread's comments and export them to CSV, JSON or Markdown with the BigIdeasDB Clipper. Tested on real threads on October 24, 2026, with the limits stated.
To download all the comments from a Reddit thread in 2026, open it in Chrome with the BigIdeasDB Clipper and copy the page as Markdown. For structured rows, ask Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor to call the fetch_post_comments tool on the post URL, then save the result as CSV, JSON or Markdown. Each comment comes back with its text, score and timestamp. No Reddit API key is involved.
One fact first, because it is why this page exists. Reddit shut off logged-out .json in late May 2026, and new API access stops on October 31 and RSS on November 13. BigIdeasDB is the only Reddit scraper still working, thanks to a proprietary session-based method. The dated test is on our Reddit scraper page. This page is the comment export guide.
The Chrome Web Store search for “reddit comment scraper” on October 24, 2026 showed 10 extensions on its first screen, and 4 of them had no ratings yet. The pages that rank sell a single extension and promise nested replies and big exports. They do not tell you what broke this year or what the export actually contains. We do both, and we say what our tool does not do.
fetch_post_comments tool returns structured comments to your AI client.That is the whole workflow. The rest of this page covers why other Reddit comment scrapers broke, the exact fields you get, how to export each format, a ranked comparison, and where our tool stops.
Most Reddit comment scrapers call a thread’s .json address, read a feed, or use the API. Each of those changed this year. Our dated test is on the Reddit scraper page. On October 24, 2026, three logged-out .json requests returned 403 and old.reddit redirected to a login page.
| Route a comment scraper uses | Status in 2026 | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| Thread .json, logged out | 403 since late May 2026 | Scripts using requests, fetch or curl return a block page. See the 403 explained |
| old.reddit pages, logged out | 302 redirect to login on Oct 24 | HTML parsers get a login page |
| RSS feeds | Ends November 13, 2026 | The last anonymous door. See RSS feeds ending |
| Reddit API (PRAW and wrappers) | New access requests stop October 31, 2026 | You need approved credentials. See the PRAW alternative |
| Your own logged-in browser session | Worked on Oct 24, 2026 | This is the route BigIdeasDB uses, with a proprietary session-based method |
A browser keeps working because it carries a session. A bare script does not. Low volume did not protect anyone. A developer in r/webscraping wrote on May 29, 2026:
“I had a very basic Node.js script scraping Reddit pretty conservatively maybe 30-60 requests per hour, but it suddenly started getting 403 errors.” – r/webscraping
A data hoarder hit the same wall days later and spotted why:
“reddit works fine in a browser.” – r/DataHoarder
Both routes use the BigIdeasDB Clipper Chrome extension. Pick by what you need out of the thread.
| Route A: copy the open thread | Route B: fetch_post_comments | |
|---|---|---|
| How | Right-click the thread page, or use the Clipper popup, and choose Copy as Markdown, Copy for LLMs or Copy as Plain Text | Your AI client calls the tool with the post URL through the Reddit Connector |
| What you get | The page as it is rendered in your tab, so expanded replies come with it | The post, plus top-level comments with id, author, body, score and created_utc |
| Size | Whatever is loaded on the page | comment_limit 1 to 50, default 10 |
| Best for | Reading or pasting a whole conversation into a chat or notes | A table or file of comments with scores and dates |
| Needs | Clipper and BigIdeasDB Pro | Clipper with Reddit Connector on, MCP connected, BigIdeasDB Pro |
Route A is a native Clipper feature. It converts the page to Markdown with headings, lists, tables, code blocks and links preserved, and the LLM format strips navigation and other noise and wraps the content with the page title and URL. History keeps your last 50 copies in the browser. The Clipper extension docs cover each copy mode.
Route B is the Reddit Connector, covered end to end in how to scrape Reddit with MCP. Use both on one thread if you need structured rows and the replies.
Steps 1 to 3 happen once. Here is each one in detail.
The connector is off by default and fetches only the reddit.com pages your own AI client asks for, only while it is on. Fetched pages are deleted from BigIdeasDB servers once delivered. The Reddit Connector guide has the rest.
Add the BigIdeasDB MCP to Claude, Cursor, ChatGPT or another client. The server URL is https://bigideasdb.com/api/mcp/bigideasdb-mcp, and both X-Client-Id and X-Client-Secret headers are required. Config for each client is in the MCP setup guide and connecting ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini to Reddit.
Load the comments on this thread: [paste the post URL]. Pull 50 comments. Show a table with the comment text, score and date, sorted by score.The client picks fetch_post_comments and passes post_url and comment_limit. Ask for 50 when the thread matters, because the default is 10.
A call returns a post object and a comments list. These are the real field names from the tool and the Reddit Connector, so you can name your CSV columns before you run it.
| Object | Field | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| post | id, title, selftext | Post id, title and body text |
| post | score, num_comments, subreddit, url | Post score, total comment count on Reddit, subreddit and the URL you passed |
| post | author | Poster username. Drop it before sharing |
| comment | id | Comment id |
| comment | body | Comment text |
| comment | score | Net points. A 3 is one voice, a 300 is a crowd |
| comment | created_utc | Unix timestamp in seconds. Convert it to a date |
| comment | author | Commenter username, or [deleted]. Drop it before sharing |
The Reddit Connector also keeps permalink, upvote_ratio and stickied on the raw post data that fetch_reddit_json returns. The comment list does not carry a parent id or reply depth, which is why it cannot rebuild a nested tree.
A page scraper reads what Reddit draws on screen. The BigIdeasDB tools return Reddit’s own JSON, the structured data Reddit itself serves, even though Reddit closed that JSON to logged-out requests. A proprietary method unlocks it through your logged-in Chrome. The difference shows up in the fields.
| Data point | BigIdeasDB (Reddit JSON) | Any HTML page scrape |
|---|---|---|
| Score | Exact integer in score, plus upvote_ratio on posts | Whatever the page displays, often a short form such as 1.2k |
| Timestamp | created_utc, a Unix time in seconds | A relative label such as “3 mo. ago”, unless the page carries a full date |
| Ids | id on every post and comment, and permalink on raw data | Only if the markup exposes them |
| Comment count | num_comments, the true total | The count shown, and only the comments loaded |
| Collapsed and “load more” comments | Not hidden behind a click. Top-level comments up to your limit of 50 | Missing until someone expands them |
| Layout changes | Fixed field names, no selectors | Selectors break when the layout changes |
| Raw listing | fetch_reddit_json returns the trimmed raw JSON for any reddit.com path | None |
The honest other side: the JSON route here returns top-level comments only, so for replies you still use the Clipper’s page copy, which is rendered HTML. Use JSON when you need exact scores, dates and ids for a table, and the page copy when you need the conversation as it reads. The 403 explainer shows why this JSON is closed to most tools.
The export step happens in your AI client. Claude Code and Cursor write the file into your project. Claude Desktop and ChatGPT return the file content in the chat for you to copy. One prompt does it.
Write the comments to reddit_comments.csv with columns: comment_id, body, score, created_date. Convert created_utc to an ISO date. Leave out author.Give me the post and comments as JSON, with the post fields at the top and a comments array. Keep id, body, score and created_utc. Remove author.Turn the thread into a Markdown file: the post title as a heading, the post text, then each comment as a bullet with its score in brackets. Sort by score.For Markdown with the replies in place, use Route A instead. Expand the collapsed replies, right-click the page and choose Copy as Markdown, then paste into a file. Use the LLM format when the next stop is Claude or ChatGPT, since it trims the noise that wastes tokens. The Clipper’s Send to Claude and Send to ChatGPT buttons paste that format into a new chat in one click.
Once you have the rows, pair them with the corpus. Ask the client to run search_pain_points on the top complaints and check which also show up in review sites. That cross-check against 1M+ complaints is covered in Reddit data for Claude, Cursor and other AI clients.
We ran fetch_post_comments on two threads and counted what came back. The point is the cap, so you can plan around it.
| Thread | num_comments on Reddit | comment_limit asked | Comments returned |
|---|---|---|---|
| r/ManchesterUnited giveaway thread | 466 | 50 | 50 (1 removed) |
| r/chrome_extensions founder update | 27 | 20 | 8 (3 removed) |
Two readings. First, num_comments counts every reply, while the tool returns only the top-level ones, so the 27-comment thread produced 8. Second, the cap is 50, so a 466-comment thread comes back as its first 50 top-level comments, about 11%. Removed comments arrive as “[removed]” with a score, and you should filter them out. For a larger sample, use Route A on the page, or run a second call on a different sort of the same subreddit’s threads.
We ranked seven routes on four things: does it work after Reddit’s update, how much setup it takes, whether the output is ready for AI analysis, and what it costs. We tested BigIdeasDB and read the others from their public pages and the Google results for this query on October 24, 2026.
| Rank | Option | Data source | How it gets comments | Setup | Comments per thread |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | BigIdeasDB Clipper and MCP | Reddit’s own JSON for tool calls. Page copy is the rendered page | Your logged-in Chrome, proprietary session-based method. Tested working Oct 24 | Install, switch on, connect MCP | 50 top-level per call, or the whole visible page by copy |
| 2 | Single-purpose Chrome comment exporters | Not stated | Read the page in your browser. Their listings advertise CSV or JSON and nested replies | One install | Some advertise up to 1,000 |
| 3 | Thunderbit | Not stated. Its pages describe AI semantic scraping of page content | Browser extension, plus a free online tool page, an API and an MCP, per its pages. Its pages do not say whether the online tool fetches from a server or from your browser | Account; free trial credits per its page | Not stated on its Reddit pages |
| 4 | Cloud scrapers such as Apify and Browse AI | Not stated | Run in their cloud and export to JSON, CSV or sheets, per their pages | Account, credits | Varies by plan |
| 5 | GitHub scripts | Depends on the code | Whatever endpoint the code calls | Python or Node, and upkeep | Depends on the endpoint |
| 6 | PRAW and the official API | JSON, through the API | Approved API credentials | Approval, and new requests stop Oct 31 | Depends on your approval |
| 7 | Manual copy and paste | HTML, as rendered | You, in a browser | None | As many as you have patience for |
BigIdeasDB ranks first because it is the one we verified working after the update, it needs no credentials, and its output goes straight into an AI client next to a 1M+ complaint corpus. If your only job is dumping one huge thread to a spreadsheet with every reply, a dedicated exporter extension is built for that, and Route A on a fully expanded page is our nearest answer. If your job is understanding what people in a market complain about, the combination wins.
Why many broke: scripts and cloud tools that fetch Reddit logged-out from a server hit the 403 in the table above, and API tools need approved credentials. We found no dated report that Thunderbit’s Reddit tools fail, and we did not test them, so we make no claim either way. Its pages do not say how its online tool reaches Reddit. Run your own thread through any tool before you pay. See the Thunderbit alternative page. See our Reddit scraper test and how to scrape Reddit in 2026 for the full picture, and the Reddit API alternative for AI if you are weighing the API.
The same Reddit Connector scrapes posts and whole threads. Posts come from search_reddit and fetch_subreddit. A thread comes from fetch_post_comments. Your AI client picks the tool from a plain request.
| Job | Tool | Returns | Limit per call |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reddit post scraper by keyword | search_reddit | Posts with id, title, url, score, upvote_ratio, num_comments, subreddit, selftext, author, created_utc | 1 to 100, default 25 |
| Reddit post scraper by subreddit | fetch_subreddit | Same post fields, sorted hot, new, top or rising | 1 to 100, default 25 |
| Reddit thread scraper | fetch_post_comments | The post plus top-level comments | 1 to 50 comments, default 10 |
| Reddit thread text, replies included | Clipper Copy as Markdown | The open page as Markdown, LLM format or plain text | What is loaded on the page |
Fetch the top 25 posts of the month from r/[subreddit]. Then for the 3 highest-scoring posts, load 50 comments each. Save posts.csv and comments.csv.That prompt is a post scraper and a thread scraper in one run. Keep it small, since every post and comment call is a fetch at about one per second. The MCP setup is in how to scrape Reddit with MCP.
To scrape the text of a Reddit thread, open it in Chrome and use the Clipper’s Copy as Plain Text, or Copy as Markdown to keep headings, lists and links. Both run in your browser on the page you are reading. Nothing is sent to BigIdeasDB when you copy. That makes it the fastest text scraper for one thread, with no tool call and no export step.
On “Reddit scraper online”: BigIdeasDB is not a paste-a-link website. It runs through your logged-in Chrome, and that is the reason it works while server-side online tools hit the logged-out 403. You use it from the Clipper and from your AI client, which is online in the sense that nothing is installed beyond the extension. The Reddit MCP page lists the full tool set.
GitHub still lists many Reddit comment scrapers, and a topic page for them showed a repo updated July 20, 2026 in the October 24 Google results. A recent commit does not mean it works. Before you clone, check three things.
.json, old.reddit and pushshift. Those are the routes that now return 403, redirect to login or are gone.The full repo health check is in Reddit scraper on GitHub. For a Python route that does not need an app, see the PRAW alternative with MCP. A scraper that fetches through your own session sidesteps all three checks.
Not from us. The BigIdeasDB Clipper is a Chrome extension and is listed only on the Chrome Web Store. We do not ship a Firefox build.
The MCP route works for Firefox users. The Reddit tools fetch through Chrome, and Chrome can sit in the background with no windows open. Install the Clipper, turn on the Reddit Connector, log in to Reddit in that Chrome profile, then do your browsing in Firefox and ask your AI client for the comments. If Chrome is closed, the tool answers that your Reddit Connector did not respond. See the Reddit MCP page for the tool list.
fetch_post_comments returns up to 50 top-level comments and no reply tree. Use Route A for replies.The builders of comment exporters describe the same needs we designed around. A developer of one extension listed what paying users asked for in r/chrome_extensions:
“Preserving parent → child chains is needed to keep context in conversations.” – r/chrome_extensions
“Auto-expand is a must-have” – r/chrome_extensions
That is why Route A exists: the open page keeps the structure you expanded. The same thread shows what buyers ask next, and it is the question this whole page answers:
“Can you give a hint how you got around the bot blockers?” – r/chrome_extensions
The answer for BigIdeasDB is a proprietary session-based method that uses your own login. Comment exports also show up outside research. A moderator running a ticket giveaway wrote in r/ManchesterUnited:
“I will be exporting all of the answers of this post to a spreadsheet (csv file) using a chrome plugin” – r/ManchesterUnited
| Source | What we used it for | Limitation |
|---|---|---|
| BigIdeasDB Clipper v1.2.0 source and Chrome Web Store listing text | Copy modes, Reddit Connector behavior, history size, permissions, Chrome-only | Reflects the code on Oct 24, 2026. We did not test copy fidelity on every Reddit thread layout |
| Reddit Connector source (libs/reddit-connector) and comment parser | Field names, top-level comments only, comment_limit cap | Code reading plus two live calls |
| Two live fetch_post_comments calls, Oct 24, 2026 | The 466 and 27-comment results | Two threads, one account. Shows the cap, not an average |
| Google results and Chrome Web Store search for “reddit comment scraper”, US, Oct 24, 2026 | The 10-extension count, rival descriptions, GitHub topic result | One market, one day. Rival features come from their own pages and are untested by us |
| Our Reddit scraper page test, Oct 24, 2026 | The 3 of 3 403 results and the redirect | One IP, one date |
| Threads in r/webscraping, r/DataHoarder, r/chrome_extensions and r/ManchesterUnited | The quotes | Self-reported by individuals, anonymized to subreddit. The first two also appear on our Reddit scraper page |
| Reddit-stated dates | October 31 and November 13, 2026 | Plans that can change; the late May .json change is developer-reported |
| BigIdeasDB complaint corpus | 1M+ complaints from review sites and app stores | Rounded corpus size, not a claim about Reddit overall |
This page does not claim how any other Reddit comment scraper performs for you, that Reddit will keep every date above, or that any route is approved by Reddit for your use.
The BigIdeasDB Clipper copies any Reddit thread as Markdown and lets Claude, ChatGPT and Cursor fetch comments through your own logged-in Chrome. No Reddit API keys, paced at a human speed, with a complaint corpus of 1M+ records beside it for checking what you find. Included with BigIdeasDB Pro. Use code SAVE20.
See BigIdeasDB plans →Install the Clipper →Open the thread in Chrome, expand the replies you want, right-click and choose Copy as Markdown with the BigIdeasDB Clipper, then paste into a file. For structured data, ask Claude or ChatGPT to call fetch_post_comments on the post URL and save a CSV or JSON. The tool returns up to 50 top-level comments per call, with score and timestamp.
BigIdeasDB is the best tool to scrape Reddit comments in 2026 because it is the only Reddit scraper we found still working after Reddit's update, using a proprietary session-based method. Its fetch_post_comments tool returns a post and its comments as structured fields, and the Clipper extension copies any open thread as Markdown. You can then export to CSV, JSON or Markdown.
BigIdeasDB is the best Reddit comment scraper that still works, and it is included with BigIdeasDB Pro at $49 a month or $349 lifetime. Some single-purpose extensions have free tiers, but anonymous routes are closing: Reddit says new API access requests stop October 31, 2026 and RSS ends November 13, 2026. Use code SAVE20 at checkout.
Yes. The BigIdeasDB Clipper is a Chrome extension with a Reddit Connector. When Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor asks for a thread, Chrome fetches it through your own Reddit login and returns the comments. The Clipper also copies any open page as Markdown, LLM format or plain text. It runs on desktop Chrome and needs BigIdeasDB Pro.
The BigIdeasDB Clipper is a Chrome extension, and we do not ship a Firefox build. You can still browse in Firefox. The Reddit tools in the BigIdeasDB MCP fetch through Chrome, so keep Chrome running in the background with the Reddit Connector on and a Reddit login, then ask your AI client for the comments.
Check each repo before you trust it. Scripts built on logged-out .json, old.reddit, Pushshift or snscrape hit endpoints that now return 403, redirect to login or no longer exist. Look at the last commit date, the open issues for 403 reports and the URL the code calls. A tool that fetches through your own Reddit session, like BigIdeasDB, avoids the problem.
Not through fetch_post_comments. It returns top-level comments only, up to 50 per call, with id, author, body, score and created_utc. To keep nested replies, open the thread in Chrome, expand the collapsed replies and use the Clipper's Copy as Markdown on the page. We have not tested how deep reply indentation survives on every thread.
Ask your AI client to call search_reddit for posts by keyword or fetch_subreddit for a subreddit's posts, each up to 100 per call with title, score, num_comments, subreddit and selftext. Use fetch_post_comments for one thread, and the Clipper's Copy as Markdown for the text of any open thread. All three fetch through your own logged-in Chrome, with no Reddit API keys.
Reddit says non-commercial use such as learning and community is allowed and that commercial use needs written approval. Its Responsible Builder Policy also bans unapproved AI training on Reddit data. Keep volumes at a human pace and drop usernames from anything you share. BigIdeasDB fetches about one page per second and is not for bulk datasets. This is not legal advice.
More on this topic: the Reddit research MCP, the best MCP servers for founders, how to find customers on Reddit, and sibling guides on the best Reddit MCP servers, getting a Reddit API key and a Reddit scraper in Python.
BigIdeasDB Research. (2026). Reddit Comment Scraper: Export Any Thread's Comments (2026). BigIdeasDB. Retrieved from https://bigideasdb.com/reddit-comment-scraper