How to Scrape Reddit Comments Tree with cURL

Reddit Comments Tree contains valuable data -- comment text, authors, scores, depth, and more. Scraping this data directly means dealing with anti-bot detection, CAPTCHAs, IP rotation, and constantly breaking selectors. The Scavio API handles all of that and returns clean, structured JSON from a single POST request.

This tutorial shows you how to scrape Reddit Comments Tree using cURL and the Scavio API. By the end, you will have a working cURL script that fetches real-time Reddit Comments Tree data and parses the results.

Prerequisites

• A terminal with cURL installed (pre-installed on macOS, Linux, and Windows 10+)
• A Scavio API key (free tier includes 50 credits on signup -- no credit card required)

Step 1: Install Dependencies

curl is built into cURL, so there is nothing to install.

# cURL is pre-installed on macOS, Linux, and Windows 10+

Step 2: Make Your First Reddit Comments Tree Search

Send a POST request to the Scavio Reddit Comments Tree API endpoint with your query. The API returns structured JSON with comment text, authors, scores, and more.

# Comments are fetched per post: get a post_id from POST /api/v1/reddit/search, or resolve
# a URL with POST /api/v1/reddit/post. Deeper replies come from POST
# /api/v1/reddit/post/comments/replies using a row's reply_cursor.
curl -X POST "https://api.scavio.dev/api/v1/reddit/post/comments" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sk_live_your_key" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"post_id":"t3_1u1143i","sort":"TOP"}'

Step 3: Example Response

The API returns structured JSON. Here is an example response for a Reddit Comments Tree search:

{
  "data": {
    "comments": [
      {
        "comment_id": "t1_oz1h216",
        "author": "vscoderCopilot",
        "text": "Seems like C# to me or maybe they make a new lang for AI usage",
        "score": 2,
        "depth": 0,
        "created_at": "2026-07-22T09:02:17.303000+0000",
        "reply_cursor": null
      }
    ],
    "next_cursor": null,
    "has_more": false
  },
  "response_time": 2050,
  "credits_used": 1,
  "credits_remaining": 4810
}

Every field is structured and typed -- no HTML parsing, no CSS selectors, no regex extraction. Your cURL code can access any field directly.

Step 4: Full Working Example

Here is a complete, runnable cURL script that searches Reddit Comments Tree and prints the results:

#!/bin/bash
# Fetch Reddit Comments Tree data with the Scavio API.
# POST /api/v1/reddit/post/comments - rows come back under data.comments.
# Comments are fetched per post: get a post_id from POST /api/v1/reddit/search, or resolve
# a URL with POST /api/v1/reddit/post. Deeper replies come from POST
# /api/v1/reddit/post/comments/replies using a row's reply_cursor.

SCAVIO_API_KEY="${SCAVIO_API_KEY:-sk_live_your_key}"
INPUT="${1:-t3_1u1143i}"

curl -s -X POST "https://api.scavio.dev/api/v1/reddit/post/comments" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SCAVIO_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d "{\"post_id\":\"$INPUT\",\"sort\":\"TOP\"}" | python3 -m json.tool

Why Use Scavio Instead of Scraping Reddit Comments Tree Directly?

• No proxy management. Direct scraping requires rotating proxies to avoid IP bans. Scavio handles all of this server-side.
• No CAPTCHA solving. Reddit Comments Tree aggressively blocks automated requests. Scavio returns clean data every time.
• Structured JSON output. No HTML parsing or CSS selector maintenance. Get typed, consistent data from every request.
• Multi-platform in one API. Search Google, Amazon, YouTube, and Walmart from the same API key with the same authentication pattern.
• Free tier included. 50 credits on signup with no credit card required. Each search costs 1 credit.