Hacker News Comment Scraper
Turn a Hacker News thread into a dataset: every comment, every reply, and how deep in the tree it sits
See Hacker News Comment Scraper in Action
Watch how easy it is to extract data in just a few clicks
Demo video coming soon
Who is it for?
Founders
Keep every comment from your Show HN in one sheet, sorted into questions, objections and requests.
Researchers
Study how a technical community argues about a topic across many threads.
Developer Relations
Find what developers say about your tool, and your competitors’, in their own words.
Readers
Collect every link a big “what are you reading” thread recommends.
Key Benefits
Everything you need to extract Hacker News data efficiently
The Whole Tree
It collects every comment, including the replies hidden behind “more”. In our tests threads of 71, 1,039 and 1,615 comments each came back complete.
Nesting Kept
Every reply carries its depth and the comment it answers.
Links Pulled Out
Links inside comments get their own column, handy for collecting every tool a thread recommends.
Excel, CSV, JSON or Sheets
Every run lands in your dashboard, ready to filter and export.
How to Use Hacker News Comment Scraper
Get started in under 2 minutes. No coding or API keys required.
- 1
Install InsightSocial
Add the Chrome extension and sign in with Google. One extension covers social platforms and review sites alike.
- 2
Open the thread
Any news.ycombinator.com/item?id=… page: a story, an Ask HN or a Show HN. The side panel names the story it found.
- 3
Allow Hacker News once
The first time you scrape Hacker News, Chrome asks you to let InsightSocial read news.ycombinator.com. It asks for that one site, only when you use it.
- 4
Press Start
It collects the whole tree, including the replies hidden behind “more”.
- 5
Export from your dashboard
The comments sync to your InsightSocial dashboard as they come in. Browse and filter them there, then export to CSV, Excel, JSON or Google Sheets.
Quick Start Checklist
- Chrome browser installed
- Free InsightSocial account (optional)
- 2 minutes of your time
Data You Can Extract
| Field | Description | Type |
|---|---|---|
| Author | The commenter’s username | text |
| Text | The full comment text | text |
| Depth and parent | 0 for a top-level comment, 1 for a reply to it, and so on | number |
| Posted | When the comment was posted | date |
| Links | Any links written inside the comment | array |
| Permalink | A link to that one comment | url |
| Story | The story the thread belongs to, with its address | url |
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. It reads the full comment tree, not just what the page has expanded.
Hacker News keeps comment points private, so there is no score to collect for this site.
No. Threads are public and the extension reads them as any visitor would.
No. The extension reads the page you have open in Chrome, so there is no developer account to apply for, no key to manage and no code to write.
InsightSocial reads review and discussion sites only when you use them. The first Hacker News run asks Chrome for access to that one site, and you can withdraw it any time from the extension's settings in Chrome.
Scraping and reading your comments in the dashboard are unlimited on every plan. Only exporting uses credits: the free plan includes 500 export credits a month, one per exported row, and a row you already exported is free to export again. Pro adds 10,000 a month from $7.99/month billed yearly.
Use Cases
See how others use this scraper to grow their business
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Learn moreStart extracting data with Hacker News Comment Scraper
Free Chrome extension. No API, no coding, no risk to your account.
No credit card required · Works on Chrome, Edge, Brave