How to Find Reddit Comments
Reddit does not index comment text, so its search box cannot find a comment by what it said. The three routes that do work are Google with site:reddit.com, browsing the author's comment history, or opening the original thread and reading it in full.
Step by step
Accept that Reddit cannot search comment text
Reddit's search index covers post titles and bodies only. Searching Reddit for a phrase you remember from a reply will never work, no matter how the query is written.
Try Google with site:reddit.com
Google does index Reddit comments. Search the remembered phrase in quotes followed by site:reddit.com. This is the fastest route when you recall the wording but not the author.
Go through the author's comment history
If you know who wrote it, open reddit.com/user/name and switch to the comments tab. This sidesteps the index problem entirely, because you are browsing rather than searching.
Change the sort order
Comment listings cap at roughly 1,000 items per sort order. Switching between new, top and controversial returns different comments from the same history.
Find the thread and read it directly
If you remember the discussion but not the comment, find the post by title, then open the full thread. Deeply nested replies that never appear in listings are visible in the thread itself.
Check public archives for deleted comments
If the comment now shows as [deleted] or [removed], a public archive may hold a copy from before it disappeared. This works only if the archive captured it in time.
Pick your route
| What you remember | Best route |
|---|---|
| The exact wording | Google, phrase in quotes, plus site:reddit.com |
| Who wrote it | Their comment history, across several sort orders |
| The thread it was in | Find the post, then read the full comment tree |
| The subreddit and roughly when | Search posts in that subreddit by date, then open threads |
| Only that it is gone now | Public archives, if it was captured in time |
Tips
- Quote the exact phrase in Google. An unquoted search scatters across unrelated threads.
- Try a distinctive fragment rather than a whole sentence. People misremember sentences but rarely misremember an unusual word.
- Use old.reddit.com for long threads. It loads the full tree more predictably than the current interface.
- Sort a thread by old rather than best when hunting for a specific reply, so the order stays stable as you scan.
Common mistakes
- Searching Reddit for the comment text. This is the single most common wasted effort. It cannot work.
- Giving up after the first page of a comment history. That is one sort order out of several.
- Assuming [removed] means gone forever. Moderator-removed comments are the ones most likely to be archived.
- Searching with the collapsed thread view. Buried replies stay hidden until the tree is expanded.
Frequently asked questions
- How do I search Reddit comments by keyword?
- Not through Reddit, which does not index comment text. Use Google with site:reddit.com and the phrase in quotes, which is the only reliable keyword route into Reddit comments.
- How do I see all comments by one user?
- Open their profile and switch to the comments tab, then work through the sort orders. Reddit caps each at roughly 1,000 items, so several sorts return more than one.
- Why do some comments never appear in a profile listing?
- Very deeply nested replies and comments in removed threads often do not surface in listings. Reading the original thread in full is the way to find them.
- Can I find a comment if the account was deleted?
- The comment text usually survives in the thread, attributed to [deleted]. What is lost is the link back to the username, so you can no longer browse that person's other comments.
- Can I recover a comment I deleted myself?
- Sometimes, from a public archive, if it was captured before deletion. A comment deleted within minutes of posting is very unlikely to have been archived.
Or search an account's comments across every sort order at once.
Search a user's comments