How it works
How it works
What we read on each platform, how much of a post's comments each one hands out, and how exports, AI reports and giveaway draws are made. Measured numbers have their test date.
What each platform hands out
| Platform | How we read it | What you get | Tested |
|---|---|---|---|
| YouTube | YouTube's official Data API: 100 comments a call, replies included. | Every comment and reply the API returns. | November 13, 2026: a 1,915-comment video exported with replies to 1,915 rows in 16 seconds. |
| TikTok | Public comments, 50 a call; replies 20 a call. | About nine in ten top-level comments. TikTok says there are no more long before the end and repeats earlier pages; we keep reading past that and drop the repeats. | November 14, 2026: a video TikTok counted 4,565 comments on gave 3,449 comments and 974 replies, 97% of its count. |
| Public comments, 15 a call; the replies of each thread. | Instagram repeats comments from the page before (up to 9 of 15 in our test); we drop the repeats. | November 14, 2026, on public posts and reels. | |
| X | Replies, 36 a call, and the replies under each reply. | Fewer than X's reply count: X holds back replies it ranks low or hides, from everyone. | November 14, 2026: a post X counted 429 replies on gave 327, 76%. |
| The whole thread, including the replies Reddit folds away behind "more replies". | Reddit's count includes removed and deleted comments, which nobody can read. | November 14, 2026: a post counted at 108 gave 76 readable comments. |
YouTube comes from its official API; the other platforms' public comments are read through a data provider. None of them is affiliated with this site.
How an export runs
Price first
The platform's own count sets the price before anything is spent: 300 points per 1,000 rows, held up front.
Read in the background
The export reads ten pages at a time and saves each batch, so you can close the page; a long export emails you when it's done.
One row per comment
A comment that turns up twice is kept once. Replies sit under their comment, with its id.
Files
Excel, CSV and JSON with the same columns. CSV is UTF-8 with a byte-order mark, so Excel shows emoji and accents. A cell that starts with =, +, - or @ gets a ' in front, so a spreadsheet never runs it as a formula.
Pay for what came
Points for rows the platform didn't hand out come back when the export ends. If points run out, it stops and keeps what it read.
How the AI report is made
Read
Up to 5,000 comments, most relevant first (Instagram 1,500, X 2,000, Reddit 1,000 top-level).
Sort
An AI model reads them 400 at a time and lists the questions, complaints, buying signals, requests and praise it finds, each with the ids of the comments that make the point.
Merge
A last pass merges the same point found in different batches, drops near-duplicates and keeps up to 8 points a section, ordered by how many comments make them. Ids that don't exist are thrown away, so every quote is a real comment.
Link
Every point shows its comments with a link to each. YouTube reports are text only, without counts: YouTube's policies don't allow derived numbers from its data.
Refund
1,000 points a report. If it fails, they come back.
| Sample report | Platform | Comments read | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Obsidian announcing its command-line tool | X | 361 | 67 s |
| A shopper's TikTok of Stanley holiday cups at Marshalls | TikTok | 176 | 16 s |
| A r/WFH thread: "I bought an expensive standing desk 6 months ago" | 84 | 39 s |
How a giveaway draw is checked
- The list of entries is saved first, with your rules; then the server makes a random seed and works out the winners from it.
- The public result page shows the rules, every entry, the winners, the seed and a fingerprint of the list. Anyone can re-run the math in their browser and get the same winners.
- Every draw saved for the same post is listed on the page, so drawing again until a friend wins shows.
What we keep
- Public posts and comments only. No platform login, no password, nothing private.
- Export files, draws and new-comment lists are deleted after 30 days (YouTube's policies allow 30 at most).
- Connector sign-ins (OAuth tokens) and private connector addresses are stored only as hashes. Deleting your account deletes your exports, reports and watched posts, and signs out every connected app.
Limits
- No platform hands out every comment; the table above says how much each gave in our tests.
- Comments that are private, deleted or hidden by the platform can't be read by anyone.
- Facebook and Threads aren't supported.
- The AI can misread sarcasm or slang. That's why every point links to its comments.