Downthread — comment exporter for research
Unknown author · Workflow & Planning
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Description
Export a post's comments and replies to CSV or JSON, and see what was missed. Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, X. Runs locally. Downthread exports the comment section of a single post to a CSV or JSON file, and tells you what it could not get. It works on Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and X. Open the post you want, press Load all & export, and the file lands in your Downloads folder with one row per comment: author, profile link, text, timestamp, likes, reply count, and the id of the comment each reply answers — so threads rebuild exactly. Every platform writes the same columns, so exports from different sites combine without a mapping step. WHAT MAKES IT DIFFERENT Most exporters give you a file and let you assume it is complete. This one gives you a run report: how many comments the platform claims, how many were exported, and a plain-English account of every shortfall. If a thread was opened but not read to its end, if a platform refused a request, if a rate limit was reached, or if you pressed Stop, the export is marked PARTIAL and the reason is named. A partial export is never presented as a complete one. WHAT LIMITS IT Facebook's own comment count includes hidden, spam-collapsed and deleted comments it will not serve, so the count and the list usually disagree. YouTube uses the official Data API and your own API key, so your daily quota is the ceiling; livestreams have no comments, only chat. TikTok signs its requests, so threads often have to be opened on the page. Instagram rate-limits quickly. X resets its limit every fifteen minutes. All of this is in the report. PRIVACY The comments you export never leave your browser. They are read in the tab you already have open and written straight to your Downloads folder — never uploaded, never sent to us. It reads only what your own signed-in session can already see, and it never posts, likes or follows. An optional account stores an email address and your subscription status, and nothing else — no post you visited, no comment text, not the fact that you exported anything. PRICING Free for up to 200 comments per post, on every platform, with no account. A subscription removes that limit.