Reddit remains to be a useful source of intelligence for OSINT professionals and enthusiasts, given the presence of unfiltered user content and niche communities. Obviously, the contrast between “normal” user interactions and AI-generated slop on social media in general is what makes Reddit stand out.
At the same time, Reddit communities often host conspiracy theories and misinformation campaigns, which arguably can cause more damage than AI slop – see here for an example of a “false flag” keyword disinformation conspiracy.
A recent academic study focused on Reddit activities during the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires, processing “385 posts and 115k comments” with topic modeling to categorise public sentiment, health concerns, and emotional responses. This OSINT method produced some solid insights, see the link to the original publication.
So without further delay, here is a list of Google Dorks tailored, hand-crafted (haha LOL) and hands-on tested by yours truly while conducting OSINT research on Reddit.com. Bear in mind, they work even when you aren’t logged in to Reddit or don’t even have an account there – all this is passive recon, only using Google search.
- site:reddit.com – starting out with the basic one; this Google operator will narrow down results of your search only to Reddit.
- site:reddit.com inurl:user“<example_username>”– finds Reddit user profile pages and their mentions based on the specified username, which you specify when building your search string.
- site:reddit.com “u/<example_username>” – handy for listing a specific user’s posts and / or comments.
- site:reddit.com intitle:“<example_keyword>” – looks for a defined keyword in the title. Good example of a popular keyword is “AMA” – it will return “Ask Me Anything” threads that can be further narrowed down by using additional keywords.
- site:reddit.com “I work at <example_company_name>” – will list posts where users disclose their employment and whatever associated details.
- site:reddit.com “throwRA” <example_keyword> – throwaway Reddit accounts. Can be useful for investigating anonymous disclosures / leaks that may relate to the specified keyword.
- site:reddit.com intext:”email address” <example_keyword> – searches for emails disclosed in Reddit posts; can be used for identifying potential contacts or leaked / doxxed email addresses.
- site:reddit.com intext:”phone number” – same as the above, but focused on finding phone numbers.
- site:reddit.com “<example_keyword>” AND “<example_keyword>“ – for searches that contain multiple search parameters. Example: “My ex” AND “revenge” (plus some additional keyword relevant to the circumstances).
- site:reddit.com inurl:”r/<example_keyword>” – the example keyword in this case will return a subreddit (if one matching your keyword exists). You can make this more granular – once you have your subreddit of interest, try adding more keywords to the string, for instance: site:reddit.com inurl:”r/legaladvice” darkweb.
- site:reddit.com “leaked” OR “data leak” – anything of relevance to data leaks; it can be enhanced further with keywords such as company names, dates or geographical locations – and so on.
- site:reddit.com “leak” AND “password” – very similar to the above.
- site:reddit.com intext:”GitHub repo” – for locating GitHub links shared on Reddit. Might help you find tools or code relevant to an investigation, or perhaps just some chatter of relevance.
Third party tools for OSINT on Reddit
A blog post on Reddit dedicated OSINT techniques would not be complete without some third party web based tools that offer some of the functionalities of the Google dorks listed above. Remember however – tools come and go, so relying on them too much can turn out to be problematic. It’s always good to have some manual techniques available as a back up plan.
- Reveddit – for tracking deleted or hidden content. It will help you unearth posts / comments removed by subreddit moderators (or via Automod), allowing you to see content hidden from public view or no longer accessible. Comes with an optional browser extension.
- Redective – searches for user profiles and subreddits. Note that this tool is not as reliable as it was in the past, it can produce a rather high ratio of false negatives depending on what you search for.
- Reddit User Analyser – a very good replacement for the above, useful for collecting aggregate information on a specific account. Offers what seems to be a “controversy meter”, top subreddits, most commonly used words, karma / comment activity over time, etc.
- Redditmetis – another username-centric tool, this one comes with activity pattern breakdowns. Useful for mapping out timelines and time patterns for a target account.
- Reddit Post Analyzer – nomen omen, used for Reddit post analysis; courtesy of OSINT Combine, however it must be noted that in the recent past this tool seems to have stopped working. Keep an eye out in case the functionalities are restored.
Bear in mind that since the 2024 Google deal with Reddit, other search engines may provide significantly less results when using these dorks. Of course you did say “Google dorks”, but for those who habitually use another search engine, it may be good to realize that for the best results you should really be using Google here.