How can you export or review your Reddit data before closing an account?

Reddit provides an official data export mechanism that allows users to download a copy of their account data before closing their account, available at reddit.com/settings/data-request when logged in on a desktop web browser. After submitting a request through this page, Reddit prepares your data and delivers it via a private message containing a download link, a process that can take up to 30 days. The exported data is delivered in CSV format and includes separate files for your comments, posts, voting history, saved items, account preferences, IP address logs, and any applications you have authorized to access your account. This data package is intended to give users a portable record of their contributions and activity in compliance with data privacy regulations like GDPR (the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation), which grants users the right to access and export their personal data held by digital services. If you do not want to wait up to 30 days, Reddit also allows you to access a subset of your data immediately through your account settings without submitting a formal request: you can view your post and comment history on your profile at any time, and you can browse your saved posts and upvote/downvote history in your account settings. For users who want a more complete or searchable archive beyond what Reddit's official export provides, third-party tools have existed to compile a user's public post and comment history into a local database. The Wired guide to Reddit data export recommends reviewing and exporting data well before account deletion since the export process takes time, and manual deletion of individual posts and comments is a separate step that should be completed before formally submitting the account deletion if content removal is desired.