AutoTrader UK Scraper

Pull structured vehicle listings from AutoTrader UK at scale: price, make, model, year, mileage, full specification, finance, a 10-point vehicle history check, the complete photo gallery and every dealer contact detail. Search by filters or paste AutoTrader URLs. The scraper is fast, robust against page redesigns, and works on every Apify plan.

Covers all eight AutoTrader marketplaces: cars, vans, bikes, motorhomes, caravans, trucks, farm and plant.

Why this scraper

• More data than the alternatives. 120+ fields per vehicle, including full dealer contact (name, phone, email, postal address, GPS coordinates, opening hours), FCA finance registration, a 10-point history check, structured spec, running costs and the full gallery with per-image classification tags.
• Lower cost. An efficient data path means a default run uses the datacenter connection tier. No premium connection is needed for typical runs.
• Reliable. Built to keep working through the site's frequent visual redesigns.
• Two ways in. Search by filters (make, model, price, year, mileage, fuel, body, transmission, colour, drivetrain, seller, distance and more) or paste any AutoTrader search or advert URL.
• Full result depth. Covers up to the site's ceiling of about 2,000 listings per search, with no manual page handling.
• Smart connections. Rotates the exit on a rejection, escalates to a stronger connection tier only when needed (with a configurable usage cap), and steps back down to the cheap tier when healthy.
• Pay only for what you use. Listing-grid runs are cheap; the per-advert detail enrichment is billed only when you turn it on.
• Resume and recurring updates. Continue one interrupted crawl with resumeFromRunId, or turn on incrementalMode to schedule the same search daily/weekly and get only NEW/UPDATED/REAPPEARED listings each time.

Data you get

Sample shape: values are illustrative placeholders, not from a live listing.

Field	Example
advertId	"000000000000000"
url	"https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/000000000000000"
title	"BMW 3 Series"
subTitle	"2.0 320d M Sport Auto"
make / model	"BMW" / "3 Series"
year	2020
condition	"used"
mileage	30000
price	20000
priceFormatted	"£20,000"
priceIndicator	"GREAT"
monthlyPrice	"£300"
fuelType	"Diesel"
bodyType	"Saloon"
transmission	"Automatic"
engineSizeLitres	"2.0L"
doors / seats	"4" / "5"
bodyColour	"Black"
sellerType	"TRADE"
dealerName	"Sample Motors"
dealer.phone	"+440000000000"
dealer.email	"sales@example.com"
dealer.postcode	"AB12 3CD"
latitude / longitude	51.0000 / -0.1000
vehicleCheck.status	"PASSED"
numberOfImages	20
changeType / changedFields / firstSeenAt / lastSeenAt	present only when incrementalMode is on, see "Resume & recurring updates" below

Detail fields (description, full specification, history check, service history, finance, gallery, dealer contact) are populated when Fetch full advert details is on, and null otherwise, so the output shape is stable either way.

How to use

Search a make and model, listing grid only (cheapest):

{
  "mode": "search",
  "channel": "cars",
  "make": "BMW",
  "model": "3 Series",
  "postcode": "SW1A 1AA",
  "maxPages": 3,
  "fetchDetails": false
}

Search with filters and full detail enrichment:

{
  "mode": "search",
  "channel": "cars",
  "make": "Audi",
  "minPrice": 10000,
  "maxPrice": 25000,
  "minYear": 2019,
  "fuelType": "Diesel",
  "transmission": "Automatic",
  "radius": 50,
  "postcode": "M1 1AE",
  "maxListings": 200,
  "fetchDetails": true
}

Scrape vans within 25 miles, sorted by most recent:

{
  "mode": "search",
  "channel": "vans",
  "radius": 25,
  "sortBy": "most_recent",
  "postcode": "B1 1AA",
  "maxPages": 5
}

Paste URLs (search results and a single advert in one run):

{
  "mode": "url",
  "urls": [
    "https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-search?make=Tesla&postcode=SW1A1AA",
    "https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/000000000000000"
  ],
  "maxPages": 2,
  "fetchDetails": true
}

Input parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
mode	string	"search"	"search" (filters) or "url" (paste links).
channel	string	"cars"	cars, vans, bikes, motorhomes, caravans, trucks, farm, plant.
postcode	string	"SW1A 1AA"	Search centre and distance reference.
make	string	-	Exact AutoTrader make, e.g. BMW.
model	string	-	Exact AutoTrader model; applies when make is set.
minPrice / maxPrice	integer	-	Price band (basis set by priceSearchType).
minYear / maxYear	integer	-	Year band.
minMileage / maxMileage	integer	-	Mileage band.
fuelType	string	any	Petrol, Diesel, Electric, Hybrid and plug-in variants.
bodyType	string	any	Hatchback, Saloon, Estate, SUV, Coupe, Convertible, MPV, Pickup.
transmission	string	any	Automatic or Manual.
colour	string	-	Exterior colour, e.g. Black.
drivetrain	string	any	Front, Rear or Four Wheel Drive.
sellerType	string	any	trade (dealer) or private.
minEngineSize / maxEngineSize	string	-	Engine size band in litres, e.g. 2.0.
doors / seats	integer	-	Exact door / seat count.
radius	integer	-	Miles from postcode; empty for national.
writeoffStatus	string	"include"	include, exclude, or only written-off vehicles.
priceSearchType	string	"total"	Apply price filters to total price or monthly payment.
sortBy	string	"relevance"	relevance, price_asc, price_desc, distance, mileage, year_dsc, year_asc, most_recent.
urls	array	-	AutoTrader search or advert URLs (url mode).
fetchDetails	boolean	true	Add full per-advert detail (one extra request per listing).
includeFinanceGuides	boolean	false	Keep the static finance explainer text (large, identical per advert).
maxPages	integer	2	Pages per search (site cap is 100).
maxListings	integer	0	Overall cap; 0 means unlimited.
maxResidentialRequests	integer	400	Cap on residential exits before falling back to the backup pool; 0 disables residential.
proxy	object	datacenter	Apify Proxy configuration.
mcpConnectors	array	-	Optional MCP connectors to pipe results into (see below).
notionParentPageUrl	string	-	Notion page under which vehicle pages are created (Notion connector only).
maxNotifyListings	integer	50	Cap on vehicles written to each connector per run; does not affect the dataset.
resumeFromRunId	string	(empty)	Continue one specific previous run/dataset: listings already saved there are loaded before scraping starts and skipped, so this run only appends new listings. For recurring daily/weekly monitoring of the same search, use incrementalMode instead; see the "Resume & recurring updates" section below.
incrementalMode	boolean	false	Daily/recurring monitoring of this same search. First run returns everything as NEW; later runs return only NEW/UPDATED/REAPPEARED by default. See the "Resume & recurring updates" section below.
stateKey	string	(auto)	Incremental mode only. Names a monitoring campaign, or deliberately shares state across differently-configured runs. Leave empty to derive a key automatically from mode/filters.
emitUnchanged	boolean	false	Incremental mode only. Also return listings unchanged since the last run, marked UNCHANGED. Adds and bills extra rows you already have.
emitExpired	boolean	false	Incremental mode only. Also return listings from a previous run no longer found, marked EXPIRED, once a run has fully scanned the search (not capped, not a resume). Adds and bills extra synthetic rows.

Resume & recurring updates

There are two different things here. Pick the one that matches what you're doing:

Need	Use
A crawl stopped and should continue	resumeFromRunId
Run the same search every day/week and receive only changes	incrementalMode
Keep separate recurring campaigns for similar searches	distinct stateKey values
Run a normal full snapshot	leave both off

Resume (resumeFromRunId) continues one specific interrupted or previous large crawl: paste a run ID or dataset ID and this run skips listings already collected there, returning only the remaining new listings.

Incremental mode (incrementalMode) is for a schedule (for example, daily): the actor remembers the previous run of the same search by itself, so you never paste a run ID. The first run returns everything as NEW. Later runs return only NEW, UPDATED, and REAPPEARED listings by default; duplicates and unchanged listings are suppressed (and not charged, even when their detail page was fetched to compute the comparison). Turn on emitUnchanged or emitExpired only when you also want those rows returned (and billed). State is isolated per mode/filter/channel/detail-mode setup automatically; set stateKey to name or deliberately share a monitoring campaign.

EXPIRED rows are only produced once a run proves it scanned the entire tracked search end-to-end. They are never produced when maxListings/maxPages capped the run early, a page was blocked, or resumeFromRunId was used, since none of those prove a missing listing is actually gone.

A recurring run that finds nothing new returns an empty dataset, and that is a success, not an error: the listings were found and compared, then suppressed because none of them changed. The run status message says so, and no rows are written or charged. An error row is only written when the run scanned nothing at all (for example a filter combination with no matches).

Send results into your apps (MCP connectors)

Optionally pipe the scraped results into the apps you already use, via Model Context Protocol (MCP) connectors. This is an extra delivery step after the scrape; the Apify dataset is never changed.

What gets written to the connector: a condensed, human-readable summary of each vehicle, not the full JSON. Each item becomes one entry with a title and its key fields flattened to plain text. The complete record always stays in the Apify dataset.

1. Authorize a connector once under Apify → Settings → Integrations (Notion, Linear, Airtable, or Apify).
2. Select it in the "Pipe results into your apps" input field. (If the picker is empty, you haven't authorized a connector yet.)
3. For Notion, also set notionParentPageUrl to the page where items should be created.

Use maxNotifyListings to cap how many vehicles each connector receives per run. The connection is mediated by Apify's MCP proxy, so this actor never sees your third-party credentials. Leave the field empty to skip.

Output example

Sample shape: values are illustrative placeholders, not from a live listing.

{
  "advertId": "000000000000000",
  "url": "https://www.autotrader.co.uk/car-details/000000000000000",
  "channel": "cars",
  "title": "BMW 3 Series",
  "subTitle": "2.0 320d M Sport Auto",
  "make": "BMW",
  "model": "3 Series",
  "year": 2020,
  "condition": "used",
  "mileage": 30000,
  "price": 20000,
  "priceFormatted": "£20,000",
  "priceIndicator": "GREAT",
  "monthlyPrice": "£300",
  "hasFinance": true,
  "fuelType": "Diesel",
  "bodyType": "Saloon",
  "engineSizeLitres": "2.0L",
  "engineSizeCC": 1995,
  "transmission": "Automatic",
  "drivetrain": "Rear Wheel Drive",
  "doors": "4",
  "seats": "5",
  "bodyColour": "Black",
  "emissionClass": "Euro 6",
  "trim": "M Sport",
  "sellerType": "TRADE",
  "dealerName": "Sample Motors",
  "dealerReviewRating": 4.6,
  "dealerReviewCount": 100,
  "latitude": 51.0000,
  "longitude": -0.1000,
  "numberOfImages": 20,
  "vehicleCheck": {
    "status": "PASSED",
    "statusText": "10 checks passed",
    "checks": [{ "id": "STOLEN", "label": "Not recorded as stolen", "status": "PASSED" }]
  },
  "serviceHistory": { "type": "FULL", "label": "Service history", "description": "Full service history" },
  "finance": { "monthlyPrice": "£300", "fcaName": "Sample Motors Limited", "fcaNumber": "000000", "lenderType": "appointed representative" },
  "dealer": {
    "name": "Sample Motors",
    "email": "sales@example.com",
    "phone": "+440000000000",
    "website": "https://www.example.com",
    "address": "1 Sample Road",
    "town": "Sampletown",
    "county": "Sampleshire",
    "postcode": "AB12 3CD",
    "openingHours": [{ "day": "Monday", "hours": "09:00 - 18:00" }]
  },
  "keyFeatures": ["Sat Nav", "Heated Seats"],
  "images": ["https://m.atcdn.co.uk/a/media/w800h600/00000000000000000000000000000000.jpg"],
  "scrapedAt": "2026-01-01T00:00:00.000Z"
}

Notes on results

• A single AutoTrader search returns at most about 2,000 listings (the site caps a query at 100 pages). To pull more, subdivide the search by price band, year, make or area and run again.
• Featured and sponsored adverts can appear first regardless of the chosen sort order.
• Optional fields vary by vehicle: electric vehicles expose different spec than petrol or diesel, and finance details depend on the dealer.

Plan and connection notes

• The default datacenter connection tier works for this scraper, so it runs on any Apify plan, including the free plan.
• If datacenter exits start getting rejected, the run automatically escalates to UK residential (subject to the residential usage cap) and then to a backup pool. Residential proxy access requires a paid Apify plan.
• For the largest runs, leave the proxy on the default and let the scraper manage the tiers, or pin a residential country if you prefer.