Crates.io Rust Package Scraper

Fetches crate metadata — downloads, versions, license, repository, keywords, MSRV, edition, and more — directly from the official crates.io JSON API for a list of crate URLs. Built for Rust developers, dependency auditors, and package researchers who need structured data on crates.io packages without parsing HTML or hand-rolling API calls.

Why this scraper

• Reads the official crates.io JSON API instead of rendered HTML, so fields like rustVersion, edition, crateSize, and publishedBy come back reliably on every run.
• Returns more fields per crate than typical crates.io scrapers, including MSRV and edition, useful for compatibility audits and dependency vetting.
• Priced at $0.0003 per crate, which is lower than comparable per-record or per-search pricing on similar scrapers.

Output fields

Field	Type	Description
crateName	string	Crate identifier, e.g. serde
description	string	Short description of the crate
downloads	integer	All-time total download count
recentDownloads	integer	Downloads in the recent tracking window
maxVersion	string	Highest published version number
newestVersion	string	Most recently published version number
maxStableVersion	string	Highest stable (non-prerelease) version
numVersions	integer	Total number of published versions
license	string	SPDX license expression of the latest version
repository	string	Source repository URL
homepage	string	Project homepage URL
documentation	string	Documentation URL, usually docs.rs
categories	string	Comma-separated crates.io category slugs
keywords	string	Comma-separated crate keywords
createdAt	string	ISO timestamp the crate was first published
updatedAt	string	ISO timestamp of the latest version update
yanked	boolean	Whether the latest version is yanked
rustVersion	string	Minimum supported Rust version (MSRV)
edition	string	Rust edition used by the latest version
crateSize	integer	Size in bytes of the latest published crate file
publishedBy	string	GitHub login of the user who published the latest version

Input

{
  "startUrls": [
    { "url": "https://crates.io/api/v1/crates/serde" }
  ],
  "maxItems": 50
}

Output

{
  "crateName": "serde",
  "description": "A generic serialization/deserialization framework",
  "downloads": 1326717635,
  "recentDownloads": 283915307,
  "maxVersion": "1.0.229",
  "newestVersion": "1.0.229",
  "maxStableVersion": "1.0.229",
  "numVersions": 316,
  "license": "MIT OR Apache-2.0",
  "repository": "https://github.com/serde-rs/serde",
  "homepage": "https://serde.rs",
  "documentation": "https://docs.rs/serde",
  "categories": "no-std,encoding,no-std::no-alloc",
  "keywords": "no_std,serde,serialization",
  "createdAt": "2014-12-05T20:20:39.487502Z",
  "updatedAt": "2026-07-18T23:05:13.266456Z",
  "yanked": false,
  "rustVersion": "1.56",
  "edition": "2021",
  "crateSize": 83669,
  "publishedBy": "dtolnay"
}

Pricing

Pay-per-event: $0.0003 per crate successfully fetched. A run over 500 crates costs about $0.15; a run over 5,000 crates costs about $1.50.

Use cases

• Auditing MSRV and edition compatibility across all dependencies in a Cargo.lock before upgrading a project.
• Tracking download and version history for a watchlist of crates as part of a supply-chain or dependency-risk review.
• Building a searchable internal catalog of crate licenses and repository links for open-source compliance checks.