Mastodon Scraper

Scrape Mastodon posts from any server — hashtags, profiles, threads and trends — as clean JSON, with no login.

Scrape Mastodon from any server: hashtag timelines, profiles, single posts with their replies, and trending posts, hashtags and news links. Paste a page from mastodon.social, fosstodon.org, hachyderm.io or any other Mastodon server, or just type hashtags. Each post comes with its text as HTML and plain text, content warning, language, replies, boosts and favourites, the author's handle and follower counts, images and videos with their alt text, hashtags, mentions, link preview, poll results, and the original post when it is a boost. There is no login, no API key, and no proxy to configure. Built for social-listening and brand teams, researchers studying the fediverse, journalists and community managers.

⚡ Quick start

{
  "startUrls": [
    { "url": "https://mastodon.social/tags/photography" },
    { "url": "https://mastodon.social/@Mastodon" }
  ],
  "hashtags": ["opensource"],
  "maxItems": 5
}

🧩 Input

Field	Type	Required	Default	Description
startUrls	array	no	—	Public pages from any Mastodon server: a hashtag (https://mastodon.social/tags/photography), a profile (https://mastodon.social/@Mastodon, or a remote one such as https://mastodon.social/@kev@fosstodon.org), a single post (https://mastodon.social/@Mastodon/117411420916699261), trending posts, hashtags or links (/explore, /explore/tags, /explore/links), or a server's live timeline (/public/local, /public).
hashtags	array	no	—	Hashtags to scrape on the server below, one per line, with or without the #, for example opensource or #photography.
instance	string	no	mastodon.social	Server for hashtags: the Mastodon server whose hashtag timelines the hashtags are read from, for example fosstodon.org or hachyderm.io.
includeReplies	boolean	no	false	Include replies: for a single post URL, also return the replies under it; for a profile URL, also return the account's replies to other people.
maxItems	integer	no	—	Maximum number of items per start URL or hashtag. The input form starts at 5; leave it empty to get everything the server shares.
proxyConfiguration	object	no	{ "useApifyProxy": false }	Proxy settings. Mastodon needs no proxy.

Add URLs, hashtags, or both. A profile on another server, such as https://mastodon.social/@kev@fosstodon.org, is read from the account's own server, which holds its full history. Hashtags, /explore and /public pages show what the server in the URL knows about, so the same hashtag can return different posts on different servers.

📤 Output

Every row carries an itemType. Hashtag, profile, post and timeline URLs, and /explore, return post rows, newest first (trending posts in trending order). /explore/tags returns trending hashtags as tag rows and /explore/links returns trending news stories as link rows.

Fields

Field	Type	Description
itemType	string	post, tag or link.
id	string	Post rows: post ID on the server it was read from. Tag rows: hashtag ID.
url	string	Post rows: the post's page on its origin server. Tag rows: the hashtag page. Link rows: the news story.
uri	string	Post rows: the post's permanent fediverse identifier.
createdAt	string	Post rows: ISO time the post was published.
editedAt	string	Post rows: ISO time of the last edit, or null.
language	string	Language code of the post or story, e.g. en, or null.
contentHtml	string	Post rows: post body as HTML, or null (boosts carry it in reblog).
contentText	string	Post rows: post body as plain text, with full links and paragraph breaks.
spoilerText	string	Post rows: the content warning shown before the post, or null.
sensitive	boolean	Post rows: true when the media is marked sensitive.
visibility	string	Post rows: public or unlisted.
inReplyToId	string	Post rows: ID of the post this one replies to, or null.
repliesCount	integer	Post rows: number of replies.
reblogsCount	integer	Post rows: number of boosts.
favouritesCount	integer	Post rows: number of favourites.
account	object	Post rows: the author as { id, acct, displayName, url, followersCount, followingCount, statusesCount, bot, avatar }; acct is the full handle, e.g. Mastodon@mastodon.social.
mediaAttachments	array	Post rows: images, videos and audio as { type, url, previewUrl, description }; description is the alt text.
tags	array	Post rows: hashtags used in the post, lower-case, without #.
mentions	array	Post rows: mentioned accounts as { acct, url }.
card	object	Post rows: link preview as { url, title, description, image }, or null.
poll	object	Post rows: { id, expiresAt, expired, multiple, votesCount, votersCount, options: [{ title, votesCount }] }, or null.
reblog	object	Post rows: when the row is a boost, the original post with the same fields; otherwise null.
instance	string	The server the row was read from, e.g. mastodon.social.
name	string	Tag rows: the hashtag, without #.
usesLastWeek	integer	Tag and link rows: posts using the hashtag or sharing the link over the last 7 days.
accountsLastWeek	integer	Tag and link rows: accounts using the hashtag or sharing the link over the last 7 days.
history	array	Tag and link rows: daily { date, uses, accounts }, newest first.
title	string	Link rows: the story's headline.
description	string	Link rows: the story's summary.
providerName	string	Link rows: the publisher, e.g. The Guardian.
authorName	string	Link rows: the story's author, or null.
image	string	Link rows: the story's preview image.
publishedAt	string	Link rows: ISO time the story was published, or null.

💡 Use cases

• Social listening — follow a brand, product or campaign hashtag across the fediverse.
• Account monitoring — track what an organisation, journalist or developer posts, with engagement over time.
• Trend research — snapshot a server's trending posts, hashtags and news stories on a schedule.
• Thread analysis — capture a post together with its replies for sentiment analysis or moderation review.
• Datasets — build multilingual, alt-text-rich post collections for research and training.

❓ FAQ

• Do I need a Mastodon account or an API key? No. The Actor only reads what each server shows to logged-out visitors.
• Which servers work? Any Mastodon server, and most fediverse servers that speak the Mastodon API. Paste the page URL from that server.
• Can I search posts by keyword? Mastodon only offers full-text post search to logged-in users, so keyword search is not available. Use hashtags instead: they are how Mastodon users tag topics.
• Why did a /public URL return nothing? Many servers, mastodon.social among them, keep their live timeline for logged-in users. The run log says so in plain words. Hashtags, profiles, posts and /explore pages still work on those servers.
• How many replies does a post return? Up to about 60 replies for logged-out visitors, which is the limit Mastodon itself applies.
• Are boosts included? Yes. A boost is a row of the booster's account whose reblog field holds the original post with its author, text and counts.
• Is the Actor gentle on servers? Yes. Mastodon servers are community-run and allow 300 requests per 5 minutes; the Actor reads the server's own limit and pauses before reaching it.
• Why did a run return fewer items than expected? A small server may know few posts for a hashtag, an account may have few public posts, or the server may keep a list private. Check the run log, then open an issue if something looks off.

🔗 More scrapers by Anyx

• Bluesky Scraper
• Threads Scraper
• X (Twitter) Scraper
• Reddit Scraper

🤝 Anyx Solutions

We build custom scrapers and data-extraction pipelines.

• Email: tantosthor@gmail.com

🖼 Image credit

Image credit: mastodon.social