Facebook Followers Scraper

Extract comprehensive follower data from Facebook profiles with intelligent proxy management and advanced retry logic.

📋 Description

This powerful Apify Actor allows you to scrape follower information from Facebook profiles efficiently. It features intelligent proxy fallback mechanisms (no proxy → datacenter → residential) and automatically retries failed requests to ensure maximum data extraction success.

⭐ Why Choose This Actor?

• 🎯 Accurate Data Extraction: Extracts complete follower profiles including name, gender, profile picture, and more
• 🔄 Smart Proxy Management: Automatically falls back from direct connection → datacenter → residential proxies when blocked
• 🛡️ Robust Error Handling: 3-attempt retry mechanism with exponential backoff
• 📊 Real-time Progress: Live updates via Apify logs to keep you informed
• 💾 Incremental Saving: Data is saved as it's scraped, so you never lose progress
• ⚡ High Performance: Async processing with batch operations for maximum speed
• 🏷️ Structured Output: Clean, organized JSON output matching Facebook's data structure

🚀 Key Features

• ✅ Bulk profile scraping support
• ✅ Configurable follower limits per profile
• ✅ Gender extraction from profile pages
• ✅ Profile picture URLs
• ✅ Friendship status tracking
• ✅ Automatic pagination handling
• ✅ Proxy rotation and fallback
• ✅ Retry logic with residential proxy
• ✅ Progress tracking and logging
• ✅ CSV/JSON export support

📥 Input

Configure the scraper using the following input parameters:

Flexible URL Input

The actor accepts multiple URL formats:

• Full URL: https://www.facebook.com/mrbeast/followers
• Profile URL: https://www.facebook.com/mrbeast (automatically adds /followers)
• Username only: mrbeast (automatically converts to full URL)

Note: When using the Apify UI, you may see a validation warning for username-only inputs. This is just a UI warning - the actor will automatically convert usernames to proper URLs when it runs.

{
  "startUrls": [
    {
      "url": "https://www.facebook.com/username/followers"
    },
    {
      "url": "mrbeast"
    }
  ],
  "maxFollowers": 100,
  "sortOrder": "default",
  "maxComments": 0,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  },
  "maxRetries": 3
}

Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description	Default	Required
startUrls	Array	List of Facebook profile URLs to scrape followers from. Format: https://www.facebook.com/username/followers	-	✅ Yes
maxFollowers	Integer	Maximum number of followers to extract per profile (1-1000)	100	No
sortOrder	String	How to sort followers: default, recent, or alphabetical	default	No
maxComments	Integer	Maximum comments to extract if applicable (0-1000)	0	No
proxyConfiguration	Object	Proxy settings. Leave useApifyProxy: false for direct connection (recommended to start)	{"useApifyProxy": false}	No
maxRetries	Integer	Number of retry attempts with residential proxy (1-10)	3	No

📤 Output

The actor provides structured data in JSON format with the following schema:

{
  "scraping_info": {
    "total_profiles_processed": 1,
    "total_followers": 30,
    "total_pages": 4,
    "proxy_used": true,
    "proxy_type": "residential",
    "max_retries": 3
  },
  "profiles": [
    {
      "profile_url": "https://www.facebook.com/username/followers",
      "target_items": 30,
      "actual_items": 30,
      "pages_processed": 4,
      "followers": [
        {
          "id": "61583319984594",
          "image": "https://scontent-ord5-3.xx.fbcdn.net/...",
          "title": "John Doe",
          "subtitle_text": "Works at Company Name",
          "url": "https://www.facebook.com/john.doe",
          "friendship_status": null,
          "gender": "MALE",
          "name": "John Doe",
          "short_name": "John"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Output Fields

Each follower object contains:

Field	Type	Description
id	String	Facebook user ID
name	String	Full name of the follower
short_name	String	First name only
url	String	Direct link to follower's profile
image	String	Profile picture URL
gender	String	Gender: MALE, FEMALE, NEUTER, or UNKNOWN
subtitle_text	String	Additional info (work, location, etc.)
friendship_status	String/Null	Friendship status with the profile owner
title	String	Display name

🌐 Proxy Configuration

Intelligent Fallback System

This actor uses a smart 3-tier proxy system:

1. 🔌 Direct Connection (Default): Starts without proxy for maximum speed
2. 🏢 Datacenter Proxy (Fallback Level 1): If blocked, switches to datacenter proxy
3. 🏠 Residential Proxy (Fallback Level 2): If still blocked, uses residential proxy
4. 🔒 Sticky Mode: Once residential proxy is activated, it stays active for all remaining requests

Retry Logic

• 3 retry attempts for each failed request
• Exponential backoff delay between retries
• Automatic proxy upgrade on persistent failures
• Logged events for transparency

Proxy Event Logging

The actor clearly logs all proxy events:

🌐 No proxy configured - using direct connection
⚠️ Direct connection blocked - falling back to DATACENTER proxy
🔄 Switched to DATACENTER proxy: http://...
⚠️ Previous proxy blocked - falling back to RESIDENTIAL proxy (STICKY)
🏠 Switched to RESIDENTIAL proxy: http://...
🔒 Proxy locked to RESIDENTIAL for all remaining requests

🎯 How to Use the Actor (via Apify Console)

1. Log in at https://console.apify.com and go to Actors
2. Find Facebook Followers Scraper and click it
3. Configure inputs:
   • Add Facebook profile URLs (with /followers path)
   • Set maximum followers to extract
   • Configure proxy settings (recommended: leave default)
   • Set retry attempts
4. Run the actor by clicking the "Start" button
5. Monitor logs in real-time to see progress and proxy events
6. Access results in the OUTPUT tab once complete
7. Export results to JSON or CSV format

💡 Best Use Cases

• 🔍 Market Research: Analyze follower demographics of competitor pages
• 📊 Influencer Analysis: Study follower profiles of influencers and public figures
• 🎯 Audience Insights: Understand your own audience composition
• 🤝 Network Analysis: Map relationships and connections
• 📈 Growth Tracking: Monitor follower changes over time
• 🎪 Event Planning: Identify potential attendees from relevant profiles

📊 Example Use Cases

Use Case 1: Competitor Analysis

{
  "startUrls": [
    {"url": "https://www.facebook.com/competitor1/followers"},
    {"url": "https://www.facebook.com/competitor2/followers"}
  ],
  "maxFollowers": 500,
  "proxyConfiguration": {"useApifyProxy": false}
}

Use Case 2: Influencer Research

{
  "startUrls": [
    {"url": "https://www.facebook.com/influencer/followers"}
  ],
  "maxFollowers": 1000,
  "sortOrder": "recent",
  "proxyConfiguration": {"useApifyProxy": false}
}

❓ Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Do I need to provide Facebook login credentials?

A: No, this actor works without authentication by scraping publicly available data.

Q: What happens if the actor gets blocked?

A: The actor automatically switches from direct connection → datacenter proxy → residential proxy, with 3 retries at each level.

Q: How long does it take to scrape followers?

A: Approximately 1-2 seconds per follower, including gender extraction. 100 followers typically take 2-3 minutes.

Q: Can I scrape private profiles?

A: No, the actor only extracts data from public profiles and followers lists that are publicly visible.

Q: What's the difference between proxy types?

A:

• No proxy: Fastest, may get blocked on large scrapes
• Datacenter: Good balance of speed and reliability
• Residential: Highest success rate, more expensive, activated automatically if needed

Q: Will my data be lost if the actor crashes?

A: No! Data is saved incrementally as it's scraped, so you'll keep all progress up to the crash point.

🔧 Technical Details

• Runtime: Python 3.11 with async/await
• Framework: Apify SDK with aiohttp
• Browser: No browser required (API-based scraping)
• Memory: ~512 MB recommended
• Timeout: No strict limit, depends on follower count

⚠️ Important Notes & Compliance

Legal & Ethical Use

• ✅ Data is collected only from publicly available sources
• ✅ No data is taken from private accounts or password-protected content
• ✅ The actor respects Facebook's robots.txt and rate limits
• ⚠️ Users are responsible for ensuring compliance with:
  • Local privacy laws (GDPR, CCPA, etc.)
  • Facebook's Terms of Service
  • Anti-spam regulations
  • Data protection regulations

Rate Limiting

• The actor includes built-in delays between requests (1-2 seconds)
• Exponential backoff on errors prevents overwhelming Facebook's servers
• Batch processing with controlled concurrency

Data Privacy

• All scraped data is publicly available on Facebook
• No personal messages, private posts, or restricted content is accessed
• Users should handle exported data responsibly and comply with privacy regulations

🆘 Support and Feedback

If you encounter any issues or have suggestions:

• 📧 Contact support through Apify Console
• 💬 Leave feedback in the actor's review section
• 🐛 Report bugs with detailed logs

📝 Changelog

Version 1.0 (Current)

• ✅ Initial release
• ✅ Intelligent proxy fallback system
• ✅ Gender extraction feature
• ✅ Bulk profile support
• ✅ Real-time progress logging
• ✅ Incremental data saving
• ✅ Retry mechanism with residential proxy

---

Built with ❤️ using Apify Platform

Happy Scraping! 🎉