# Craigslist Scraper: Multi-City Listings Monitor, Only New (`automa-flow/craigslist-scraper`) Actor

$1.20 per 1,000 listings. Scrape Craigslist from up to 100 cities and 20 keywords, or your own search URLs, in one run: title, price, place, coordinates, beds and sqft or job pay, images and link. Optional details: year, make, odometer. Only-new mode for schedules.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/automa-flow/craigslist-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Vadim Bezrukov](https://apify.com/automa-flow) (community)
- **Categories:** E-commerce, Lead generation, Real estate
- **Security:** Limited permissions
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $1.20 / 1,000 listings

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## Craigslist Scraper: Multi-City Listings Monitor, Only New

Search Craigslist in many cities at once and get **one row per listing**: title, price and currency, posting time, city, neighborhood, coordinates, category, bedrooms and square feet for housing, pay for jobs, image links and the listing link. Give it up to 20 keywords and up to 100 cities, or paste up to 100 Craigslist search URLs with your filters already set. Turn on **only new** and schedule it: each run returns just the listings it has not delivered before. Turn on **listing details** to add what only the posting page shows: year, make and model, odometer, condition and title status for vehicles, bathrooms, laundry, parking and pets for rentals, employment type for jobs.

Built for three jobs:

- **Resellers and deal hunters** watching the same items (bikes, phones, tools, furniture) across many cities every hour or day.
- **Rental and housing analysts** collecting asking rents and locations in the cities they cover.
- **Dealers and lead researchers** following used cars, equipment or job posts in their markets.

The Actor does **not** collect phone numbers or email addresses. If a poster typed one into a title, it is replaced with `[contact removed]`.

### Quick start: one keyword, two cities

```json
{
  "searches": ["iphone"],
  "cities": ["newyork", "losangeles"],
  "maxResultsPerSearch": 50
}
```

You get up to 100 rows (50 per city), newest first, plus a `RUN_SUMMARY` record with a status for every search.

### What it costs

**$1.20 per 1,000 listings** ($0.0012 per delivered listing) plus $0.001 per run start. Platform usage is included. Searches that fail, are refused or find nothing cost nothing beyond the start.

**Listing details** are optional (`includeDetails`): **+$0.50 per 1,000** listings whose posting page loaded ($0.0005 each), so 1,000 listings with details cost $1.70. A page that is gone or refused costs nothing extra; the listing itself is still delivered.

| Run | Listings | Price |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Quick start above | up to 100 | up to $0.121 |
| 10 cities x 3 keywords, 200 each | up to 6,000 | up to $7.201 |
| Hourly only-new check, 20 new listings | 20 | $0.025 |
| Hourly only-new check, nothing new | 0 | $0.001 (about $0.72 a month) |
| Used cars in 3 cities, 100 each, with details | up to 300 | up to $0.511 |

Set **Maximum cost per run** in the run options to cap a bill. When the cap is reached, the run stops cleanly, keeps every row already delivered and marks the searches it did not finish as `CHARGE_LIMIT`.

### Inputs

| Field | What it does |
| --- | --- |
| `searches` | Keywords, up to 20 (`queries` and `keywords` also work). Every keyword runs in every city. Leave it empty to list the newest listings of the category. |
| `cities` | Craigslist sites, up to 100 (`locations` and `areas` also work): `newyork`, `sfbay`, `chicago`, a sub-area such as `newyork/mnh`, a host such as `seattle.craigslist.org` or a site name such as `new york city`. |
| `category` | Craigslist category code, `sss` (all for sale) by default: for example `cta` cars and trucks, `apa` apartments, `bia` bicycles, `ela` electronics, `jjj` jobs. |
| `searchUrls` | Craigslist search URLs copied from your browser, up to 100. Their filters are kept as they are. |
| `minPrice`, `maxPrice`, `postedToday` | Filters added to every keyword search (a search URL's own filter wins). |
| `maxResultsPerSearch` | 1 to 360, 200 by default. Craigslist returns at most the 360 newest matches per search. |
| `onlyNew` | Return only listings that appeared since the previous run of this saved task (or of your account, without a task). |
| `includeDetails` | Also open each delivered listing's page for its attributes (off by default). One extra request per listing, about 0.3 s each: 1,000 listings take about 5 minutes, so give large runs a longer timeout. With `onlyNew`, only new listings are opened. |
| `proxyConfiguration` | Apify Proxy (datacenter) by default. |

A city Craigslist does not know, a malformed URL or an unsupported category becomes an `INVALID_INPUT` row in the summary; the rest of the run continues.

### Run it on a schedule

Save your input as a task, switch on `onlyNew` and add a schedule (hourly or daily). The first run returns the newest listings (up to `maxResultsPerSearch`) and remembers the rest of the current results as seen; every later run returns only what appeared since then. If a run stops at your maximum cost, the listings it could not deliver come in the next run. Each saved task keeps its own memory, so two tasks never hide listings from each other. If two runs of the same task overlap, the second one stops with `MONITOR_BUSY` instead of returning duplicates. Runs with different searches can overlap safely, even in the same city.

### Output

One row per listing, newest first within each search:

| Field | Example |
| --- | --- |
| `postingId` | `7951015478` |
| `url` | `https://www.craigslist.org/view/d/emeryville-trek-road-bike/...` |
| `title` | `Trek road bike 56cm` |
| `price`, `currency` | `380`, `USD` (empty when the poster gave no price) |
| `postedAt` | `2026-11-01T20:07:38Z` |
| `city`, `area`, `neighborhood` | `sfbay`, `eby`, `Emeryville` |
| `latitude`, `longitude` | `37.8404`, `-122.2894` (approximate, as shown on the Craigslist map) |
| `category`, `categoryName` | `bik`, `bicycles - by owner` |
| `bedrooms`, `sqft` | `1`, `700` on housing listings (0 bedrooms is a studio; empty when the poster did not say) |
| `compensation` | `$20 per hour`, the pay as a job or gig listing states it |
| `imageUrls` | links to the listing's photos (600x450) |
| `search` | the keyword or search URL that found the listing |
| `firstSeenAt` | when the listing was first delivered (only-new mode) |
| `scrapedAt`, `fingerprint`, `schemaVersion` | observation time, a hash of the listing's fields, the row format version |

With `includeDetails`, each row also gets (the **Listings with details** view shows them):

| Field | Example |
| --- | --- |
| `year`, `makeModel` | `2017`, `Ford Escape SE` (vehicles) |
| `odometer` | `59300` (miles, as a number) |
| `condition`, `titleStatus` | `excellent`, `clean` |
| `bathrooms` | `1.5` (housing) |
| `attributes` | every attribute the page lists, for example `{"fuel": "gas", "transmission": "automatic", "VIN": "...", "laundry": "w/d in unit"}` |
| `detailsStatus`, `detailsError` | `OK` (charged as details); `GONE` (removed since the search), `BLOCKED`, `FAILED` or `NOT_REQUESTED` (run timeout near or after repeated refusals) are not. With details on, a run with a maximum cost delivers only the listings it can pay for with their details |

Measured on 2026-11-02 across 660 pages: year, make and model, odometer and title status on every car listing; bathrooms on 98% of apartments.

A listing found by two of your searches is delivered and charged once.

`RUN_SUMMARY` in the run's key-value store lists every search with its status and row count:

| Status | Meaning | Charged |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `OK` | Listings delivered | per listing |
| `NO_RESULTS` | Craigslist answered and has no matching listings | no |
| `INVALID_INPUT` | Unknown city, bad URL or a filter Craigslist rejected | no |
| `SOURCE_FAILED` | Craigslist did not answer correctly after retries | no |
| `BLOCKED` | Craigslist refused the request; the city's other searches are skipped | no |
| `CHARGE_LIMIT` | Your maximum cost was reached before this search finished | delivered rows only |

The run fails only when every search failed or was refused. A run with some failed searches succeeds and says which ones to retry.

### Use with AI agents through Apify MCP

Add this Actor to an MCP client such as Claude or Cursor:

```text
https://mcp.apify.com?tools=automa-flow/craigslist-scraper
```

Example prompt:

```text
Run automa-flow/craigslist-scraper with searches ["trek", "specialized"],
cities ["sfbay", "portland", "seattle"], category "bia", maxPrice 600 and
maxResultsPerSearch 100. Show the 20 cheapest listings with price, city,
postedAt and url, and list any search whose status is not OK. Keep
maxTotalChargeUsd at 1.00.
```

An agent can predict the bill before the run: $0.001 per run plus at most $0.0012 per listing ($0.0017 with `includeDetails`), and at most `cities x searches x maxResultsPerSearch` listings.

### Sources and limitations

- Data comes from Craigslist's public search, the same results its website shows, read with one request per search (plus one per listing with `includeDetails`) at a polite pace. This Actor is not affiliated with craigslist.
- Craigslist's terms of use restrict automated access. You are responsible for how you use the data; do not use it to contact posters in bulk.
- Each search returns at most the 360 newest matches. For more, split the search by sub-area, price range or category.
- When a city has only a few matches, Craigslist adds listings from nearby cities. The Actor keeps only the city (and sub-area) you asked for and counts the others as `nearbySkipped` in `RUN_SUMMARY`; they are not charged. Add those cities to `cities` if you want them.
- Listing descriptions, phone numbers, email addresses and reply links are not collected. Listing details read only the page's attribute list; a contact typed into an attribute is replaced like in titles.
- Craigslist can change its search or refuse requests. The Actor then reports `SOURCE_FAILED` or `BLOCKED` and charges no listing (only the $0.001 start); it never fills in listings.
- `onlyNew` remembers the newest 1,000 listings per search and forgets a search that has not run for 30 days. A listing the seller renews moves back to the top of Craigslist; it counts as new only if this search never returned it before.

### Release history

See the [changelog](CHANGELOG.md).

# Changelog

This Actor's version history is a separate document: https://apify.com/automa-flow/craigslist-scraper/changelog.md

# Actor input Schema

## `searches` (type: `array`):

What to search for, one per line, for example iphone or honda civic. Each keyword runs in every city below. Leave empty to get the newest listings of the category.

## `cities` (type: `array`):

Craigslist sites, one per line: the name in the site address (newyork, sfbay, losangeles, chicago, toronto) or a subarea such as newyork/mnh or sfbay/eby. Up to 100.

## `category` (type: `string`):

Craigslist category code used with the keywords: sss all for sale, cta cars and trucks, apa apartments for rent, bia bicycles, ela electronics, fua furniture, zip free stuff, jjj jobs, hhh all housing, bbb services. Any other three-letter code from a Craigslist search address works too.

## `searchUrls` (type: `array`):

Paste searches made on craigslist.org, with their filters, for example https://sfbay.craigslist.org/search/cta?auto_make_model=honda\&max_price=8000. Each URL is one search; its own filters win over the ones below.

## `minPrice` (type: `integer`):

Only listings at this price or higher, in the site's currency.

## `maxPrice` (type: `integer`):

Only listings at this price or lower, in the site's currency.

## `postedToday` (type: `boolean`):

Only listings posted today, as Craigslist's own filter decides.

## `maxResultsPerSearch` (type: `integer`):

Listings to deliver per city and keyword (or per URL), newest first. Craigslist answers up to 360 per search.

## `onlyNew` (type: `boolean`):

Deliver and charge only listings this Task (or these searches, for API runs) has not delivered before. The first run returns the current listings and remembers them; scheduled runs then return only what was posted since.

## `includeDetails` (type: `boolean`):

Also open each delivered listing's page for its attributes: year, make and model, odometer, condition and title status for vehicles; bathrooms, laundry, parking and pets for rentals; employment type for jobs. +$0.50 per 1,000 listings whose page loaded. One extra request per listing, about 0.3 s each, so 1,000 listings take about 5 minutes. Descriptions and contacts are never collected.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Network for the requests. Apify's datacenter proxy is the default and is enough for Craigslist search.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "searches": [
    "iphone"
  ],
  "cities": [
    "newyork",
    "losangeles"
  ],
  "category": "sss",
  "postedToday": false,
  "maxResultsPerSearch": 50,
  "onlyNew": false,
  "includeDetails": false,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `listings` (type: `string`):

No description

## `runSummary` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "searches": [
        "iphone"
    ],
    "cities": [
        "newyork",
        "losangeles"
    ],
    "maxResultsPerSearch": 50,
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": true
    }
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("automa-flow/craigslist-scraper").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "searches": ["iphone"],
    "cities": [
        "newyork",
        "losangeles",
    ],
    "maxResultsPerSearch": 50,
    "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": True },
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("automa-flow/craigslist-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "searches": [
    "iphone"
  ],
  "cities": [
    "newyork",
    "losangeles"
  ],
  "maxResultsPerSearch": 50,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}' |
apify call automa-flow/craigslist-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,automa-flow/craigslist-scraper"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/MoEddwNsJVF5KS6rg/builds/HUJFDErLf9nF7sWER/openapi.json