Coursera Courses Scraper

Search public Coursera courses by subject and export course URLs, providers, displayed ratings, level, duration bands, and skills. Use the records for repeat curriculum comparisons, training-program research, and educational catalog analysis.

This Actor returns individual courses only. Specializations, professional certificates, degrees, lessons, and learner accounts are outside its scope. It does not download course videos, syllabi, reviews, or enrollment records.

Who is it for?

• Learning and development teams comparing course providers for a skills program.
• Curriculum researchers building subject-specific course shortlists.
• Education analysts comparing course-card ratings and duration bands between periodic exports.

Why use this Actor?

Get a consistent tabular export without manually copying search cards. Stable course IDs and canonical URLs make it practical to join snapshots. Each row includes the first matching input query and page so you can trace how it was discovered.

The Actor requests course-only results rather than mixing individual courses with certificate programs. It uses public catalog data and requires no Coursera account or cookies.

Getting started

1. Enter one or more subjects in queries, such as python or cybersecurity.
2. Set maxItems to the total number of unique courses you want across the run.
3. Optionally adjust maxPages for each subject.
4. Run the Actor and inspect the Courses dataset view.
5. Download JSON, CSV, Excel, or another export format supported by Apify.

Example input:

{"queries":["python"],"maxItems":10,"maxPages":10}

Input parameters

Field	Default	Meaning
queries	["python"]	1–10 subjects, each 1–200 characters. Trimmed; identical queries deduplicated case-sensitively.
maxItems	10	Global maximum unique courses, 1–1000. Earlier queries consume the limit first.
maxPages	10	Search pages per query, 1–100. Currently up to 12 courses per page.

Zero and unlimited limits are not supported. Unknown input fields are rejected rather than silently ignored. Explicit course URLs, language filters, category URLs, and authentication inputs are not supported.

Search relevance and coverage

Coursera's best-match search determines relevance; this is not a literal title filter, exact phrase match, or exhaustive subject taxonomy. A nonsense or very narrow query can still produce semantic recommendations. Inspect results before using them as a definitive curriculum shortlist.

Results follow upstream ordering. Pagination stops at the global item cap, the per-query page cap, or source exhaustion. Course IDs are deduplicated across all queries; overlapping subjects do not produce duplicate charged rows. A course found under several subjects is attributed only to its first query.

Extracted data

Field	Meaning
courseId	Coursera course search identifier.
title	Public course title.
url	Canonical course page URL.
providers	Array of institutions or companies.
rating	Displayed course-card rating, or null when unrated.
ratingCount	Displayed course-card rating/review count, or null.
level	Source difficulty enum, for example BEGINNER.
duration	Duration band such as ONE_TO_THREE_MONTHS, not exact hours.
skills	Skills associated with the search record.
imageUrl	Catalog thumbnail URL; image files are not downloaded.
query, page	First query and one-based page producing this course.
scrapedAt	UTC retrieval timestamp.

Ratings reflect the public course card at retrieval time and can change. They are not individual review text or an endorsement of course quality.

Output example

A representative public course record (some optional arrays shortened):

{
  "courseId":"course~ejOz7RDUEei99hK0xs-tsg",
  "title":"Python for Data Science, AI & Development",
  "url":"https://www.coursera.org/learn/python-for-applied-data-science-ai",
  "providers":["IBM"],
  "rating":4.62,
  "ratingCount":43825,
  "level":"BEGINNER",
  "duration":"ONE_TO_THREE_MONTHS",
  "skills":["Python Programming","NumPy"],
  "query":"python",
  "page":1,
  "scrapedAt":"2026-10-01T14:00:00.000Z"
}

A separate SUMMARY record in the run's key-value store reports the count and requested queries. The default dataset contains course records only.

How much does it cost to export Coursera courses?

Pay-per-event pricing includes a $0.003 start fee and a plan-dependent fee for each unique course saved. There is no separate charge for the summary, rejected rows, or duplicates.

The BRONZE item rate is $0.0018 per course. At that rate, 10 courses cost $0.021, 25 cost $0.048, and 100 cost $0.183. FREE is $0.00207, SILVER $0.001404, and GOLD/PLATINUM/DIAMOND $0.00108 per course. Spend tiers follow your qualifying aggregate monthly Apify Store spend, not this Actor's run volume. These are estimated customer charges, not payout guarantees. See the Pricing tab for your plan's current rate and set an Apify spending limit as appropriate.

Integrations

Export CSV to a spreadsheet for provider comparisons. Use dataset JSON in a data warehouse and join snapshots on courseId to compare rating counts and catalog presence over time.

For recurring comparisons, schedule this Actor through Apify and store each completed run's dataset separately. Scheduling does not turn the Actor into a built-in alert service or historical database. A course missing from one capped search snapshot is not proof of removal from Coursera.

API usage

Replace APIFY_TOKEN with your own token in your environment. Do not place credentials in shared documents.

curl -X POST -H "Authorization: Bearer $APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  'https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/automation-lab~coursera-course-catalog/run-sync-get-dataset-items' \
  -d '{"queries":["python"],"maxItems":10}'

JavaScript with the official client:

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';
const client = new ApifyClient({ token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN });
const run = await client.actor('automation-lab/coursera-course-catalog')
  .call({ queries: ['python'], maxItems: 10 });
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

Python:

import os
from apify_client import ApifyClient
client = ApifyClient(os.environ['APIFY_TOKEN'])
run = client.actor('automation-lab/coursera-course-catalog').call(
    run_input={'queries': ['python'], 'maxItems': 10})
print(client.dataset(run['defaultDatasetId']).list_items().items)

MCP use

After the Actor is available to your account, configure its scoped Apify MCP endpoint:

claude mcp add --transport http apify \
  "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=automation-lab/coursera-course-catalog"

For Claude Desktop, Cursor, and VS Code, use the equivalent client configuration:

{"mcpServers":{"apify":{"url":"https://mcp.apify.com?tools=automation-lab/coursera-course-catalog"}}}

Authenticate through your client's supported Apify authentication flow. Example prompts:

• “Find ten public Coursera courses about Python and compare their providers and displayed ratings.”
• “Export twenty cybersecurity courses with their duration bands for my curriculum comparison.” Availability depends on your account access; the endpoint does not expose private learner data.

Limits and failure behavior

The Actor accesses public English-route search pages without a proxy. Titles may still be multilingual. Catalog rankings and availability can vary by location and time. It does not promise complete inventory, exact course duration, pricing, or enrollment eligibility.

Transient network errors and 429/5xx responses have at most two HTTP retries. Challenge pages, malformed state, unexpected entity types, and broken pagination fail visibly instead of producing a misleading successful empty export. Partial output may remain if a later page fails; check run status before consuming it.

Troubleshooting and FAQ

Why did a narrow query return unrelated courses? Coursera uses semantic search and may recommend courses even for unmatched words. Review the shortlist manually or filter exported titles in your downstream workflow.

Why did I get fewer than my item cap? The page cap, source exhaustion, duplicate records, or Apify spending limits can stop collection earlier. Increase maxPages only when more source pages exist.

Why are some ratings null? Unrated courses do not have a meaningful rating. Null is not zero stars.

Can I download videos or student information? No. This Actor only exports public course catalog records.

What if a run fails? Inspect its log and status. Retry transient incidents later. A persistent upstream format change needs a parser repair, not a larger item limit.

Legality and responsible use

Use public catalog data responsibly, respect source terms and applicable law, and do not assume public accessibility grants permission for every downstream use. Avoid collecting private learner data. This Actor is independent and not affiliated with Coursera or course providers.

No AI model processes your input or results. Coursera receives search terms and the runtime network address. Apify provides execution and dataset/KV/log storage; operating costs are included in the documented Actor charges, with no required paid third-party account. Run data follows your Apify account retention settings and remains until you delete it or platform retention removes it; this Actor creates no cross-run cache or external backup. Delete unwanted datasets, run logs and KV stores in Apify. Do not put confidential or personal information in queries. For help, open an issue through the Actor's Apify Support tab.

Related Actors

For another public learning catalog, see LinkedIn Learning Course Catalog. Its source and coverage differ; it is not a substitute for Coursera course records.