Crypto Fear and Greed Index Scraper

Fetch the current and historical Alternative.me Crypto Fear & Greed Index as clean Apify dataset records.

The actor is built for crypto traders, analysts, market dashboard builders, newsletter teams, quant researchers, and automation workflows that need a daily sentiment series without maintaining custom API glue.

It calls the public Alternative.me API, normalizes every record, and stores one dataset item per daily index value.

What does Crypto Fear and Greed Index Scraper do?

Crypto Fear and Greed Index Scraper extracts the daily 0-100 crypto sentiment score from Alternative.me.

Each result includes:

• 📈 numeric sentiment value
• 🏷️ classification such as Extreme Fear, Fear, Neutral, Greed, or Extreme Greed
• 🕒 Unix timestamp and normalized ISO date
• ⏳ time until the next source update when the API provides it
• 🔗 exact source URL used for the run
• 🧾 fetch timestamp for audit trails

Use limit: 1 for the latest daily reading or a larger limit for historical analysis.

Who is it for?

This actor is useful for multiple crypto data workflows.

• Crypto traders who monitor sentiment extremes before entries or exits
• Analysts who need a daily sentiment feature for dashboards
• Newsletter writers who publish daily or weekly market mood summaries
• Quant teams that backtest sentiment overlays
• Portfolio managers who want a risk-on / risk-off input
• Data engineers who need a scheduled dataset instead of hand-written API jobs
• No-code users who want CSV, Excel, JSON, XML, or API access to the same data

Why use this actor?

Alternative.me already provides a public endpoint, but production workflows still need repeatable runs, datasets, exports, scheduling, and integrations.

This actor adds those workflow features on top of the public API.

• ✅ Ready for Apify schedules
• ✅ Dataset exports in common formats
• ✅ API access from Node.js, Python, cURL, Make, Zapier, and dashboards
• ✅ Normalized field names
• ✅ Low-memory HTTP-only execution
• ✅ Pay-per-event pricing designed for small and large pulls

Data source

The actor uses the Alternative.me Fear & Greed Index API:

https://api.alternative.me/fng/

The source publishes a composite crypto sentiment index.

The actor does not require login, cookies, browser rendering, or residential proxies.

Output data table

Field	Type	Description
source	string	Source name, alternative.me
sourceUrl	string	API URL used for the run
indexName	string	Index name from the source response
value	number	Sentiment score from 0 to 100
valueClassification	string	Human-readable classification
classificationSlug	string	Machine-friendly classification slug
timestamp	number	Source Unix timestamp in seconds
date	string	Normalized date in YYYY-MM-DD format
dateUtc	string	Full UTC ISO timestamp
timeUntilUpdate	number/null	Seconds until next update for the latest value when available
timeUntilUpdateHours	number/null	Same countdown converted to hours
isLatest	boolean	true for the newest record in the response
fetchedAt	string	Actor fetch timestamp
raw	object	Optional raw source record when includeRaw is enabled

How much does it cost to scrape Crypto Fear and Greed Index data?

The actor uses pay-per-event pricing.

You pay a small start fee and a per-record fee for each daily index record returned.

Because the source is a public lightweight API, runs are typically inexpensive.

Example use cases:

• Latest value: limit: 1
• 100-day dashboard window: limit: 100
• Multi-year backtest: increase limit up to the configured maximum

See the Apify run cost estimate before starting large jobs.

How to use it

1. Open the actor on Apify.
2. Set Number of daily records.
3. Optionally choose a raw API date format.
4. Click Start.
5. Export the dataset or connect it to your automation.

For the latest score, use:

{
  "limit": 1
}

For a 100-day historical window, use:

{
  "limit": 100,
  "dateFormat": "world"
}

Input options

limit

Number of newest daily index records to fetch.

Default: 1

Prefill: 20

Minimum: 1

Maximum: 5000

dateFormat

Optional Alternative.me date_format parameter.

Supported values:

• world
• us
• cn
• kr

The actor always emits normalized ISO fields, so this setting mainly affects raw source compatibility.

includeRaw

When enabled, the actor includes the original Alternative.me record under raw.

Use it when you want to audit the exact source payload or preserve extra source fields.

Output example

{
  "source": "alternative.me",
  "sourceUrl": "https://api.alternative.me/fng/?limit=1&format=json",
  "indexName": "Fear and Greed Index",
  "value": 17,
  "valueClassification": "Extreme Fear",
  "classificationSlug": "extreme_fear",
  "timestamp": 1782259200,
  "date": "2026-06-23",
  "dateUtc": "2026-06-23T00:00:00.000Z",
  "timeUntilUpdate": 49358,
  "timeUntilUpdateHours": 13.71,
  "isLatest": true,
  "fetchedAt": "2026-06-24T07:15:00.000Z"
}

Tips for reliable workflows

• Use a schedule after the source updates each day.
• Keep limit: 1 for daily alerting workflows.
• Use limit: 100 or more for dashboards that need rolling charts.
• Enable includeRaw only when you need raw compatibility.
• Use the dataset API for automated ingestion into BI tools.

Integrations

The actor works with standard Apify integrations.

Common workflow patterns:

• Send the latest reading to Slack or Discord every morning.
• Append daily values to Google Sheets.
• Feed a crypto dashboard in Looker Studio, Retool, or Streamlit.
• Trigger risk alerts when the value crosses a threshold.
• Use historical output as a feature in backtesting notebooks.

API usage with Node.js

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN });
const run = await client.actor('automation-lab/crypto-fear-and-greed-index-scraper').call({
  limit: 100,
  dateFormat: 'world',
});

const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items[0]);

API usage with Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient
import os

client = ApifyClient(os.environ['APIFY_TOKEN'])
run = client.actor('automation-lab/crypto-fear-and-greed-index-scraper').call(run_input={
    'limit': 100,
    'dateFormat': 'world',
})
items = client.dataset(run['defaultDatasetId']).list_items().items
print(items[0])

API usage with cURL

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/automation-lab~crypto-fear-and-greed-index-scraper/runs?token=$APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"limit":100,"dateFormat":"world"}'

MCP integration

Use the Apify MCP server with Claude Code or Claude Desktop to call this actor from agent workflows.

MCP tool URL:

https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=automation-lab/crypto-fear-and-greed-index-scraper

Claude Code setup:

$claude mcp add apify-crypto-fear-greed https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=automation-lab/crypto-fear-and-greed-index-scraper

Claude Desktop JSON configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apify-crypto-fear-greed": {
      "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=automation-lab/crypto-fear-and-greed-index-scraper"
    }
  }
}

Example prompts:

• "Run the Crypto Fear and Greed Index Scraper for the latest value and summarize the market mood."
• "Fetch 365 days of Crypto Fear and Greed Index data and identify the lowest sentiment periods."
• "Compare today's crypto fear reading against the last 30 days."

Scheduling ideas

A daily schedule is the most common setup.

Recommended schedule:

• Run once per day after the Alternative.me update window.
• Use limit: 1 for alerts.
• Use limit: 30 or limit: 100 for rolling dashboards.

Monitoring ideas

You can monitor sentiment thresholds with downstream automations.

Examples:

• Alert when value is below 20.
• Alert when value is above 80.
• Create a weekly summary of classification changes.
• Flag rapid changes between consecutive daily records.

Troubleshooting

Why did I get fewer records than expected?

The source API controls available history. If the requested limit exceeds available records, the actor returns what the API provides.

Why is timeUntilUpdate null on older records?

Alternative.me usually provides the countdown only on the newest record. Historical records may not include it.

Do I need a proxy?

No. The actor uses a public API and does not need Apify Proxy.

Legality and terms

This actor retrieves publicly available API data from Alternative.me.

You are responsible for using the data in compliance with applicable laws, exchange rules, platform terms, and your own trading or publication policies.

The actor does not provide financial advice.

Related scrapers

Explore related actors by Automation Lab:

• https://apify.com/automation-lab/coinbase-scraper
• https://apify.com/automation-lab/crypto-news-scraper
• https://apify.com/automation-lab/stock-market-news-scraper
• https://apify.com/automation-lab/yahoo-finance-scraper

FAQ

Can I fetch the latest index only?

Yes. Use limit: 1.

Can I fetch historical records?

Yes. Increase limit to retrieve more recent daily records.

Is the data sorted newest first?

Yes. Alternative.me returns newest records first, and the actor preserves that order.

Can I export to CSV or Excel?

Yes. Use Apify dataset exports after the run finishes.

Can I use this in a trading bot?

Yes, as a data input. The actor does not execute trades and does not provide financial advice.

Changelog

Initial version:

• Public Alternative.me API integration
• Current and historical index support
• Normalized date and classification fields
• Optional raw source payload

Support

If a run fails or the source changes, open an issue from the Apify run page and include the run ID.

Data freshness

The source updates daily.

For always-current workflows, schedule this actor once per day.

Performance

This is an HTTP-only actor with 256 MB memory by default.

No browser is launched, which keeps runs fast and inexpensive.

Version

Current actor version: 0.1.