Dev.to Scraper

Scrape articles from Dev.to, the developer community platform. Get titles, tags, reactions, comments, reading time, and author information.

What does Dev.to Scraper do?

Dev.to Scraper uses the Dev.to public API to extract article data. It collects titles, descriptions, tags, reaction counts, comment counts, reading time, cover images, and full author profiles including GitHub and Twitter links.

Filter by tag, author, freshness, or get the top articles from any time period.

Who is it for?

• 📊 Content marketers — analyzing trending topics and engagement patterns on DEV.to
• 🎓 Developer advocates — researching what content resonates with dev communities
• 📝 Technical writers — finding inspiration and benchmarking article performance
• 🏢 Hiring teams — discovering active developers writing about specific technologies
• 🤖 NLP researchers — building datasets of developer-authored technical content

Why scrape Dev.to?

Dev.to is one of the largest developer communities with millions of articles on programming, web development, DevOps, and more. It's where developers share tutorials, opinions, and project updates.

Key reasons to scrape it:

• Content research — Find popular topics and article ideas in your tech niche
• Developer marketing — Track what content resonates with the developer community
• Trend analysis — Monitor rising topics and technologies
• Competitive intelligence — Track competitors' content strategy on Dev.to
• Audience research — Understand developer interests by tag engagement

Use cases

• Content marketers researching developer-focused content ideas
• Developer advocates tracking trending articles in their tech stack
• Startup founders monitoring developer sentiment about their product category
• Data analysts studying developer content trends
• Newsletter curators finding the best developer articles
• Recruiters identifying active developers in specific technologies

How to scrape Dev.to

1. Go to Dev.to Scraper on Apify Store
2. Enter a tag to filter by (e.g., javascript, python, react)
3. Optionally set a time range for top articles
4. Click Start and wait for results
5. Download data as JSON, CSV, or Excel

Input parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
tag	string	""	Filter by tag (e.g., javascript, webdev)
username	string	""	Filter by author username
top	integer	-	Top articles from last N days
state	string	-	Filter: all, fresh, or rising
maxArticles	integer	100	Max articles to extract
maxPages	integer	5	Max pages (30 articles/page)

Input example

{
    "tag": "react",
    "top": 30,
    "maxArticles": 50
}

Output

Each article in the dataset contains:

Field	Type	Description
id	number	Dev.to article ID
title	string	Article title
description	string	Article description/summary
url	string	Article URL
canonicalUrl	string	Original source URL (if cross-posted)
coverImage	string	Cover image URL
publishedAt	string	Publication timestamp
readingTimeMinutes	number	Estimated reading time
tags	string[]	Article tags
reactions	number	Total positive reactions (likes, unicorns, etc.)
comments	number	Comment count
author.name	string	Author display name
author.username	string	Author username
author.twitterUsername	string	Author's Twitter handle
author.githubUsername	string	Author's GitHub username
author.profileImage	string	Author avatar URL
scrapedAt	string	ISO timestamp of extraction

Output example

{
    "id": 3303642,
    "title": "msw-fetch-mock: Undici-Style Fetch Mocking for MSW",
    "description": "Compare msw-fetch-mock, MSW, nock, fetch-mock...",
    "url": "https://dev.to/recca0120/msw-fetch-mock-undici-style-fetch-mocking-for-msw-5e2j",
    "canonicalUrl": "https://recca0120.github.io/en/2026/03/03/msw-fetch-mock/",
    "coverImage": "",
    "publishedAt": "2026-03-03T01:39:58Z",
    "readingTimeMinutes": 5,
    "tags": ["javascript", "node", "testing", "tooling"],
    "reactions": 12,
    "comments": 3,
    "author": {
        "name": "Recca Tsai",
        "username": "recca0120",
        "twitterUsername": "",
        "githubUsername": "recca0120",
        "profileImage": "https://media2.dev.to/..."
    },
    "scrapedAt": "2026-03-03T03:02:39.582Z"
}

How much does it cost to scrape Dev.to?

Dev.to Scraper uses pay-per-event pricing:

Event	Price
Run started	$0.001
Article extracted	$0.001 per article

Cost examples

Scenario	Articles	Cost
Top 30 React articles	30	$0.031
100 JavaScript articles	100	$0.101
Author's full portfolio	150	$0.151

Platform costs are negligible — typically under $0.001 per run.

Using Dev.to Scraper with the Apify API

Node.js

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: 'YOUR_API_TOKEN' });

const run = await client.actor('automation-lab/devto-scraper').call({
    tag: 'javascript',
    top: 7,
    maxArticles: 50,
});

const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(`Found ${items.length} articles`);
items.forEach(article => {
    console.log(`${article.title} (${article.reactions} reactions, ${article.comments} comments)`);
});

Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient('YOUR_API_TOKEN')

run = client.actor('automation-lab/devto-scraper').call(run_input={
    'tag': 'javascript',
    'top': 7,
    'maxArticles': 50,
})

dataset = client.dataset(run['defaultDatasetId']).list_items().items
print(f'Found {len(dataset)} articles')
for article in dataset:
    print(f"{article['title']} ({article['reactions']} reactions, {article['comments']} comments)")

Integrations

Dev.to Scraper works with all Apify integrations:

• Scheduled runs — Track trending articles daily or weekly
• Webhooks — Get notified when a scrape completes
• API — Trigger runs and fetch results programmatically
• Google Sheets — Export articles to a spreadsheet
• Slack — Share top developer articles with your team

Connect to Zapier, Make, or Google Sheets for automated workflows.

Tips

• Use top parameter with a number of days to get the most popular articles in a time range
• Combine tag + top to find the best articles in a specific technology
• Use state: rising to discover articles gaining traction right now
• Filter by username to get all articles from a specific author
• Cross-posted articles will have a different canonicalUrl pointing to the original source
• Reading time is a good proxy for article depth and detail level

Use with Claude AI (MCP)

This actor is available as a tool in Claude AI through the Model Context Protocol (MCP). Add it to Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, or any MCP-compatible client.

Setup for Claude Code

$claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com"

Setup for Claude Desktop, Cursor, or VS Code

Add this to your MCP config file:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com"
        }
    }
}

Example prompts

• "What are the most popular Dev.to articles about TypeScript from the last 7 days?"
• "Get trending developer articles from Dev.to this week and summarize the top themes"
• "Find the top 30 Dev.to posts tagged 'python' by reaction count and tell me which topics are resonating most"

Learn more in the Apify MCP documentation.

cURL

curl "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/automation-lab~devto-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_API_TOKEN" \
  -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"tag": "react", "top": 7, "maxArticles": 50}'

Legality

Scraping publicly available data is generally legal according to the US Court of Appeals ruling (HiQ Labs v. LinkedIn). This actor only accesses publicly available information and does not require authentication. Always review and comply with the target website's Terms of Service before scraping. For personal data, ensure compliance with GDPR, CCPA, and other applicable privacy regulations.

FAQ

How many articles can I get? The API returns up to 30 articles per page. With pagination, you can fetch hundreds of articles per tag.

Can I search by keyword? The API filters by tag, not free-text search. Use specific tags like javascript, react, python, devops, etc.

Does it include full article content? No — the API returns titles, descriptions, and metadata. For full article body, you'd need to fetch individual article pages.

What tags are available? Dev.to has thousands of tags. Popular ones include: javascript, python, react, webdev, beginners, tutorial, node, css, typescript, devops.

Why am I getting fewer articles than expected? The Dev.to API returns up to 30 articles per page. If your maxArticles exceeds the available articles for a tag, you'll get fewer results. Try broader tags or remove the top filter.

The scraper returns empty results for my tag. Double-check the tag name matches exactly what Dev.to uses (lowercase, no spaces). Browse https://dev.to/t/{tag} to verify the tag exists and has content.

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