Kickstarter Scraper

What does Kickstarter Scraper do?

Kickstarter Scraper extracts structured data from Kickstarter — the world's largest crowdfunding platform. Search by keyword, filter by category or project status, and get detailed project data including funding goals, pledges, backer counts, creator info, and campaign timelines.

The easiest way to try it: click Start with the prefilled input — it searches for "3d printer" projects and returns 10 results in about 30 seconds.

Unlike the official Kickstarter API (which requires approval and has strict rate limits), this scraper works without any API key or login. It handles Kickstarter's anti-bot protection automatically using a real browser with residential proxies.

Who is Kickstarter Scraper for?

Crowdfunding analysts and researchers

• Track funding trends across categories (technology, games, design)
• Monitor successful campaign patterns and backer behavior
• Build datasets of crowdfunding projects for academic research

Investors and venture capitalists

• Discover promising startups before they hit mainstream media
• Analyze crowdfunding traction as a signal for product-market fit
• Track competitors' crowdfunding campaigns in specific verticals

Product managers and entrepreneurs

• Research similar products before launching your own campaign
• Benchmark funding goals and backer counts against competitors
• Identify market gaps and underserved categories

Marketing and PR teams

• Find trending projects for press coverage and content creation
• Monitor brand mentions and competitor campaigns
• Build outreach lists of active Kickstarter creators

Why use Kickstarter Scraper?

• No API key required — works without Kickstarter API approval or authentication
• Bypasses anti-bot protection — uses a real browser with residential proxies to handle Cloudflare
• Rich data output — 20+ fields per project including creator info, funding metrics, and campaign timelines
• Flexible search — filter by keyword, category, status (live/successful/upcoming), sort order, and funding ranges
• Multiple search terms — search for several keywords in a single run
• Export anywhere — download data as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, or RSS
• API access — integrate with any app via REST API or schedule automated runs
• Pay only for results — no monthly subscription, just pay-per-event pricing

What data can you extract?

Each project includes the following fields:

Field	Description
projectId	Unique Kickstarter project ID
projectName	Project title
creatorName	Creator's display name
creatorId	Creator's unique ID
creatorUrl	Link to creator's profile
description	Project blurb/summary
goal	Funding goal in original currency
pledged	Amount pledged in original currency
usdPledged	Amount pledged converted to USD
currency	Currency code (USD, EUR, GBP, etc.)
backerCount	Number of backers
percentFunded	Percentage of goal reached
category	Main category (technology, games, etc.)
subcategory	Subcategory (3d printing, tabletop games, etc.)
url	Direct link to the project page
imageUrl	Project hero image URL
launchDate	Campaign launch date (ISO 8601)
deadline	Campaign end date (ISO 8601)
createdAt	Project creation date (ISO 8601)
state	Project status: live, successful, failed, upcoming
location	Creator's location (city, state/country)
country	Country code
staffPick	Whether Kickstarter staff picked this project
spotlight	Whether the project is spotlighted
slug	URL-friendly project identifier

How much does it cost to scrape Kickstarter?

This scraper uses pay-per-event pricing — you pay only for what you scrape. No monthly subscription. All platform and proxy costs are included.

	Free	Starter ($29/mo)	Scale ($199/mo)	Business ($999/mo)
Per project	$0.00575	$0.005	$0.0039	$0.003
100 projects	$0.65	$0.65	$0.54	$0.45
1,000 projects	$5.15	$5.15	$4.05	$3.15

A one-time $0.15 start fee applies per run to cover browser initialization and Cloudflare bypass.

Real-world cost examples:

Query	Results	Duration	Cost (Free tier)
"3d printer"	10	~30s	~$0.20
Games, most funded	20	~45s	~$0.25
"board game" + "card game"	30	~77s	~$0.30

On the free plan ($5 credits), you can scrape approximately 900 Kickstarter projects.

How to scrape Kickstarter projects

1. Go to Kickstarter Scraper on Apify Store
2. Click Start to run with default input (searches for "3d printer", returns 10 results)
3. Or customize your search:
   • Enter one or more search terms (e.g., "robot", "smart home")
   • Select a category (technology, games, design, etc.)
   • Choose a project status (live, successful, upcoming)
   • Set the sort order and max results
4. Click Start and wait for results
5. Download your data as JSON, CSV, or Excel from the Dataset tab

Example input — search for live technology projects:

{
    "searchTerms": ["smart home"],
    "category": "technology",
    "state": "live",
    "sortBy": "most_funded",
    "maxResults": 50
}

Example input — find the most successful games:

{
    "category": "games",
    "state": "successful",
    "sortBy": "most_funded",
    "maxResults": 100
}

Input parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
searchTerms	array	[]	Keywords to search for. Each term runs a separate search.
category	string	""	Filter by Kickstarter category (art, comics, crafts, dance, design, fashion, film & video, food, games, journalism, music, photography, publishing, technology, theater)
state	string	""	Filter by project status: live, successful, or upcoming
sortBy	string	"magic"	Sort order: magic (recommended), popularity, newest, end_date, most_funded, most_backed
maxResults	integer	100	Maximum projects to extract (1-2,400)
goalRange	string	""	Filter by funding goal amount
pledgedRange	string	""	Filter by amount already pledged
raisedRange	string	""	Filter by percentage of goal raised

Output example

{
    "projectId": 1076718601,
    "projectName": "inew3d: The Desktop Full-Color 3D Printer with AI Modeling",
    "creatorName": "inew3d",
    "creatorId": 465342344,
    "creatorUrl": "https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/inew3d",
    "description": "500K+ True Colors | AI to 3D in 1 Step | Auto-Support & One-Click Print",
    "goal": 100000,
    "pledged": 1344690,
    "usdPledged": 1344690,
    "currency": "USD",
    "backerCount": 196,
    "percentFunded": 1345,
    "category": "technology",
    "subcategory": "3d printing",
    "url": "https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inew3d/inew3d-the-desktop-full-color-3d-printer-with-ai-modeling",
    "imageUrl": "https://i.kickstarter.com/assets/052/923/909/...",
    "launchDate": "2026-03-05T14:00:03.000Z",
    "deadline": "2026-04-19T13:00:03.000Z",
    "createdAt": "2025-12-25T09:26:50.000Z",
    "state": "live",
    "location": "Camillus, NY",
    "country": "US",
    "staffPick": true,
    "spotlight": false,
    "slug": "inew3d-the-desktop-full-color-3d-printer-with-ai-modeling"
}

Tips for best results

• Start small — use the prefilled input (10 results) to verify the data matches your needs before running larger queries
• Use category + search terms together for more targeted results
• Filter by status — use "live" to find active campaigns, "successful" for proven products
• Sort by "most_funded" to find the highest-grossing projects in any category
• Schedule daily runs to track new projects and funding changes over time
• Kickstarter limits search results to 2,400 (200 pages of 12) — use narrower filters to stay within this limit
• Multiple search terms run as separate searches but share the result limit — plan accordingly

Integrations

• Kickstarter Scraper + Google Sheets — export crowdfunding data to a spreadsheet for analysis and visualization
• Kickstarter Scraper + Slack/Discord — get notified when new projects match your criteria (e.g., "live technology projects over $100K funded")
• Kickstarter Scraper + Make/Zapier — trigger workflows when projects hit funding milestones
• Scheduled runs — monitor Kickstarter categories daily to catch trending projects early
• Webhooks — process new project data in real-time as the scraper finishes

Using the Apify API

You can run Kickstarter Scraper programmatically using 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/kickstarter-scraper').call({
    searchTerms: ['3d printer'],
    category: 'technology',
    maxResults: 50,
});

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

Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient('YOUR_API_TOKEN')

run = client.actor('automation-lab/kickstarter-scraper').call(run_input={
    'searchTerms': ['3d printer'],
    'category': 'technology',
    'maxResults': 50,
})

items = client.dataset(run['defaultDatasetId']).list_items().items
print(items)

cURL

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/automation-lab~kickstarter-scraper/runs?token=YOUR_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"searchTerms":["3d printer"],"category":"technology","maxResults":50}'

Use with AI agents via MCP

Kickstarter Scraper is available as a tool for AI assistants that support the Model Context Protocol (MCP).

Add the Apify MCP server to your AI client — this gives you access to all Apify actors, including this one:

Setup for Claude Code

$claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=automation-lab/kickstarter-scraper"

Setup for Claude Desktop, Cursor, or VS Code

Add this to your MCP config file:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=automation-lab/kickstarter-scraper"
        }
    }
}

Your AI assistant will use OAuth to authenticate with your Apify account on first use.

Example prompts

Once connected, try asking your AI assistant:

• "Find the top 20 most funded live technology projects on Kickstarter (use automation-lab/kickstarter-scraper)"
• "Search Kickstarter for board game projects that raised over 100% of their goal"
• "Get me a list of successful design projects sorted by number of backers"

Learn more in the Apify MCP documentation.

Is it legal to scrape Kickstarter?

This scraper only extracts publicly available data from Kickstarter that any visitor can see without logging in. It does not access private user data, bypass paywalls, or circumvent access controls.

Web scraping of publicly accessible data is generally legal according to the US Ninth Circuit ruling in hiQ Labs v. LinkedIn (2022). However, you should:

• Comply with Kickstarter's Terms of Service
• Use the data responsibly and ethically
• Follow GDPR and other data protection regulations if processing personal data
• Not use scraped data for spamming or harassment

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 fast is Kickstarter Scraper? The scraper extracts about 10-15 projects per page load. A typical search of 50 projects takes 60-90 seconds. Larger queries (500+ projects) may take 5-10 minutes as pagination requires multiple page loads.

How much does it cost to scrape 1,000 projects? On the Free plan, approximately $5.15 (start fee + $0.005 per project).

Does it work without a Kickstarter API key? Yes. The scraper uses a browser to access Kickstarter's public discover page — no API key, no login, no authentication needed.

Why are some fields empty for certain projects? Projects in "upcoming" status haven't launched yet, so fields like pledged, backerCount, deadline, and percentFunded will be zero or empty. This is expected behavior.

Why did my search return fewer results than expected? Kickstarter limits search results to 2,400 projects (200 pages). If your query matches more projects, narrow your filters (add a category, specify a funding range) to get the specific results you need.

Other crowdfunding and e-commerce scrapers

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• Shopify Scraper — scrape product data from any Shopify store
• Google Maps Scraper — extract business data and reviews from Google Maps
• Indeed Scraper — scrape job listings and company data
• TikTok Scraper — extract video data and user profiles from TikTok