MercadoLibre Search Scraper

Extract ranked product listings from MercadoLibre search pages across LATAM marketplaces.

What does MercadoLibre Search Scraper do?

MercadoLibre Search Scraper collects one dataset row per listing from MercadoLibre search and category pages. It is designed for marketplace monitoring, price tracking, search-rank checks, and seller discovery workflows.

Who is it for?

• 🛒 Ecommerce sellers tracking their own product visibility.
• 🏷️ Brands monitoring unauthorized sellers and price changes.
• 📈 Market researchers comparing supply across countries.
• 🤖 Automation teams feeding pricing dashboards and alerts.
• 🧾 Dropshippers checking stock, shipping, and seller signals.

Why use this scraper?

MercadoLibre search pages contain ranking, pricing, shipping, location, and seller signals that are useful for day-to-day marketplace decisions. This actor packages those signals into clean Apify dataset rows that can be exported or consumed through the API.

Supported MercadoLibre sites

• Mexico (MLM)
• Brazil (MLB)
• Argentina (MLA)
• Colombia (MCO)
• Chile (MLC)
• Peru (MPE)
• Uruguay (MLU)
• Ecuador (MEC)

Data you can extract

Field	Description
title	Listing title
url	Product/listing URL
price	Current visible price
currency	Currency code when available
originalPrice	Previous price when MercadoLibre shows one
discount	Discount badge text
sellerName	Seller or official-store label when visible
location	Listing or seller location
shipping	Shipping badge text
isFreeShipping	Boolean free-shipping indicator
isFull	MercadoLibre FULL indicator
thumbnail	Listing image URL
rating	Rating when shown
reviewCount	Review count when shown
rank	Overall result rank in the run
page	Search page number
query	Input query
site	MercadoLibre country site
scrapedAt	Extraction timestamp

How much does it cost to scrape MercadoLibre search results?

The actor uses pay-per-event pricing: a $0.07 start event plus a tiered per-listing result event. The formula-derived baseline BRONZE price is $0.0019215 per listing, with lower per-listing rates on higher Apify usage tiers.

Quick start

1. Open the actor on Apify.
2. Enter one or more search queries such as laptop gamer.
3. Select the MercadoLibre site, for example Mexico (MLM).
4. Keep proxy enabled for best reliability.
5. Set Maximum listings to the number of rows you need.
6. Run the actor and export the dataset.

Input example

{
  "queries": ["laptop gamer", "iphone 15"],
  "site": "MLM",
  "maxItems": 100,
  "maxPagesPerSearch": 3,
  "useProxy": true,
  "proxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"],
  "proxyCountryCode": "MX"
}

Start URL example

{
  "startUrls": [
    { "url": "https://listado.mercadolibre.com.mx/consola-nintendo-switch" }
  ],
  "site": "MLM",
  "maxItems": 50,
  "useProxy": true,
  "proxyCountryCode": "MX"
}

Output example

{
  "title": "Laptop Gamer Ryzen 7 16GB RAM 512GB SSD",
  "url": "https://articulo.mercadolibre.com.mx/...",
  "price": 12999,
  "currency": "MXN",
  "shipping": "Envío gratis",
  "isFreeShipping": true,
  "rank": 1,
  "page": 1,
  "query": "laptop gamer",
  "site": "MLM",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-06-29T00:00:00.000Z"
}

Ranking and page metadata

The rank field is the overall position saved by the actor, while positionOnPage is the position on a specific MercadoLibre page. Use both fields to monitor search-rank changes over time.

Proxy recommendations

MercadoLibre commonly shows account-verification pages to datacenter and workspace IPs. Keep Apify Proxy enabled. Residential proxy with a matching country code is recommended for production runs.

Anti-blocking behavior

The actor warms up on the MercadoLibre country homepage before opening search pages. This improves reliability and reduces direct verification redirects. It also blocks heavy media resources to reduce proxy bandwidth.

Tips for reliable runs

• Use a proxy country matching the selected site.
• Keep maxPagesPerSearch conservative for scheduled monitoring.
• Prefer keyword queries for broad monitoring.
• Use startUrls for categories or complex filtered pages.
• Run smaller jobs more frequently for rank tracking.

Common workflows

Price monitoring

Run the same query daily and compare price, discount, and sellerName values.

Search-rank monitoring

Track the rank and positionOnPage fields for important keywords.

Seller discovery

Export listings and group by sellerName, location, or official-store signals.

Shipping analysis

Use shipping, isFreeShipping, and isFull to compare fulfillment promises across products.

Integrations

• Send datasets to Google Sheets through Apify integrations.
• Trigger runs on a schedule for rank monitoring.
• Connect to Make or Zapier for alert workflows.
• Export JSON/CSV into pricing intelligence dashboards.
• Use webhooks to notify your team when a run finishes.

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/mercadolibre-search-scraper').call({
  queries: ['laptop gamer'],
  site: 'MLM',
  maxItems: 100,
  useProxy: true,
  proxyCountryCode: 'MX'
});
console.log(run.defaultDatasetId);

API usage with Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient('YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN')
run = client.actor('automation-lab/mercadolibre-search-scraper').call(run_input={
    'queries': ['laptop gamer'],
    'site': 'MLM',
    'maxItems': 100,
    'useProxy': True,
    'proxyCountryCode': 'MX',
})
print(run['defaultDatasetId'])

API usage with cURL

curl -X POST 'https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/automation-lab~mercadolibre-search-scraper/runs?token=YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"queries":["laptop gamer"],"site":"MLM","maxItems":100,"useProxy":true,"proxyCountryCode":"MX"}'

MCP integration

Use the Apify MCP server with this actor in Claude Code or Claude Desktop:

$claude mcp add apify https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=automation-lab/mercadolibre-search-scraper

Claude Desktop JSON configuration:

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

Example prompts:

• "Run the MercadoLibre Search Scraper for laptop gamer in Mexico and summarize the top sellers."
• "Compare the top 50 iPhone listings on MercadoLibre Argentina by price and shipping."
• "Create a CSV of MercadoLibre search ranks for my target keywords."

Scheduling

Schedule the actor daily or hourly to build a history of ranking and price changes. Use smaller result limits for frequent monitoring and larger limits for periodic market snapshots.

Troubleshooting: no listings returned

MercadoLibre may return an account-verification page. Enable Apify Proxy, choose RESIDENTIAL, and set a matching proxyCountryCode such as MX for Mexico.

Troubleshooting: prices or sellers missing

MercadoLibre varies the fields shown by country, category, and viewport. Some fields are optional and appear only when the marketplace displays them in search results.

Legality and ethical use

This actor extracts publicly visible marketplace search data. Use it responsibly, respect applicable laws, and avoid collecting personal data beyond what is necessary for legitimate business workflows.

Related scrapers

• https://apify.com/automation-lab/amazon-search-scraper
• https://apify.com/automation-lab/ebay-search-scraper
• https://apify.com/automation-lab/walmart-search-scraper
• https://apify.com/automation-lab/shopify-product-scraper

Limitations

The actor focuses on search/listing result pages. It does not open every product detail page in the MVP, which keeps runs cheaper and avoids unnecessary anti-bot exposure.

Changelog

Initial private build extracts MercadoLibre search listings with rank, price, shipping, seller, and metadata fields.

Support

If a run fails, include the input, target country, run URL, and whether proxy was enabled when contacting support.

FAQ

Can I scrape multiple countries in one run?

Use separate runs per country for the clearest ranking metadata and matching proxy-country settings.

Can I scrape category URLs?

Yes. Add MercadoLibre category or search URLs in startUrls.

Does it support product details?

The MVP focuses on search result cards. Product-detail crawling can be added later if demand justifies the extra cost.

Why is proxy enabled by default?

MercadoLibre often blocks direct cloud or datacenter traffic with verification pages, so proxy defaults are conservative.