Quora Scraper

Extract questions, answers, topics, and user profiles from Quora.com. Direct question URLs work without credentials for live title, description, and answer-count metadata. Full answers, search, topics, spaces, and profiles require your Quora session cookies — see How to get Quora cookies below.

Use it to monitor expert knowledge, conduct Q&A research, track topic trends, and build datasets for market research or AI training.

What does Quora Scraper do?

Quora Scraper extracts structured data from Quora — the world's largest Q&A knowledge platform with 300+ million monthly visitors. It navigates Quora using a headless browser with residential proxy to bypass Cloudflare protection, then pulls:

• Questions — titles, topics, follower counts, answer counts
• Answers — full text, author name and bio, upvote counts, timestamps
• User profiles — name, credentials, follower/following counts
• Topic listings — questions under any topic or space

Just provide a list of Quora URLs (questions, topics, profiles) or a search keyword and the actor will do the rest.

Who is it for?

🎓 Market researchers and analysts

• Monitor expert opinions on industry topics
• Track how knowledge around products or technologies evolves
• Aggregate insights from niche professional communities

🤖 AI and NLP engineers

• Build Q&A datasets for fine-tuning language models
• Create training data for answer-quality classifiers
• Collect domain-specific knowledge for RAG pipelines

📊 Competitive intelligence teams

• Discover common customer pain points from "Which product is better?" questions
• Monitor brand mentions and sentiment in expert answers
• Identify gaps in competitor products from Quora discussions

✍️ Content marketers and SEO specialists

• Discover high-traffic questions in your niche for content ideas
• Extract expert-quality answers to research topic depth
• Identify frequently asked questions for FAQ page generation

🔍 Academic researchers

• Collect Q&A data for studying online knowledge-sharing behavior
• Build datasets for discourse analysis and linguistic research

Why use Quora Scraper?

• ✅ Credential-free question metadata — direct question URLs return live titles, descriptions, and answer counts
• ✅ Full authenticated extraction — your own session cookies plus residential proxies unlock answers, search, topics, spaces, and profiles
• ✅ Structured output — every item includes author, upvotes, timestamps
• ✅ Multiple input modes — URLs, search queries, topic pages
• ✅ Apify platform included — scheduling, cloud storage, 5,000+ integrations
• ✅ Export formats — JSON, CSV, Excel, Google Sheets, and more
• ✅ Pay per result — no subscription fee, pay only for what you extract

What data can you extract?

📋 Question data

Field	Description	Example
type	Record type	"question"
questionId	Unique question ID	"What-is-machine-learning"
title	Question title	"What is machine learning?"
url	Full question URL	https://www.quora.com/...
topics	Associated topics	["Machine Learning", "AI"]
followerCount	People following the question	4281
answerCount	Total answers	387
viewCount	Total views	1200000
scrapedAt	Scraping timestamp (ISO 8601)	"2026-04-01T10:00:00Z"

💬 Answer data

Field	Description	Example
type	Record type	"answer"
answerId	Unique answer ID	"12345678"
questionTitle	Parent question title	"What is machine learning?"
questionUrl	Parent question URL	https://www.quora.com/...
text	Full answer text	"Machine learning is..."
authorName	Answer author name	"Andrew Ng"
authorUrl	Author profile URL	https://www.quora.com/profile/...
authorBio	Author bio/credentials	"AI researcher, Stanford"
upvotes	Number of upvotes	8423
numComments	Number of comments	42
isTopAnswer	Is this the top answer?	true
createdAt	Answer creation date	"2023-06-15T09:00:00Z"
scrapedAt	Scraping timestamp	"2026-04-01T10:00:00Z"

👤 Profile data

Field	Description	Example
type	Record type	"profile"
username	Quora username	"John-Smith-42"
name	Display name	"John Smith"
url	Profile URL	https://www.quora.com/profile/...
bio	Profile bio	"Software Engineer at Google"
credentials	Top credential	"PhD in Computer Science"
followerCount	Followers	12000
followingCount	Following	250
answerCount	Total answers written	387
questionCount	Total questions asked	45
scrapedAt	Scraping timestamp	"2026-04-01T10:00:00Z"

How much does it cost to scrape Quora?

This Actor uses pay-per-event pricing — you pay only for what you extract. No monthly subscription. All platform costs are included.

Quora uses Cloudflare protection, which requires a real browser with residential proxies. This makes each request more expensive than simpler scrapers, but the pricing reflects what you actually get: reliable extraction with automatic retry logic.

	Free ($5 credit)	Starter ($29/mo)	Scale ($199/mo)	Business ($999/mo)
Per question	$0.115	$0.10	$0.078	$0.060
Per answer	$0.0575	$0.05	$0.039	$0.030
10 questions + 30 answers (including $0.02 run start)	~$2.90	~$2.52	~$1.97	~$1.52

Real-world cost examples:

Run type	Questions	Answers	Duration	Cost (Free tier)
Quick research	5	15	~8 min	~$1.46
Topic analysis	10	30	~16 min	~$2.90
Full export	25	75	~40 min	~$7.21

All totals in the two tables above include the $0.02 run start charge.

Free plan note: New Apify accounts get $5 in free credits — enough for ~4 questions with answers, or ~40 questions without answers.

How to scrape Quora

1. Visit the Quora Scraper page on Apify Store
2. Click "Try for free" to open the actor console
3. Choose a mode — omit cookies for metadata from direct question URLs, or add current Quora session cookies for answers, search, topic, space, and profile workflows. Malformed or placeholder cookies fail before proxy/browser startup. See How to get Quora cookies for full extraction.
4. Enter one of the following:
   • Start URLs — paste Quora question, topic, or profile URLs
   • Search query — type a keyword to search for questions
5. Set output limits — adjust max questions and answers per question
6. Click "Start" — results will appear in the Dataset tab
7. Export in JSON, CSV, Excel, or connect to your app via API

Input examples:

Credential-free question metadata:

{
  "startUrls": [{ "url": "https://www.quora.com/What-is-machine-learning" }],
  "maxQuestions": 1,
  "scrapeAnswers": false
}

Full authenticated extraction:

{
  "startUrls": [
    { "url": "https://www.quora.com/What-is-machine-learning" },
    { "url": "https://www.quora.com/topic/Machine-Learning" }
  ],
  "maxQuestions": 50,
  "scrapeAnswers": true,
  "maxAnswersPerQuestion": 10,
  "cookies": "m-b=PASTE_YOUR_CURRENT_QUORA_COOKIE_HERE"
}

{
  "searchQuery": "artificial intelligence career",
  "maxQuestions": 30,
  "scrapeAnswers": true,
  "maxAnswersPerQuestion": 5,
  "cookies": "[{\"name\":\"m-b\",\"value\":\"PASTE_YOUR_CURRENT_QUORA_COOKIE_HERE\"}]"
}

Input parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
startUrls	Array	[]	Quora URLs to scrape (questions, topics, profiles)
searchQuery	String	""	Keyword to search for questions
maxQuestions	Integer	50	Maximum questions to scrape per run
scrapeAnswers	Boolean	true	Whether to extract answers for each question
maxAnswersPerQuestion	Integer	10	Max answers per question (1-50)
cookies	String or Array	(none)	Optional for direct question metadata; required for answers, search, topics, spaces, and profiles. JSON array or cookie string. See How to get Quora cookies.
proxyConfiguration	Object	Residential	Proxy settings used by authenticated browser extraction

Note: Either startUrls or searchQuery must be provided. Without cookies, only direct question URLs are accepted and the Actor returns metadata rather than answers. Supplied placeholders or malformed cookies intentionally fail validation rather than starting a paid crawl.

Output examples

Question item:

{
  "type": "question",
  "questionId": "What-is-machine-learning",
  "title": "What is machine learning?",
  "url": "https://www.quora.com/What-is-machine-learning",
  "topics": ["Machine Learning", "Artificial Intelligence"],
  "followerCount": 4281,
  "answerCount": 387,
  "viewCount": 1200000,
  "scrapedAt": "2026-04-01T10:00:00.000Z"
}

Answer item:

{
  "type": "answer",
  "questionId": "What-is-machine-learning",
  "questionTitle": "What is machine learning?",
  "questionUrl": "https://www.quora.com/What-is-machine-learning",
  "answerId": "98765432",
  "text": "Machine learning is a subset of artificial intelligence that enables computers to learn from data...",
  "authorName": "Richard Socher",
  "authorUrl": "https://www.quora.com/profile/Richard-Socher",
  "authorBio": "Chief Scientist at Salesforce",
  "upvotes": 3241,
  "numComments": 28,
  "isTopAnswer": true,
  "createdAt": "2018-03-12T14:22:00.000Z",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-04-01T10:00:00.000Z"
}

Tips for best results

• 🎯 Start small — test with 5-10 questions first to verify the output matches your needs
• 📂 Use topic URLs — scraping a topic page yields more focused question sets than search
• ⏱️ Set reasonable limits — maxAnswersPerQuestion: 5 is usually enough for research
• 🔄 Schedule runs — use Apify scheduling to monitor topic trends over time
• 💰 Minimize costs — disable scrapeAnswers if you only need question metadata
• 🌐 Residential proxies included — don't change proxy settings unless you know what you're doing

Data handling, dependencies, and limitations

• Credential-free metadata: direct question URLs are sent to Microlink's public metadata API with response caching disabled. Microlink fetches the public page and returns title/description metadata. Do not place secrets or private values in URLs.
• Authenticated extraction: cookie values are used only inside the run's browser context and are never written to logs or datasets. Quora and the selected proxy receive the normal browser request.
• Storage and deletion: the Actor creates no external database or persistent cookie cache. Inputs, datasets, and logs remain in the user's Apify storage under the user's retention settings and can be deleted there. Microlink may retain operational request records under its privacy policy without a fixed public duration; only public Quora URLs are sent.
• No AI processing: this Actor uses deterministic HTTP/browser extraction and does not send inputs or output to an AI model.
• Limitations: credential-free mode supports direct question metadata only. Full answers, search, topics, spaces, and profiles require valid Quora session cookies and can still be affected by upstream session expiry or anti-bot changes.
• Charges: start is charged once after input validation; question-scraped and answer-scraped are charged only when the corresponding dataset record is delivered.
• Non-affiliation: this independent Actor is not affiliated with or endorsed by Quora or Microlink. Product names identify the public sources/services used.
• Support: report reproducible issues through the Actor's Apify Store issue form without including cookie values.

Integrations

🗂️ Quora Scraper → Google Sheets Export your results directly to a Google Sheets spreadsheet using Apify's native Google Sheets integration. Ideal for building a shared research database your team can filter and annotate.

📬 Quora Scraper → Slack Set up a webhook to post new question/answer results to a Slack channel. Monitor industry discussions in real-time without manual checking.

🔄 Quora Scraper → Make / Zapier Trigger workflows when new data is collected — automatically forward questions matching keywords to a CRM, Notion, or Airtable database.

📅 Scheduled monitoring Schedule the actor to run daily or weekly on specific Quora topics. Build a time-series dataset to track how expert opinion on a topic evolves.

🤖 Quora Scraper → AI pipeline Feed extracted Q&A pairs directly into a vector database (Pinecone, Weaviate) via the Apify API for RAG-powered chatbots.

API usage

You can run Quora Scraper programmatically using the Apify API.

Node.js (apify-client):

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

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

const run = await client.actor('automation-lab/quora-scraper').call({
    searchQuery: 'machine learning career',
    maxQuestions: 50,
    scrapeAnswers: true,
    maxAnswersPerQuestion: 10,
    cookies: 'm-b=PASTE_YOUR_CURRENT_QUORA_COOKIE_HERE',
});

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/quora-scraper').call(run_input={
    'searchQuery': 'machine learning career',
    'maxQuestions': 50,
    'scrapeAnswers': True,
    'maxAnswersPerQuestion': 10,
    'cookies': 'm-b=PASTE_YOUR_CURRENT_QUORA_COOKIE_HERE',
})

for item in client.dataset(run['defaultDatasetId']).iterate_items():
    print(item)

cURL:

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/automation-lab~quora-scraper/runs?token=YOUR_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "searchQuery": "machine learning career",
    "maxQuestions": 50,
    "scrapeAnswers": true,
    "maxAnswersPerQuestion": 10,
    "cookies": "m-b=PASTE_YOUR_CURRENT_QUORA_COOKIE_HERE"
  }'

Use with AI agents via MCP

Quora 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/quora-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/quora-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:

• "Use automation-lab/quora-scraper to scrape the top 20 questions and answers about 'prompt engineering' from Quora"
• "Search Quora for questions about Python vs JavaScript and collect the top 5 answers for each question"
• "Extract all questions from this Quora topic page: https://www.quora.com/topic/Machine-Learning — give me question titles, answer counts, and follower counts"

Learn more in the Apify MCP documentation.

How to get Quora cookies

Quora uses Cloudflare protection that blocks all proxy IPs without an authenticated session. The cookies input field lets you pass your own Quora session cookies so the actor can scrape on your behalf.

Step-by-step (Chrome / Edge / Brave):

1. Log in to your Quora account at quora.com
2. Open DevTools — press F12 or right-click → Inspect
3. Go to the Application tab → Cookies → https://www.quora.com
4. Copy the values for the session-related cookies (look for m-b, m-b_lax, m-b_strict, or similar session tokens)
5. Paste them into the actor's "🍪 Quora session cookies" field as a JSON array:

[
  { "name": "m-b", "value": "your-cookie-value-here", "domain": ".quora.com", "path": "/" }
]

Or paste the raw cookie string from the browser's Network tab → any Quora request → Cookie header:

m-b=abc123; m-b_lax=def456; m-b_strict=ghi789

Tips:

• Use a regular Quora account (not a brand-new one) — aged accounts have higher Cloudflare trust scores
• Cookies expire — if you get 0 results, refresh your cookies
• The actor does not store your cookies anywhere except the run's input (which is private to your Apify account)

Is it legal to scrape Quora?

Quora Scraper only extracts publicly available data — questions, answers, and profiles that are visible to any logged-in user. It uses your session cookies to authenticate with Quora and bypass Cloudflare protection, but it only navigates to public pages and does not access private messages or account-restricted content.

Web scraping public data is generally considered legal in most jurisdictions. Key legal principles:

• ✅ HiQ Labs v. LinkedIn — US courts ruled scraping publicly accessible data does not violate the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act
• ✅ GDPR compliance — only public profile information is collected; no private messages or sensitive data
• ✅ Robots.txt — this actor respects rate limits and avoids server overload

Important: You are responsible for how you use the data. Always comply with Quora's Terms of Service, applicable data protection laws (GDPR, CCPA), and do not use the data for spam, harassment, or unauthorized commercial purposes.

We recommend reading Apify's web scraping legality guide for more context.

FAQ

How fast does Quora Scraper run?

Typical throughput is 3-5 questions per minute with answers enabled (Quora requires browser-based scraping). For questions-only mode, it's roughly 5-8 questions per minute. A run of 50 questions with 10 answers each takes approximately 15-20 minutes.

How much does it cost to scrape 1,000 Quora questions?

At the Free tier: 1,000 questions × $0.115 = $115 (plus answers at $0.0575 each). With the Starter plan ($29/mo), you get ~$0.10 per question. Quora's Cloudflare protection requires real-browser scraping with residential proxies, which is why costs are higher than simpler scrapers. New users get $5 in free credits — enough for ~40-50 questions without answers.

How is this different from Quora's official API?

Quora does not offer a public API. This actor is the only programmatic way to access Quora data at scale.

Why are some fields returning null?

Quora uses dynamic content loading — some fields like viewCount and answer timestamps may not be available on all questions. This is a Quora limitation, not a scraper bug. The actor will populate as many fields as Quora exposes on the page.

The actor is returning 0 results — what's wrong?

Most commonly: (1) Cookies missing or malformed — the Actor now fails fast with COOKIES_REQUIRED or COOKIES_INVALID before proxy/browser startup and before the run-start charge. See How to get Quora cookies. (2) Cookies expired — refresh your cookies by logging into Quora and copying them again. (3) The proxy configuration was changed from the default residential proxies — Quora blocks datacenter IPs. (4) The URL format is incorrect — make sure URLs start with https://www.quora.com/.

Can I scrape private or login-required content?

The actor uses your session cookies to bypass Cloudflare protection and access publicly visible Quora pages. It extracts the same content you would see when browsing Quora while logged in — public questions, answers, and profiles. It does not access private messages, account settings, or content that is explicitly restricted to specific users.

Related actors

Looking for more data extraction tools? Check these out:

• 🔴 Reddit Scraper — Posts, comments, and user data from Reddit
• 📸 Instagram Scraper — Posts, profiles, and hashtags from Instagram
• 🧵 Threads Scraper — Posts and profiles from Meta Threads
• 🎵 TikTok Scraper — Videos, profiles, and trends from TikTok
• 🎵 TikTok Comments Scraper — Comments from TikTok videos
• 🔍 Google Search Scraper — SERP results from Google