X Profile Metadata Scraper

Refresh X profile metadata for public accounts you already know. Supply X usernames or profile URLs and receive one structured snapshot per account: stable identity, bio, website, join date, audience and activity counts, verification context, profile media, and optional timestamped recent post samples.

Use the records for creator research, account monitoring, audience qualification, and CRM enrichment. No X login, cookies, or API key are requested.

What does X Profile Metadata Scraper do?

The Actor resolves each supplied public handle through X's anonymous public data surfaces and saves one normalized dataset row per profile found.

It can:

• mix handles such as NASA and @NatGeo with x.com profile URLs;
• deduplicate the same handle case-insensitively;
• capture stable account IDs and current display identity;
• export bio, website, location, join date, and profile media;
• capture follower, following, post, like, media, and list counts;
• expose available verification and protected-account context;
• embed up to 20 recent public post samples in each profile record;
• exclude replies and reposts from samples by default;
• create fresh snapshots suitable for scheduled downstream comparison.

The Actor does not search for unknown accounts, download followers, authenticate to X, maintain history, or calculate changes between runs.

Who is this X profile metadata scraper for?

Creator and influencer researchers

Enrich an existing creator list with current bios, websites, audience size, verification context, and examples of recent public content.

Sales and RevOps teams

Resolve profile URLs to stable account IDs before adding public account context to CRM records. Treat self-declared fields as research signals, not verified contact data.

Brand and competitive intelligence teams

Schedule repeated snapshots of known brand accounts. Compare exports downstream to detect count, bio, website, or verification changes.

Developers and data teams

Call one Actor endpoint instead of maintaining X guest-session requests, response parsing, retries, and output normalization.

Why use this Actor?

• Profile plus context: each row combines account metadata and bounded recent post samples.
• No credentials: it does not request an X account, cookie, or private API token.
• Two input routes: use usernames, profile URLs, or both in one run.
• Stable output: counts are numbers, flags are booleans, nullable context is explicit, and samples are nested typed objects.
• Cost-aware route: direct HTTP/API requests with no automatic residential proxy or browser fallback.
• Honest limits: invalid inputs fail closed; missing profiles are logged and never emitted as fabricated empty records.

What X profile data can you extract?

Field	Meaning
accountId	Stable X account identifier
username, url	Current handle and canonical profile URL
name, bio, location	Public display identity and self-declared profile text
website	Expanded public profile website, or null
joinedAt	Account creation date returned by X
followersCount, followingCount	Current public audience counts
postsCount, likesCount, mediaCount	Current activity counters reported by X
listedCount	Number of public lists containing the account
isVerified, isBlueVerified	Verification flags currently exposed by X
isIdentityVerified	Identity-verification context when exposed
verifiedSince	Verification date when exposed, otherwise null
verificationType, verificationReason	Additional verification context when exposed
isProtected	Whether the account's posts are protected
profileImageUrl, coverImageUrl	Public profile media URLs
pinnedPostId	Pinned post ID when exposed
postSamples	Bounded array of recent public post samples
postSamplesCount	Number of samples included in this snapshot
scrapedAt	ISO 8601 collection timestamp

Each post sample includes its ID, URL, text, source timestamp, language, engagement counts, reply/repost flags, view count when exposed, and public media URLs.

How to extract public X profile metadata

1. Open the Actor input page.
2. Add handles under X usernames, with or without @.
3. Optionally add public x.com or twitter.com URLs under X profile URLs.
4. Set Recent post samples per profile from 0 to 20.
5. Decide whether replies or reposts belong in those samples.
6. Set Maximum profiles to cap the deduplicated input.
7. Click Start.
8. Open the default dataset and export JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, or RSS.

Start with two or three known public accounts. Increase the batch after confirming that the record shape fits your workflow.

Input parameters

usernames

Array of public X handles. Accepted values include:

["NASA", "@NatGeo", "esa"]

Handles follow X's 1–15 character letter, number, and underscore format.

startUrls

Array of public x.com or twitter.com profile URLs:

[
  { "url": "https://x.com/SpaceX" },
  { "url": "https://twitter.com/NOAA" }
]

Post URLs, search URLs, foreign hosts, and reserved X routes fail validation.

maxProfiles

Maximum unique profiles processed after handles and URLs are combined and deduplicated. Default: 100. Range: 1–500.

maxPostSamples

Maximum recent posts embedded per profile. Default: 5. Range: 0–20. Set 0 for a metadata-only run.

includeReplies and includeReposts

Both default to false. Enable them only when replies or reposted content are useful for the research job.

Example input

{
  "usernames": ["NASA", "NatGeo"],
  "startUrls": [{ "url": "https://x.com/esa" }],
  "maxProfiles": 3,
  "maxPostSamples": 3,
  "includeReplies": false,
  "includeReposts": false
}

Example output

Counts and post data change over time. A real public-account run produces this shape:

{
  "accountId": "11348282",
  "username": "NASA",
  "url": "https://x.com/NASA",
  "name": "NASA",
  "bio": "Making the seemingly impossible, possible. ✨",
  "location": "Pale Blue Dot",
  "website": "http://www.nasa.gov/",
  "joinedAt": "Wed Dec 19 20:20:32 +0000 2007",
  "followersCount": 92362533,
  "followingCount": 118,
  "postsCount": 74189,
  "isVerified": false,
  "isBlueVerified": true,
  "isIdentityVerified": false,
  "isProtected": false,
  "postSamples": [
    {
      "id": "2092205524481667467",
      "url": "https://x.com/NASA/status/2092205524481667467",
      "text": "LIVE: We're back with another spacewalk!",
      "createdAt": "Tue Aug 25 11:00:42 +0000 2026",
      "language": "en",
      "replyCount": 662,
      "repostCount": 1706,
      "likeCount": 11388,
      "quoteCount": 184,
      "viewCount": 1407119,
      "isReply": false,
      "isRepost": false,
      "mediaUrls": []
    }
  ],
  "postSamplesCount": 3,
  "scrapedAt": "2026-08-26T06:40:00.000Z"
}

How much does it cost to extract X profile metadata?

The Actor uses pay-per-event pricing:

• a $0.005 one-time start event per run;
• one X profile event for each complete profile record saved;
• BRONZE price: $0.002588 per saved profile;
• post samples are included in the profile event and are not charged separately.

At the BRONZE tier, 10 saved profiles cost $0.03088 including the start event; 100 saved profiles cost $0.26380. Lower per-profile tiers apply at higher Apify usage tiers. The Console estimate and active run pricing are the final authority.

Unavailable, malformed, and duplicate profiles do not produce an item event. Apify platform usage may still apply according to your plan.

Recurring account monitoring workflow

1. Save a Task with a stable list of public handles.
2. Add a daily or weekly Apify schedule.
3. Export every run's default dataset to your warehouse or automation.
4. Match snapshots by accountId, not mutable display name.
5. Compare counts, bio, website, verification fields, and recent post IDs downstream.
6. Apply your own material-change rules before alerting a user.

The Actor emits fresh snapshots. It does not persist history, calculate deltas, or send alerts by itself.

CRM enrichment workflow

• Start from public X URLs already associated with CRM contacts or organizations.
• Set maxPostSamples to 0 when only identity and audience context are needed.
• Preserve accountId as the stable external key.
• Store scrapedAt so users know when the snapshot was collected.
• Keep self-declared bios, websites, and locations labeled as source-provided data.

Do not infer identity, eligibility, influence, or contact consent from a follower count or verification badge alone.

Limits and failure behavior

• Only supplied public accounts are supported; there is no keyword or user search.
• A run accepts at most 500 unique profiles.
• Each profile embeds at most 20 recent samples from one current timeline response.
• Protected profiles return metadata with an empty sample array.
• Deleted, suspended, unavailable, or nonexistent profiles are logged and omitted.
• If no supplied profile can be resolved, the run fails instead of returning a misleading successful empty dataset.
• X may omit verification details, websites, banners, view counts, or pinned-post IDs; nullable fields remain null.
• The direct public route may be rate-limited or changed by X. Retries are bounded; the Actor does not silently switch to paid proxies or user credentials.

Export and integrations

The default dataset works with Apify integrations and exports:

• CSV or Excel for analyst review;
• JSON for APIs and data pipelines;
• Google Sheets through Make or Zapier;
• webhooks for post-run ingestion;
• SQL warehouses keyed by accountId;
• scheduled Task snapshots for downstream monitoring.

Nested postSamples are most convenient in JSON. For flat CSV workflows, transform or unnest the array downstream.

Run with the Apify API

Set APIFY_TOKEN in your environment. Never embed a real token in source code.

cURL

curl -X POST \
  "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/automation-lab~x-public-profile-metadata/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=$APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"usernames":["NASA"],"maxProfiles":1,"maxPostSamples":3}'

JavaScript

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN });
const run = await client.actor('automation-lab/x-public-profile-metadata').call({
  usernames: ['NASA', 'NatGeo'],
  maxProfiles: 2,
  maxPostSamples: 3,
});
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

Python

import os
from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient(os.environ['APIFY_TOKEN'])
run = client.actor('automation-lab/x-public-profile-metadata').call(run_input={
    'usernames': ['NASA', 'NatGeo'],
    'maxProfiles': 2,
    'maxPostSamples': 3,
})
items = client.dataset(run['defaultDatasetId']).list_items().items
print(items)

Use with Apify MCP

Claude Code

claude mcp add --transport http apify \
  "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=automation-lab/x-public-profile-metadata"

Claude Desktop, Cursor, and VS Code

Add this MCP JSON configuration in the client's MCP settings:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apify": {
      "url": "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=automation-lab/x-public-profile-metadata"
    }
  }
}

Example prompts using MCP:

• “Run X Profile Metadata Scraper for NASA and esa with three recent original post samples each.”
• “Resolve these x.com profile URLs and return account IDs, websites, follower counts, and verification context.”
• “Create a current metadata-only snapshot for these handles with zero post samples.”

Responsible use and legality

Use only public data and follow X's terms, applicable law, and Apify's policies. Respect privacy, intellectual property, database rights, and purpose limitations. Do not use the Actor for harassment, unlawful surveillance, discrimination, identity claims, spam, or decisions that require verified private information.

You are responsible for establishing a lawful basis, honoring deletion and retention duties, and securing exported data. Public availability does not remove every legal or ethical obligation.

Troubleshooting

Why was a profile omitted?

Check that the handle exists, is not a post URL or reserved X route, and is publicly resolvable. Deleted, suspended, and unavailable profiles are omitted. The run log names each unresolved handle.

Why is postSamples empty?

The account may be protected, have no currently exposed matching original posts, or the input may set maxPostSamples to 0. Enable replies or reposts only if those record types fit the workflow.

Why are some verification fields null?

X does not expose the same verification context for every account. Null means the source did not return that optional value; it is not a negative identity determination.

What happens during rate limiting?

The Actor retries transient network, 429, and server errors with bounded backoff. Persistent upstream errors fail visibly rather than triggering an unpriced residential or browser fallback.

FAQ

Does this Actor require an X login or API key?

No. It uses anonymous public source data and does not accept X credentials.

Can it discover creators by keyword?

No. Supply known usernames or profile URLs. Discovery and search are outside this Actor's scope.

Does it scrape complete post history?

No. It embeds a bounded sample of recent public posts for profile context. It is not a historical tweet scraper.

Does it track changes automatically?

No. Schedule repeated snapshots and compare them in your own database, spreadsheet, or automation.

Are replies and reposts included?

They are excluded by default. Enable includeReplies or includeReposts when needed.

Can I export the results to CSV?

Yes. The default dataset supports Apify's standard exports. JSON preserves nested post samples most naturally.

Related automation-lab Actors

• X Profiles Scraper for profile-only bulk metadata without embedded post samples.
• X Profile Emails Scraper for email addresses explicitly displayed in public profile bios.
• X User Timeline Scraper when individual timeline posts, rather than one profile snapshot, are the primary output.