Pexels Scraper — Photos, Videos & Engagement Data

What does Pexels Scraper do?

Pexels Scraper extracts structured photo and video data from pexels.com — including views, downloads, likes, tags, colors, dimensions and camera EXIF, engagement signals the official Pexels API cannot return.

New to Apify? Sign up free and use the included $5 monthly platform credit to test this actor.

Key features

• 📊 Views, downloads and likes on your results — toggle includeStats to attach views, downloads, and likes to photos and videos — engagement signals the official Pexels API cannot return at all, so you can rank and filter by what people actually view and download.
• 📷 Camera EXIF, labeled honestly — the same toggle attaches camera, aperture, focalLength, and iso — present on ~57% of photos (whichever the photographer originally embedded) and never on video.
• 🎛️ Six ways to pull media, one actor — search, curated (homepage feed), a specific photo/video ID, a photographer's uploads, a collection, or "more like this" — covering both photos and videos in every mode.
• 🧰 Filters verified to actually work — orientation, minimum width/height, video duration, and people count/age are hard filters confirmed to narrow results. Colour biases results toward the hex hue you supply — it is not an exact-match filter.
• 🔗 Paste a search URL — paste a full pexels.com search URL straight from your browser instead of building Search Query + filters by hand — the actor parses it directly.

What data can you extract from pexels.com?

Each result includes Core media item fields (mediaType, id, slug, title, alt, width, height, and aspectRatio, and more) and detail fields when enrichment is enabled (description). In standard mode, all fields are always present — unavailable data points are returned as null, never omitted. In compact mode, only core fields are returned.

Enable detail enrichment in the input to get richer fields such as full descriptions where the source provides them.

Input

The main inputs are a search keyword and a result limit. Additional filters and options are available in the input schema.

Key parameters:

• mode — Which Pexels source to scrape. (default: "search")
• searchQuery — Keyword(s) to search for. Required in search mode unless Search URL is set.
• searchUrl — A full pexels.com search URL to scrape directly, instead of building one from Search Query + filters.
• mediaType — Search photos or videos. (default: "photos")
• orientation — Restrict results to this orientation.
• color — Hex colour, e.g. #ff0000. Biases results toward that hue (not an exact match). Named colours are not supported.
• peopleCount — Filter by the number of people shown in the media.
• peopleAge — Filter by the age group of people shown in the media.
• minWidth — Minimum width in pixels.
• minHeight — Minimum height in pixels.
• minDuration — Minimum video duration in seconds. Only applies when Media Type is videos.
• maxDuration — Maximum video duration in seconds. Only applies when Media Type is videos.
• ...and 28 more parameters

Input examples

Basic search — Keyword-driven search with a result cap.

→ Full payload per result — all standard fields populated where the source provides them.

{
  "mode": "search",
  "searchQuery": "mountains",
  "maxResults": 50
}

Filtered search — Narrow results with advanced filters — only matching media items are returned.

→ Same field set as basic search; fewer, more relevant rows.

{
  "searchQuery": "mountains",
  "orientation": "landscape",
  "mediaType": "photos",
  "maxResults": 100
}

Incremental tracking — Only emit media items that changed since the previous run with this stateKey.

→ First run builds the baseline state. Subsequent runs emit only records that are new or whose tracked content changed. Set emitUnchanged: true to include unchanged records as well.

{
  "searchQuery": "mountains",
  "maxResults": 200,
  "incrementalMode": true,
  "stateKey": "mountains-tracker"
}

Compact filtered output — Combine filters with compact mode for a lightweight AI-agent or MCP data source.

→ Core fields only — ideal for piping into LLMs or downstream tools without token overhead.

{
  "searchQuery": "mountains",
  "orientation": "landscape",
  "maxResults": 50,
  "compact": true
}

Output

Each run produces a dataset of structured media item records. Results can be downloaded as JSON, CSV, or Excel from the Dataset tab in Apify Console.

Example media item record

{
  "mediaType": "photo",
  "id": 144608,
  "slug": "white-medium-coat-medium-dog",
  "title": "White Medium Coat Medium Dog",
  "description": "Close-up black and white portrait of a playful furry dog showing its teeth, capturing emotion and texture.",
  "alt": "Close-up black and white portrait of a playful furry dog showing its teeth, capturing emotion and texture.",
  "width": 2048,
  "height": 1365,
  "aspectRatio": 1.5003663003663004,
  "orientation": "landscape",
  "license": "Pexels",
  "featured": true,
  "createdAt": "2016-08-23T18:44:45.000Z",
  "updatedAt": "2026-07-16T11:28:46.000Z",
  "publishedAt": "2016-08-24T07:45:03.144Z",
  "tags": [
    {
      "name": "Animal Pictures",
      "search_term": "animal"
    },
    {
      "name": "Animal Close Up",
      "search_term": "animal close-up"
    },
    {
      "name": "Animal Photography",
      "search_term": "animal photography"
    },
    {
      "name": "Black And White",
      "search_term": "black and white"
    },
    {
      "name": "Black And White Art",
      "search_term": "black and white art"
    },
    "... 26 more items"
  ],
  "colors": [
    "#232323",
    "#7a7a7a",
    "#bcbcbc"
  ],
  "mainColor": [
    88,
    88,
    88
  ],
  "reactions": {
    "emotional": {
      "reacted": false,
      "count": 0
    },
    "technical": {
      "reacted": false,
      "count": 0
    },
    "stylistic": {
      "reacted": false,
      "count": 0
    }
  },
  "photographerName": "Suvan Chowdhury",
  "photographerUrl": "https://www.pexels.com/@suvan-chowdhury-37305/",
  "photographerLocation": "India",
  "imageUrls": {
    "small": "https://images.pexels.com/photos/144608/pexels-photo-144608.jpeg?auto=compress&cs=tinysrgb&h=130",
    "medium": "https://images.pexels.com/photos/144608/pexels-photo-144608.jpeg?auto=compress&cs=tinysrgb&w=750",
    "large": "https://images.pexels.com/photos/144608/pexels-photo-144608.jpeg?auto=compress&cs=tinysrgb&w=1440",
    "download": "https://www.pexels.com/photo/144608/download/",
    "download_link": "https://images.pexels.com/photos/144608/pexels-photo-144608.jpeg?cs=srgb&dl=pexels-suvan-chowdhury-37305-144608.jpg&fm=jpg"
  },
  "portalUrl": "https://www.pexels.com/photo/white-medium-coat-medium-dog-144608/",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-07-17T18:25:19.146Z"
}

Incremental fields

When incremental mode is on, each record also carries:

• changeType — one of NEW, UPDATED, UNCHANGED, REAPPEARED, EXPIRED. Default output covers NEW / UPDATED / REAPPEARED; set emitUnchanged: true to opt into the others.

How to scrape pexels.com

1. Go to Pexels Scraper in Apify Console.
2. Enter a search keyword.
3. Set maxItems to control how many results you need.
4. Enable includeDetails if you need full descriptions.
5. Click Start and wait for the run to finish.
6. Export the dataset as JSON, CSV, or Excel.

Use cases

• Extract media item data from pexels.com for market research and competitive analysis.
• Monitor new and changed media items on scheduled runs without processing the full dataset every time.
• Feed structured data into AI agents, MCP tools, and automated pipelines using compact mode.
• Export clean, structured data to dashboards, spreadsheets, or data warehouses.

How much does it cost to scrape pexels.com?

Pexels Scraper uses pay-per-event pricing. You pay a small fee when the run starts and then for each result that is actually produced.

• Run start: $0.0005 per run
• Per result: $0.001 per media item record

Example costs:

• 10 results: $0.011
• 25 results: $0.026
• 100 results: $0.1
• 200 results: $0.2
• 500 results: $0.5

Platform usage is billed on top of these prices. The figures above are Apify event fees only. Compute units and proxy traffic are billed separately by Apify at your actual consumption, and for proxy- or browser-heavy workloads they can exceed the event fees. What you actually pay depends on your own input — how many results you request, whether detail enrichment is on, the run memory you choose, and your proxy settings — so it cannot be stated as a fixed figure here. Every run reports its exact platform usage on the run detail page.

The Actor Start event is charged once per GB of run memory (minimum one), so a run configured with 2 GB is charged two start events rather than one.

Example: recurring monitoring savings

These examples compare full re-scrapes with incremental runs at different churn rates. Churn is the share of media items that are new or whose tracked content changed since the previous run. Actual churn depends on your query breadth, source activity, and polling frequency — the scenarios below are examples, not predictions.

Example setup: 250 media items per run, daily polling (30 runs/month). Costs scale linearly with the number of media items.

Churn rate	Full re-scrape run cost	Incremental run cost	Savings vs full re-scrape	Monthly cost after baseline
5% — stable niche query	$0.25	$0.01	$0.24 (95%)	$0.39
15% — moderate broad query	$0.25	$0.04	$0.21 (85%)	$1.14
30% — high-volume aggregator	$0.25	$0.08	$0.17 (70%)	$2.27

Full re-scrape monthly cost at the same cadence: $7.51. First month with incremental costs $0.63 / $1.35 / $2.44 for the 5% / 15% / 30% scenarios because the first run builds baseline state at full cost before incremental savings apply.

Platform usage (see the note above) also applies to these figures. Incremental runs consume less of it on result processing, though the fixed per-run overhead stays the same.

FAQ

How many results can I get from pexels.com?

The number of results depends on the search query and available media items on pexels.com. Use the maxItems parameter to control how many results are returned per run.

Does Pexels Scraper support recurring monitoring?

Yes. Enable incremental mode to only receive new or changed media items on subsequent runs. This is ideal for scheduled monitoring where you want to track changes over time without re-processing the full dataset.

Can I integrate Pexels Scraper with other apps?

Yes. Pexels Scraper works with Apify's integrations to connect with tools like Zapier, Make, Google Sheets, Slack, and more. You can also use webhooks to trigger actions when a run completes.

Can I use Pexels Scraper with the Apify API?

Yes. You can start runs, manage inputs, and retrieve results programmatically through the Apify API. Client libraries are available for JavaScript, Python, and other languages.

Can I use Pexels Scraper through an MCP Server?

Yes. Apify provides an MCP Server that lets AI assistants and agents call this actor directly. Use compact mode, a single descriptionFormat, and excludeEmptyFields to keep payloads manageable for LLM context windows.

Is it legal to scrape pexels.com?

This actor extracts publicly available data from pexels.com. Web scraping of public information is generally considered legal, but you should always review the target site's terms of service and ensure your use case complies with applicable laws and regulations, including GDPR where relevant.

Your feedback

If you have questions, need a feature, or found a bug, please open an issue on the actor's page in Apify Console. Your feedback helps us improve.

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Getting started with Apify

New to Apify? Create a free account with $5 credit — no credit card required.

1. Sign up — $5 platform credit included
2. Open this actor and configure your input
3. Click Start — export results as JSON, CSV, or Excel

Need more later? See Apify pricing.

Disclaimer

This actor accesses only publicly available data on pexels.com. You are responsible for how you use the extracted data — in particular any personal information such as names, phone numbers, or email addresses — and for complying with Pexels's terms of use, applicable data-protection law (including the GDPR where it applies), and the anti-spam rules of your jurisdiction.

This actor is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Pexels.

Search keywords

pexels scraper, pexels api, apify pexels, pexels data extraction, pexels.com scraper, pexels.com data, pexels.com api, social media scraper, video data, creator data.