# Pixelfed Scraper — Any Instance, No Login (`brick_joey_yto/pixelfed-scraper`) Actor

Scrape Pixelfed profiles, posts and photos from ANY instance — pixelfed.social, pixelfed.de, and 200+ federated servers. No login required for profiles and recent posts. Optional token unlocks full timelines, search, hashtags and comments. From $1/1,000 results.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/brick\_joey\_yto/pixelfed-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [William Billings](https://apify.com/brick_joey_yto) (community)
- **Categories:** Social media, News, Automation
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$1.00 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## Pixelfed Scraper — Posts & Profiles from Any Instance

Scrape **Pixelfed** — the fast-growing federated Instagram alternative — across **any instance**: pixelfed.social, pixelfed.de, metapixl.com and 200+ federated servers. Accepts `user@instance` handles or plain profile/post URLs.

### Modes

| Mode       | Auth needed | What you get                                                                      |
| ---------- | ----------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `author`   | ❌ none     | Latest ~10 posts per account — caption, media URLs, date (platform Atom feed cap) |
| `profile`  | ❌ none     | Bio, follower/following/post counts, avatar, join date — any instance             |
| `post`     | ❌ none     | Full post detail: caption, all media + alt text, hashtags, timestamps             |
| `timeline` | ✅ token    | Full post history with pagination + `minPostDate`                                 |
| `hashtag`  | ✅ token    | Posts under a hashtag, paginated — includes federated content                     |
| `search`   | ✅ token    | Account & hashtag discovery (Pixelfed does not index post text)                   |
| `comments` | ✅ token    | Reply threads on any post                                                         |
| `explore`  | ✅ token    | The instance's live local feed — every new public post                            |

### Why this scraper

- **Cross-instance** — the only Pixelfed actor that works on the whole federation, not just one server
- **No login for public data** — profiles, recent posts and post details work fully anonymously
- **Optional deep mode** — add an `accessToken` to unlock full timelines, search, hashtags & comments
- **Structured output** — normalized records ready for JSON/CSV/Excel export and API integration

### Input

- **handle** — `dansup`, `user@pixelfed.de`, or `https://pixelfed.social/dansup` (author / profile / timeline)
- **url** — post URL like `https://pixelfed.social/p/dansup/1234` (post / comments)
- **query** — keyword (search) · **hashtag** — without `#`
- **instance** — default instance for bare handles & authed modes (default `pixelfed.social`)
- **maxResults** — item cap (anonymous author mode is limited to ~10 posts by Pixelfed's feed)
- **accessToken** — optional; unlocks authed modes

### Getting an access token (for deep modes)

Pixelfed uses standard OAuth. Create an app via `POST https://{instance}/api/v1/apps`, complete the authorization-code flow for your account, and paste the resulting `access_token` here. Tokens are long-lived (~1 year).

### Pricing

Pay-per-event: **$1.00 per 1,000 results**, discounted to **$0.40/1,000** on Gold plans and above. No per-run fee.

### Related actors

- **Truth Social Scraper** — posts, comments, hashtags, search
- **BitChute Scraper** — alt-video search, channels & video details
- **Rumble Scraper** — Rumble search, channels & video analytics
- **Substack Notes Scraper** — notes & profiles

# Actor input Schema

## `mode` (type: `string`):

What to extract. Modes marked 'no login' work anonymously on any Pixelfed instance.

## `handle` (type: `string`):

'dansup', 'user@pixelfed.de', or a full profile/post URL. Used by author, profile and timeline modes.

## `url` (type: `string`):

e.g. https://pixelfed.social/p/dansup/1234567890 — used by post and comments modes

## `query` (type: `string`):

Keyword to search posts for (search mode, needs token)

## `hashtag` (type: `string`):

Hashtag without the # symbol (hashtag mode, needs token)

## `instance` (type: `string`):

Default Pixelfed instance (used when the handle has no @instance and for authed modes)

## `maxResults` (type: `integer`):

Maximum items to return. Note: anonymous author mode is capped at ~10 posts by Pixelfed's Atom feed.

## `minPostDate` (type: `string`):

ISO date (e.g. 2026-01-01) — timeline mode stops at posts older than this

## `accessToken` (type: `string`):

OAuth access token for your Pixelfed account — unlocks timeline/search/hashtag/comments modes. See README for how to obtain one.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "mode": "author",
  "handle": "dansup",
  "instance": "pixelfed.social",
  "maxResults": 20
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

Dataset containing the scraped data items

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "handle": "dansup"
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("brick_joey_yto/pixelfed-scraper").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "handle": "dansup" }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("brick_joey_yto/pixelfed-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "handle": "dansup"
}' |
apify call brick_joey_yto/pixelfed-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,brick_joey_yto/pixelfed-scraper"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/dHhRdue2j3q2wYoUB/builds/k3q5abDDtqgOsUgGd/openapi.json