Hacker News Search Scraper (Algolia API)

Hacker News Search Scraper (Algolia API) — a fast, reliable hackernews scraper that needs no API key. You pay only for the results you get: failed or empty runs are always free.

This hackernews scraper runs on the Apify platform, so you can call it from the API, run it on a schedule, or export results to JSON, CSV, Excel, or Google Sheets.

What this scraper does

• Extracts structured hackernews data with no browser or API key required
• Returns clean JSON, one record per result — ready for sheets, databases, or apps
• Pay-per-result pricing: you are never charged for a run that returns nothing
• Runs on demand or on a schedule, and integrates with 5,000+ apps via the Apify API and webhooks

What data you get

Each result record includes fields such as:

• Object Id (objectId) — e.g. "45751400"
• Title (title) — e.g. "Uv is the best thing to happen to the Python ecosystem i...
• Url (url) — e.g. "https://emily.space/posts/251023-uv"
• Author (author) — e.g. "todsacerdoti"
• Points (points) — e.g. 2214
• Num Comments (numComments) — e.g. 1324
• Created At (createdAt) — e.g. "2025-10-29T18:57:29Z"
• Story Text (storyText) — e.g. null
• Hn Url (hnUrl) — e.g. "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45751400"

Input

Field	Type	Description
searchQueries	array	Keywords to search Hacker News for (e.g. "rust", "openai"). Each query runs as its own search. Leave empty ...
tags	string	Which HN item type to fetch: story, comment, poll, show_hn, ask_hn, or front_page.
sortByDate	boolean	If true, uses the search_by_date endpoint (newest first). If false, results are sorted by relevance/popular...
maxResults	integer	Maximum number of records to return per search query (1-5000). The API is paginated at 100 hits per page.
minPoints	integer	Only return stories/polls with at least this many points (applied server-side via numericFilters and re-che...

Example output

{
  "type": "story",
  "objectId": "45751400",
  "title": "Uv is the best thing to happen to the Python ecosystem in a decade",
  "url": "https://emily.space/posts/251023-uv",
  "author": "todsacerdoti",
  "points": 2214,
  "numComments": 1324,
  "createdAt": "2025-10-29T18:57:29Z",
  "storyText": null,
  "hnUrl": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45751400",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-07-10T00:00:00Z"
}

Use cases

• Monitor news and media coverage
• Track brands, topics, and competitors
• Feed research and trend-analysis pipelines
• Build alerting on breaking events

Run it as a monitor (alerts on new hackernews)

Schedule this hackernews scraper to run automatically — hourly, daily, or on any cron schedule — with the built-in Apify Scheduler, and have results pushed to you by webhook, email, Slack, or your own app the moment they're ready. It's the easiest way to monitor hackernews for changes over time and get alerted the instant something new appears — no manual runs. Because pricing is per result, a scheduled monitor only ever charges you for the data each run actually returns.

Pricing

This actor uses pay-per-result pricing at $0.0005 per record. There is no monthly fee and no start fee — and empty or failed runs cost $0, so you only ever pay for data you actually receive.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need an API key or account for the source? No. This hackernews scraper works out of the box with no API key required.

What happens if a run returns no results? You are not charged. Billing is per result, so empty or failed runs are free.

Can I run the hackernews scraper on a schedule? Yes. Use the Apify Scheduler to run it hourly, daily, or on any cron schedule, and get results by webhook or API.

What export formats are supported? Results can be exported as JSON, CSV, Excel, HTML, or pushed to Google Sheets, a database, or your own app via the Apify API.

Is the data structured? Yes. Every hackernews result is a clean, flat JSON record you can use immediately.