Craigslist Scraper - Listings, Prices & Photos, No Login

Craigslist Scraper searches Craigslist by city, category and keyword and returns one clean row per listing: title, price, location, posting time and photo links. Turn on Include full listing details to also get the description, attributes and ZIP code.

Use it to collect or monitor Craigslist listings without a login, cookies, an API key or a proxy. The smallest run is one city and one keyword, and it finishes in a few seconds.

Table of contents

• What it does
• Quick start
• Use cases
• Input
• Output
• Pricing and limits
• API, export and integrations
• Troubleshooting
• FAQ
• Support

What it does

The Actor runs the same search you would run on a Craigslist site, for example sfbay.craigslist.org, and saves the results newest first. Each row is one listing. With details on, the Actor also opens each listing page.

Good fit

• Price research: collect asking prices for bikes, cars, furniture or rentals in one or more cities.
• Monitoring: run on a schedule with Only new listings since last run and get only listings posted after the previous run.
• Housing and car data: bedrooms, square feet and odometer from search, plus attributes like housing_type, laundry, make_manufacturer or odometer with details.

Not a fit / limits

• No seller contacts. The Actor does not collect phone numbers or e-mails, and masks the ones it recognises in titles and descriptions (best effort, not a guarantee).
• Craigslist shows at most 10,000 listings per search. To get more, split the search by city, category or price.
• Up to 50 cities per run. Listings that Craigslist adds from nearby sites are left out; add those sites as their own cities.
• query is a full-text search, like the Craigslist search box: bike also finds listings that only mention a bike in the text.

Quick start

1. Open the Input tab.
2. Keep the prefilled example: Cities sfbay, Category For sale — all, Search keywords bike, Max listings per city 10.
3. Click Start.
4. Open the Output tab. The Listings view shows title, price, location and posting time.

Expected result: 10 listings matching "bike" from the SF bay area, newest first, in a few seconds.

Use cases

Buyer job	Input	Output	Key fields	Next step
Compare used prices	cities, category, query	listing row	price, currency, title, location	Export CSV or Excel
Watch new listings	onlyNew on a schedule	only new rows	postId, postedAt, url	Webhook or integration on run finish
Rental research	category: "apa", includeDetails	detailed row	price, bedrooms, sqft, attributes, postalCode	Spreadsheet or BI tool
Car listings	category: "cta", sellerType	listing row	price, mileage, attributes.odometer	Dataset API

Input

Input fields

Field	Plain name	Type	Required	Default / prefill	Allowed values	Effect
cities	Cities	array of strings	yes	prefill ["sfbay"]	1–50 Craigslist sites, e.g. sfbay, newyork, london, toronto; full addresses work too	Which sites to search
category	Category	string	no	default and prefill sss	61 Craigslist sections, e.g. sss (for sale — all), apa (apartments), cta (cars & trucks), bik	Which section to search
query	Search keywords	string	no	prefill bike	up to 200 characters	Full-text search; empty lists the whole category
maxItems	Max listings per city	integer	no	default 100, prefill 10	1–10,000	Limit for each city, newest first
includeDetails	Include full listing details	boolean	no	false		Opens each listing page: description, attributes, all photos, ZIP code. Slower and charged as a detailed listing
onlyNew	Only new listings since last run	boolean	no	false		Saves only listings posted or renewed after the previous run of the same search
minPrice, maxPrice	Min / max price	integer	no	none	0 and up, local currency	Price range
sellerType	Seller type	string	no	all	all, owner, dealer	For-sale categories only
hasImages	Only listings with photos	boolean	no	false		Skips listings without photos
postedToday	Only posted today	boolean	no	false		Only listings posted today

The same city entered twice (for example sfbay and SFBay) is searched once. An unknown city or category stops the run before any request with a clear INVALID_INPUT message.

Interacting settings

When	Settings	Behavior
Several cities	cities + maxItems	maxItems applies to each city: 3 cities × 100 = up to 300 rows
Monitoring	onlyNew + any filters	Each city, category, keyword and filter set is remembered on its own. The first run saves the newest listings up to maxItems and sets the starting point
More new listings than the limit	onlyNew + maxItems	The newest maxItems are saved; older new ones are skipped. Use a limit above what you expect between runs
Stopped run	onlyNew + charge or time limit	The starting point stays, so the next run returns the new listings this run did not reach

Input examples

Bikes in the SF bay area (prefill)

{
  "cities": ["sfbay"],
  "category": "sss",
  "query": "bike",
  "maxItems": 10
}

Expected behavior: one search, 10 newest listings that match bike. Expected output: rows with title, price, location, postedAt, images.

New apartments with details, for a schedule

{
  "cities": ["sfbay", "losangeles"],
  "category": "apa",
  "maxItems": 200,
  "includeDetails": true,
  "onlyNew": true
}

Expected behavior: the first run saves up to 200 newest rentals per city. Later runs save only rentals posted after the previous run. Limit note: details take about 0.5 s per listing.

Output

Output fields

Field	Meaning	Type	Can be empty?	Example
postId	Craigslist post id	string	no	7954661391
url	Listing page	string	rarely	https://www.craigslist.org/view/d/...
title	Listing title, contacts masked	string	rarely	B-TWIN, 6 SPEED CRUISER BIKE
price, priceText, currency	Asking price, as shown, ISO currency	number, string, string	yes, when there is no price (never 0 for a missing price)	20, $20, USD
city, cityName, subarea	Craigslist site and sub-area	string	subarea yes	sfbay, SF bay area, pen
location, neighborhood	Place the poster typed, neighborhood	string	yes	millbrae
latitude, longitude	Approximate position	number	yes	37.6004, -122.402
category, categoryName	Listing category	string	rarely	bik, bicycles - by owner
sellerType	owner or dealer	string	yes	owner
postedAt	Posted or last renewed, UTC	string	rarely	2026-10-15T05:43:10.000Z
images, imageCount	Photo links (600×450 JPEG) and their count	array, integer	empty array when no photos
bedrooms, sqft, mileage	Housing and vehicle numbers from search	integer	yes; bedrooms: 0 is a studio	1, null, null
description	Full text, contacts masked	string	details only
attributes	Listing attributes, e.g. condition, odometer, housing_type, laundry	object	details only	{"laundry": "w/d in unit"}
postalCode	ZIP / postal code	string	details only	94978
firstPostedAt, updatedAt	First posting time and last edit, UTC	string	details only; updatedAt is null when never edited
detailsStatus	ok, gone (removed before it was read), failed (page unreadable, search fields only), not_requested	string	no	not_requested
searchCity, searchCategory, searchQuery	Your input that found the row	string	searchQuery yes	sfbay, sss, bike
source	Always craigslist.org	string	no
fetchedAt	When the Actor read the listing, UTC	string	no

postedAt changes when a poster renews a listing. firstPostedAt (details only) keeps the first posting time.

Output example

Trimmed row from the prefill run:

{
  "postId": "7954661391",
  "url": "https://www.craigslist.org/view/d/millbrae-twin-speed-cruiser-bike-too/2WS4Z9LeXGU7iV32nC6RR5",
  "title": "B-TWIN ,  6 SPEED  CRUISER BIKE ,  TOO CHEAP !!!  .",
  "price": 20,
  "priceText": "$20",
  "currency": "USD",
  "city": "sfbay",
  "location": "millbrae",
  "latitude": 37.6004,
  "longitude": -122.402,
  "category": "bik",
  "categoryName": "bicycles - by owner",
  "sellerType": "owner",
  "postedAt": "2026-10-15T05:43:10.000Z",
  "images": ["https://images.craigslist.org/01616_c3M0s56xj4e_0CI0t2_600x450.jpg"],
  "imageCount": 4,
  "description": null,
  "attributes": null,
  "detailsStatus": "not_requested",
  "searchQuery": "bike",
  "fetchedAt": "2026-10-15T05:50:11.109Z"
}

null means Craigslist does not give that value for this listing, or details were off.

Output views and run summary

Situation	Where to look	What you see
Normal run	Dataset, views Listings and With details	One row per listing
No listings found	Dataset is empty; RUN_SUMMARY status NO_RESULTS	The run succeeds; check city, category and filters
Charge or time limit reached	RUN_SUMMARY status PARTIAL, reason CHARGE_LIMIT or TIME_LIMIT	Rows saved before the stop are kept
Craigslist error	RUN_SUMMARY status PARTIAL or ERROR, reason SOURCE_ERROR	The run fails only when nothing was saved

RUN_SUMMARY in the run's key-value store also has per-city counts: listings available, saved, already seen, details read.

Pricing and limits

Pricing unit

You pay per run start and per saved listing:

Event	Price (free plan)
Actor start	$0.004 per run
Listing (search fields)	$0.0006 ($0.60 per 1,000)
Listing with details	$0.0011 ($1.10 per 1,000)

Higher Apify plans get lower per-listing prices. Platform usage (compute, storage, proxy) is included; you do not pay it separately.

• A run with no matching listings, or an Only new run with nothing new, costs only the start.
• Listings that were already delivered (Only new) or left out as nearby sites are not charged.
• A listing removed before its page could be read is charged as a plain listing, not as a detailed one.
• Set Max total charge in run options to cap a run. The Actor stops before the cap and keeps what it saved.

Cost examples

Scenario	Input	Rows	Cost on the free plan
Quick test (prefill)	1 city, bike, 10 listings	10	$0.010
Small batch	1 city, 100 listings	100	$0.064
Market snapshot	1 city, 1,000 listings	1,000	$0.604
With details	1 city, 100 listings, details on	100	$0.114
Monitor, nothing new	50 cities, Only new	0	$0.004

Limits

Limit	Value
Cities per run	50
Listings per city	10,000 (the Craigslist cap for one search)
Speed, search only	about 50,000 listings in 4 minutes (5 cities × 10,000, measured)
Speed, with details	about 2 listings per second; 1,163 detailed listings in 10 minutes (measured)
Memory	256 MB (fixed; enough for 50 cities and for details)

For a big run with details, set a run timeout of at least 1 second per listing.

API, export and integrations

• Export: download the dataset as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML or HTML from the Output tab, or with the dataset items API.
• API: start the Actor with the Apify API or the Apify client for JavaScript or Python; send the same JSON as in the Input examples.
• Scheduling: create a schedule for the Actor or for a saved task with onlyNew: true. Each run then returns only new listings.
• Webhooks and no-code: start a webhook, Zapier, Make or n8n flow when the run finishes, and read new rows from the dataset.

Use with AI agents (MCP)

• MCP server with only this Actor: https://mcp.apify.com?tools=cliqtomedia/craigslist-scraper
• Smallest useful input: {"cities": ["sfbay"], "category": "sss", "query": "bike", "maxItems": 10}
• Key output fields: title (what is offered), price + currency (asking price), location (place), postedAt (posted or renewed), url (listing page).
• Typical run: a few seconds for 10 listings, about $0.01 on the free plan. maxItems is per city; details are about 2 listings per second.

Troubleshooting

The run finished with 0 rows

Symptom: the dataset is empty and RUN_SUMMARY status is NO_RESULTS. Likely reason: no listing matches the keywords and filters on that site, or, with Only new, nothing new was posted since the last run. Check: open the same search on the Craigslist site. Action: remove a filter, try a broader category such as sss, or check the city code.

The run stopped with INVALID_INPUT

Symptom: the run fails at once with a message about a city or category. Likely reason: the city is not a Craigslist site (for example a typo), or the category code is unknown. Action: use the subdomain from the city address, for example sfbay from sfbay.craigslist.org.

Fewer rows than Max listings per city

Symptom: RUN_SUMMARY reason is CHARGE_LIMIT or TIME_LIMIT, or the city had fewer listings. Check: totalAvailable per city in RUN_SUMMARY. Action: raise Max total charge or the run timeout and run again.

Some rows have no description

Symptom: detailsStatus is gone or failed. Likely reason: the poster removed the listing before it was read (gone), or the page could not be read (failed). Search fields are still there.

FAQ

Do I need a Craigslist account, cookies or a proxy?

No. The Actor reads public Craigslist search and listing pages. No login, cookies or proxy are needed.

Does it collect seller phone numbers or e-mails?

No. It does not collect seller contacts, and it masks the phone numbers and e-mails it recognises in titles and descriptions as [phone removed] and [email removed]. Masking is best effort: an unusual format can slip through, and a long number can sometimes be masked by mistake.

How fresh is the data?

Each row is read during the run; fetchedAt shows when. Craigslist lists renewed listings again as new, so postedAt is the latest posting or renewal time.

Which cities and countries work?

Any Craigslist site: the US, Canada, the UK, Europe, Asia, Australia and more. Prices keep the local currency in currency.

Is scraping Craigslist allowed?

The Actor reads only public pages at a gentle pace. You are responsible for using the data in line with the Craigslist terms of use and the laws that apply to you, including privacy laws.

Support

For a bug, a question or a feature request, open an issue in the Issues tab of this Actor. Include the run ID and the input you used. Do not post API tokens or other private data.