WeChat Official Account 公众号 Scraper - Articles & Read Counts

WeChat Official Account Scraper extracts public data from WeChat (微信, also called Weixin) Official Accounts (公众号) and returns clean, flat JSON. You can search articles by keyword, list the articles of any account, get the full text of an article with the publishing account's public profile (avatar, IP location, bio), pull read, like and share counts, and search WeChat Channels (视频号) videos. It is made for market researchers, brand and media analysts, and data teams who follow Chinese content. No proxies, cookies, login or Chinese phone number needed.

What is a WeChat Official Account?

WeChat (微信, Weixin) is a Chinese messaging app. Official Accounts (公众号) are publishing pages run by media outlets, brands, organisations and individuals; they post articles that followers read inside WeChat. WeChat Channels (视频号) is the short-video feature of the same app. This Actor is an independent tool and is not affiliated with WeChat.

What data can you get?

The Actor has five modes. Each mode returns one record type, marked in the type field.

Mode	Give it	You get
search	a keyword (optional: sort, time range)	articles (type: article): title, summary, account name, publish time, cover, link, read count
account	account IDs (gh_...), custom WeChat IDs, or any article link of the account	the account's published articles, newest first (type: article): title, link, publish time, cover, read and "looking" counts as shown in the list
article	article links	the full article (type: articleDetail): text, images, title, account name, account ID, WeChat ID, account bio, avatar, IP location, publish time, cover
stats	article links	reads, likes, "looking" (在看), shares, saves and comment count of each article (type: articleStats)
videoSearch	a keyword (optional: sort, time range)	WeChat Channels videos (type: channelVideo): title, author name, duration, likes, publish time, cover

Article fields (article and articleDetail)

Field	Description
title	Article title
url	Article link
articleId	Article ID
accountName	Name of the publishing account; empty in account mode when the input is an account ID or WeChat ID
accountId	Account ID (gh_...); not returned in search results
publishedAt	Publish time
summary	Article summary
coverUrl	Cover image link
readCount	Read count as WeChat shows it (account lists and search results; "10万+" is returned as 100000, so it is a lower bound)
lookCount	"Looking" (在看) count as shown in the account list; not returned in search results
position	Position value of the article in the list; not returned in search results
text	Full article text (articleDetail only)
imageUrls	Links to the images in the article (articleDetail only)
author	Author byline of the article (articleDetail only)
wechatId	Custom WeChat ID of the account, when it has one (articleDetail only)
accountBio	Public bio of the account (articleDetail only)
accountAvatar	Avatar image URL of the publishing account (articleDetail only)
accountIpLocation	IP location (IP属地) of the publishing account as shown on the article: province, else country (articleDetail only)
sourceLink	Original-source link of the article; empty when there is none (articleDetail only)

Count fields (articleStats)

Field	Description
readCount	Number of reads
likeCount	Number of likes
lookCount	"Looking" (在看) count
shareCount	Number of shares
collectCount	Number of saves
commentCount	Number of comments
articleId	Article ID
url	Article link

WeChat Channels video fields (channelVideo)

Field	Description
title	Video title
authorName	Name of the video author
likeCount	Number of likes
durationSeconds	Video length in seconds
publishedAt	Publish time
coverUrl	Cover image link
channelVideoId	Video ID
width	Video width
height	Video height

How to use WeChat Official Account Scraper

1. Open the Actor on Apify and click Try for free or Start.
2. Choose a Mode: search articles, an account's articles, article full text, article counts, or Channels video search.
3. Fill in the input for that mode: a keyword, account IDs, or article links. Set Max results.
4. Click Start and wait for the run to finish.
5. Open the Output tab and export the dataset as JSON, CSV, Excel or another format.

Input

Field	Type	Required	What it does	Default
mode	string	required	search, account, article, stats or videoSearch	search
keyword	string	optional	Search keyword for search and videoSearch. Chinese keywords work best, e.g. "美食".	美食
sort	string	optional	For search and videoSearch: default (relevance), latest (newest first) or hot (most liked first)	default
publishTime	string	optional	For search and videoSearch: only items published within all (any time), day, week or half_year	all
accounts	array of strings	optional	For account: account IDs (gh_...), custom WeChat IDs, or the link of any article the account published. A link costs one extra lookup per account.	none
articles	array of strings	optional	For article and stats: article links, either https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/... or the long form https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=...&mid=...&idx=...&sn=...	none
maxResults	integer	optional	Maximum number of items to return in total for this run (1 to 5,000). You are charged per item returned.	20

An empty input {} searches articles for "美食" (food), so you can try the Actor in seconds.

Input examples

Search the newest articles of the last 7 days:

{
  "mode": "search",
  "keyword": "新能源汽车",
  "sort": "latest",
  "publishTime": "week",
  "maxResults": 50
}

List an account's articles:

{
  "mode": "account",
  "accounts": ["gh_acda8e6b88ca"],
  "maxResults": 30
}

Get the full text of an article:

{
  "mode": "article",
  "articles": ["https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/TSNQKkRpN1qbKsT7BvzqIw"]
}

Get the counts of an article:

{
  "mode": "stats",
  "articles": ["https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/TSNQKkRpN1qbKsT7BvzqIw"]
}

Search WeChat Channels videos, most liked first:

{
  "mode": "videoSearch",
  "keyword": "美食",
  "sort": "hot",
  "publishTime": "half_year",
  "maxResults": 20
}

How do I find an account ID?

Every article result from article mode carries accountId (gh_...) and, when the account has one, its wechatId. You can also give account mode the link of any article the account published; that costs one extra lookup per account (it is billed as an additional run-start fee).

Output example

The values below are illustrative samples.

Full article (article mode):

{
  "type": "articleDetail",
  "articleId": "MzA5MDAwMDAwMA==_2650000001_1",
  "url": "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MzA5MDAwMDAwMA==&mid=2650000001&idx=1&sn=0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef",
  "title": "秋天必吃的5道家常菜",
  "summary": "天气转凉，这几道菜做法简单……",
  "accountName": "示例美食号",
  "accountId": "gh_0123456789ab",
  "wechatId": "sample_food",
  "accountBio": "分享家常菜做法和本地美食。",
  "accountAvatar": "http://wx.qlogo.cn/mmhead/example/0",
  "accountIpLocation": "广东",
  "author": "小编",
  "publishedAt": "2026-10-08T06:19:19Z",
  "coverUrl": "https://mmbiz.qpic.cn/mmbiz_jpg/example/0",
  "sourceLink": null,
  "text": "今天给大家推荐几道简单的家常菜……",
  "imageUrls": ["https://mmbiz.qpic.cn/mmbiz_jpg/example/640"]
}

Article from an account list (account mode, account ID input):

{
  "type": "article",
  "articleId": "MzA5MDAwMDAwMA==_2650000001_1",
  "url": "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MzA5MDAwMDAwMA==&mid=2650000001&idx=1&sn=0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef",
  "title": "秋天必吃的5道家常菜",
  "summary": "天气转凉，这几道菜做法简单……",
  "accountName": null,
  "accountId": "gh_0123456789ab",
  "publishedAt": "2026-10-08T06:19:19Z",
  "position": 1,
  "coverUrl": "https://mmbiz.qpic.cn/mmbiz_jpg/example/0",
  "readCount": 12500,
  "lookCount": 86
}

Article counts (stats mode):

{
  "type": "articleStats",
  "articleId": "MzA5MDAwMDAwMA==_2650000001_1",
  "url": "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MzA5MDAwMDAwMA==&mid=2650000001&idx=1&sn=0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef",
  "readCount": 12500,
  "likeCount": 340,
  "lookCount": 86,
  "shareCount": 120,
  "collectCount": 95,
  "commentCount": 42
}

WeChat Channels video (videoSearch mode):

{
  "type": "channelVideo",
  "channelVideoId": "example_0123456789",
  "title": "三分钟学会番茄炒蛋",
  "authorName": "示例厨房",
  "durationSeconds": 185,
  "likeCount": 2300,
  "publishedAt": "2026-10-10T12:00:00Z",
  "coverUrl": "https://example.com/cover.jpg",
  "width": 1080,
  "height": 1920
}

How much does it cost?

The Actor uses pay-per-event pricing: a small fee for each run start, a fee per article or video returned in a list, and a higher fee for each full article and each counts lookup, because each needs its own lookup.

Event	When it is charged	Free plan	Paid plans
run-start	Once per run, when the first request to the data source succeeds, even if that request returns nothing. It is not charged when the data source fails from the start or rejects the IDs, or when the spending limit cannot cover it. In account mode, also once for each account after the first, charged before that account's first request and kept even if that account then fails or returns nothing. An article link given instead of an account ID adds one more start fee, charged when that account is reached.	$0.015	$0.015
result	Each article or video returned in a list (search, account, videoSearch)	$0.005	$0.005
detail	Each full article (article mode)	$0.02	Bronze $0.0184, Silver $0.0166, Gold, Platinum and Diamond $0.015
stats	Each article counts lookup (stats mode)	$0.02	Bronze $0.0184, Silver $0.0166, Gold, Platinum and Diamond $0.015

Worked examples:

• 100 search results on a paid plan: $0.015 + 100 × $0.005 = $0.515.
• 20 search results on the free plan: $0.015 + 20 × $0.005 = $0.115.
• 100 full articles on the Bronze plan: $0.015 + 100 × $0.0184 = $1.855. On Gold: $0.015 + 100 × $0.015 = $1.515.
• 3 accounts, 30 articles in total: 3 × $0.015 + 30 × $0.005 = $0.195, if all three accounts are reached.

Nothing is charged once maxResults is reached, and you never pay for more than maxResults items.

On the free Apify plan, a run returns at most 20 results in total; any paid Apify plan removes the limit. On the free Apify plan each account can run this Actor up to 3 times per 24 hours and 10 times per 7 days, within a small lifetime free allowance shared across all our Actors, and all free accounts share a daily free budget. When any of these limits is reached, the run stops before fetching anything and nothing is charged.

Use cases

• Content and trend research: find what Chinese media and brands publish about a topic, and how it performs.
• Competitor and brand monitoring: follow an account's publishing and compare reach across articles.
• Influencer and KOL research: rank accounts by the reads and likes of their recent articles before a partnership.
• AI and data projects: full-text Chinese articles with clean metadata for models, translation, summaries and dashboards.
• Industry intelligence: track policy, finance, technology and consumer topics where WeChat is the primary channel.
• Short-video research: find WeChat Channels (视频号) videos on a topic and compare their likes and duration.

Integrations and API

You can use this Actor as a WeChat article API: start runs through the Apify API, schedule them to run daily or weekly, and send the results to other tools with Apify integrations and webhooks. Results land in an Apify dataset that you can read through the API or download as JSON, CSV or Excel.

Example with the Python apify-client package:

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>")
run = client.actor("clover_folktale/wechat-scraper").call(run_input={
    "mode": "search",
    "keyword": "新能源汽车",
    "sort": "latest",
    "publishTime": "week",
    "maxResults": 50,
})
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

Tips and limits

• Search pages hold about 20-36 articles, account list pages about 10 posts (a post can carry several articles), Channels search pages about 10 videos.
• In account lists, readCount and lookCount are the numbers WeChat shows next to each article ("looking", 在看). Use stats mode for likes, shares and saves.
• In search results and account lists, readCount is read from the label WeChat shows, so "10万+" comes back as 100000 (a lower bound).
• Some accounts hide their counts; hidden counts come back as null.
• WeChat is slow: a single article or counts lookup can take up to 20 seconds.
• Image and cover links are WeChat CDN links and may expire; download what you need soon after the run.
• Channels videos have no public web link, so results carry the title, author, duration, likes and cover only.
• Links or IDs in the wrong format stop the run with an input error before anything is scraped. Correctly formatted links or IDs that return nothing are skipped; if too many inputs (5) return nothing, the run stops to protect your budget.
• Numbers such as reads and likes are what WeChat shows at the time of the run.
• Empty fields: search results have no accountId, lookCount or position; Weixin search doesn't return them. In account mode, accountName is empty when the input is an account ID or WeChat ID; it is filled only when the input is an article link. In article mode, sourceLink is empty when the article has no original-source link.
• Free plan: a run returns at most 20 results in total; any paid Apify plan removes the limit.
• Privacy: only public data is returned. The publishing account's public profile is included: account ID, WeChat ID, avatar, IP location and bio. Comment sections are not read. Account bios are returned as published, including any business contact info the account put there.

FAQ

Do I need a WeChat account, login or cookies?

No. You don't need a login, cookies, proxies or a Chinese phone number.

Is it legal to scrape WeChat Official Accounts?

The Actor returns only public data: published articles, their public counts, the publishing account's public profile and public Channels video information. It does not read private data such as messages, and comment sections are not read. You are responsible for how you use the data and for following the laws that apply to you.

How fresh is the data?

The data is collected live during each run. Numbers such as reads and likes are what WeChat shows at the time of the run.

Why are some fields empty?

Some fields are not available in every mode. Search results have no accountId, lookCount or position. In account mode, accountName is empty when you give an account ID or WeChat ID. sourceLink is empty when an article has no original-source link. Some accounts hide their counts, which then come back as null.

How many results can I get?

Set maxResults from 1 to 5,000 items per run. On the free Apify plan a run returns at most 20 results in total; any paid Apify plan removes the limit.

Can I get comments?

No. Comment sections are not read. stats mode returns the comment count (commentCount) of each article.

Can I schedule runs and export the data?

Yes. You can schedule runs on Apify, start them through the API, and export each dataset as JSON, CSV, Excel and other formats.

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