Mastodon Scraper

Scrape any Mastodon instance — single statuses by URL, full thread context, status / account search, hashtag streams, hashtag info, user profiles, follower/following lists, public timelines, trending content, and instance metadata. Pure HTTP, no login, no cookies, no proxy required. Works against mastodon.social, mas.to, hachyderm.io, fosstodon.org, infosec.exchange, and every other federated instance.

Mastodon's public REST API is permissive — every instance exposes the same documented endpoints, so this single actor covers the entire Fediverse.

What you get

For each record returned:

Status records (recordType=status)

Field	Description
id	Mastodon status ID (per instance)
url	Public URL of the status
createdAt	ISO 8601 timestamp
language	ISO 639-1 language code
visibility	public / unlisted / private / direct
content	Original HTML content
contentText	Plain-text version of content (HTML stripped, entities decoded)
spoilerText	Content-warning text
sensitive	true if marked sensitive
inReplyToId	Status ID this is replying to
editedAt	ISO 8601 timestamp of the last edit
repliesCount	Reply count
reblogsCount	Reblog (boost) count
favouritesCount	Favourite count
quotesCount	Quote-post count (Mastodon 4.4+)
isReblog	true if this status reblogs another
reblogOfId	ID of the reblogged status (when isReblog=true)
mediaAttachments	Array of {type, url, previewUrl, description}
mentions	Array of mentioned handles
tags	Array of hashtags used (lowercase)
account	Author profile (full Account object — see below)
instance	Source instance domain
scrapedAt	ISO 8601 UTC timestamp of extraction

Account records (recordType=account)

Field	Description
id	Mastodon account ID
username	Handle on this instance
acct	Federated handle (user@otherinstance.tld for remote users)
displayName	Display name
url	Profile URL
note	Profile bio (plain text)
avatar	Avatar image URL
header	Header image URL
followersCount	Follower count
followingCount	Following count
statusesCount	Total status count
bot	true if marked as a bot
locked	true if profile is locked
discoverable	false if hidden from discovery
createdAt	Account creation timestamp
lastStatusAt	Last activity timestamp

Tag records (recordType=tag)

Field	Description
name	Hashtag name (lowercase)
url	Public hashtag URL
usesToday	Uses in the past 24h
accountsToday	Distinct accounts using it in the past 24h
history	Array of {day, uses, accounts} for the past 7 days

Empty fields are dropped from every record at every depth — the dataset never contains nulls or empty values.

Input

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
mode	Enum	statusByUrl	statusByUrl / statusContext / statusSearch / hashtag / hashtagInfo / profile / accountSearch / followers / following / publicTimeline / trending / instanceMetadata
instancePopular	Enum	—	Pick a popular instance from a curated dropdown (overrides instance when set)
instance	String	mastodon.social	Custom instance domain
statusUrl	String	sample	Status URL (mode=statusByUrl / statusContext)
includeContext	Boolean	false	Include thread context with mode=statusByUrl
hashtag	String	python	Hashtag (without #). Used by mode=hashtag / hashtagInfo
username	String	—	User handle (Gargron or user@otherinstance.tld). Used by mode=profile / followers / following
searchQuery	String	—	Free-text query (mode=accountSearch / statusSearch)
timelineScope	Enum	federated	local / federated / remote. Used by mode=publicTimeline
trendingType	Enum	tags	tags / statuses / links. Used by mode=trending
language	Enum	—	ISO 639-1 language filter (curated dropdown of 40 codes). Empty = no filter
excludeReplies	Boolean	false	Drop reply statuses
excludeReblogs	Boolean	false	Drop reblogs (boosts)
mediaOnly	Boolean	false	Only emit statuses with at least one media attachment
minFavourites	Integer	—	Drop statuses with fewer favourites than this
minReblogs	Integer	—	Drop statuses with fewer reblogs than this
maxItems	Integer	40	Hard cap on emitted records (1-5000)

Modes overview

• statusByUrl — paste a status URL (e.g. https://mastodon.social/@Gargron/110423915824138798). Returns the single status. Toggle includeContext=true to also pull ancestors + descendants.
• statusContext — full reply thread for the given status URL.
• statusSearch — q= search across statuses; instance-dependent (many instances throttle for unauthenticated requests — try mas.to, fosstodon.org).
• followers / following — paginated follower / following lists for a user.
• hashtagInfo — /api/v1/tags/{tag} returns 7-day usage history + usesToday / accountsToday.
• instanceMetadata — /api/v2/instance returns server version, rules, languages, contact email, active-monthly-user count.

Example input — hashtag stream

{
  "mode": "hashtag",
  "instance": "mastodon.social",
  "hashtag": "python",
  "maxItems": 50
}

Example input — user profile

{
  "mode": "profile",
  "instance": "mastodon.social",
  "username": "Gargron",
  "maxItems": 100
}

Example input — federated profile (cross-instance)

{
  "mode": "profile",
  "instance": "mastodon.social",
  "username": "rss@oisaur.com",
  "maxItems": 50
}

Example input — instance public timeline (local)

{
  "mode": "publicTimeline",
  "instance": "fosstodon.org",
  "timelineScope": "local",
  "maxItems": 100
}

Example input — account search

{
  "mode": "accountSearch",
  "instance": "mastodon.social",
  "searchQuery": "rust",
  "maxItems": 25
}

Example input — trending tags

{
  "mode": "trending",
  "instance": "mastodon.social",
  "trendingType": "tags"
}

Example output

{
  "recordType": "status",
  "id": "111234567890123456",
  "url": "https://mastodon.social/@username/111234567890123456",
  "createdAt": "2026-04-15T14:32:00.000Z",
  "language": "en",
  "visibility": "public",
  "content": "<p>Hello <a href=\"...\">#Mastodon</a>!</p>",
  "contentText": "Hello #Mastodon!",
  "repliesCount": 12,
  "reblogsCount": 47,
  "favouritesCount": 230,
  "tags": ["mastodon"],
  "mentions": [],
  "mediaAttachments": [
    { "type": "image", "url": "https://files.mastodon.social/.../photo.jpg", "description": "Hello banner" }
  ],
  "account": {
    "id": "1",
    "username": "Gargron",
    "acct": "Gargron",
    "displayName": "Eugen Rochko",
    "url": "https://mastodon.social/@Gargron",
    "followersCount": 379745,
    "statusesCount": 81294,
    "createdAt": "2016-03-16T14:34:26.392Z"
  },
  "instance": "mastodon.social",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-05-06T05:07:30Z"
}

Use cases

• OSINT / intelligence research — Mastodon hosts journalist + dissident + academic communities; track conversations on specific tags or accounts.
• Brand monitoring — Pull every public mention of your brand handle or hashtag across the Fediverse.
• Trend analysis — Use mode=trending to surface what's heating up on a given instance.
• Academic research — Snapshot public-discourse data for sociological / linguistic studies.
• Cross-platform social listening — Pair with our Bluesky / Twitter / Reddit scrapers for full coverage of post-X social media.
• Content discovery — Surface high-engagement posts in a niche hashtag for content curation.

FAQ

Do I need a Mastodon account or login? No. Every endpoint this actor uses is fully public — t.me/s/-style. The actor authenticates as nobody and works straight from datacenter IPs.

Some instances return "This method requires an authenticated user" — what's going on? A few large instances (notably mastodon.social and infosec.exchange) lock down their public timeline and remote feed for anti-spam reasons. The actor surfaces a clear status message in that case. Workarounds:

• Use mode=hashtag, mode=profile, or mode=accountSearch instead — those still work everywhere.
• Switch instance to a more permissive instance like mas.to, hachyderm.io, or fosstodon.org.

How does federation work for mode=profile? Pass either a local handle (Gargron) or a federated handle (user@otherinstance.tld). The actor uses the configured instance's account-lookup endpoint, which transparently resolves remote users by federation.

What's the difference between local, federated, and remote timelines?

• local — only posts from accounts on the configured instance.
• federated — everything the instance currently sees (its own posts + every remote post that has reached it via federation).
• remote — federated minus local (i.e. only remote posts).

How are reblogs (boosts) handled? A reblog is emitted as one record with isReblog=true and reblogOfId pointing at the original. The content, mediaAttachments, mentions, tags, repliesCount, etc. are all sourced from the underlying post (so the record is meaningful even though it was emitted via the booster). Use excludeReblogs=true to drop these.

How current is the data? Live — every run hits the configured instance at request time. Schedule the actor on the Apify platform for hourly / daily refreshes.

Do I need a proxy? No. Mastodon instances are happy to serve datacenter IPs. The actor sets a polite User-Agent and makes a small number of requests (3-30 per run typically).

What about NSFW / sensitive content? The actor returns sensitive: true and spoilerText for every flagged status. It does not filter sensitive content by default — handle this in your downstream pipeline.

Limitations

• Status full-text search (q=...&type=statuses) is an authenticated endpoint on every instance — this actor cannot search status text by keyword. Use mode=hashtag to find topical content instead.
• Some large instances (e.g. mastodon.social) have removed public-timeline access; the actor surfaces a clear status message and suggests an alternative instance.
• Mastodon timeline endpoints page at most 40 statuses per request; very large maxItems will issue many requests with a polite delay.
• Federated acct handles only resolve correctly when the configured instance has previously seen the remote user (federation is eventually-consistent).