Rick and Morty Scraper

Scrape the Rick and Morty API — the complete open dataset for the show, covering every character, episode, and location across all seasons. Browse each collection with filters, or fetch specific records by ID, and get character status, species, gender, origin and current location, episode air dates and season/episode numbers, location types and dimensions, plus the cross-reference IDs that link characters to the episodes they appear in and the locations they inhabit. HTTP-only via the public rickandmortyapi.com API. No auth, no proxy.

What this actor does

• Six modes: characters, episodes, locations, plus byCharacterId, byEpisodeId, byLocationId for direct lookups
• Per-collection filters: name, status, species and gender for characters; name and episode code for episodes; name, type and dimension for locations
• Relationship IDs: every record carries the linked IDs and a count, so characters ↔ episodes ↔ locations can be joined without extra parsing
• Parsed episode codes: S03E07 is also emitted as seasonNumber: 3 and episodeNumber: 7
• Empty fields are omitted

Output: per character (mode = characters / byCharacterId)

• characterId — API numeric ID
• name
• status — Alive, Dead, or unknown
• species — e.g. Human, Alien, Robot
• type — sub-species / variant, e.g. Parasite, Cronenberg
• gender — Male, Female, Genderless, unknown
• originLocation — where the character is from
• currentLocation — where the character was last seen
• episodeIds, episodeCount — every episode the character appears in
• imageUrl — character portrait
• sourceUrl — API record URL
• recordType: "character", scrapedAt

Output: per episode (mode = episodes / byEpisodeId)

• episodeId — API numeric ID
• name — episode title
• episode — code as published, e.g. S01E01
• seasonNumber, episodeNumber — parsed from the code
• airDate — original broadcast date
• characterIds, characterCount — every character in the episode
• sourceUrl — API record URL
• recordType: "episode", scrapedAt

Output: per location (mode = locations / byLocationId)

• locationId — API numeric ID
• name
• type — e.g. Planet, Space station, Microverse
• dimension — e.g. Dimension C-137
• residentIds, residentCount — characters that live there
• sourceUrl — API record URL
• recordType: "location", scrapedAt

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
mode	string	characters	characters / episodes / locations / byCharacterId / byEpisodeId / byLocationId
name	string	–	Partial name match — works for characters, episodes, and locations
status	string	–	alive / dead / unknown (mode=characters)
species	string	–	e.g. Human, Alien, Robot (mode=characters)
gender	string	–	male / female / genderless / unknown (mode=characters)
episode	string	–	Episode code, e.g. S01E01 or S02 (mode=episodes)
locationType	string	–	e.g. Planet, Microverse (mode=locations)
dimension	string	–	e.g. Dimension C-137 (mode=locations)
characterId	int	–	Single character ID (mode=byCharacterId)
characterIds	array	–	Multiple character IDs (mode=byCharacterId)
episodeId	int	–	Single episode ID (mode=byEpisodeId)
episodeIds	array	–	Multiple episode IDs (mode=byEpisodeId)
locationId	int	–	Single location ID (mode=byLocationId)
locationIds	array	–	Multiple location IDs (mode=byLocationId)
maxItems	int	50	Hard cap (1–1000)

Example: every character in the show

{
  "mode": "characters",
  "maxItems": 1000
}

Example: living human characters

{
  "mode": "characters",
  "status": "alive",
  "species": "Human",
  "maxItems": 200
}

Example: a whole season's episodes

{
  "mode": "episodes",
  "episode": "S03"
}

Example: locations in a specific dimension

{
  "mode": "locations",
  "dimension": "Dimension C-137"
}

Use cases

• Fan sites & wikis — populate character, episode, and location pages with structured data and artwork
• Quiz & trivia apps — generate questions from statuses, species, air dates, and dimensions
• Graph and network analysis — build a character co-appearance graph from episodeIds and characterIds
• API and ETL demos — a clean, well-shaped public dataset for teaching pipelines and joins
• Recommendation prototypes — test similarity models on characters and episodes without licensing concerns
• Chatbots & assistants — ground show-related answers in canonical episode and character data

FAQ

What is the Rick and Morty API? A free, open, community-run REST API for the show, covering characters, episodes, and locations. See rickandmortyapi.com.

Is this affiliated with the Rick and Morty API, Adult Swim, or Warner Bros.? No. This is a third-party actor using a public community API.

Do I need an API key? No. The API is open and unauthenticated.

How many records exist? Roughly 800 characters, 50+ episodes, and 120+ locations, growing as new seasons air.

How do I join characters to episodes? Each character carries episodeIds and each episode carries characterIds. Run one pass in characters mode and one in episodes mode, then join on those ID arrays — no extra requests needed.

Why do the filter values look lowercase in the input but capitalised in the output? Filters are matched case-insensitively upstream; the output preserves the API's own casing, so status: "alive" returns records showing Alive.

Can I filter episodes by season? Yes — pass a season prefix such as S03 to episode. A full code like S03E07 narrows it to one episode.

Why is type empty for most characters? type is a sub-species qualifier used only for unusual variants (Parasite, Cronenberg, Robot). Ordinary humans and aliens have none, so the field is dropped.

Can images be hotlinked? imageUrl points at the API's own CDN and is served without a referer check, so it renders directly in a browser or app.

How fresh is the data? Live at query time. The upstream dataset is updated by its maintainers as new episodes air.