Stack Exchange Q&A Scraper

Scrape questions, answers, and site listings from Stack Overflow and 170+ Stack Exchange communities (Server Fault, Super User, Math, Cross Validated, Ask Ubuntu, Code Review, Software Engineering, AI, Data Science, Security, DBA, GIS, and more) via the official Stack Exchange API v2.3. No login, no cookies, no proxy required.

What this actor does

• Four fetch modes — search questions by keyword, browse by tag, fetch answers for specific question IDs, or list all Stack Exchange network sites
• Returns full question metadata — title, body excerpt, tags, score, view count, answer count, accepted answer ID, author, and direct URLs
• Answers mode — fetch all answers for a list of question IDs with body, score, author, and accepted flag
• Sites mode — list all 170+ Stack Exchange network sites with name, audience, type, icon, and launch date
• Honors Stack Exchange's quota and backoff headers automatically
• Optional API key for 10,000 requests/day (vs. 300/day anonymous)
• No proxy, no cookies — Stack Exchange is publicly accessible

Output

Questions (mode=searchQuestions or getQuestionsByTag)

Field	Type	Description
questionId	integer	Stack Exchange question ID
title	string	Question title
body	string	Plain-text excerpt of the question body (up to 500 chars)
tags	array	Question tags (e.g. ["python", "asyncio"])
score	integer	Up-votes minus down-votes
viewCount	integer	Total page views
answerCount	integer	Number of posted answers
acceptedAnswerId	integer	ID of the accepted answer (if any)
isAnswered	boolean	Whether the question has an accepted answer
author	string	Question author's display name
authorReputation	integer	Author's Stack Exchange reputation
createdAt	string	ISO-8601 creation timestamp (UTC)
lastActivityAt	string	ISO-8601 last activity timestamp (UTC)
questionUrl	string	Direct URL to the question
site	string	Stack Exchange site slug (e.g. stackoverflow)
scrapedAt	string	ISO-8601 scrape timestamp (UTC)

Answers (mode=getAnswers)

Field	Type	Description
answerId	integer	Stack Exchange answer ID
questionId	integer	Parent question ID
body	string	Plain-text excerpt of the answer body (up to 500 chars)
score	integer	Answer score
isAccepted	boolean	Whether this answer was accepted
author	string	Answer author's display name
authorReputation	integer	Author's reputation
createdAt	string	ISO-8601 creation timestamp (UTC)
scrapedAt	string	ISO-8601 scrape timestamp (UTC)

Sites (mode=listSites)

Field	Type	Description
siteUrl	string	Base URL of the community (e.g. https://stackoverflow.com)
siteName	string	Community name (e.g. Stack Overflow)
audience	string	Target audience description
siteType	string	Site type (main_site, meta_site, etc.)
iconUrl	string	Community icon URL
launchDate	string	ISO-8601 launch date (UTC)
scrapedAt	string	ISO-8601 scrape timestamp (UTC)

Empty fields are always omitted — no nulls in output.

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
mode	string	searchQuestions	searchQuestions / getQuestionsByTag / getAnswers / listSites
query	string	–	Search keyword (required for mode=searchQuestions)
tags	array	[]	Tags to filter (required for mode=getQuestionsByTag)
questionIds	array	[]	Question IDs to fetch answers for (required for mode=getAnswers)
site	string	stackoverflow	Stack Exchange site slug
sortBy	string	votes	votes / activity / creation / relevance
apiKey	string	–	Optional API key (10k/day vs 300/day anonymous)
maxItems	integer	25	Maximum records to return (1–200)

Example inputs

Search for Python questions on Stack Overflow

{
  "mode": "searchQuestions",
  "query": "python",
  "site": "stackoverflow",
  "sortBy": "votes",
  "maxItems": 25
}

Browse JavaScript questions by tag

{
  "mode": "getQuestionsByTag",
  "tags": ["javascript"],
  "site": "stackoverflow",
  "sortBy": "votes",
  "maxItems": 50
}

Fetch answers for specific questions

{
  "mode": "getAnswers",
  "questionIds": ["11227809", "231767"],
  "site": "stackoverflow",
  "maxItems": 50
}

List all Stack Exchange network sites

{
  "mode": "listSites",
  "maxItems": 200
}

Use cases

• Developer relations — monitor your library/SDK tag for new unanswered questions
• Technical content marketing — find gaps in documentation by analyzing high-view low-score questions
• Q&A datasets for ML/RAG — export curated answers for fine-tuning or retrieval-augmented generation
• Recruiting — identify domain experts by reputation and tag activity
• Community analytics — analyze trends in what developers struggle with
• Competitive intelligence — track questions about competitor products
• Documentation prioritization — high-view questions reveal documentation gaps

FAQ

Does it require a login or cookies? No. The Stack Exchange API is fully public and returns real data without authentication.

Is a proxy needed? No. Stack Exchange accepts requests from any IP address.

What is the API quota? 300 requests/day without an API key; 10,000/day with a free key. Register at https://stackapps.com/apps/oauth/register and pass it via apiKey.

Which sites are supported? All 170+ Stack Exchange communities. Pass any valid site slug to the site field (e.g. stackoverflow, serverfault, math, cooking, worldbuilding). Use mode=listSites to enumerate all available sites.

Why are some fields missing? Fields are omitted when the API returns no data for them (e.g. acceptedAnswerId only appears when a question has an accepted answer, authorReputation only appears when the author profile is available).

What does body contain? The body field is a plain-text excerpt (up to 500 characters) extracted from the question or answer's HTML body. HTML tags are stripped, common entities are decoded, and the text is trimmed.

How does sortBy=relevance work? relevance is only valid for mode=searchQuestions — it ranks results by how closely they match the search query. For other modes, votes is used.

What happens if I exceed the quota? The actor watches the quota_remaining and backoff headers and sleeps gracefully when asked. Once the daily quota is exhausted, you will get fewer results — pass an apiKey to raise the cap to 10,000/day.

Can I scrape multiple tags at once? Yes — pass multiple values in the tags array. Stack Exchange treats them as an AND filter (questions must have all specified tags).

Is the data real-time? Yes. Stack Exchange's API surfaces new questions within seconds of posting.