# Wattpad Story Scraper (`crawlerbros/wattpad-story-scraper`) Actor Scrape Wattpad stories - search by keyword, browse by genre or tag, fetch full story metadata and chapter lists by ID, list a user's stories, or pull full chapter text. - **URL**: https://apify.com/crawlerbros/wattpad-story-scraper.md - **Developed by:** [Crawler Bros](https://apify.com/crawlerbros) (community) - **Categories:** Automation, Developer tools, Agents - **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks - **User rating**: No ratings yet ## Pricing from $3.00 / 1,000 results This Actor is paid per event and usage. You are charged both the fixed price for specific events and for Apify platform usage. Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have. Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event ## What's an Apify Actor? Actors are a software tools running on the Apify platform, for all kinds of web data extraction and automation use cases. In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours, and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store. In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server. Actors are written with capital "A". ## How to integrate an Actor? If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects. You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready. The best way to integrate Actors is as follows. In JavaScript/TypeScript projects, use official [JavaScript/TypeScript client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js.md): ```bash npm install apify-client ``` In Python projects, use official [Python client library](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python.md): ```bash pip install apify-client ``` In shell scripts, use [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): ````bash # MacOS / Linux curl -fsSL https://apify.com/install-cli.sh | bash # Windows irm https://apify.com/install-cli.ps1 | iex ```bash In AI frameworks, you might use the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/mcp.md). If your project is in a different language, use the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md). For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below. For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt). # README ## Wattpad Story Scraper Scrape Wattpad — the world's largest social storytelling platform, home to hundreds of millions of stories across romance, fantasy, fanfiction, horror, and more. Search by keyword, browse by genre or tag, pull full story metadata and chapter lists by ID, list everything a writer has published, or extract full chapter text. No login, no API key, no proxy required. ### What this actor does - **Six modes:** `search`, `byCategory`, `byTag`, `byIds`, `byUser`, `chapterText` - **22 genres and 26 languages** exposed as ready-to-pick dropdowns - **Recently-updated feed** — narrow a genre browse to newly-updated stories via `feed: "new"` - **Author profile enrichment** — `byUser` results include the author's bio, location, follower/following counts, votes received, and join date - **Full chapter text extraction** — clean, readable plain text with paragraph breaks preserved - **Rich filters** — completed-only, free-only, mature-content toggle, minimum votes/reads - **Client-side sort** — most votes, most reads, most comments, or newest first - **Empty fields are omitted** — every record only contains data Wattpad actually returned ### Output per story - `storyId`, `title`, `description` - `authorUsername`, `authorUrl`, `authorFullname`, `authorAvatarUrl`, `authorVerified` (detail mode) - `authorBio`, `authorLocation`, `authorGender`, `authorFollowers`, `authorFollowing`, `authorVotesReceived`, `authorNumStoriesPublished`, `authorNumLists`, `authorVerifiedEmail`, `authorAmbassador`, `authorJoinedAt`, `authorWebsite`, `authorFacebook`, `authorBackgroundUrl`, `authorDeeplink` (mode=`byUser` only — from the author's public profile) - `categories[]` — genre names (e.g. `Romance`, `Werewolf`, `Fanfiction`) - `tags[]` — free-form community tags - `language`, `languageId` - `completed`, `mature`, `isPaywalled`, `paidModel` - `numParts`, `storyLength`, `voteCount`, `readCount`, `commentCount` - `coverUrl`, `storyUrl` - `createdAt`, `modifiedAt`, `lastUpdatedAt`, `firstPublishedAt` (detail mode) - `chapters[]` — full chapter list with `partId`, `title`, `url`, `length`, `voteCount`, `readCount`, `commentCount` (detail mode, `byIds`) - `copyrightCode` (detail mode) - `recordType: "story"`, `scrapedAt` ### Output per chapter (mode=`chapterText`) - `partId`, `storyId`, `chapterTitle`, `chapterUrl`, `storyUrl` - `chapterText` — full plain-text chapter body - `wordCount`, `characterLength` - `voteCount`, `readCount`, `commentCount`, `draft` - `publishedAt`, `updatedAt` - `recordType: "chapter"`, `scrapedAt` ### Input | Field | Type | Default | Description | |---|---|---|---| | `mode` | string | `search` | `search` / `byCategory` / `byTag` / `byIds` / `byUser` / `chapterText` | | `searchQuery` | string | `romance` | Free-text query (mode=search) | | `category` | select | – | Genre filter; required for mode=byCategory | | `language` | select | – | Language filter | | `tags` | array | `["werewolf"]` | Tags to browse (mode=byTag) | | `storyIds` | array | – | Story IDs or URLs (mode=byIds) | | `username` | string | – | Wattpad username (mode=byUser) | | `partIds` | array | – | Chapter IDs or URLs (mode=chapterText) | | `completedOnly` | bool | `false` | Only finished stories | | `freeOnly` | bool | `false` | Exclude coin-paywalled stories | | `includeMatureContent` | bool | `true` | Include author-flagged mature stories | | `minVotes` | int | – | Minimum vote count | | `minReads` | int | – | Minimum read count | | `sortBy` | select | `relevance` | `relevance` / `mostVotes` / `mostReads` / `mostCommented` / `newest` | | `feed` | select | – | mode=byCategory only: blank = Wattpad's default (most-popular) ordering, `new` = recently-updated stories in that genre | | `maxItems` | int | `20` | Hard cap (1–500) | #### Example: browse a genre, most-voted first ```json { "mode": "byCategory", "category": "4", "language": "1", "sortBy": "mostVotes", "maxItems": 50 } ```` #### Example: full story detail + chapter list ```json { "mode": "byIds", "storyIds": ["358371807", "https://www.wattpad.com/story/105872-a-and-d"] } ``` #### Example: extract a chapter's full text ```json { "mode": "chapterText", "partIds": ["1406121589"] } ``` ### Use cases - **Reading apps** — build genre/tag-based discovery feeds from real Wattpad catalog data - **Content research** — analyze trending tags, tropes, and genre popularity - **Fandom / fanfiction analytics** — track fanfiction volume and engagement by fandom tag - **Archival / backup** — export a story's full chapter text for offline reading or preservation - **Writer intelligence** — pull an author's full bibliography with engagement metrics - **NLP / dataset building** — collect long-form narrative text at scale for language research ### FAQ **Do I need a Wattpad account or cookies?** No. Search, story metadata, chapter lists, and chapter text are all public and readable without logging in. **What does the `mature` flag mean?** It's Wattpad's own author-self-reported content flag, not a moderation verdict. It's exposed as-is and can be filtered out via `includeMatureContent: false`; note it is self-reported and not exhaustive — some explicit stories are not flagged by their authors. **What happens with mature-gated or removed stories?** A small share of stories are gated behind Wattpad's in-app mature-content confirmation or have been taken down; these resolve with 0 records for that ID rather than partial/garbage data, and the run reports which IDs were not found. **Why is `sortBy` applied "client-side"?** Wattpad's own `sort` search parameter isn't consistently honored by their API, so the actor fetches the requested batch and re-orders it locally by votes/reads/comments/date — giving you a real, working sort instead of a parameter that silently does nothing. **Can I look up a story from just its URL?** Yes — `storyIds` and `partIds` both accept full Wattpad URLs as well as bare numeric IDs. **What's the difference between `byIds` and `search`?** `byIds` returns full detail (chapter list, author profile fields, copyright code) for exact known stories. `search`/`byCategory`/`byTag` return lighter list-view records for discovery. **How many chapters can I extract at once?** Up to `maxItems` (max 500) `partIds` per run — each chapter is a separate output record with full text. **Will `storyUrl`/`chapterUrl` links open for me?** Yes, in a normal web browser — Wattpad is one of the most-visited fiction sites in the world and these are its standard canonical links. All actual data extraction in this actor goes through Wattpad's own API host, not the web-app pages the links point to. **Is content available in languages other than English?** Yes — 26 languages are supported as a filter, from Spanish and Portuguese to Arabic, Hindi, Vietnamese, and more. ### Limitations - **No "hot"/trending filter** — Wattpad's own `filter=hot` parameter is a documented no-op that returns the exact same ordering as no filter at all (verified by direct comparison), so it isn't exposed as a separate option. Wattpad's default `byCategory` ordering already is the popularity/"hot" ordering. `feed=new` is the one server-side feed filter that's verified to actually change results. - **`feed` only applies to `byCategory`** — the `filter` query parameter is silently ignored by Wattpad's search endpoint (used by `search` and `byTag`), confirmed by comparing identical result sets with and without it. Applying it there would silently do nothing, so it's scoped to `byCategory` only, where it's confirmed effective. - **No comments extraction** — every public comments endpoint tried (`/v4/story_parts/{id}/comments`, `/v5/...`, `/api/v3/story_parts/{id}/comments`) returns 400/404 without an authenticated session; `commentCount` is still exposed on every story/chapter, but comment text itself isn't reliably retrievable without login. - **No curated reading lists** — Wattpad's "lists" feature (`/v4/story-lists`, `/api/v3/lists`) requires an authenticated session (returns 400 anonymously) and isn't exposed. # Actor input Schema ## `mode` (type: `string`): What to fetch. ## `searchQuery` (type: `string`): Free-text query, e.g. a title, keyword, or theme. ## `category` (type: `string`): Filter to a single Wattpad genre. Required for mode=byCategory; optional narrowing filter for mode=search. ## `language` (type: `string`): Filter stories to a single language. Leave blank for any language. ## `tags` (type: `array`): One or more Wattpad tags, without the `#` (e.g. `werewolf`, `slowburn`). Results from each tag are merged and de-duplicated. ## `storyIds` (type: `array`): Numeric Wattpad story IDs (e.g. `358371807`) or full story URLs (e.g. `https://www.wattpad.com/story/358371807-whispers-of-romance`). ## `username` (type: `string`): Wattpad username or profile URL. Each returned story is enriched with the author's public profile (bio, location, follower/following counts, votes received, join date). ## `feed` (type: `string`): Narrows a genre browse to a specific curated feed. `new` returns the most recently updated stories in the genre; leaving this blank returns Wattpad's default (most-popular) ordering. ## `partIds` (type: `array`): Numeric Wattpad chapter ("part") IDs or chapter URLs, e.g. `1406121589` or `https://www.wattpad.com/1406121589-whispers-of-romance-character-sketch`. ## `completedOnly` (type: `boolean`): Only emit stories the author has marked as complete. ## `freeOnly` (type: `boolean`): Exclude stories that use Wattpad's paid-story (coins) model. ## `includeMatureContent` (type: `boolean`): If disabled, drop stories the author has self-flagged as mature. Wattpad's own maturity flag is self-reported and not exhaustive. ## `minVotes` (type: `integer`): Drop stories with fewer votes than this. ## `minReads` (type: `integer`): Drop stories with fewer reads than this. ## `sortBy` (type: `string`): Re-orders the fetched batch of results (applied client-side after fetching, since Wattpad's own sort parameter is not consistently honored). ## `maxItems` (type: `integer`): Hard cap on emitted records. ## Actor input object example ```json { "mode": "search", "searchQuery": "romance", "category": "", "language": "", "tags": [ "werewolf" ], "storyIds": [], "feed": "", "partIds": [], "completedOnly": false, "freeOnly": false, "includeMatureContent": true, "sortBy": "relevance", "maxItems": 20 } ``` # Actor output Schema ## `stories` (type: `string`): Dataset containing all scraped Wattpad stories or chapters. # API You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup. ## JavaScript example ```javascript import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client'; // Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token // Replace the '' with your token const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '', }); // Prepare Actor input const input = { "mode": "search", "searchQuery": "romance", "category": "", "language": "", "tags": [ "werewolf" ], "storyIds": [], "feed": "", "partIds": [], "completedOnly": false, "freeOnly": false, "includeMatureContent": true, "sortBy": "relevance", "maxItems": 20 }; // Run the Actor and wait for it to finish const run = await client.actor("crawlerbros/wattpad-story-scraper").call(input); // Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any) console.log('Results from dataset'); console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`); const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems(); items.forEach((item) => { console.dir(item); }); // 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs ``` ## Python example ```python from apify_client import ApifyClient # Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token # Replace '' with your token. client = ApifyClient("") # Prepare the Actor input run_input = { "mode": "search", "searchQuery": "romance", "category": "", "language": "", "tags": ["werewolf"], "storyIds": [], "feed": "", "partIds": [], "completedOnly": False, "freeOnly": False, "includeMatureContent": True, "sortBy": "relevance", "maxItems": 20, } # Run the Actor and wait for it to finish run = client.actor("crawlerbros/wattpad-story-scraper").call(run_input=run_input) # Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any) print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"]) for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items(): print(item) # 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start ``` ## CLI example ```bash echo '{ "mode": "search", "searchQuery": "romance", "category": "", "language": "", "tags": [ "werewolf" ], "storyIds": [], "feed": "", "partIds": [], "completedOnly": false, "freeOnly": false, "includeMatureContent": true, "sortBy": "relevance", "maxItems": 20 }' | apify call crawlerbros/wattpad-story-scraper --silent --output-dataset ``` ## MCP server setup ```json { "mcpServers": { "apify": { "command": "npx", "args": [ "mcp-remote", "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=crawlerbros/wattpad-story-scraper", "--header", "Authorization: Bearer " ] } } } ``` ## OpenAPI specification ```json { "openapi": "3.0.1", "info": { "title": "Wattpad Story Scraper", "description": "Scrape Wattpad stories - search by keyword, browse by genre or tag, fetch full story metadata and chapter lists by ID, list a user's stories, or pull full chapter text.", "version": "1.0", "x-build-id": "UHNSrNr5OQRfHprqB" }, "servers": [ { "url": "https://api.apify.com/v2" } ], "paths": { "/acts/crawlerbros~wattpad-story-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-get-dataset-items-crawlerbros-wattpad-story-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for its completion, and returns Actor's dataset items in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } }, "/acts/crawlerbros~wattpad-story-scraper/runs": { "post": { "operationId": "runs-sync-crawlerbros-wattpad-story-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor and returns information about the initiated run in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK", "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/runsResponseSchema" } } } } } } }, "/acts/crawlerbros~wattpad-story-scraper/run-sync": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-crawlerbros-wattpad-story-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for completion, and returns the OUTPUT from Key-value store in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } } }, "components": { "schemas": { "inputSchema": { "type": "object", "required": [ "mode" ], "properties": { "mode": { "title": "Mode", "enum": [ "search", "byCategory", "byTag", "byIds", "byUser", "chapterText" ], "type": "string", "description": "What to fetch.", "default": "search" }, "searchQuery": { "title": "Search query (mode=search)", "type": "string", "description": "Free-text query, e.g. a title, keyword, or theme.", "default": "romance" }, "category": { "title": "Genre / category", "enum": [ "", "1", "2", "3", "4", "5", "6", "7", "8", "9", "10", "11", "12", "13", "14", "16", "17", "18", "19", "21", "22", "23", "24" ], "type": "string", "description": "Filter to a single Wattpad genre. Required for mode=byCategory; optional narrowing filter for mode=search.", "default": "" }, "language": { "title": "Language", "enum": [ "", "1", "2", "3", "4", "5", "6", "7", "11", "13", "14", "15", "16", "17", "18", "19", "20", "21", "22", "23", "24", "28", "30", "31", "40", "44", "46" ], "type": "string", "description": "Filter stories to a single language. Leave blank for any language.", "default": "" }, "tags": { "title": "Tags (mode=byTag)", "type": "array", "description": "One or more Wattpad tags, without the `#` (e.g. `werewolf`, `slowburn`). Results from each tag are merged and de-duplicated.", "default": [], "items": { "type": "string" } }, "storyIds": { "title": "Story IDs or URLs (mode=byIds)", "type": "array", "description": "Numeric Wattpad story IDs (e.g. `358371807`) or full story URLs (e.g. `https://www.wattpad.com/story/358371807-whispers-of-romance`).", "default": [], "items": { "type": "string" } }, "username": { "title": "Username (mode=byUser)", "type": "string", "description": "Wattpad username or profile URL. Each returned story is enriched with the author's public profile (bio, location, follower/following counts, votes received, join date)." }, "feed": { "title": "Feed (mode=byCategory)", "enum": [ "", "new" ], "type": "string", "description": "Narrows a genre browse to a specific curated feed. `new` returns the most recently updated stories in the genre; leaving this blank returns Wattpad's default (most-popular) ordering.", "default": "" }, "partIds": { "title": "Chapter/part IDs or URLs (mode=chapterText)", "type": "array", "description": "Numeric Wattpad chapter (\"part\") IDs or chapter URLs, e.g. `1406121589` or `https://www.wattpad.com/1406121589-whispers-of-romance-character-sketch`.", "default": [], "items": { "type": "string" } }, "completedOnly": { "title": "Completed stories only", "type": "boolean", "description": "Only emit stories the author has marked as complete.", "default": false }, "freeOnly": { "title": "Free stories only", "type": "boolean", "description": "Exclude stories that use Wattpad's paid-story (coins) model.", "default": false }, "includeMatureContent": { "title": "Include mature-flagged content", "type": "boolean", "description": "If disabled, drop stories the author has self-flagged as mature. Wattpad's own maturity flag is self-reported and not exhaustive.", "default": true }, "minVotes": { "title": "Minimum vote count", "minimum": 0, "maximum": 100000000, "type": "integer", "description": "Drop stories with fewer votes than this." }, "minReads": { "title": "Minimum read count", "minimum": 0, "maximum": 1000000000, "type": "integer", "description": "Drop stories with fewer reads than this." }, "sortBy": { "title": "Sort results by", "enum": [ "relevance", "mostVotes", "mostReads", "mostCommented", "newest" ], "type": "string", "description": "Re-orders the fetched batch of results (applied client-side after fetching, since Wattpad's own sort parameter is not consistently honored).", "default": "relevance" }, "maxItems": { "title": "Max items", "minimum": 1, "maximum": 500, "type": "integer", "description": "Hard cap on emitted records.", "default": 20 } } }, "runsResponseSchema": { "type": "object", "properties": { "data": { "type": "object", "properties": { "id": { "type": "string" }, "actId": { "type": "string" }, "userId": { "type": "string" }, "startedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" }, "finishedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" }, "status": { "type": "string", "example": "READY" }, "meta": { "type": "object", "properties": { "origin": { "type": "string", "example": "API" }, "userAgent": { "type": "string" } } }, "stats": { "type": "object", "properties": { "inputBodyLen": { "type": "integer", "example": 2000 }, "rebootCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "restartCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "resurrectCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "computeUnits": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } }, "options": { "type": "object", "properties": { "build": { "type": "string", "example": "latest" }, "timeoutSecs": { "type": "integer", "example": 300 }, "memoryMbytes": { "type": "integer", "example": 1024 }, "diskMbytes": { "type": "integer", "example": 2048 } } }, "buildId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultKeyValueStoreId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultDatasetId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultRequestQueueId": { "type": "string" }, "buildNumber": { "type": "string", "example": "1.0.0" }, "containerUrl": { "type": "string" }, "usage": { "type": "object", "properties": { "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 1 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_SERPS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } }, "usageTotalUsd": { "type": "number", "example": 0.00005 }, "usageUsd": { "type": "object", "properties": { "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": { "type": "number", "example": 0.00005 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_SERPS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } } } } } } } } } ```