Bluesky Scraper — Posts, Profiles, Followers & Feeds

Extract posts, profiles, threads, followers, following lists, and custom feeds from Bluesky at scale. Uses the public AT Protocol — no API key or login needed.

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Free Trial Ending April 3

This actor is free while we collect feedback. Starting April 3, 2026, it moves to $4.99/month. Add a payment method at apify.com/billing to keep access.

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What Can You Scrape?

Data Type	Description
Posts	Search by keyword, hashtag, mention, author, domain, or date range
Profiles	Full user profiles with follower/following counts and bio
Followers	Complete follower list for any handle
Following	Complete following list for any handle
Threads	Full post threads with nested replies
Custom Feeds	Algorithmic and user-created feeds

Features

• Advanced search filters — date range, language, author, domain, hashtags, mentions
• Sort by latest or top relevance
• Up to 50,000 items per run
• Full engagement metrics — likes, reposts, replies, quotes, bookmark count, engagement score
• Author enrichment — optional follower/following/post counts per author
• Media extraction — hasMedia flag, media count, flat media URL array
• Reply detection — isReply flag with parent and root thread URIs
• Language detection — per-post language field
• No authentication — uses the public AT Protocol API
• Robust rate limiting — 5 retries with exponential backoff, Retry-After header support

Input Parameters

Field	Type	Default	Description
searchQuery	string	—	Keyword to search, e.g. "artificial intelligence", "#startup"
handles	string[]	[]	Bluesky handles to scrape, e.g. ["jay.bsky.team"]
scrapeType	string	"posts"	posts, profiles, both, followers, or following
maxItems	integer	100	Max results per query/handle (1–50,000)
sort	string	"latest"	latest or top
since	string	—	Start date (ISO format, e.g. "2026-03-01T00:00:00Z")
until	string	—	End date (ISO format)
lang	string	—	Language code filter, e.g. "en", "fr"
tag	string[]	[]	Hashtag filters
mentions	string	—	Filter posts mentioning this handle
author	string	—	Filter posts by author handle
domain	string	—	Filter posts linking to this domain
threadUris	string[]	[]	AT Protocol URIs of threads to scrape
feedUris	string[]	[]	Custom feed URIs to scrape
threadDepth	integer	6	Max depth when scraping threads
resolveAuthors	boolean	false	Fetch author profiles for follower/following/post counts

Example Inputs

Search posts by keyword

{
  "searchQuery": "artificial intelligence",
  "scrapeType": "posts",
  "maxItems": 200,
  "sort": "top",
  "lang": "en"
}

Search with author enrichment

{
  "searchQuery": "web scraping",
  "scrapeType": "posts",
  "maxItems": 50,
  "resolveAuthors": true
}

Scrape a user's posts and profile

{
  "handles": ["jay.bsky.team"],
  "scrapeType": "both",
  "maxItems": 100
}

Get followers of an account

{
  "handles": ["bsky.app"],
  "scrapeType": "followers",
  "maxItems": 5000
}

Output Fields — Posts

Field	Type	Description
uri	string	AT Protocol URI
cid	string	Content identifier
authorHandle	string	Author's Bluesky handle
authorDisplayName	string	Author's display name
authorDid	string	Author's DID
authorAvatar	string	Author's avatar URL
authorFollowersCount	number/null	Author's follower count (requires resolveAuthors or handle scraping)
authorFollowingCount	number/null	Author's following count
authorPostsCount	number/null	Author's total post count
text	string	Post text content
createdAt	string	Post creation timestamp (ISO 8601)
indexedAt	string	Index timestamp
language	string/null	Detected post language (e.g. "en", "ja")
languages	string[]	All language tags on the post
likeCount	number	Number of likes
repostCount	number	Number of reposts
replyCount	number	Number of replies
quoteCount	number	Number of quotes
bookmarkCount	number	Number of bookmarks
engagementScore	number	Weighted engagement: likes + reposts×2 + replies×3 + quotes×4
postUrl	string	Direct URL to the post on bsky.app
hashtags	string[]	Extracted hashtags
mentions	string[]	Mentioned DIDs
facetLinks	string[]	Links extracted from rich text facets
hasMedia	boolean	Whether post contains images or videos
mediaCount	number	Total number of images + videos
mediaUrls	string[]	Flat array of all media URLs
images	object[]	Detailed image data (url, thumb, alt, aspectRatio)
videos	object[]	Detailed video data (url, thumb, alt, aspectRatio)
links	object[]	Embedded link cards (url, title, description, thumb)
hasEmbeddedMedia	boolean	Has images, videos, or link cards
quotedPost	object/null	Quoted post details (uri, author, text)
isRepost	boolean	Whether this is a repost of another post
repostedBy	object/null	Who reposted (handle, displayName)
isReply	boolean	Whether this post is a reply
replyParentUri	string/null	URI of the parent post (if reply)
replyRootUri	string/null	URI of the thread root post (if reply)

Example Post Output

{
  "uri": "at://did:plc:abc.../app.bsky.feed.post/xyz...",
  "cid": "bafyrei...",
  "authorHandle": "alice.bsky.social",
  "authorDisplayName": "Alice",
  "authorDid": "did:plc:abc...",
  "authorAvatar": "https://cdn.bsky.app/...",
  "authorFollowersCount": 5200,
  "authorFollowingCount": 340,
  "authorPostsCount": 1820,
  "text": "Just shipped our new feature and the response has been incredible...",
  "createdAt": "2026-03-25T10:30:00.000Z",
  "indexedAt": "2026-03-25T10:30:01.000Z",
  "language": "en",
  "languages": ["en"],
  "likeCount": 45,
  "repostCount": 12,
  "replyCount": 8,
  "quoteCount": 3,
  "bookmarkCount": 2,
  "engagementScore": 105,
  "postUrl": "https://bsky.app/profile/alice.bsky.social/post/xyz...",
  "hashtags": ["buildinpublic", "startup"],
  "mentions": [],
  "facetLinks": [],
  "hasMedia": true,
  "mediaCount": 1,
  "mediaUrls": ["https://cdn.bsky.app/img/..."],
  "images": [{"url": "https://cdn.bsky.app/img/...", "thumb": "...", "alt": "Screenshot", "aspectRatio": null}],
  "videos": [],
  "links": [],
  "hasEmbeddedMedia": true,
  "quotedPost": null,
  "isRepost": false,
  "repostedBy": null,
  "isReply": false,
  "replyParentUri": null,
  "replyRootUri": null
}

Output Fields — Profiles

Field	Type	Description
did	string	Decentralized identifier
handle	string	Bluesky handle
displayName	string	Display name
description	string	Bio text
avatar	string	Avatar image URL
banner	string	Banner image URL
followersCount	number	Number of followers
followsCount	number	Number of accounts followed
postsCount	number	Total number of posts
createdAt	string	Account creation date
indexedAt	string	Last index date
profileUrl	string	Direct URL to profile on bsky.app
labels	string[]	Content labels
associated	object	Associated data (lists, feeds, etc.)
pinnedPost	string/null	URI of pinned post

Code Examples

Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_API_TOKEN")

run = client.actor("cryptosignals/bluesky-scraper").call(run_input={
    "searchQuery": "AI tools",
    "scrapeType": "posts",
    "maxItems": 100,
    "sort": "top",
    "lang": "en",
    "resolveAuthors": True,
})

for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(f"@{item['authorHandle']} ({item.get('authorFollowersCount', '?')} followers): "
          f"{item['text'][:80]}... "
          f"(engagement: {item['engagementScore']})")

JavaScript

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: 'YOUR_API_TOKEN' });

const run = await client.actor('cryptosignals/bluesky-scraper').call({
    searchQuery: 'AI tools',
    scrapeType: 'posts',
    maxItems: 100,
    sort: 'top',
    lang: 'en',
    resolveAuthors: true,
});

const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach(item => {
    console.log(`@${item.authorHandle} (${item.authorFollowersCount ?? '?'} followers): ${item.text.slice(0, 80)}... (engagement: ${item.engagementScore})`);
});

cURL

# Start the run
curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/cryptosignals~bluesky-scraper/runs?token=YOUR_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"searchQuery": "AI", "scrapeType": "posts", "maxItems": 50}'

# Get results (replace DATASET_ID)
curl "https://api.apify.com/v2/datasets/DATASET_ID/items?token=YOUR_API_TOKEN&format=json"

Use Cases

• Social listening — monitor brand mentions and sentiment on Bluesky in real-time
• Audience research — analyze follower demographics and growth for any account
• Content strategy — find trending topics and high-engagement post patterns
• Lead generation — discover people discussing topics relevant to your business
• Academic research — collect public social media data at scale for analysis
• Competitor monitoring — track what competitors post and how their audience reacts
• Influencer discovery — find accounts with high engagement in specific niches

FAQ

Do I need a Bluesky account? No. The scraper uses the public AT Protocol API. No login or API key required.

How many results can I get? Up to 50,000 per run. For larger datasets, run multiple searches with different parameters.

What is the engagement score? A weighted metric: likes + reposts×2 + replies×3 + quotes×4. Higher scores indicate more engaging posts. Use it to quickly sort and filter high-value content.

What does resolveAuthors do? When enabled, the scraper fetches full profiles for each unique author, adding follower count, following count, and post count to every post item. This makes extra API calls, so it's opt-in.

Can I get private/blocked content? No. Only publicly available data is scraped.

How fresh is the data? Real-time. Each run fetches live data from the AT Protocol API.

What export formats are supported? JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, HTML. Connect via API, webhooks, Zapier, Make, or Google Sheets.

Integrations

• REST API — trigger runs and fetch results programmatically
• Webhooks — get notified when scraping completes
• Zapier / Make — connect to 5,000+ apps
• Google Sheets — export directly to spreadsheets
• Slack / Email — set up alerts for new posts matching your keywords

Related Scrapers

• Substack Scraper — Newsletter posts and subscriber data
• Hacker News Scraper — Stories, comments and jobs
• Reddit Scraper — Posts, comments and subreddits

See all scrapers by CryptoSignals

Using proxies

Bluesky's AT Protocol API enforces per-IP rate limits that trigger HTTP 429 responses during bulk data collection. Once rate-limited, your IP can be throttled for extended periods. Residential proxies distribute requests across real ISP addresses, keeping each IP well under the rate threshold. ThorData provides 200M+ residential IPs that work well for sustained AT Protocol scraping without hitting rate walls.