# Substack Search Posts Scraper (`data_direct/substack-posts-scraper`) Actor

Search posts by keyword

- **URL**: https://apify.com/data_direct/substack-posts-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Data Direct](https://apify.com/data_direct) (community)
- **Categories:** Social media, News
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $3.00 / 1,000 runs

This Actor is paid per event and usage. You are charged both the fixed price for specific events and for Apify platform usage.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
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.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## 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.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## Substack Search Posts Scraper

Search Substack posts by keyword across every publication. Returns post title, subtitle, author, publication, publication date, engagement (likes, comments, restacks), paywall status, word count, cover image and tags, plus the publications related to the query. Supports a time window from the past day to the past year.

### Features

- Real-time Substack data — results are fetched live at run time, never cached or stale
- No login, cookies, or proxy configuration needed — just provide the input and run
- Each result is pushed as a separate dataset item, exportable as JSON, CSV, or Excel
- Fast: a typical run finishes in seconds

### Input

| Field | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| `query` | string | yes | Search keyword (max 500 characters) |
| `page` | integer | no | Page number for pagination (1-101). Each page returns 16-20 posts. |
| `posted_ago` | string | no | Only return posts from this period: 24h (past day), 7d (past week), 30d (past month), or 12m (past year). Omit for all time. Any other value returns 400. One of: 24h, 7d, 30d, 12m. |
| `language` | string | no | Two-letter language code, e.g. es, to rank posts in that language first |

### Pricing

This Actor is billed **per run** — a flat **$0.003 per run**.

- One run returns all matching results for your input, and costs $0.003 — whether it comes back with one result or hundreds.
- You’re only charged when a run succeeds, or when it fails because what you asked for was looked up and doesn’t exist, is private, or isn’t valid: that costs one run ($0.003). Other failed runs are free.

### Example output

```json
{
  "title": "Build custom Claude Code features in Claude Code",
  "subtitle": "No more filing feature requests with Anthropic. Just tell Claude what you want.",
  "url": "https://www.thisweekinai.ai/p/build-custom-claude-code-features",
  "date": "2026-10-06 18:23:35",
  "author": "lonharris",
  "author_name": "Lon Harris",
  "author_id": "380063648",
  "author_url": "https://substack.com/@lonharris",
  "source": "Substack",
  "domain": "substack.com",
  "snippet": "No more filing feature requests with Anthropic. Just tell Claude what you want.",
  "likes": 7,
  "comments": 0,
  "restacks": 1,
  "reactions": {
    "\u2764": 7
  },
  "is_paid": false,
  "audience": "everyone",
  "type": "newsletter",
  "wordcount": 686,
  "lang": "en",
  "cover_image_url": "https://substackcdn.com/image/youtube/w_728,c_limit/yUuFvL1lK4k",
  "podcast_url": "",
  "podcast_duration": 0,
  "tags": [
    "Demo"
  ],
  "publication": "This Week in AI",
  "publication_id": "6195110",
  "publication_url": "https://www.thisweekinai.ai",
  "slug": "build-custom-claude-code-features",
  "post_id": "219138700",
  "authors": [
    {
      "username": "lonharris",
      "name": "Lon Harris",
      "user_id": "380063648"
    }
  ],
  "replies": 0,
  "audio_url": "",
  "podcast_image_url": "",
  "video_duration": 0
}
```

### About

Maintained by **Data Direct** — a small suite of fast, reliable Substack and web-data scrapers. Each actor returns clean, structured results with no login, cookies, or proxy setup required. Have a question or a custom data need? Open an issue on this actor.

# Actor input Schema

## `query` (type: `string`):

Search keyword (max 500 characters)

## `page` (type: `integer`):

Page number for pagination (1-101). Each page returns 16-20 posts.

## `posted_ago` (type: `string`):

Only return posts from this period: 24h (past day), 7d (past week), 30d (past month), or 12m (past year). Omit for all time. Any other value returns 400.

## `language` (type: `string`):

Two-letter language code, e.g. es, to rank posts in that language first

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "query": "anthropic",
  "page": 1
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

# 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 '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "query": "anthropic"
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("data_direct/substack-posts-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 '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "query": "anthropic" }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("data_direct/substack-posts-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "query": "anthropic"
}' |
apify call data_direct/substack-posts-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,data_direct/substack-posts-scraper"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/bejPrP91GASBg3jJp/builds/1MyWKNoHtO1Uwia5s/openapi.json