# Substack Posts Scraper (publications, posts, search) (`datahamster/substack-posts`) Actor

Posts of any Substack publication as flat rows: title, subtitle, authors, date, paid/free, likes, comments, restacks, cover image, tags and (optionally) the full text/HTML. Plus publication search with subscriber counts. Monitor mode alerts on new posts. No login, no proxy.

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

## Pricing

from $1.00 / 1,000 result items

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?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
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.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — 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

## Substack Posts Scraper (publications, posts, search)

Every post of any Substack publication as a flat row — title, subtitle, authors, date, free/paid audience, likes, comments, restacks, cover image, tags, description — with optional full text and HTML. Find publications by topic with subscriber counts. Monitor mode on a saved Task returns only new posts (or changed like/comment counts) since the last run, with optional webhook / Telegram summary. For newsletter research, content aggregation, competitor tracking and lead lists of writers.

### What you get

Post rows: `postId`, `url`, `title`, `subtitle`, `slug`, `publication`, `publicationUrl`, `authors[]`, `postedAt`, `audience`, `postType`, `likes`, `comments`, `restacks`, `wordCount`, `coverImage`, `description`, `bodyText`, `bodyHtml` (with `includeBody`), `tags[]`, `scrapedAt`.
Publication rows (`type: publication`): `title`, `url`, `subdomain`, `customDomain`, `subscriberCountText`, `authorName`, `heroText`, `logoUrl`.

### Input

- `publications` (+ `sort`, `maxPosts`, `includeBody`) and/or `searches` (+ `searchPages`).
- `maxItems`; `mode: monitor` for alerts.

### Pricing

| Event | Price |
|---|---|
| result | $0.001 per row ($1 per 1,000) |
| monitor-check | $0.005 per monitor run |
| change | $0.001 per new/changed row |

Charged only for rows actually pushed. No proxy needed.

### Limits

- Paywalled posts return the public preview only.
- Comments and subscriber lists are not included.

### Changelog

- 0.1: initial release.

# Actor input Schema

## `publications` (type: `array`):

Subdomains, domains or URLs, e.g. lennysnewsletter.com, stratechery, https://x.substack.com

## `searches` (type: `array`):

Find publications by topic (substack.com search) → type=publication rows

## `sort` (type: `string`):

Archive order

## `maxPosts` (type: `integer`):

Archive depth

## `includeBody` (type: `boolean`):

Fetch each post for full text and HTML (one extra request per post; paid posts return their free preview)

## `searchPages` (type: `integer`):

\~20 publications per page

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Stop after this many results (you are charged only for pushed items)

## `mode` (type: `string`):

scrape = full results; monitor = only new/changed items since the previous run of this task

## `monitorKey` (type: `string`):

Optional state key when not running as a saved task

## `webhookUrl` (type: `string`):

POST a change summary here in monitor mode

## `telegramBotToken` (type: `string`):

Optional: bot token for monitor-mode change summaries

## `telegramChatId` (type: `string`):

Optional: chat id that receives monitor-mode summaries

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "publications": [
    "lennysnewsletter.com"
  ],
  "sort": "new",
  "maxPosts": 50,
  "includeBody": false,
  "searchPages": 2,
  "maxItems": 200,
  "mode": "scrape"
}
```

# Actor output Schema

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

All pushed rows (dataset, JSON)

## `resultsTable` (type: `string`):

Dataset in the Console viewer

## `runSummary` (type: `string`):

RUN\_SUMMARY record (pushed, skipped, emptyReason)

# 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 = {
    "publications": [
        "lennysnewsletter.com"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("datahamster/substack-posts").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 = { "publications": ["lennysnewsletter.com"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("datahamster/substack-posts").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 '{
  "publications": [
    "lennysnewsletter.com"
  ]
}' |
apify call datahamster/substack-posts --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

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

```

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/beMlMiPYdvxqaDA4L/builds/cUBa5hS4JCibMaHdl/openapi.json