Amazon book scraper

Overview

The Amazon Book Scraper is an Apify Actor that extracts detailed book metadata directly from Amazon product pages using browser automation. Provide one or more Amazon book URLs and the actor returns structured data including title, author, price, rating, description, publisher, and cover image. Whether you're building an Amazon book database, monitoring Amazon book prices, or conducting publishing research, this actor delivers accurate Amazon book data efficiently.

With residential proxy support and anti-detection techniques, the Amazon Book Scraper ensures reliable and undetected access to Amazon book pages — even on slow or restricted networks.

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Features

• Full Amazon Book Extraction – Scrapes detailed Amazon book data including title, author, price, rating, reviews count, description, publisher, and more.
• Playwright Browser Automation – Uses a real Chromium browser to render JavaScript-heavy Amazon book pages accurately.
• Anti-Detection – Rotates user agents and disables automation fingerprints to avoid Amazon bot detection.
• Retry Logic – Automatically retries up to 3 times with multiple navigation strategies for reliable Amazon book scraping.
• ASIN Extraction – Automatically extracts the Amazon ASIN from the book URL.
• Proxy Support – Uses Apify residential proxies to bypass Amazon IP restrictions.
• Anti-Blocking Delays – Adds random delays between requests to mimic human browsing behavior.
• Error Handling – Logs errors per URL and continues processing remaining Amazon book pages.
• Dataset Integration – Automatically pushes all Amazon book data to your Apify dataset for easy export.

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How It Works

1. Input – Provide a list of Amazon book page URLs.
2. Browser Launch – The actor launches a headless Chromium browser with anti-detection settings.
3. Page Navigation – It navigates to each Amazon book URL using multiple fallback strategies (domcontentloaded → load → commit).
4. Data Extraction – Extracts Amazon book fields using targeted CSS selectors.
5. Build Output – Structures all extracted data into a clean record and pushes it to the dataset.
6. Repeat – Processes all URLs with random delays between requests.

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Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
urls	String or Array	Required	Amazon book page URLs, one per line or as a JSON array.
useApifyProxy	Boolean	true	Whether to use Apify proxy for Amazon book scraping.
apifyProxyGroups	Array of strings	["RESIDENTIAL"]	Proxy groups to use (e.g., ["RESIDENTIAL"]).

Example input:

{
  "urls": [
    "https://www.amazon.com/dp/0735211299",
    "https://www.amazon.com/dp/0062316117"
  ],
  "useApifyProxy": true,
  "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"]
}

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Output

Each Amazon book record is pushed as a separate dataset item with the following fields:

Field	Type	Description
url	string	Original Amazon book page URL.
asin	string	Amazon Standard Identification Number (ASIN).
title	string	Amazon book title.
author	string	Amazon book author name.
rating	string	Average Amazon book rating (e.g., "4.7 out of 5 stars").
reviews_count	string	Total number of Amazon book customer reviews.
price	string	Amazon book price (e.g., "$14.99").
image	string	Direct URL to the Amazon book cover image.
description	string	Amazon book description/synopsis.
publisher	string	Amazon book publisher name.
pub_date	string	Amazon book publication date.
pages_count	string	Number of pages in the Amazon book.
language	string	Language of the Amazon book.
status	string	"success" or "error".
attempt	integer	Number of attempts made to scrape this Amazon book page.
scraped_at	string	ISO 8601 UTC timestamp of when the Amazon book was scraped.

Example output (success):

{
  "url": "https://www.amazon.com/dp/0735211299",
  "asin": "0735211299",
  "title": "Atomic Habits",
  "author": "James Clear",
  "rating": "4.8 out of 5 stars",
  "reviews_count": "112,000 ratings",
  "price": "$14.99",
  "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/513Y5o-DYtL.jpg",
  "description": "No matter your goals, Atomic Habits offers a proven framework...",
  "publisher": "Avery",
  "pub_date": "October 16, 2018",
  "pages_count": "320",
  "language": "English",
  "status": "success",
  "attempt": 1,
  "scraped_at": "2025-03-22T12:34:56Z"
}

Example output (error):

{
  "url": "https://www.amazon.com/dp/XXXXXXXXXX",
  "status": "error",
  "message": "All navigation strategies timed out",
  "attempt": 3
}

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Use Cases

• Amazon Book Databases – Build and maintain a structured catalog of Amazon book listings.
• Price Monitoring – Track Amazon book prices over time for deals and trends.
• Publishing Research – Analyze Amazon book ratings, reviews, and publisher data.
• E-commerce Enrichment – Enrich product listings with Amazon book descriptions and cover images.
• Competitor Analysis – Monitor Amazon book rankings and pricing for competitive intelligence.
• Academic Research – Collect structured Amazon book data for literature or data science projects.
• Recommendation Engines – Power Amazon book recommendation systems using ratings and metadata.

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Quick Start

1. Open on Apify – Visit the actor page and click Try for free.
2. Set Input – Paste your Amazon book page URLs into the urls field.
3. Enable Proxy – Keep useApifyProxy enabled for reliable Amazon book scraping.
4. Run the Actor – Start the run and monitor progress in the logs.
5. Download Results – Export the Amazon book dataset as JSON, CSV, or Excel once finished.

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Technical Stack

• Browser Automation – (Chromium) for JavaScript-rendered Amazon book pages
• Anti-Detection – Random user agents, disabled webdriver fingerprint
• HTTP Navigation – Multi-strategy page loading (domcontentloaded, load, commit)
• Proxy – Apify Proxy (residential) for bypassing Amazon restrictions
• Platform – Apify Actor — serverless, scalable, integrated with Dataset and Key-Value Store

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Related Tools

Actor	Description
Goodreads Scraper	Extracts Amazon book ratings, reviews, and metadata from Goodreads.
Book Metadata Scraper	Extracts rich Amazon book metadata from the Open Library database.
Google Books Scraper	Fetches Amazon book metadata and previews via the Google Books API.
ISBN Lookup Tool	Looks up detailed Amazon book info by ISBN from multiple data sources.
Book Price Comparator	Compares Amazon book prices across major online retailers.

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Changelog

v1.0.0 – Initial Release

• -based Amazon book page scraping
• Title, author, price, rating, and reviews extraction
• ASIN extraction from Amazon book URLs
• Publisher, publication date, and page count extraction
• Cover image URL extraction
• Residential proxy configuration support
• Anti-detection user agent rotation
• Retry logic with multiple navigation strategies
• Random anti-blocking delays
• Dataset integration with error handling

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Pricing

• Free for basic usage on Apify (up to certain compute limits).
• Paid plans available for higher volume, priority support, and longer runs.
• Proxy credits consumed if residential proxies are enabled.

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Support & Feedback

• Issues & Ideas – Open a ticket on the Apify Actor issue tracker.
• Documentation – Visit Apify Docs for platform guides.
• Scraping Notes – Always use residential proxies when scraping Amazon book pages to avoid blocks.

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Disclaimer: This actor scrapes publicly visible data from Amazon book pages. Please ensure your usage complies with Amazon's terms of service. This actor is intended for research and informational purposes only.