# Stack Exchange Questions Scraper (`devilscrapes/stackexchange-questions-scraper`) Actor

Search and scrape questions across Stack Overflow and every Stack Exchange site — by tag, search query, or user. Returns title, body, tags, score, view count, answer count, accepted answer, asker, and timestamps. Built on the Stack Exchange v2.3 API.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/devilscrapes/stackexchange-questions-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [DevilScrapes](https://apify.com/devilscrapes) (community)
- **Categories:** Developer tools
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, NaN bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

Pay per event

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

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

<div align="center">
  <img src=".actor/icon.svg" width="160" alt="Devil Scrapes mark" />

## Stack Exchange Questions Scraper

**💰 $1.50 / 1 000 results** &nbsp;·&nbsp; pay only for results &nbsp;·&nbsp; no credit card to try

_We do the dirty work so your dataset stays clean._ 😈

Search and scrape questions across Stack Overflow and every Stack Exchange site — by tag, search query, or user. Returns title, body, tags, score, view count, answer count, accepted answer, asker, and timestamps. Built on the Stack Exchange v2.3 API.

</div>

---

### 🎯 What this scrapes

Stack Exchange's API (api.stackexchange.com/2.3) covers every site in the network — Stack Overflow, Server Fault, Super User, Cross Validated, plus 170+ topic sites. This Actor wraps the questions endpoint, paginates safely (respecting the `backoff` field), and writes one row per question with body, tags, and key metadata.

### 🔥 What we handle for you

- 🛡️ **Browser fingerprint rotation** — `curl-cffi` impersonates real Chrome / Firefox / Safari TLS handshakes so the target sees a browser, not Python.
- 🌐 **Residential proxy rotation** via Apify Proxy — fresh session and exit IP on every block.
- 🔁 **Retries with exponential backoff** on `408 / 429 / 5xx` — up to 5 attempts per page, `Retry-After` honoured.
- 🧱 **Rate-limit-aware pacing** — when the target pushes back, we slow down instead of getting banned.
- 🧊 **Clean, typed dataset rows** — Pydantic-validated, ISO-8601 timestamps, stable IDs, JSON / CSV / Excel export straight from the Apify Console.
- 💰 **Pay-Per-Event pricing** — you only pay for results that hit your dataset. No data, no charge.

### 💡 Use cases

- **Support-knowledge mining** — pull the top 100 voted Q&A for your product's tag.
- **Trend monitoring** — daily diffs on the `hot` sort to see emergent issues.
- **Help-center seed** — feed Q&A bodies into a RAG store for an internal documentation bot.
- **Recruiter outreach** — extract askers from a `react` tag, score by reputation (via user endpoint).

### ⚙️ How to use it

1. Click **Try for free** at the top of the page.
2. Fill in the input form — most fields have sensible defaults.
3. Click **Start**. Output streams into the run's dataset.
4. Export from **Storage → Dataset** as JSON, CSV, or Excel — or fetch via the API.

### 📥 Input

| Field | Type | Required | Default | Notes |
|---|---|:--:|---|---|
| `site` | `string` | no | 'stackoverflow' | Site slug, e.g. <code>stackoverflow</code>, <code>superuser</code>, <code>serverfault</code>, <code>askubuntu</code>, <c |
| `mode` | `string` | no | 'tagged' | How to find questions. |
| `tags` | `array` | no | ['python'] | Tags to filter by. Multiple tags = OR by default; use one to keep it tight. |
| `searchQuery` | `string` | no | '—' | Free-text search query. |
| `userId` | `integer` | no | '—' | Numeric Stack Exchange user id. |
| `sortBy` | `string` | no | 'activity' | Stack Exchange API sort param. |
| `maxResults` | `integer` | no | 30 | Max items across pages. API caps page size at 100. |
| `includeBody` | `boolean` | no | True | Request `filter=withbody` to include the full question body. Slightly bigger payload. |
| `apiKey` | `string` | no | '—' | Get one at stackapps.com — lifts the daily quota from 300 to 10 000 requests. |
| `proxyConfiguration` | `object` | no | {'useApifyProxy': False} | Optional. The API is friendly to direct clients. |

#### Example input

```json
{
  "site": "stackoverflow",
  "mode": "tagged",
  "tags": [
    "python"
  ],
  "sortBy": "votes",
  "maxResults": 3,
  "includeBody": false,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}
````

### 📤 Output

Every row is one dataset item.

| Field | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| `question_id` | `integer` | Stack Exchange question id. |
| `site` | `string` | Site slug the question came from. |
| `title` | `string` | Question title. |
| `body_html` | `['string', 'null']` | Question body in HTML (when includeBody=true). |
| `tags` | `array` | Tags applied to the question. |
| `score` | `integer` | Net score (upvotes minus downvotes). |
| `view_count` | `integer` | Question views. |
| `answer_count` | `integer` | Number of answers. |
| `is_answered` | `boolean` | Has an accepted answer or any positive-score answer. |
| `accepted_answer_id` | `['integer', 'null']` | Accepted answer id, when present. |
| `link` | `string` | Canonical question URL. |
| `owner_user_id` | `['integer', 'null']` | Asker user id. |
| `owner_display_name` | `['string', 'null']` | Asker display name. |
| `creation_date` | `integer` | Unix timestamp — created at. |
| `last_activity_date` | `integer` | Unix timestamp — last activity. |
| `posted_at` | `string` | ISO-8601 UTC derived from creation\_date. |
| `scraped_at` | `string` | When this row was recorded. |

#### Example output

```json
{
  "question_id": 1234567,
  "site": "stackoverflow",
  "title": "How do I close a connection cleanly in asyncio?",
  "tags": [
    "python",
    "asyncio"
  ],
  "score": 142,
  "answer_count": 3,
  "link": "https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1234567/..."
}
```

### 💰 Pricing

Pay-Per-Event — you pay only when these events fire:

| Event | USD | What it is |
|---|---:|---|
| `actor-start` | $0.005 | One-off warm-up charge per run |
| `result` | $0.0015 | Per dataset item |

Example: 1 000 results at the rates above ≈ **$1.50**. No subscription, no minimum, no card to start — Apify gives every new account $5 of free credit.

### 🚧 Limitations

Comments, voting graph, and revisions are not in scope. Search ranking is the API's, which differs from the website's UI search.

### ❓ FAQ

**Why is the API quota so low?**

Stack Exchange caps anonymous usage at 300 requests/day. Sign up for a key and you get 10 000.

**Can I get answers too?**

Out of scope here — see the sibling Actor `stackexchange-answers-scraper` (planned).

**What about voting / posting?**

We do not write to Stack Exchange. Read-only API access only.

**Why are some user fields null?**

Some questions are asked by deleted users — the API surfaces `null`.

### 💬 Your feedback

Spotted a bug, hit a weird edge case, or need a new field? Open an
issue on the Actor's **Issues** tab on Apify Console — we ship
fixes weekly and we read every report.

***

<div align="center">

Built by **[Devil Scrapes](https://apify.com/DevilScrapes)** 😈 — a small fleet of
opinionated public-data Actors. Honest pricing, real engineering, zero fine print.

</div>

# Actor input Schema

## `site` (type: `string`):

Site slug, e.g. <code>stackoverflow</code>, <code>superuser</code>, <code>serverfault</code>, <code>askubuntu</code>, <code>stats</code> (Cross Validated), <code>math</code>.

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

How to find questions.

## `tags` (type: `array`):

Tags to filter by. Multiple tags = OR by default; use one to keep it tight.

## `searchQuery` (type: `string`):

Free-text search query.

## `userId` (type: `integer`):

Numeric Stack Exchange user id.

## `sortBy` (type: `string`):

Stack Exchange API sort param.

## `maxResults` (type: `integer`):

Max items across pages. API caps page size at 100.

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

Request `filter=withbody` to include the full question body. Slightly bigger payload.

## `apiKey` (type: `string`):

Get one at stackapps.com — lifts the daily quota from 300 to 10 000 requests.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Optional. The API is friendly to direct clients.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "site": "stackoverflow",
  "mode": "tagged",
  "tags": [
    "python"
  ],
  "searchQuery": "asyncio cancellation",
  "sortBy": "activity",
  "maxResults": 30,
  "includeBody": true,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `datasetItems` (type: `string`):

All dataset items as JSON.

## `datasetItemsCsv` (type: `string`):

Same data exported to CSV.

## `datasetView` (type: `string`):

Open the run dataset in the Console.

# 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 = {
    "tags": [
        "python"
    ],
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": false
    }
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("devilscrapes/stackexchange-questions-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 = {
    "tags": ["python"],
    "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": False },
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("devilscrapes/stackexchange-questions-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 '{
  "tags": [
    "python"
  ],
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}' |
apify call devilscrapes/stackexchange-questions-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=devilscrapes/stackexchange-questions-scraper",
                "--header",
                "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

```

## OpenAPI specification

```json
{
    "openapi": "3.0.1",
    "info": {
        "title": "Stack Exchange Questions Scraper",
        "description": "Search and scrape questions across Stack Overflow and every Stack Exchange site — by tag, search query, or user. Returns title, body, tags, score, view count, answer count, accepted answer, asker, and timestamps. Built on the Stack Exchange v2.3 API.",
        "version": "0.4",
        "x-build-id": "qsvT4JxzE9NR3VvDx"
    },
    "servers": [
        {
            "url": "https://api.apify.com/v2"
        }
    ],
    "paths": {
        "/acts/devilscrapes~stackexchange-questions-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items": {
            "post": {
                "operationId": "run-sync-get-dataset-items-devilscrapes-stackexchange-questions-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": {
                                "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                },
                "parameters": [
                    {
                        "name": "token",
                        "in": "query",
                        "required": true,
                        "schema": {
                            "type": "string"
                        },
                        "description": "Enter your Apify token here"
                    }
                ],
                "responses": {
                    "200": {
                        "description": "OK"
                    }
                }
            }
        },
        "/acts/devilscrapes~stackexchange-questions-scraper/runs": {
            "post": {
                "operationId": "runs-sync-devilscrapes-stackexchange-questions-scraper",
                "x-openai-isConsequential": false,
                "summary": "Executes an Actor and returns information about the initiated run in response.",
                "tags": [
                    "Run Actor"
                ],
                "requestBody": {
                    "required": true,
                    "content": {
                        "application/json": {
                            "schema": {
                                "$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": {
                                    "$ref": "#/components/schemas/runsResponseSchema"
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        },
        "/acts/devilscrapes~stackexchange-questions-scraper/run-sync": {
            "post": {
                "operationId": "run-sync-devilscrapes-stackexchange-questions-scraper",
                "x-openai-isConsequential": false,
                "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for completion, and returns the OUTPUT from Key-value store in response.",
                "tags": [
                    "Run Actor"
                ],
                "requestBody": {
                    "required": true,
                    "content": {
                        "application/json": {
                            "schema": {
                                "$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",
                "properties": {
                    "site": {
                        "title": "Stack Exchange site",
                        "type": "string",
                        "description": "Site slug, e.g. <code>stackoverflow</code>, <code>superuser</code>, <code>serverfault</code>, <code>askubuntu</code>, <code>stats</code> (Cross Validated), <code>math</code>.",
                        "default": "stackoverflow"
                    },
                    "mode": {
                        "title": "Query mode",
                        "enum": [
                            "tagged",
                            "search",
                            "user_questions"
                        ],
                        "type": "string",
                        "description": "How to find questions.",
                        "default": "tagged"
                    },
                    "tags": {
                        "title": "Tags (when mode=tagged)",
                        "type": "array",
                        "description": "Tags to filter by. Multiple tags = OR by default; use one to keep it tight.",
                        "items": {
                            "type": "string"
                        }
                    },
                    "searchQuery": {
                        "title": "Search query (when mode=search)",
                        "type": "string",
                        "description": "Free-text search query."
                    },
                    "userId": {
                        "title": "User id (when mode=user_questions)",
                        "minimum": 1,
                        "type": "integer",
                        "description": "Numeric Stack Exchange user id."
                    },
                    "sortBy": {
                        "title": "Sort by",
                        "enum": [
                            "activity",
                            "votes",
                            "creation",
                            "hot"
                        ],
                        "type": "string",
                        "description": "Stack Exchange API sort param.",
                        "default": "activity"
                    },
                    "maxResults": {
                        "title": "Max questions",
                        "minimum": 1,
                        "maximum": 1000,
                        "type": "integer",
                        "description": "Max items across pages. API caps page size at 100.",
                        "default": 30
                    },
                    "includeBody": {
                        "title": "Include question body (HTML)",
                        "type": "boolean",
                        "description": "Request `filter=withbody` to include the full question body. Slightly bigger payload.",
                        "default": true
                    },
                    "apiKey": {
                        "title": "Stack Exchange API key (optional)",
                        "type": "string",
                        "description": "Get one at stackapps.com — lifts the daily quota from 300 to 10 000 requests."
                    },
                    "proxyConfiguration": {
                        "title": "Proxy configuration",
                        "type": "object",
                        "description": "Optional. The API is friendly to direct clients.",
                        "default": {
                            "useApifyProxy": false
                        }
                    }
                }
            },
            "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
                                    }
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
}
```