# Substack Leads Scraper (`digispruce/substack-leads-scraper`) Actor

Find newsletter creators to pitch. Extracts author contact email, social profiles (Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram), subscriber counts, and publication metadata from Substack newsletters. One flat lead row per URL — drop straight into your CRM. Pay-per-event pricing.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/digispruce/substack-leads-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Akram](https://apify.com/digispruce) (community)
- **Categories:** Lead generation, Automation
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, NaN bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $1.00 / 1,000 lead scrape events

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

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

## Substack Author Scraper

Find newsletter creators to pitch. Takes Substack URLs, returns one CRM-ready lead row per author — name, email, social profiles, subscriber count, publication metadata.

Focused for B2B outreach, sponsorship sales, partnership prospecting, and competitive lead research. No posts, no comments, no article scraping — just the contact data you actually need.

### 🚀 Key Features

- **📧 Email Discovery**: Author contact emails extracted from About pages, footers, and `mailto:` links with confidence-based ranking. Blacklists 100+ noise domains (analytics, CDNs, social platforms) and generic prefixes (info@, support@, no-reply@).
- **🔗 Social Profiles**: Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and personal website URLs.
- **📊 Publication Metadata**: Title, description, custom domain, logo, created date, paid status, founding-plan name, subscriber count (when publicly visible).
- **🌐 Custom Domain Support**: Handles `*.substack.com` and custom domains (e.g. `platformer.news`).
- **👥 Multi-Publication Authors**: Correctly attributes the requested publication (not the author's primary one) for writers who run multiple newsletters.
- **⚡ Batch Processing**: Process hundreds of URLs in a single run.
- **💰 Pay-per-Lead**: One charge per URL processed (success or fail).

### 📋 Input

#### Required

- **newsletterUrls** (array): List of Substack newsletter URLs to enrich
  - Example: `[{"url": "https://platformer.substack.com"}, {"url": "https://lennysnewsletter.com"}]`
  - Supports both `*.substack.com` URLs and custom domains

#### Optional

- **delayBetweenRequests** (number, default: `3000`, range: `500-10000`): Delay in milliseconds between HTTP requests to avoid rate limiting
- **maxRetries** (number, default: `2`, range: `0-5`): Retry count per URL on failure

### 💡 Example Input

```json
{
  "newsletterUrls": [
    { "url": "https://platformer.substack.com" },
    { "url": "https://lennysnewsletter.com" },
    { "url": "https://andrewsullivan.substack.com" }
  ],
  "delayBetweenRequests": 3000,
  "maxRetries": 2
}
````

### 📊 Example Output

One row per submitted URL:

```json
{
  "author_id": 241262,
  "author_name": "Casey Newton",
  "author_handle": "platformer",
  "author_bio": "Casey Newton is the founder and editor of Platformer...",
  "author_photo_url": "https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/...",
  "author_previous_name": null,
  "author_subscriber_count": 176000,
  "author_subscriber_count_string": "176K+ subscribers",
  "author_follower_count": 209469,
  "author_twitter_url": "https://twitter.com/CaseyNewton",
  "author_linkedin_url": null,
  "author_facebook_url": "https://www.facebook.com/...",
  "author_instagram_url": "https://instagram.com/crumbler",
  "author_is_active": true,
  "author_profile_set_up_at": "2021-04-22T18:51:48.648Z",
  "author_profile_disabled": false,
  "email": "casey@platformer.news",
  "website_url": "https://www.platformer.news",
  "publication_id": 7976,
  "publication_name": "Platformer",
  "publication_subdomain": "platformer",
  "publication_url": "https://www.platformer.news",
  "publication_description": "News at the intersection of Silicon Valley and democracy...",
  "publication_logo_url": "https://bucketeer-...",
  "publication_custom_domain": "www.platformer.news",
  "publication_created_at": "2019-03-29T13:28:21.009Z",
  "publication_subscriber_count": 176000,
  "publication_subscriber_count_visible": true,
  "publication_is_paid": false,
  "publication_founding_plan_name": "Mystery Tier",
  "publication_has_posts": true,
  "publication_count": 1,
  "leaderboard_category": "Technology",
  "leaderboard_rank": 4,
  "leaderboard_ranking_type": "paid",
  "all_publications": [...],
  "scraped_at": "2026-05-23T19:19:13.110957+00:00"
}
```

### 📋 Output Fields

Grouped by prefix. All fields except those marked **required** may be `null`.

#### Author identity & profile

- `author_id` (int, **required**), `author_name` (string, **required**), `author_handle` (string, **required**)
- `author_bio`, `author_photo_url`, `author_previous_name`
- `author_subscriber_count` (int), `author_subscriber_count_string` (string), `author_follower_count` (int)
- `author_twitter_url`, `author_linkedin_url`, `author_facebook_url`, `author_instagram_url`
- `author_is_active` (bool), `author_profile_set_up_at` (ISO 8601), `author_profile_disabled` (bool)

#### Contact

- `email` — best-effort, may be a personal address, team alias, or null
- `website_url` — personal/business site from the author's profile

#### Publication

- `publication_id` (int, **required**), `publication_name` (string, **required**), `publication_url` (string, **required**)
- `publication_subdomain`, `publication_description`, `publication_logo_url`, `publication_custom_domain`, `publication_created_at` (ISO 8601)
- `publication_subscriber_count` (int), `publication_subscriber_count_visible` (bool), `publication_is_paid` (bool), `publication_founding_plan_name`
- `publication_has_posts` (bool), `publication_count` (int) — how many publications this author runs

#### Leaderboard (present only when ranked)

- `leaderboard_category`, `leaderboard_rank` (int), `leaderboard_ranking_type`

#### Other

- `all_publications` (array of objects) — full list with id/name/subdomain/url/is\_primary/role/payments\_state per entry
- `scraped_at` (ISO 8601, **required**)

### 🔧 Use Cases

- **Newsletter sponsorship outreach**: Build target lists with the actual emails you need to pitch
- **Creator partnership prospecting**: Find collaborators in specific niches with subscriber-count context
- **B2B lead generation**: Convert a Substack URL list into a CRM-ready contact file
- **Competitive intelligence**: Map who's writing what and at what scale
- **Market research**: Audience size + monetization status across a topic area

### ⚠️ Limitations

- **Email is best-effort, not guaranteed.** When an author doesn't expose a contact address publicly, `email` is `null`.
- **Subscriber count visibility is opt-in.** Authors can hide it; `publication_subscriber_count_visible: false` means it isn't exposed.
- **Broken/dead URLs are still billed.** One `lead-scrape` charge fires per URL regardless of whether enrichment succeeds — compute is consumed either way. Validate your URL list before submitting.
- **Some custom-domain newsletters can't be resolved.** When the requested URL doesn't expose the data we need, that URL produces a typed failure record in the run's key-value store under `failed_urls`.

### 💰 Pricing

Pay-per-event:

- One **`lead-scrape`** charge per URL processed, whether enrichment succeeds or fails
- Failed URLs (broken sites, missing data, parsing errors) are billed the same — compute is consumed regardless
- Validate URLs before submitting to avoid charges on dead newsletters

### 🛟 Support

Found a bug or have a feature request? Open an issue on the Actor's **Issues** tab in Apify Console. We respond within a few business days.

### 🏷️ Tags

Substack, lead generation, B2B outreach, newsletter, email discovery, contact enrichment, creator economy, sponsorship sales

# Actor input Schema

## `newsletterUrls` (type: `array`):

List of Substack newsletter URLs to enrich. Each URL becomes one lead row with author identity, email, social profiles, and publication metadata. Supports both \*.substack.com URLs and custom domains.

## `delayBetweenRequests` (type: `integer`):

Delay between HTTP requests in milliseconds to avoid rate limiting.

## `maxRetries` (type: `integer`):

Number of times to retry a failed URL. Total attempts will be maxRetries + 1.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "newsletterUrls": [
    {
      "url": "https://platformer.substack.com"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://lennysnewsletter.com"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://andrewsullivan.substack.com"
    }
  ],
  "delayBetweenRequests": 3000,
  "maxRetries": 2
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `newsletterData` (type: `string`):

Dataset of enriched author leads, one row per submitted URL. See actor description for the full field list.

# 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 = {
    "newsletterUrls": [
        {
            "url": "https://platformer.substack.com"
        },
        {
            "url": "https://lennysnewsletter.com"
        },
        {
            "url": "https://andrewsullivan.substack.com"
        }
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("digispruce/substack-leads-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 = { "newsletterUrls": [
        { "url": "https://platformer.substack.com" },
        { "url": "https://lennysnewsletter.com" },
        { "url": "https://andrewsullivan.substack.com" },
    ] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("digispruce/substack-leads-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 '{
  "newsletterUrls": [
    {
      "url": "https://platformer.substack.com"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://lennysnewsletter.com"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://andrewsullivan.substack.com"
    }
  ]
}' |
apify call digispruce/substack-leads-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

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

```

## OpenAPI specification

```json
{
    "openapi": "3.0.1",
    "info": {
        "title": "Substack Leads Scraper",
        "description": "Find newsletter creators to pitch. Extracts author contact email, social profiles (Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram), subscriber counts, and publication metadata from Substack newsletters. One flat lead row per URL — drop straight into your CRM. Pay-per-event pricing.",
        "version": "0.1",
        "x-build-id": "CZuVo2VVDJwKtdfNQ"
    },
    "servers": [
        {
            "url": "https://api.apify.com/v2"
        }
    ],
    "paths": {
        "/acts/digispruce~substack-leads-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items": {
            "post": {
                "operationId": "run-sync-get-dataset-items-digispruce-substack-leads-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": {
                                "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                },
                "parameters": [
                    {
                        "name": "token",
                        "in": "query",
                        "required": true,
                        "schema": {
                            "type": "string"
                        },
                        "description": "Enter your Apify token here"
                    }
                ],
                "responses": {
                    "200": {
                        "description": "OK"
                    }
                }
            }
        },
        "/acts/digispruce~substack-leads-scraper/runs": {
            "post": {
                "operationId": "runs-sync-digispruce-substack-leads-scraper",
                "x-openai-isConsequential": false,
                "summary": "Executes an Actor and returns information about the initiated run in response.",
                "tags": [
                    "Run Actor"
                ],
                "requestBody": {
                    "required": true,
                    "content": {
                        "application/json": {
                            "schema": {
                                "$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": {
                                    "$ref": "#/components/schemas/runsResponseSchema"
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        },
        "/acts/digispruce~substack-leads-scraper/run-sync": {
            "post": {
                "operationId": "run-sync-digispruce-substack-leads-scraper",
                "x-openai-isConsequential": false,
                "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for completion, and returns the OUTPUT from Key-value store in response.",
                "tags": [
                    "Run Actor"
                ],
                "requestBody": {
                    "required": true,
                    "content": {
                        "application/json": {
                            "schema": {
                                "$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",
                "required": [
                    "newsletterUrls"
                ],
                "properties": {
                    "newsletterUrls": {
                        "title": "Newsletter URLs",
                        "type": "array",
                        "description": "List of Substack newsletter URLs to enrich. Each URL becomes one lead row with author identity, email, social profiles, and publication metadata. Supports both *.substack.com URLs and custom domains.",
                        "items": {
                            "type": "object",
                            "properties": {
                                "url": {
                                    "title": "URL",
                                    "type": "string",
                                    "description": "Newsletter URL",
                                    "pattern": "^https?://"
                                }
                            },
                            "required": [
                                "url"
                            ]
                        }
                    },
                    "delayBetweenRequests": {
                        "title": "Delay Between Requests (ms)",
                        "minimum": 500,
                        "maximum": 10000,
                        "type": "integer",
                        "description": "Delay between HTTP requests in milliseconds to avoid rate limiting.",
                        "default": 3000
                    },
                    "maxRetries": {
                        "title": "Max Retries",
                        "minimum": 0,
                        "maximum": 5,
                        "type": "integer",
                        "description": "Number of times to retry a failed URL. Total attempts will be maxRetries + 1.",
                        "default": 2
                    }
                }
            },
            "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
                                    }
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
}
```