iQIYI (iq.com) Search Scraper

What does iQIYI Search Scraper do?

This Actor extracts every video result from an iQIYI search query on iq.com, iQIYI's international streaming site. Give it a search term like my journey — or paste a full search URL such as https://www.iq.com/search?query=my%20journey — and it returns all matching dramas, movies, anime, variety shows and documentaries, not just the first page.

For every title you get the name, type, release year, poster image, rating, genres, duration, cast, directors and a complete episode list with direct play links. A single query typically yields 250–400 unique videos and several thousand episode links in under 30 seconds.

The scraper talks directly to iQIYI's search API over plain HTTP instead of driving a headless browser, which makes it fast and cheap to run. On the Apify platform you also get scheduling, a REST API, webhooks, proxy rotation, monitoring and integrations with Make, Zapier, Google Drive and Slack.

Why use iQIYI Search Scraper?

• Catalogue research — build a dataset of what is available on iQIYI for a topic, franchise or keyword.
• Content tracking — schedule the Actor and detect new titles, new episodes or removed shows over time.
• Competitive and market analysis — compare catalogue depth across regions, genres and release years.
• Recommendation and metadata enrichment — pull cast, genre, rating and episode data to enrich your own database.
• Media monitoring — track how many titles match an actor's name or a keyword and how they are rated.

How to use iQIYI Search Scraper

1. Click Try for free / Start on the Actor page.
2. Enter one or more search queries — plain terms (my journey) or full iq.com search URLs. The search term is read out of the URL for you.
3. Optionally pick a language and a region mode, and set Max items per query if you only want a sample.
4. Click Save & Start and wait for the run to finish.
5. Preview the results in the Output tab, then download them as JSON, CSV, Excel, HTML or XML — or fetch them from the API.

Input

Configure the run in the Input tab or pass a JSON object via the API. All fields except searchQueries are optional and have sensible defaults.

Field	Type	Default	Description
searchQueries	array	["https://www.iq.com/search?query=my%20journey..."]	Search terms or full iq.com search URLs.
maxItems	integer	0	Max videos per query. 0 means no limit.
languageCode	string	en_us	Language for titles and metadata.
modeCode	string	intl	Region catalogue to search (see note below).
includeEpisodes	boolean	true	Include the nested episode list. Costs no extra requests.
includeCast	boolean	true	Include the detailed per-role cast breakdown.

Apify Proxy is required. This Actor always routes its requests through Apify Proxy, which needs a paid Apify plan — there is no proxy option in the input and no unproxied fallback. iQIYI serves a region-specific catalogue and rate-limits by IP, so proxying keeps results consistent. A run without proxy access fails immediately with a clear error.

Example input:

{
    "searchQueries": ["my journey", "https://www.iq.com/search?query=hero"],
    "maxItems": 0,
    "languageCode": "en_us",
    "modeCode": "intl",
    "includeEpisodes": true,
    "includeCast": true
}

A note on the region mode

iQIYI serves a different catalogue per region, so modeCode changes both how many results come back and their order. The same my journey query returns roughly 283 titles in intl (global) mode and around 364 in vn (Vietnam) mode. If you need to match exactly what you see in your own browser, pick the region you are browsing from.

Output

Each dataset row is one video (a series, movie, anime or documentary) with its episodes nested inside. You can download the dataset in various formats such as JSON, HTML, CSV, or Excel.

{
    "query": "my journey",
    "id": "8181790834459001",
    "name": "My Journey to You",
    "type": "TV series",
    "isSeries": true,
    "albumUrl": "https://www.iq.com/album/my-journey-to-you-2023-29gizl2g5jp?lang=en_us",
    "playUrl": "https://www.iq.com/play/my-journey-to-you-episode-1-2d9r925j7po?lang=en_us",
    "thumbnailUrl": "http://pic1.iqiyipic.com/image/20250416/4c/66/a_100535292_m_601_en_m4.jpg",
    "year": 2023,
    "publishDate": "2023-09-02",
    "badge": "24 Episodes",
    "episodeCount": 37,
    "maxOrder": 24,
    "episodes": [
        {
            "order": 1,
            "name": "云之羽 第1集",
            "episodeId": "8639025369386400",
            "url": "https://www.iq.com/play/my-journey-to-you-episode-1-2d9r925j7po?lang=en_us",
            "publishDate": "2023-08-24"
        }
    ],
    "actors": ["Esther", "Zhang Linghe", "Ryan"],
    "directors": ["Ji Tian Yi"],
    "source": "iqiyi"
}

Data fields

Field	Description
query	The search term this row came from.
id / albumId / qipuId	iQIYI identifiers. id is the stable key for deduplication.
name	Title, with iQIYI's search-highlight markup removed.
alternativeNames, subtitle	Alternate titles, when iQIYI provides them.
type / channelId	Movie, TV series, Anime, Documentary, Variety show, …
isSeries	Whether the title has episodes.
albumUrl	Series landing page. null for standalone movies.
playUrl	Direct link to the first/only playable video. Always present.
thumbnailUrl, posterUrl	Artwork URLs.
year, publishDate	Release year and date.
durationSeconds	Runtime, for movies and standalone videos.
score	User rating out of 10, when rated.
contentRating	Age rating such as 13+.
badge	The poster badge text, e.g. 24 Episodes.
episodeCount	How many episodes iQIYI actually lists.
maxOrder	iQIYI's own episode counter — see the caveat below.
episodes[]	order, name, episodeId, url, publishDate per episode.
genres, regions, languages	Category tags.
actors, directors	Name lists, lead cast first.
cast	Full per-role breakdown with profile images and links.
isExclusive, is1080p, source	Extra flags from iQIYI.
scrapedAt	ISO timestamp of extraction.

How much does it cost to scrape iQIYI?

Because this Actor hits a JSON API rather than rendering pages in a browser, it is very cheap to run. A full query — around 283 videos and roughly 2,900 episode links — takes about 18 seconds and 18 HTTP requests, comfortably within the free Apify tier. Scraping several hundred queries per month costs only a few compute units.

Tips and advanced options

• Sampling — set maxItems to a small number while you experiment; the run stops as soon as the limit is hit.
• Slimmer output — set includeCast to false and includeEpisodes to false for compact rows. The actors and directors name lists are kept either way.
• Episodes as rows — switch the Output tab to the Episodes view, or use the dataset API with unwind=episodes, to get one row per episode instead of one per title.
• Multiple queries — pass several queries at once; they run in parallel and each row records its own query.
• Proxies — nothing to configure: every request goes through Apify Proxy automatically, with a fresh IP per page.

FAQ, disclaimers and support

Is scraping iQIYI legal? This Actor collects only publicly available metadata already served by iQIYI's own search, and it does not download, decrypt or redistribute any video streams or DRM-protected content. Scraping public data is generally legal, but you are responsible for how you use the output — review iQIYI's Terms of Service, respect copyright, and consult a lawyer if you plan to publish or commercialise the data.

Why does episodeCount differ from maxOrder? These come from two different upstream counters and iQIYI does not always keep them in sync — My Journey to You, for example, lists 37 episode entries while maxOrder says 24 (extra entries include previews and specials). Both values are reported rather than silently reconciled, so you can pick whichever suits your use case. episodeCount is the length of the episodes array you actually receive.

Why are some episode names in Chinese? iQIYI returns original-language episode titles even when languageCode is en_us. The episode url slug is still localised.

Why do movies have no albumUrl or episodes? Standalone videos have no series page on iQIYI. Use playUrl, which is populated for every row.

Why is the result count lower than the total shown on the site? iQIYI's search reports an inflated total (around 690 for my journey) but only ever serves a few hundred distinct titles, repeating some across pages. This Actor pages until the API stops returning results and deduplicates, so you get every title iQIYI will actually serve.

Found a bug or need a change? Open an issue on the Actor's Issues tab. If you need a custom or larger-scale iQIYI integration, mention it there.