Meetup Groups Search Scraper

Meetup Groups Finder: search Meetup groups by keyword and location with members, topics and organizers

Meetup Groups Finder turns a Meetup search into a spreadsheet of groups. Enter a keyword and a place, and you get each group with its member count, founding date, location, topics, organizer, rating and links. It is for community builders, sponsors, B2B and B2C marketers, recruiters and researchers who want to know which communities exist in a city and how big they are.

• Search by city, ZIP code or coordinates. Berlin, 20095 and 52.52,13.40 all work, with a radius of 1 to 200 miles.
• Size and age in the same row. membersCount and foundedDate show which groups are big and which have been around for years.
• Contact and social data from the description. socialMedia, contactInfo (phones and emails found in the text) and otherUrls such as WhatsApp or Discord links.
• Organizer and rating. organizerName, organizerId, rating and ratingTotal.
• Pay for compute only, no login. No Meetup account, API key or proxy setup. Export to JSON, CSV, Excel or Google Sheets.

Scope: This Actor finds groups. To list upcoming events, use Meetup Events Scraper. To get a full profile for groups you already know, use Meetup Group Details Scraper.

What can you do with Meetup Groups Finder?

Goal	How
Scout communities in a new city	Search a hobby near the city and read name, membersCount, link and joinMode.
Map competing groups	Search your niche and compare membersCount, foundedDate and rating.
Build sponsorship lead lists	Search an industry term and use organizerName, link, socialMedia and contactInfo.
Find where talent gathers	Search a skill such as Python and sort by membersCount.
Study topic trends	Count topics across groups, or filter by topicCategory.
Plot communities	Use lat and lon for maps and clustering.

How it compares

What you need	Meetup Groups Finder	Manual search on Meetup	Official Meetup API
Account or API key	None	Account for some views	Required, Pro access for many uses
Search by ZIP or lat/lon	Yes, with radius	City picker only	Limited
Bulk export	JSON, CSV, Excel, API	Copy-paste	JSON
Fields per group	30+, including organizer and social links	What the page shows	Varies
Repeat on a schedule	Yes, with Apify schedules	No	Yes

Quick start

1. Click Try for free and sign in to Apify.
2. Enter Search keywords and Location, for example yoga and Austin.
3. Keep Max results at 50 for a first run.
4. Click Start, then open the Output tab and export the data.

Input

{
    "searchKeywords": "hiking",
    "location": "Portland, OR",
    "radius": 25,
    "maxResults": 50,
    "topicCategory": "Travel & Outdoor"
}

Field	Required	Description
searchKeywords	Yes	Topic or activity, such as yoga or startup networking.
location	Yes	City name, lat,lon pair or ZIP code.
topicCategory	No	One of 20 Meetup categories, for example Technology. Empty means all.
radius	No	Miles from the location, 1 to 200. Default 25.
maxResults	No	Groups to return, 1 to 500. Default 50.

Output

Every row is one group.

{
  "id": "76645",
  "name": "The Portland Hiking Meetup Group",
  "urlname": "the-portland-hiking-meetup-group",
  "description": "We are an inclusive and diverse group of people who enjoy sharing our love of exploring Oregon...",
  "markdownDescription": "We are an inclusive and diverse group...",
  "membersCount": 12465,
  "topicCategoryId": "684",
  "topicCategoryName": "Travel & Outdoor",
  "topics": ["Hiking", "Backpacking", "Snowshoeing", "Camping"],
  "city": "Portland",
  "state": "OR",
  "country": "us",
  "lat": 45.5,
  "lon": -122.69,
  "link": "https://www.meetup.com/the-portland-hiking-meetup-group",
  "foundedDate": "2004-01-03T16:13:34-08:00",
  "timezone": "America/Los_Angeles",
  "isPrivate": false,
  "joinMode": "OPEN",
  "status": "PAID",
  "zip": "97201",
  "isNewGroup": false,
  "coverImage": "https://secure.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/b/0/c/1/highres_511485249.jpeg",
  "organizerId": "33743752",
  "organizerName": "Elena Bloudek",
  "organizerPhoto": "https://secure.meetupstatic.com/photos/member/...jpeg",
  "rating": 4.71,
  "ratingTotal": 14,
  "sampleMemberNames": ["Sandra", "Sofía", "Matt"],
  "sampleMemberCount": 3,
  "socialMedia": { "instagram": "https://www.instagram.com/example/" },
  "contactInfo": { "phones": ["+34696548107"], "emails": null },
  "otherUrls": ["https://chat.whatsapp.com/..."]
}

Notes:

• joinMode is OPEN or APPROVAL. status is PAID or FREE.
• contactInfo, socialMedia and otherUrls come only from the group's description and links, so many groups have them empty or null.
• sampleMemberNames is a sample of up to 10 members, not the member list.
• markdownDescription, topicCategoryId, foundedDate and timezone can be null.
• Each run also saves a summary (location, query, count) under the OUTPUT key of the key-value store.

Track Meetup groups over time with scheduled runs

Run the same search again to see which groups grow and which new ones appear. Apify can run the Actor for you and send the results wherever you need them.

1. Save your input as a task

Open the Actor, set your keyword and location, then click Save as a new task. A task is a saved input you can run again with one click or on a schedule.

2. Schedule the task

In Apify Console, go to Schedules, click Create new, choose how often to run (for example daily at 06:00 in your time zone), and add your task. See Schedules and How to create a schedule.

Watch how to schedule an Actor:

Or schedule a saved task:

Common schedules:

Use case	Frequency	Cron expression
Community growth tracking	Weekly (Monday)	0 6 * * 1
New groups in a niche	Daily	0 6 * * *
Monthly organizer lead list	Monthly	0 6 1 * *

3. Send the results to a spreadsheet

Connect Google in the task's Integrations tab to save every run to Google Sheets or Google Drive automatically:

4. Compare runs

• Member growth: membersCount per id over time.
• New groups: ids seen for the first time, plus isNewGroup and foundedDate.
• Rating changes: rating and ratingTotal per id.
• Organizer changes: organizerId and organizerName per id.

FAQ

How many groups can I get?

Up to 500 per run. The default is 50. For wider coverage, run several keywords or locations and merge the results.

Why did I get few results?

The keyword or radius is narrow, or few groups match in that area. Widen the radius, drop the category filter or try a broader keyword. An unknown category name is ignored with a warning in the log.

Do I need a Meetup account, login or proxy?

No. The Actor reads Meetup's public search and uses no login or proxy.

Can I get the groups' events?

Use Meetup Events Scraper with the same keyword and place. For one group's full profile, use Meetup Group Details Scraper.

Is this legal?

The Actor collects publicly visible group information. Phone numbers and emails found in descriptions can be personal data. You are responsible for following Meetup's terms and privacy laws such as GDPR when you use them.

Related Actors

• Meetup Events Scraper: search events by keyword, place and date.
• Meetup Group Details Scraper: full profile for a known Meetup group.
• Eventbrite Scraper: search ticketed events on Eventbrite.

Cost

This Actor has no per-result fee in its configuration. You pay Apify platform usage for the run, which is small because it makes plain API calls and starts no browser. See the Pricing tab for the current rates.

Support

Found a problem or need a field added? Open an issue in the Issues tab and include the run ID and your input.

This Actor is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Meetup or its owners. It collects publicly available data.