Substack Newsletter & Author Leads Scraper

Extracts newsletter post archives, author bylines, engagement metrics, and podcast episodes from any Substack publication without running a headless browser.

Run directly on Apify Store — zero setup required.

What it does

This Actor queries Substack's public API endpoints (/api/v1/posts) for one or more target publications. It retrieves post archives, author profiles, word counts, reaction/comment numbers, and direct audio files for podcast episodes.

Because it connects directly via HTTP streams rather than spinning up a browser automation engine (Puppeteer or Playwright), runs finish in 2–5 seconds and consume minimal compute resources.

Extracted data fields

For every post retrieved, the actor outputs:

• id: Unique numeric post identifier
• title: Post headline
• subtitle: Subtitle / deck
• url: Canonical post URL
• slug: URL slug
• postDate: ISO publication timestamp
• audience: Access level (everyone or only_paid)
• isPaid: Boolean flag (true if subscriber paywalled)
• reactions: Like / reaction count
• comments: Total comment count
• restacks: Total restacks / shares
• wordCount: Total word count
• description: Excerpt or meta description
• coverImageUrl: Banner or header image URL
• type: Content format (newsletter, podcast, etc.)
• podcastUrl: Direct audio file URL (if an episode)
• podcastDuration: Audio duration in seconds
• publicationId: Numeric publication ID
• publicationUrl: Base publication URL
• authorName: Primary author display name
• authorHandle: Substack profile handle
• authorBio: Author biography
• authorPhotoUrl: Author avatar image URL
• authorPublicationUrl: Author's primary personal publication URL
• scrapedAt: ISO extraction timestamp

Input parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
publications	array	["lenny", "pragmaticengineer"]	List of Substack subdomains (lenny), full URLs (https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com), or custom domains (sinocism.com)
maxPostsPerPublication	integer	30	Maximum number of posts to retrieve per publication
sort	string	"new"	Sort order: new (newest first), top (most popular), or search
audienceFilter	string	"all"	Filter by access level: all, free_only, or paid_only

Example output

{
  "id": 219482066,
  "title": "How to tell if a startup has a moat",
  "subtitle": "A framework for assessing whether the company you're considering joining is built to last",
  "url": "https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-to-tell-if-a-startup-has-a-moat",
  "slug": "how-to-tell-if-a-startup-has-a-moat",
  "postDate": "2026-10-13T12:45:41.160Z",
  "audience": "only_paid",
  "isPaid": true,
  "reactions": 360,
  "comments": 2,
  "restacks": 20,
  "wordCount": 4153,
  "description": "A framework for assessing whether the company you're considering joining is built to last",
  "coverImageUrl": "https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/.../fb5a8d5c-1e31-45f5-b9f8-93426e87a971_1456x970.png",
  "type": "newsletter",
  "podcastUrl": null,
  "podcastDuration": null,
  "publicationId": 10845,
  "publicationUrl": "https://lenny.substack.com",
  "authorName": "Dan Hockenmaier",
  "authorHandle": "danhock",
  "authorBio": "Strategy, growth, and marketplaces. Always trying to separate signal from noise.",
  "authorPhotoUrl": "https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/.../7e1bdeea-74f6-48f7-8d3f-d42dc03bbc08_1080x1080.png",
  "authorPublicationUrl": "https://www.danhock.co",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-10-24T13:05:13.937987+00:00"
}

Limitations

• Only extracts posts published publicly on publication web feeds.
• Private subscriber-only body text behind paywalls is not extracted; paywalled posts contain post metadata, word counts, and excerpts.