Craigslist Classifieds Scraper

Scrape public Craigslist listings by city, category, keyword, filters, or search URL.

Use this Actor to export local listing data for resale research, housing scans, pricing checks, classified alerts, and API workflows. It saves one dataset row per public listing and can optionally open listing detail pages for richer fields.

At a glance

• Best for: Craigslist search exports, local marketplace monitoring, apartment scans, garage-sale tracking, and price research.
• Inputs: Craigslist search URLs or structured city/category/query filters, price range, image filter, sort order, posted-today filter, item limit, detail mode, and proxy settings.
• Outputs: Listing URL and IDs, title, price, structured address, timestamps, description, category attributes, full image URLs, map coordinates, quality signals, reply availability, and contact details explicitly published in the public listing body.
• Access: Public Craigslist pages only. No login, cookies, private seller data, relay-address reveal, or protection bypass.
• Cost: $0.005 per run plus the item event for each saved Craigslist listing.

Ready-to-run examples

• Austin Apartments Search - apartment listings in Austin with a small result cap.
• Search URL With Details - starts from a Craigslist search URL and opens detail pages.
• Seattle Garage Sales Today - today's garage-sale posts in Seattle.
• SF Bay Desk Listings - desk listings in the SF Bay area.

These public example links were verified from the tracked task table for this Actor.

What can it do?

Craigslist Classifieds Scraper turns public Craigslist searches and listing URLs into structured local-listing rows.

• Export Craigslist search results by city, category, keyword, price range, image filter, sort order, and posted date.
• Open listing pages when needed to collect public descriptions, attributes, images, timestamps, and map fields.
• Extract stable structured search data from Craigslist's JSON-LD and merge it with current result links, reducing dependence on CSS layout details.
• Inspect data quality through parseConfidence, warnings, detailFetched, and detailError fields.
• Collect self-disclosed public contacts from the listing body while leaving Craigslist relay contacts obfuscated.
• Monitor local marketplaces for housing, resale, jobs, garage sales, community posts, and other public categories.
• Build alerts and dashboards by scheduling stable Craigslist searches and deduplicating listing URLs.
• Use it as a Craigslist listings API for CSV, JSON, Excel, RSS, Dataset API, or AI-agent workflows.

Input example

{
  "cityOrSite": "sfbay",
  "category": "sss",
  "query": "desk",
  "maxItems": 10,
  "includeDetails": true,
  "minPrice": 20,
  "maxPrice": 250,
  "hasImage": true,
  "sort": "date",
  "postedWithin": "anytime",
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}

Output example

{
  "id": "1234567890",
  "opaqueId": "j9QQELK78mxUE2ubupRngt",
  "url": "https://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/fuo/d/san-francisco-standing-desk/1234567890.html",
  "title": "Standing desk",
  "price": 120,
  "currency": "USD",
  "category": "sss",
  "cityOrSite": "sfbay",
  "neighborhood": "San Francisco",
  "location": "San Francisco",
  "postedAt": "2026-07-03T09:30:00-0700",
  "updatedAt": null,
  "description": "Adjustable standing desk in good condition.",
  "attributes": {
    "condition": "good"
  },
  "imageUrls": ["https://images.craigslist.org/example.jpg"],
  "latitude": 37.7749,
  "longitude": -122.4194,
  "sellerContactAvailable": true,
  "contactEmails": ["seller@example.com"],
  "contactPhoneNumbers": [],
  "contactObfuscated": false,
  "detailFetched": true,
  "detailError": null,
  "parseConfidence": 1,
  "warnings": [],
  "scrapedAt": "2026-07-03T10:00:00.000Z"
}

Input configuration

Setting	JSON key	What it does
Craigslist search URLs	startUrls	One or more public Craigslist search/category URLs.
City/site subdomain	cityOrSite	Craigslist city subdomain such as sfbay, newyork, losangeles, chicago, seattle, or austin.
Category code	category	Craigslist category code such as sss, apa, jjj, gms, or ccc.
Search query	query	Keyword used when building a structured search URL.
Maximum listings	maxItems	Caps saved listings. The Actor enforces a maximum of 10,000.
Open listing detail pages	includeDetails	Visits each listing page for description, attributes, images, timestamps, and map data when public.
Detail-page concurrency	maxConcurrency	Caps simultaneous detail requests from 1 to 15; default is 5.
Safe run deadline	runTimeSecs	Stops starting requests before the platform timeout; default is 240 seconds.
Minimum price	minPrice	Adds Craigslist min_price for categories that support prices.
Maximum price	maxPrice	Adds Craigslist max_price for categories that support prices.
Listings with images only	hasImage	Adds the Craigslist image filter.
Sort order	sort	Uses date, rel, priceasc, or pricedsc for structured searches.
Posted within	postedWithin	Uses all visible posts or today's posts only.
Proxy configuration	proxyConfiguration	Optional Apify Proxy or custom proxy settings.

Output fields

Field	Type	Description
id	string or null	Numeric posting ID found on the detail page.
opaqueId	string or null	Opaque ID from current Craigslist search-result URLs.
url	string	Public Craigslist listing URL.
title	string or null	Listing title.
price	number or null	Numeric price when shown.
currency	string or null	Detected currency, usually USD.
category	string or null	Craigslist category code.
cityOrSite	string or null	Craigslist city subdomain.
neighborhood	string or null	Neighborhood or locality text when visible.
location	string or null	Search-card or detail-page location text.
postedAt	string or null	Posted timestamp from the detail page.
updatedAt	string or null	Updated timestamp from the detail page.
description	string or null	Listing body text when detail mode succeeds.
attributes	object	Category-specific public attributes from the listing page.
imageUrls	array	Public image URLs found on the listing.
latitude, longitude	number or null	Public map coordinates when exposed.
sellerContactAvailable	boolean	Whether a public reply button was detected. This is not a private contact field.
contactEmails, contactPhoneNumbers	arrays	Contact details explicitly written in the public listing body.
contactObfuscated	boolean	A reply control exists but no direct public contact is present in the body.
detailFetched, detailError	boolean, string or null	Per-listing enrichment status and bounded error diagnostics.
parseConfidence, warnings	number, array	Machine-readable data-quality score and extraction warnings.
scrapedAt	string	ISO timestamp when the row was saved.

Pricing

This Actor uses pay-per-event pricing: one start charge per run and one atomic item charge for each dataset row saved. The exact configured prices are:

Event	Apify tier	What is charged	Price
start	All tiers	One-time fee per run	$0.005
item	Free	One saved Craigslist listing	$0.000035655
item	Bronze	One saved Craigslist listing	$0.000031004
item	Silver	One saved Craigslist listing	$0.000024183
item	Gold	One saved Craigslist listing	$0.000018603
item	Platinum	One saved Craigslist listing	$0.000012402
item	Diamond	One saved Craigslist listing	$0.0000086812

Apify may also charge platform usage for compute, storage, proxies, or data transfer outside this Actor pricing. Check the Actor run and the Apify Pricing tab for the exact cost shown to your account.

Common workflows

• Local price research: Track prices for furniture, bikes, cars, tools, or rentals in a city.
• Housing scans: Search apartment category apa with price limits and detail pages enabled.
• Daily alerts: Schedule a small posted-today run for categories such as garage sales or free items.
• API export: Feed public listing rows into spreadsheets, dashboards, internal alerts, or AI agents.

Tips

• Use direct search URLs for exact searches: Paste a Craigslist URL into startUrls when you already tuned filters in a browser.
• Use structured inputs for repeatability: cityOrSite, category, and query are easier to schedule and modify.
• Open details only when needed: includeDetails adds richer fields but makes runs slower.
• Keep limits small for alerting: Use maxItems: 10 to 50 for recurring monitoring.

Limits and caveats

• Public pages only: The Actor does not log in and does not bypass private contact protections.
• Reply button is not contact data: sellerContactAvailable only reports whether a public reply control was detected.
• Some categories have sparse fields: Price, map, timestamps, image, and attribute fields depend on the listing and category.
• Craigslist can block or throttle traffic: Use modest limits and proxy settings when needed.
• Deleted listings: A direct URL that returns HTTP 404 or 410 fails clearly; it is never silently emitted as a current listing.
• Run diagnostics: RUN_SUMMARY distinguishes successful, partial, valid-empty, and failed outcomes and records bounded source/detail errors.

API usage

Run through the Apify API with the same JSON keys as the input schema.

cURL

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/fetch_cat~craigslist-classifieds-scraper/runs?token=$APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"cityOrSite":"sfbay","category":"sss","query":"desk","maxItems":10,"includeDetails":true}'

JavaScript / Node.js

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN });
const run = await client.actor('fetch_cat/craigslist-classifieds-scraper').call({
  cityOrSite: 'sfbay',
  category: 'sss',
  query: 'desk',
  maxItems: 10,
  includeDetails: true,
});
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

Python

import os
from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient(os.environ["APIFY_TOKEN"])
run = client.actor("fetch_cat/craigslist-classifieds-scraper").call(run_input={
    "cityOrSite": "sfbay",
    "category": "sss",
    "query": "desk",
    "maxItems": 10,
    "includeDetails": True,
})
items = client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).list_items().items
print(items)

MCP and AI agents

For AI agents, use the official Apify MCP server. A focused single-Actor server URL is:

https://mcp.apify.com?tools=fetch_cat/craigslist-classifieds-scraper

Claude CLI:

$claude mcp add apify-craigslist --transport http "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=fetch_cat/craigslist-classifieds-scraper"

JSON configuration for MCP clients:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apify-craigslist": {
      "url": "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=fetch_cat/craigslist-classifieds-scraper"
    }
  }
}

Example prompts:

• "Run Craigslist Classifieds Scraper for SF Bay desk listings under 250 dollars, then return title, price, neighborhood, and URL."
• "Find today's Seattle garage sales with images and save the results to a dataset."

FAQ

Can I use any Craigslist city? Use the public Craigslist city subdomain, such as sfbay, austin, seattle, or newyork.

Does the Actor open every listing page? Only when includeDetails is enabled. Search-only mode is faster but returns fewer detail fields.

Can I export to CSV, Excel, JSON, or API? Yes. Apify datasets can be downloaded as CSV, Excel, JSON, JSONL, XML, RSS, or accessed through the API.

Can it scrape seller emails or phone numbers? Only when the poster explicitly wrote them in the public listing body. The Actor does not reveal private Craigslist relay addresses or bypass reply protections.

Why did I get fewer listings than requested? Craigslist may return fewer public results for the search, remove old posts, throttle a request, or hide detail fields.

Related actors

• Facebook Pages Scraper
• Website Contact Finder
• Google Autocomplete Scraper
• Google News Scraper

Support

Open an issue on the Actor page if a public Craigslist page stops working or an expected field is missing. Include the run ID or run URL, input JSON, expected output, actual output returned by the dataset, and a reproducible public URL when safe to share. Do not include private contact data or API tokens.

Privacy and data handling

This Actor runs with Apify limited permissions and only processes data needed for the documented run. It uses search/listing inputs and public product, marketplace, or listing records to produce the output dataset and sends requests to public Craigslist Classifieds pages/endpoints; results are stored in Apify run storage for your account. FetchCat does not use your inputs or outputs for advertising, does not use them for model training, and does not retain them outside the Apify run except for transient support debugging when you explicitly share run details. You are responsible for using the Actor lawfully, respecting the target site's terms, and avoiding unnecessary personal or sensitive data in inputs.