4chan Scraper

What does 4chan Scraper do?

Extracts posts from any 4chan board through the site's official read-only JSON API — no HTML scraping, no breakage when the site changes its layout. Point it at a board (and optionally specific threads) and get structured posts: text (HTML cleaned to plain text), timestamps, poster name/tripcode/ID, country flags where the board has them, and full image metadata with direct URLs.

• Whole-board sweeps — scrapes the catalog in bump order up to your limit
• Thread mode — pass specific thread numbers to track discussions
• API-polite — respects 4chan's official 1 request/second rule

Why scrape 4chan?

• Research — 4chan is one of the most studied online communities; this gives you clean, citable post data.
• Trend & meme tracking — catch emerging topics before they spread.
• Brand & moderation monitoring — know when your product or platform is being discussed.

How do I use it?

1. Click Try for free — the prefilled example (board /po/, papercraft) works as-is.
2. Set the board code and Max posts to control cost.
3. Run and download JSON/CSV — or connect the Apify API / MCP server.

How much will it cost?

$1.00 per 1,000 posts ($0.001 each) plus a $0.005 start fee. A full catalog sweep of a mid-size board (~3,000 posts) costs about $3.

⬇️ Input

{
  "board": "po",
  "maxItems": 500
}

⬆️ Output (real example)

{
  "source": "boards.4chan.org",
  "board": "po",
  "thread_no": 570368,
  "post_no": 570368,
  "url": "https://boards.4chan.org/po/thread/570368#p570368",
  "is_op": true,
  "posted_at": "2022-08-24T04:03:47+00:00",
  "name": "Anonymous",
  "subject": "Welcome to /po/!",
  "text": "Welcome to /po/! We specialize in origami, papercraft...",
  "image": {
    "filename": "yotsuba_folding.png",
    "url": "https://i.4cdn.org/po/1661328227002590.png",
    "size_bytes": 726434,
    "width": 530,
    "height": 449
  },
  "replies_in_thread": 2,
  "scraped_at": "2026-09-18T01:00:00+00:00"
}

Limitations & fair use

• Deleted/archived threads return an error item (not charged).
• The API updates catalogs at most once per second; this Actor never requests faster than that, so very large sweeps take proportional time (~1s/thread).
• Content warning: 4chan is anonymous and lightly moderated; many boards contain NSFW or offensive content. You choose the boards; the data comes as-is. Poster identities are pseudonymous IDs — this Actor collects no personal data beyond what posters publish publicly.

FAQ

Is this allowed?

Yes — 4chan publishes an official read-only API for exactly this purpose, and this Actor follows its rules (rate limit, identifying User-Agent).

Can I download the images too?

The dataset includes direct i.4cdn.org URLs plus size/dimensions; pipe them into any downloader. This keeps runs fast and your costs predictable.

Something broke

Open an issue in the Issues tab — canary-tested daily, fixes ship fast.

Your feedback

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