# Goodreads Scraper - Book Ratings & Details (`goat255/goodreads-scraper`) Actor Look up books by title or author and get the average rating, total ratings, page count, cover image and description in one clean row each. Pass a whole reading list to enrich it, and filter out obscure editions by minimum rating count. - **URL**: https://apify.com/goat255/goodreads-scraper.md - **Developed by:** [Goutam Soni](https://apify.com/goat255) (community) - **Categories:** Automation, Lead generation, Business - **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks - **User rating**: No ratings yet ## Pricing from $3.00 / 1,000 book scrapeds This Actor is paid per event and usage. You are charged both the fixed price for specific events and for Apify platform usage. Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event ## What's an Apify Actor? Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows. In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours, and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store. In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server. Actors are written with capital "A". ## How to integrate an Actor? If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects. You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready. The best way to integrate Actors is as follows. In JavaScript/TypeScript projects, use official [JavaScript/TypeScript client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): ```bash npm install apify-client ``` In Python projects, use official [Python client library](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): ```bash pip install apify-client ``` In shell scripts, use [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): ````bash # MacOS / Linux curl -fsSL https://apify.com/install-cli.sh | bash # Windows irm https://apify.com/install-cli.ps1 | iex ```bash In AI frameworks, you might use the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md). If your project is in a different language, use the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md). For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below. For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt). # README ## Goodreads Scraper Turn a list of book titles into clean, structured book data. Each lookup returns the average rating, how many people rated it, page count, cover image and description. No login and no API key. ### What it does - **Enrich a reading list** - pass in dozens of titles and get one clean row per book. - **Ratings that mean something** - the average rating alongside the rating count, so you can tell a genuinely loved book from one with five reviews. - **Series capture** - raise the match count to pull a whole series from a single title. - **Quality filter** - set a minimum rating count to drop obscure editions and reprints. - **Clean text** - descriptions come back as plain readable text, not markup. Common uses: enriching a catalog or reading list, book market research, building a recommendations dataset, and comparing editions. ### Input | Field | Type | Description | |---|---|---| | `titles` | array | Book titles or author names. One lookup per entry. | | `maxMatchesPerTitle` | integer | Matches per entry, 1 to 5. Default 5. | | `minRatingsCount` | integer | Skip books with fewer ratings than this. Default 0. | | `proxyConfiguration` | object | Optional. Enable to spread requests across IPs. | #### Example input ```json { "titles": ["dune", "the hobbit", "sapiens"], "maxMatchesPerTitle": 3, "minRatingsCount": 1000 } ```` ### Output Each item is one book. ```json { "bookId": "10000001", "workId": "20000001", "title": "An Example Novel", "fullTitle": "An Example Novel (Example Series, #1)", "author": "Jane Doe", "authorId": "58", "authorUrl": "https://example.com/author/jane-doe", "averageRating": 4.29, "ratingsCount": 1687230, "pages": 658, "description": "A short plain text summary of the book.", "coverImage": "https://example.com/covers/an-example-novel.jpg", "url": "https://example.com/book/an-example-novel" } ``` Books with no description return `null` for that field, so the shape is always the same. ### Notes - No login and no API key. Paste your titles and run. - This is a lookup tool: each title returns its closest matches, so pass more titles to get more rows. - Set `maxMatchesPerTitle` to 1 when you want exactly one row per title for a clean join. - Use `minRatingsCount` to keep only well established books. ### Privacy To improve our actors we collect anonymized usage telemetry (run stats and input patterns). No personal account data is collected. # Actor input Schema ## `titles` (type: `array`): Book titles or author names to look up. One lookup runs per entry, returning the closest matches. ## `maxMatchesPerTitle` (type: `integer`): How many matching books to return per entry. Keep at 1 for an exact lookup, raise it to capture a series. ## `minRatingsCount` (type: `integer`): Skip books with fewer ratings than this. Useful for filtering out obscure editions. ## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`): Optional. Enable to spread requests across IPs on large runs. ## Actor input object example ```json { "titles": [ "the hobbit", "sapiens" ], "maxMatchesPerTitle": 5, "minRatingsCount": 0, "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": false } } ``` # Actor output Schema ## `books` (type: `string`): No description # API You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup. ## JavaScript example ```javascript import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client'; // Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token // Replace the '' with your token const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '', }); // Prepare Actor input const input = { "titles": [ "dune" ], "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": false } }; // Run the Actor and wait for it to finish const run = await client.actor("goat255/goodreads-scraper").call(input); // Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any) console.log('Results from dataset'); console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`); const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems(); items.forEach((item) => { console.dir(item); }); // 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs ``` ## Python example ```python from apify_client import ApifyClient # Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token # Replace '' with your token. client = ApifyClient("") # Prepare the Actor input run_input = { "titles": ["dune"], "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": False }, } # Run the Actor and wait for it to finish run = client.actor("goat255/goodreads-scraper").call(run_input=run_input) # Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any) print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"]) for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items(): print(item) # 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start ``` ## CLI example ```bash echo '{ "titles": [ "dune" ], "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": false } }' | apify call goat255/goodreads-scraper --silent --output-dataset ``` ## MCP server setup ```json { "mcpServers": { "apify": { "command": "npx", "args": [ "mcp-remote", "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=goat255/goodreads-scraper", "--header", "Authorization: Bearer " ] } } } ``` ## OpenAPI specification ```json { "openapi": "3.0.1", "info": { "title": "Goodreads Scraper - Book Ratings & Details", "description": "Look up books by title or author and get the average rating, total ratings, page count, cover image and description in one clean row each. Pass a whole reading list to enrich it, and filter out obscure editions by minimum rating count.", "version": "0.0", "x-build-id": "GlgefgdK2yQPIOhUV" }, "servers": [ { "url": "https://api.apify.com/v2" } ], "paths": { "/acts/goat255~goodreads-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-get-dataset-items-goat255-goodreads-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for its completion, and returns Actor's dataset items in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } }, "/acts/goat255~goodreads-scraper/runs": { "post": { "operationId": "runs-sync-goat255-goodreads-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor and returns information about the initiated run in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK", "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/runsResponseSchema" } } } } } } }, "/acts/goat255~goodreads-scraper/run-sync": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-goat255-goodreads-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for completion, and returns the OUTPUT from Key-value store in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } } }, "components": { "schemas": { "inputSchema": { "type": "object", "properties": { "titles": { "title": "Book titles", "type": "array", "description": "Book titles or author names to look up. One lookup runs per entry, returning the closest matches.", "items": { "type": "string" } }, "maxMatchesPerTitle": { "title": "Max matches per title", "minimum": 1, "maximum": 5, "type": "integer", "description": "How many matching books to return per entry. Keep at 1 for an exact lookup, raise it to capture a series.", "default": 5 }, "minRatingsCount": { "title": "Minimum ratings count", "minimum": 0, "type": "integer", "description": "Skip books with fewer ratings than this. Useful for filtering out obscure editions.", "default": 0 }, "proxyConfiguration": { "title": "Proxy configuration", "type": "object", "description": "Optional. Enable to spread requests across IPs on large runs." } } }, "runsResponseSchema": { "type": "object", "properties": { "data": { "type": "object", "properties": { "id": { "type": "string" }, "actId": { "type": "string" }, "userId": { "type": "string" }, "startedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" }, "finishedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" }, "status": { "type": "string", "example": "READY" }, "meta": { "type": "object", "properties": { "origin": { "type": "string", "example": "API" }, "userAgent": { "type": "string" } } }, "stats": { "type": "object", "properties": { "inputBodyLen": { "type": "integer", "example": 2000 }, "rebootCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "restartCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "resurrectCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "computeUnits": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } }, "options": { "type": "object", "properties": { "build": { "type": "string", "example": "latest" }, "timeoutSecs": { "type": "integer", "example": 300 }, "memoryMbytes": { "type": "integer", "example": 1024 }, "diskMbytes": { "type": "integer", "example": 2048 } } }, "buildId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultKeyValueStoreId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultDatasetId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultRequestQueueId": { "type": "string" }, "buildNumber": { "type": "string", "example": "1.0.0" }, "containerUrl": { "type": "string" }, "usage": { "type": "object", "properties": { "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 1 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_SERPS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } }, "usageTotalUsd": { "type": "number", "example": 0.00005 }, "usageUsd": { "type": "object", "properties": { "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": { "type": "number", "example": 0.00005 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_SERPS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } } } } } } } } } ```