# IMDb Scraper Goat (`goat255/imdb-scraper`) Actor

Scrape IMDb without a login. Search movies, TV shows, and people by name, or fetch specific IMDb IDs. Titles come back enriched with rating, vote count, certificate, popularity rank, genres, runtime, plot, and director / writer / stars. Clean, structured rows.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/goat255/imdb-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Goutam Soni](https://apify.com/goat255) (community)
- **Categories:** Videos, News, Automation
- **Stats:** 1 total users, 0 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $4.00 / 1,000 titles

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

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.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — 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

## IMDb Scraper

Search IMDb at scale without a login or API key. Look up movies, TV shows and people by name, or fetch specific IMDb IDs. Titles come back enriched with rating, vote count, certificate, popularity rank, genres, runtime, plot, and the director, writer and stars. Every row is one clean, structured record.

### What it does

- **Search** - movies, TV shows and people by name; each match is returned.
- **Title detail** - rating, vote count, certificate, popularity rank, genres, runtime, plot, and director / writer / stars for every title found (toggle off for a faster, search-only run).
- **Direct IDs** - pass IMDb IDs (`tt...` for titles, `nm...` for people) to fetch them directly.

Common uses: building a film or TV dataset, tracking ratings and popularity, enriching a watchlist, and media research.

### Input

| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| `searchQueries` | array | Movie, TV, or person names to search. Example: `the dark knight`, `breaking bad`. |
| `titleIds` | array | IMDb IDs to fetch directly. Example: `tt0468569`, `nm0634240`. |
| `includeDetails` | boolean | Enrich titles with rating, cast and details. Default true. |
| `maxItemsPerSource` | integer | Cap on results per search. Default 20. |
| `proxyConfiguration` | object | Optional. Works without a proxy. |

At least one of `searchQueries` or `titleIds` is required.

#### Example input

```json
{
  "searchQueries": ["interstellar", "the office"],
  "includeDetails": true,
  "maxItemsPerSource": 10
}
```

### Output

Each item is one normalized title (or person).

```json
{
  "id": "tt0816692",
  "kind": "title",
  "title": "Interstellar",
  "originalTitle": "Interstellar",
  "type": "Movie",
  "year": 2014,
  "endYear": null,
  "rating": 8.7,
  "votes": 2200000,
  "certificate": "PG-13",
  "popularityRank": 62,
  "runtimeMinutes": 169,
  "genres": ["Adventure", "Drama", "Sci-Fi"],
  "directors": ["Christopher Nolan"],
  "writers": ["Jonathan Nolan", "Christopher Nolan"],
  "stars": ["Matthew McConaughey", "Anne Hathaway", "Jessica Chastain"],
  "plot": "A team of explorers travel through a wormhole in space...",
  "image": "https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/example.jpg",
  "url": "https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0816692/",
  "detailFetched": true,
  "scrapedAt": "2026-07-18T12:00:00.000Z"
}
```

People (`nm...`) come back with name, known-for credits and image. Titles with no rating yet (for example unreleased films) return `null` for those fields, so the shape is always the same.

### Notes

- No login and no API key. Set your search terms and run.
- Turn off `includeDetails` when you only need the search list (id, title, type, year), for a faster run.

To improve our actors we collect anonymized usage telemetry (run stats and input patterns). No personal account data is collected.

# Actor input Schema

## `searchQueries` (type: `array`):

Movie, TV show, or person names to search on IMDb. Each match is returned; titles are enriched with rating, cast, and details.

## `titleIds` (type: `array`):

Direct IMDb IDs to fetch, e.g. "tt1375666" for a title or "nm0634240" for a person. Skips search and returns full detail.

## `includeDetails` (type: `boolean`):

For titles, fetch rating, votes, certificate, popularity, genres, runtime, plot, and director / writer / stars. Turn off for a faster, search-only run.

## `maxItemsPerSource` (type: `integer`):

Cap on how many matches to return per search query.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Optional. This Actor works without a proxy; enable it to spread requests across IPs on large runs.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "searchQueries": [
    "the dark knight",
    "breaking bad"
  ],
  "titleIds": [
    "tt0468569",
    "tt0903747"
  ],
  "includeDetails": true,
  "maxItemsPerSource": 20,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (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 '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "searchQueries": [
        "inception"
    ],
    "titleIds": [],
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": false
    }
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("goat255/imdb-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 '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "searchQueries": ["inception"],
    "titleIds": [],
    "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": False },
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("goat255/imdb-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "searchQueries": [
    "inception"
  ],
  "titleIds": [],
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}' |
apify call goat255/imdb-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,goat255/imdb-scraper"
        }
    }
}

```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/4WqmxiBkeaKWONdMo/builds/2KqOXfUtOf2H54eZi/openapi.json