File Downloader — Save Files & Images from URLs, $0.001 a File

Download files and images from a list of URLs into the run's key-value store, one record per URL with a public link, the file's size, content type and SHA-256, for pipelines and agents that need the file itself rather than its address. AI agents can call and pay for it through Apify's MCP server and agentic payments. It costs $0.001 per file saved, and a download that fails is never charged.

Example result

Example record for the minimal input under How to use it, as this Actor returned it on 2026-10-27 in a run of its production image; the record is kept unchanged with the release.

{
  "url": "https://docs.apify.com/img/apify_sdk.svg",
  "ok": true,
  "finalUrl": "https://docs.apify.com/img/apify_sdk.svg",
  "key": "2b84d958a7e59e28-apify_sdk.svg",
  "fileUrl": "file:///storage/key_value_stores/default/2b84d958a7e59e28-apify_sdk.svg",
  "contentType": "image/svg+xml",
  "bytes": 4426,
  "sha256": "39303247984da570c2a1de3bb287f4c1a2a05313e74131dff2ecfe686633a8fd"
}

The example record’s file:// URL came from local storage during the production-image example run; it is not a public platform URL. On Apify, downloads are stored in the run’s key-value store.

How to use it

Start a run in Apify Console, by API or from an agent with an input like this one — it is the input Apify runs every day to test this Actor:

{"urls": ["https://docs.apify.com/img/apify_sdk.svg"]}

Field	Type	Meaning
urls	array	Public file or image URLs to download; one record each.
maxFileMb	integer	Files larger than this are refused uncharged.

Events and prices

Event	Title	Charged when	FREE / BRONZE	SILVER	GOLD / PLATINUM / DIAMOND
file-downloaded	File downloaded	One file fetched and saved to the run's key-value store.	$0.001	$0.0009	$0.0008

Platform usage is not passed through. Apify's automatic actor-start event remains $0.00005 per started GB (one GB or less counts once). The synthetic dataset-item event is absent. Charge limits stop further paying work; unprocessed inputs receive uncharged errors. Completed readable pending events are settled on abort.

Worked cost example: ten successful file downloaded events cost $0.01 at list, plus actor start. Failures are not included in that count.

Call it from an agent

Through Apify's MCP server (https://mcp.apify.com) use call-actor:

{
  "actor": "hermeskd/file-downloader",
  "input": {
    "urls": [
      "https://docs.apify.com/img/apify_sdk.svg"
    ]
  },
  "callOptions": {
    "maxTotalChargeUsd": 0.01,
    "timeout": 600
  },
  "waitSecs": 30
}

Then call get-dataset-items with the returned defaultDatasetId. Dedicated tool URL: https://mcp.apify.com?tools=hermeskd/file-downloader

Output fields

Field	Meaning
url	The input URL.
ok	True for a returned result; a failure is never charged.
finalUrl	The URL after redirects.
key	The file's key in the run's default key-value store.
fileUrl	A public link to the stored file.
contentType	The Content-Type the server sent.
bytes	The file's size in bytes.
sha256	The SHA-256 of the file's bytes.
error	Failure, always uncharged.

Limits and run time

1–100 URLs a run; each file up to maxFileMb (25 MB at most). Each file is fetched once under the shared fetch policy and must arrive within the 30-second per-request deadline (about 0.8 MB/s for a 25 MB file); a server-compressed file is stored decoded; URLs behind a login are not fetched.

The default run timeout is 600 seconds. Typical run time: not yet measured; written from the first deploy.

Errors

Code	Meaning
http_error	The source answered an unsuccessful HTTP status.
download_failed	The request or connection failed within its bounded deadline.
file_too_large	The file is larger than maxFileMb.
empty_file	The URL returned no bytes.
robots_disallowed	robots.txt forbids fetching the URL; no request was made to it.
blocked_host	The host is on the deny-list or resolves to a private or local address; no request was made.
too_large	The response exceeded the size cap.
timeout	The input did not finish within the run's time budget.
invalid_input	The run input passed the input schema but cannot be used; the message names the field.
internal_error	Unexpected failure; the message carries the error class.
charge_limit_reached	The run reached its maximum total charge; this input was not processed.

No failure record is charged. A run fails only when all input outcomes are Actor-side failures; caller errors and a mixture of caller/Actor failures do not fail the run.

Sources and terms

Only process content you have the right to process. URL fetches obey HermesBot robots-group selection, the shared deny-list, public-address checks on connections and redirects, honest identity, deadlines and rate limits. No caller credentials, cookies, CAPTCHA solving, residential proxies or evasion. Public files the caller names are fetched under robots.txt and stored in the run's own key-value store. Process only files you have the right to copy.

Not affiliated

This Actor is not affiliated with Apify or the owners of the files it reads. Third-party names describe compatibility and source material.

Related Hermes Actors

• Article Extractor — Clean Text, Title & Date, $0.001 an Article — an article's clean text, title and publish date, without the rest of the page.
• Career Site Job Search — Verified Greenhouse & Lever Boards — search open jobs in the Hermes directory of Greenhouse and Lever boards, each confirmed live.
• Speech to Text — Transcribe & Translate to English, SRT/VTT — speech to text with SRT and VTT subtitles.
• Video Converter & MP4 to MP3 — Trim, GIF; Audio $0.001 a Minute — audio and video conversion: MP4 to MP3, trim, GIF.
• Broken Link Checker That Never Charges for the Broken Links — broken links, 404s and redirects on a site.
• Company ATS Finder — Which Hiring System & Job Board It Uses — which hiring system and job board a company uses.
• Crossref DOI Metadata — Titles, Dates & Citation Counts — crossref doi metadata.
• JSON Dataset Cleaner — Merge, Dedup & Export Rows — json dataset cleaner.
• DNS Lookup & SPF, DKIM, DMARC Check — Findings by Severity — DNS records and SPF, DKIM and DMARC checks.
• Word, Excel & PowerPoint to Markdown — $0.002 per Document — Word, Excel, PowerPoint and other office files to Markdown.
• Domain Availability Checker — Registry RDAP, No Contact Data — whether domain names are available, from registry RDAP.
• Greenhouse Job Board Scraper — Open Jobs, Live, Any Company — every open job on a company's Greenhouse board.
• Public HTTP GET — Response Body, Status & Hash — public http get.
• Image Format Converter — Resize & Save WebP, PNG or JPEG — image format converter.
• Image Metadata Remover — Strip EXIF, GPS & Serials, Lossless — GPS location, camera serial numbers and other private metadata removed from photos, losslessly.
• Image to Text OCR — Lines & Words with Boxes, $0.002 an Image — OCR: the text in images.
• Image Upscaler & Photo Restorer — AI 2x/4x, Agent-Payable — image upscaling 2x or 4x, and photo restoration.
• Lever Jobs Scraper — Postings from Any Lever Site, US & EU — every published job on a company's Lever site, global or EU.
• Lighthouse Audit, No API Key — Lab Core Web Vitals & SEO Scores — Lighthouse scores and Core Web Vitals.
• Page Change Monitor — Detect Website Changes, $0.001 a Check — what changed on a page since the last check.
• PDF to Markdown & PDF to Text — PDF Text Extractor with OCR — PDF to Markdown and text, with OCR for scanned pages.
• Remote Jobs Scraper — Remote OK Listings, Salary Filter, Links — current remote jobs from Remote OK, with salary and listing links.
• RSS Feed Reader — RSS, Atom & JSON Feeds to JSON, $0.001 a Feed — every item of an RSS, Atom or JSON feed.
• SEO Audit — On-Page Checks, Schema & Hreflang, $0.004 a Page — an on-page SEO audit: meta tags, schema, headings and links.
• Sitemap URL Extractor — Indexes, Gzip, RSS; $0.0003 per URL — the URLs in a site's sitemaps.
• URL to Markdown for LLMs — Selectors, Text & Provenance — a public job page as clean Markdown where the site allows it (deny-listed job sites are refused).
• Video Frame Extractor — by Scene, Interval or Timestamp — frames, thumbnails and scenes from a video.
• Website Icon Finder — Favicons, Touch Icons & Theme Colors — declared website icons, theme colors and manifest links.
• Website Screenshot API — Elements, HTML, Dark Mode & PDF Print — screenshots and PDF prints of web pages.
• Website Tech Stack Lookup — Live Detection, $0.001 a Site — the technologies a website runs, detected live.
• Website to Markdown — Bounded Crawls for Agents — bounded whole-site Markdown with robots and crawl-delay enforced

Changelog

• 1.0 (2026-10-27) — first release.