# Mastodon Scraper — Hashtags & Account Posts (`hipersoft/mastodon-scraper`) Actor

Scrape public Mastodon posts by hashtag or account from any instance: post text, author, followers, favourites, boosts, replies, tags, media and date. One clean row per post as JSON, CSV or Excel.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/hipersoft/mastodon-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [hiper soft](https://apify.com/hipersoft) (community)
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $0.00075 / post scraped

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/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
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.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## 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.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## Mastodon Scraper — Hashtags & Account Posts

Scrape **public Mastodon posts** by **hashtag** or **account** from any instance. Get one clean row per post — text, author, follower count, favourites, boosts, replies, tags, media and date. Export to **JSON, CSV or Excel**, or pull straight from the API.

Perfect for **social listening, hashtag and trend tracking, community and competitor analysis, fediverse research, and building post datasets** for dashboards or LLMs.

***

### What you get

One flat, ready-to-use record per post:

| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| `id` / `url` | The post and its link |
| `content` | Post text (HTML stripped) |
| `author` / `authorName` | Handle and display name |
| `authorFollowers` | Author's follower count |
| `favourites` / `reblogs` / `replies` | Engagement metrics |
| `tags` | Hashtags on the post |
| `mediaUrls` | Attached media |
| `language` / `sensitive` | Post metadata |
| `isReblog` / `rebloggedBy` | Boost info (content is the boosted post's) |
| `createdAt` | Publish date (ISO 8601) |
| `instance` / `source` | Where and how it was collected |
| `collectedAt` | When the row was scraped |

***

### How to use

#### 1. By hashtag or account

```json
{
  "instance": "mastodon.social",
  "hashtags": ["technology", "opensource"],
  "accounts": ["Gargron"],
  "maxItems": 300
}
```

- **Instance** — the Mastodon server to query (it federates results across the network) — e.g. `mastodon.social`, `fosstodon.org`, `infosec.exchange`.
- **Hashtags** — public posts for each tag.
- **Accounts** — posts from given handles (`user` or `user@another.instance`).
- **Max posts** — cap the total (0 = no limit; the scraper pages through results).

***

### Example output

```json
{
  "id": "117304350090200688",
  "url": "https://mastodon.social/@techwire/117304350090200688",
  "content": "One-Electron Universe — great read on…",
  "author": "techwire@gamefan.net",
  "authorFollowers": 258,
  "favourites": 12,
  "reblogs": 1,
  "replies": 0,
  "tags": ["tech", "technology", "technews"],
  "isReblog": false,
  "createdAt": "2026-09-20T15:40:00.000Z",
  "collectedAt": "2026-09-20T16:20:00.000Z"
}
```

***

### Common use cases

- **Social listening** — track what's said around a topic or hashtag on the fediverse.
- **Trend tracking** — monitor hashtags over time.
- **Community & competitor analysis** — follow accounts' posts and engagement.
- **Fediverse research** — gather public posts across instances.
- **Datasets** — build clean, structured post corpora for analysis or model training.

***

### Frequently asked questions

**Do I need any login, account or key?** No. Just set hashtags or accounts and run.

**Can I use a different instance?** Yes — set the Instance field to any Mastodon server.

**Can I scrape a specific person's posts?** Yes — add their handle (e.g. `user@instance`) to Accounts.

**How many posts can I get?** Set **Max posts** to whatever you need (0 = no limit) — the scraper pages through the timeline.

**What format is the data?** A flat table you can export as JSON, CSV or Excel, or fetch from the Apify API.

***

### Related scrapers

Building a social toolkit? Check out our other social media scrapers on Apify Store — all with the same clean, one-row-per-item output.

# Actor input Schema

## `instance` (type: `string`):

The Mastodon instance to query — e.g. 'mastodon.social', 'infosec.exchange', 'fosstodon.org'. Hashtag and account lookups run against this instance (it federates results from across the network).

## `hashtags` (type: `array`):

Hashtags to scrape public posts for — e.g. 'technology', 'opensource', 'photography' (with or without #).

## `accounts` (type: `array`):

Account handles to scrape posts from — e.g. 'Gargron' or 'user@another.instance'.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of posts to collect across all hashtags and accounts (0 = no limit).

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "instance": "mastodon.social",
  "hashtags": [
    "technology"
  ],
  "maxItems": 100
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

The results as dataset items.

# 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 = {
    "hashtags": [
        "technology"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("hipersoft/mastodon-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 = { "hashtags": ["technology"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("hipersoft/mastodon-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 '{
  "hashtags": [
    "technology"
  ]
}' |
apify call hipersoft/mastodon-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,hipersoft/mastodon-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/r9bCapyZ2nQ2wPxlD/builds/RO0rz5chFWd7EQMZ8/openapi.json