# Medium Scraper (`ivanvs/medium-scraper`) Actor

Scrape data such as authors, titles, applause, responses and publication dates from the Medium blogging platform. Download listings data in JSON, XML, Excel, and other versatile

- **URL**: https://apify.com/ivanvs/medium-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Gen First](https://apify.com/ivanvs) (community)
- **Categories:** Social media, News
- **Stats:** 326 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 19 bookmarks
- **User rating**: 4.00 out of 5 stars

## Pricing

Pay per usage

This Actor is paid per platform usage. The Actor is free to use, and you only pay for the Apify platform usage, which gets cheaper the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-usage

## 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

## Medium Scraper

Scrape data from [Medium](https://medium.com/) easily with Medium Scraper.

### About

Medium is an American online publishing platform developed by Evan Williams and launched in August 2012. It is owned by A Medium Corporation. The platform is an example of social journalism, having a hybrid collection of amateur and professional people and publications, or exclusive blogs or publishers on Medium and is regularly regarded as a blog host.

### How to use?

In order to use Medium Scraper you need to provide tag for which you want to scrape blog posts on Medium and optionaly month or year. If year and month are not supplied, we will scrape the most popular post for given tag and date info.

So if only year is supplied, the most popular posts from given year will be scraped. If year and month is supplied, the most popular posts for given year and month will be scraped.

### How to find valid tags?

Finding Related Tags on Medium.com

1. Go to Medium.com.

2. Use the search bar at the top of the page.

3. Type in the topic you're interested in (e.g., "artificial intelligence," "writing tips," "healthy eating").

4. After the search results appear, click on the "Topics" tab.

5. This tab will show you various tags and related subjects that are connected to your search term. These are the most relevant tags that Medium users are applying to content on that topic.

![Medium.com tags search](https://apify-scrapers.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/medium/medium-tag-search.png)

#### Example

Scrape the most popular posts for tag java of all time order by oldest first

```json
{
  "tag": "java",
  "orderBy": "most-read"
}
```

Scrape the most popular posts for tag java in 2020

```json
{
  "tag": "java",
  "year": 2020,
  "orderBy": "most-read"
}
```

Scrape the most popular posts for tag java in January 2020

```json
{
  "tag": "java",
  "year": 2020,
  "month": 1,
  "orderBy": "most-read"
}
```

*Only dates in past are valid!*

#### Output

Here is example of a scraped article:

```json
{
  "id": "33189ab03f60",
  "title": "I Asked ChatGPT How To Earn $1000 Online. It Was Hilarious.",
  "image": "https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:700/1*Y-qcUstemdW57V54aNWnnQ.jpeg",
  "subtitle": "Peering in the hive mind can be really helpful, but it can also be so stupid it’s funny",
  "author": {
    "id": "d5700e8fad77",
    "name": "Linda Caroll",
    "url": "https://medium.com/@lindacaroll",
    "username": "lindacaroll",
    "image": "https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fill:20:20/2*k9WGjFrkNI3f-kD5wjRxlQ.jpeg",
    "bio": "Everything is storytelling. https://lindac.substack.com/"
  },
  "url": "https://medium.com/the-partnered-pen/i-asked-chatgpt-how-to-earn-1000-online-it-was-hilarious-33189ab03f60",
  "responses": 540,
  "readingTime": 5.403773584905661,
  "publication": {
    "name": "The Partnered Pen",
    "url": "https://medium.com/the-partnered-pen",
    "image": "https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fill:20:20/1*N17wOF_ZH_k7MbDnwogDPQ.png",
    "domain": null
  },
  "aplause": 25220,
  "isMemberOnlyStory": true,
  "content": [
    "I Asked ChatGPT How To Earn $1000 Online. It Was Hilarious.",
    "Peering in the hive mind can be really helpful, but it can also be so stupid it’s funny..."
  ],
  "tags": ["ChatGPT", "Make Money Online", "Entrepreneur", "Work From Home", "Internet Marketing"],
  "publishingDate": "3/24/2023 7:51:42 AM",
  "wordCount": 1061,
  "seo": {
    "title": "",
    "description": ""
  }
}
```

### Medium Scraper data output

The output from Medium Scraper is stored in the dataset. After the run is finished, you can download the dataset in various data formats (JSON, CSV, XML, RSS, HTML Table).

### How much does it cost to scrape Medium Scraper?

Running Medium Scraper once will get you 1,000 results for less than $2 in Apify platform credits. For more details about the plans offer, platform credits, and usage, see the platform pricing [page](https://apify.com/pricing/actors).

### ❓FAQ

#### Do I need proxies to scrape Medium.com?

Proxy for this scraper is already preconfigured for optimal performance.

### Support

For more custom/simplify outputs or Bug report please contact the developer (me) or report an issue.

# Actor input Schema

## `tag` (type: `string`):

Tag from Medium web site for which we want to gather blog post information

## `year` (type: `integer`):

Year for which blogs will be scraped

## `month` (type: `integer`):

Month for which blogs will be scraped

## `orderBy` (type: `string`):

Select in which order you want to get articles, default is 10 most read

## `userInfo` (type: `boolean`):

Scrape information regarding author of the article

## `scrapeArticle` (type: `boolean`):

Scrape information regarding the article

## `maxNumberOfResults` (type: `integer`):

Defines how many items do you want to gather by running this actor

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "tag": "java",
  "orderBy": "most-read",
  "userInfo": false,
  "scrapeArticle": false,
  "maxNumberOfResults": 10
}
```

# 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 = {
    "tag": "java",
    "maxNumberOfResults": 10
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("ivanvs/medium-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 = {
    "tag": "java",
    "maxNumberOfResults": 10,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("ivanvs/medium-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 '{
  "tag": "java",
  "maxNumberOfResults": 10
}' |
apify call ivanvs/medium-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,ivanvs/medium-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/c9EPVWa1joD3yVyJb/builds/Joq0KjIillfZfdHvj/openapi.json