GitHub Repository Scraper — Stars, Forks, Languages & More

Scrape GitHub repository metadata at scale using the official REST API v3. Get structured data on stars, forks, languages, topics, contributors, releases, and more — ready for lead generation, market research, and competitive analysis.

What it does

• Scrape specific repos — provide a list of owner/repo strings
• Search GitHub — use any GitHub search syntax to discover repos
• Enrich with extras — optionally fetch top contributors and latest releases
• Handle rate limits — automatic back-off with X-RateLimit headers; optional token support for 5,000 req/hr

Output fields

Field	Type	Description
owner	string	Repository owner login
name	string	Repository name
fullName	string	owner/name
url	string	GitHub URL
description	string	Repository description
stars	int	Stargazer count
forks	int	Fork count
openIssues	int	Open issue count
language	string	Primary language
languages	object	All languages with byte counts
topics	array	Topic tags
createdAt	string	ISO 8601 creation date
updatedAt	string	Last update date
pushedAt	string	Last push date
license	string	SPDX license identifier
isArchived	bool	Whether the repo is archived
isFork	bool	Whether the repo is a fork
defaultBranch	string	Default branch name
size	int	Repository size in KB
watchers	int	Watcher/subscriber count
homepage	string	Homepage URL
topContributors	array	Top 30 contributors (opt-in)
latestReleases	array	Last 5 releases (opt-in)

Input examples

Scrape specific repositories

{
    "repos": ["apify/crawlee", "microsoft/playwright", "facebook/react"]
}

Search for Python web scraping tools

{
    "searchQuery": "web scraping language:python stars:>100",
    "maxRepos": 50
}

Full enrichment with auth

{
    "repos": ["vercel/next.js"],
    "searchQuery": "framework language:typescript stars:>5000",
    "maxRepos": 100,
    "includeContributors": true,
    "includeReleases": true,
    "githubToken": "ghp_xxxxxxxxxxxx"
}

Rate limits

Mode	Requests/hour	Repos/run (approx)
No token	60	~20–30 (2–3 API calls per repo)
With token	5,000	~1,500–2,500

Tip: Create a free personal access token (no scopes needed for public repos) to unlock 5,000 requests/hour.

Pricing

$0.002 per repository scraped (pay per event).

Cost comparison

Repos	This actor	GitHub API (your infra)	Manual research
10	$0.02	Free + your time	~30 min
100	$0.20	Free + your time	~5 hours
500	$1.00	Free + your time	~2 days
1,000	$2.00	Free + your time	~1 week

You pay for data, not infrastructure. No servers to maintain, no code to write, no rate limits to handle.

Use cases

• Lead generation — Find companies using specific technologies, contact repo owners
• Competitive analysis — Track competitor open-source projects, compare stars/forks growth
• Technology research — Discover trending tools in any language or domain
• Talent sourcing — Identify top contributors to relevant projects
• Investment research — Gauge open-source traction for developer tools companies
• Academic research — Collect repository metadata for software engineering studies
• Dependency auditing — Assess health (activity, issues, releases) of your dependencies

Technical details

• Uses GitHub REST API v3 (api.github.com)
• Automatic rate-limit detection and back-off via X-RateLimit-* headers
• No browser or proxy needed — pure API calls
• Async execution with httpx for fast throughput
• Outputs clean, structured JSON to the Apify dataset

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🔗 More Scrapers by Ken Digital

Scraper	What it does	Price
YouTube Channel Scraper	Videos, stats, metadata	$0.001/video
France Job Scraper	WTTJ + France Travail + Hellowork	$0.005/job
France Real Estate Scraper	5 sources + DVF price analysis	$0.008/listing
Website Content Crawler	HTML → Markdown for AI/RAG	$0.001/page
Google Trends Scraper	Keywords, regions, related queries	$0.002/keyword
GitHub Repo Scraper	Stars, forks, languages, topics	$0.002/repo
RSS News Aggregator	Multi-source feed parsing	$0.0005/article
Instagram Profile Scraper	Followers, bio, posts	$0.0015/profile
Google Maps Scraper	Businesses, reviews, contacts	$0.002/result
TikTok Scraper	Videos, likes, shares	$0.001/video
Google SERP Scraper	Search results, PAA, snippets	$0.003/search
Trustpilot Scraper	Reviews, ratings, sentiment	$0.001/review

👉 View all scrapers

🔗 Quick Integration

Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient
client = ApifyClient("YOUR_API_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("joyouscam35875/github-repo-scraper").call(run_input={...})
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

Node.js

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';
const client = new ApifyClient({ token: 'YOUR_API_TOKEN' });
const run = await client.actor('joyouscam35875/github-repo-scraper').call({...});
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();

No-code: Make / Zapier / n8n

Search for this actor in the Apify connector. No code needed.