Freelancer Scraper

Scrape active project listings from Freelancer.com via the platform's public REST API. Extract project titles, descriptions, budgets, bid counts, required skills, and more — no account or API key required.

What does this actor do?

The Freelancer Scraper queries Freelancer's public API to collect active freelance project listings. It supports three input modes:

1. Keyword search — search projects by keyword (e.g., "python", "web design", "logo design")
2. Skill filter — filter by skill category slug (e.g., python, javascript, graphic-design)
3. Latest active — fetch the most recently posted active projects (no filter)

Results include the full project description, budget range, currency, current bid count, average bid, required skills, project type (fixed-price or hourly), and a direct link to the project page.

Use cases

• Freelancer market research — track demand and pricing for specific skills over time
• Lead generation — identify new project postings in your area of expertise
• Competitive analysis — monitor which project types are trending on the platform
• Business intelligence — analyze budget distributions, popular skills, and employer patterns

Input

Field	Type	Description
query	string	Keyword to search for projects. Leave empty to fetch latest active projects.
skills	string[]	List of Freelancer skill SEO slugs (e.g. ["python", "javascript"]). Overrides query.
maxItems	integer	Maximum number of project records to collect. Default: 10.

Example inputs

Search by keyword:

{
  "query": "machine learning",
  "maxItems": 50
}

Filter by skills:

{
  "skills": ["python", "data-analytics"],
  "maxItems": 100
}

Latest active projects:

{
  "maxItems": 200
}

Output

Each result record contains:

Field	Type	Description
project_id	integer	Freelancer's internal project ID
title	string	Project title
url	string	Direct link to the project page
description	string	Full project description
preview_description	string	Short preview (first ~100 characters)
status	string	Project status (active, etc.)
project_type	string	fixed or hourly
budget_min	number	Minimum budget
budget_max	number	Maximum budget
currency_code	string	Currency code (e.g., USD, EUR, INR)
bid_count	integer	Number of bids placed
avg_bid	number	Average bid amount
bid_end_date	string	ISO date when bidding closes
time_submitted	string	ISO date when the project was posted
skills	string	Comma-separated list of required skill names
skills_list	string	JSON array of skill objects with id, name, and seo_url
is_featured	boolean	Whether the project is a featured listing
is_urgent	boolean	Whether the project is marked urgent
employer_id	integer	Freelancer user ID of the employer
scraped_at	string	ISO timestamp when the record was scraped

Example output

{
  "project_id": 40491017,
  "title": "OpenAI-Powered Python Code Generation",
  "url": "https://www.freelancer.com/projects/openai/OpenAI-Powered-Python-Code-Generation",
  "description": "I need assistance in generating Python code snippets using OpenAI for assessment purposes...",
  "preview_description": "I need assistance in generating Python code snippets using OpenAI for assessment purposes.",
  "status": "active",
  "project_type": "hourly",
  "budget_min": 750,
  "budget_max": 1250,
  "currency_code": "INR",
  "bid_count": 28,
  "avg_bid": 1535.54,
  "bid_end_date": "2026-06-11T11:05:41.000Z",
  "time_submitted": "2026-06-04T11:05:41.000Z",
  "skills": "Python, Software Architecture, Artificial Intelligence, API Development, OpenAI",
  "skills_list": "[{\"id\":13,\"name\":\"Python\",\"seo_url\":\"python\"}]",
  "is_featured": false,
  "is_urgent": false,
  "employer_id": null,
  "scraped_at": "2026-06-04T11:47:39.377Z"
}

Notes

• No authentication required — Freelancer's public API is open and does not require login
• No proxy needed — the API responds without blocking to standard requests
• Rate limits — no rate limiting observed; the actor uses a polite 200ms inter-page delay
• Active projects only — the API endpoint returns currently active projects; closed and archived projects are not included
• Project count — Freelancer typically has 6,000–8,000 active projects at any given time