# Project Gutenberg Ebook Scraper (Gutendex) (`jungle_synthesizer/gutenberg-gutendex-public-domain-ebook-scraper`) Actor Scrape the full Project Gutenberg catalog via the Gutendex JSON API. Filter by search, language, subject, author era, and download count. Returns EPUB, Kindle, plain-text, and HTML download URLs — built for AI training corpora, NLP datasets, and TTS pipelines. - **URL**: https://apify.com/jungle\_synthesizer/gutenberg-gutendex-public-domain-ebook-scraper.md - **Developed by:** [BowTiedRaccoon](https://apify.com/jungle_synthesizer) (community) - **Categories:** AI, Education - **Stats:** 2 total users, 0 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks - **User rating**: No ratings yet ## Pricing Pay per event This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events. Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event ## What's an Apify Actor? Actors are a software tools running on the Apify platform, for all kinds of web data extraction and automation use cases. 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. Actors are written with capital "A". ## 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. The best way to integrate Actors is as follows. In JavaScript/TypeScript projects, use official [JavaScript/TypeScript client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): ```bash npm install apify-client ``` In Python projects, use official [Python client library](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): ```bash pip install apify-client ``` In shell scripts, use [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): ````bash # MacOS / Linux curl -fsSL https://apify.com/install-cli.sh | bash # Windows irm https://apify.com/install-cli.ps1 | iex ```bash In AI frameworks, you might use the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md). If your project is in a different language, use the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md). For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below. For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt). # README ## Project Gutenberg Ebook Scraper (Gutendex) Scrape the full [Project Gutenberg](https://www.gutenberg.org/) public-domain catalog via the [Gutendex JSON API](https://gutendex.com/). Filter by search query, language, subject, author era, and minimum download count. Returns book metadata with direct EPUB, Kindle, plain-text, and HTML download URLs — built for AI training corpora, NLP datasets, and TTS pipelines. ### What does this actor do? Project Gutenberg hosts over 78,000 public-domain books that are legally free to download and use, including for commercial AI/ML training. This actor paginates the entire catalog through the Gutendex API — the official REST wrapper — and delivers clean, structured records with: - **Full text download URLs**: direct links to `.txt`, `.epub`, `.mobi`, and `.html` versions - **Rich metadata**: authors with birth/death years, translators, subjects, bookshelves, and language codes - **Copyright status flag**: `"true"`/`"false"`/`null` — essential for corpus licensing decisions - **30-day download count**: a proxy for public interest and training-set priority Every record is a flat JSON object with no nested arrays — ready to pipe into a vector database, fine-tuning pipeline, or document store. ### Use cases - **LLM training corpora**: bulk-fetch plain-text URLs for thousands of public-domain works in a target language - **NLP datasets**: filter by subject headings (e.g. `Philosophy`, `Science Fiction`) for domain-specific datasets - **TTS pipelines**: filter by language code (`en`, `fr`, `de`, `ja`) and pull plain-text URLs for audio synthesis - **Academic research**: enumerate works by author era using `authorYearStart`/`authorYearEnd` - **Digital library projects**: mirror metadata for discovery interfaces ### Input | Field | Type | Default | Description | |-------|------|---------|-------------| | `maxItems` | integer | *(required)* | Maximum number of books to return. Omit to fetch the full catalog (~78,000 books). | | `search` | string | *(empty)* | Free-text search across titles, authors, and subjects. | | `languages` | string | *(empty)* | Comma-separated ISO 639-1 codes, e.g. `en,fr,de`. Leave blank for all languages. | | `topic` | string | *(empty)* | Topic or subject keyword filter, e.g. `science fiction`. | | `authorYearStart` | integer | *(empty)* | Return only books whose authors were born after this year. | | `authorYearEnd` | integer | *(empty)* | Return only books whose authors were born before this year. | | `minDownloadCount` | integer | `0` | Return only books with at least this many 30-day downloads. | | `sortBy` | string | `popular` | `popular` (most downloaded first) or `ascending` (by Gutenberg ID). | **Minimal run** — top 10 most popular books: ```json { "maxItems": 10 } ```` **French classic literature** — authors born before 1900: ```json { "maxItems": 500, "languages": "fr", "authorYearEnd": 1900, "sortBy": "popular" } ``` **Full corpus, high-demand English books only**: ```json { "languages": "en", "minDownloadCount": 100 } ``` ### Output Each result is a flat JSON object: ```json { "gutenbergId": "1342", "title": "Pride and Prejudice", "authors": "Austen, Jane", "authorBirthYears": "1775", "authorDeathYears": "1817", "translators": "", "subjects": "Domestic fiction | England -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Fiction | Love stories", "bookshelves": "Best Books Ever Listings | Harvard Classics", "languages": "en", "copyright": "false", "mediaType": "Text", "downloadCount": "52793", "coverImageUrl": "https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1342/pg1342.cover.medium.jpg", "epubUrl": "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1342.epub3.images", "kindleUrl": "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1342.kf8.images", "textPlainUrl": "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1342.txt.utf-8", "htmlUrl": "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1342.html.images", "gutendexUrl": "https://gutendex.com/books/1342/", "scrapedAt": "2026-05-29T02:00:00.000Z" } ``` | Field | Description | |-------|-------------| | `gutenbergId` | Project Gutenberg numeric ID (as string) | | `title` | Full book title | | `authors` | Pipe-separated author names in `Last, First` format | | `authorBirthYears` | Pipe-separated birth years (same order as authors) | | `authorDeathYears` | Pipe-separated death years | | `translators` | Pipe-separated translator names | | `subjects` | Pipe-separated Library of Congress subject headings | | `bookshelves` | Pipe-separated Gutenberg category tags | | `languages` | Pipe-separated ISO 639-1 language codes | | `copyright` | `"true"` / `"false"` / `null` | | `mediaType` | Typically `"Text"` | | `downloadCount` | 30-day download count (as string) | | `coverImageUrl` | Direct URL to cover image (JPEG) | | `epubUrl` | Direct URL to EPUB file | | `kindleUrl` | Direct URL to Kindle (MOBI) file | | `textPlainUrl` | Direct URL to plain-text `.txt` file | | `htmlUrl` | Direct URL to HTML version | | `gutendexUrl` | Gutendex API URL for this specific record | | `scrapedAt` | ISO-8601 scrape timestamp | ### Performance and cost - **No proxy required**: Gutendex is a free public API with no authentication or IP restrictions. - **Rate limiting**: No documented cap. The actor uses a 300ms inter-page delay as a courtesy. - **Memory**: 256 MB is sufficient for any run size. - **Full catalog run**: ~78,000 books across ~2,500 pages at 32 books/page. - **PPE pricing**: charged per result record via the standard profile. ### Notes - Gutendex occasionally responds slowly (10-30 seconds per page). The actor uses a 90-second timeout with automatic retries — transient slowness does not cause failures. - The `copyright: "false"` flag indicates the work is in the public domain in the United States. Verify licensing for your specific jurisdiction and use case before commercial use. - Download URLs point directly to the `gutenberg.org` CDN. The actor does not download the book files themselves — it returns the URLs for downstream processing. # Actor input Schema ## `sp_intended_usage` (type: `string`): What will this data feed? E.g. lead lists, KYB checks, price tracking. ## `sp_improvement_suggestions` (type: `string`): Provide any feedback or suggestions for improvements. ## `sp_contact` (type: `string`): We'll personally help with your use case. No spam. ## `maxItems` (type: `integer`): Maximum number of books to return. Leave empty to scrape the full catalog (~78 000 books). ## `search` (type: `string`): Optional free-text search query (title, author, or subject keywords). Leave blank to fetch the entire catalog. ## `languages` (type: `string`): Comma-separated ISO 639-1 language codes to filter by (e.g. "en,fr,de"). Leave blank for all languages. ## `topic` (type: `string`): Topic or subject keyword to filter results (e.g. "science fiction"). Maps to Gutendex ?topic= param. ## `authorYearStart` (type: `integer`): Return only books whose authors were born after this year. ## `authorYearEnd` (type: `integer`): Return only books whose authors were born before this year. ## `minDownloadCount` (type: `integer`): Return only books with at least this many downloads. ## `sortBy` (type: `string`): Sort order for results: "popular" (most downloaded first) or "ascending" (by ID). Default is "popular". ## Actor input object example ```json { "sp_intended_usage": "Describe your intended use...", "sp_improvement_suggestions": "Share your suggestions here...", "sp_contact": "Share your email here...", "maxItems": 10, "sortBy": "popular" } ``` # Actor output Schema ## `results` (type: `string`): No description # 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 '' with your token const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '', }); // Prepare Actor input const input = { "sp_intended_usage": "Describe your intended use...", "sp_improvement_suggestions": "Share your suggestions here...", "sp_contact": "Share your email here...", "maxItems": 10, "search": "", "languages": "", "topic": "", "minDownloadCount": 0, "sortBy": "popular" }; // Run the Actor and wait for it to finish const run = await client.actor("jungle_synthesizer/gutenberg-gutendex-public-domain-ebook-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 '' with your token. client = ApifyClient("") # Prepare the Actor input run_input = { "sp_intended_usage": "Describe your intended use...", "sp_improvement_suggestions": "Share your suggestions here...", "sp_contact": "Share your email here...", "maxItems": 10, "search": "", "languages": "", "topic": "", "minDownloadCount": 0, "sortBy": "popular", } # Run the Actor and wait for it to finish run = client.actor("jungle_synthesizer/gutenberg-gutendex-public-domain-ebook-scraper").call(run_input=run_input) # Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any) print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"]) for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items(): print(item) # 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start ``` ## CLI example ```bash echo '{ "sp_intended_usage": "Describe your intended use...", "sp_improvement_suggestions": "Share your suggestions here...", "sp_contact": "Share your email here...", "maxItems": 10, "search": "", "languages": "", "topic": "", "minDownloadCount": 0, "sortBy": "popular" }' | apify call jungle_synthesizer/gutenberg-gutendex-public-domain-ebook-scraper --silent --output-dataset ``` ## MCP server setup ```json { "mcpServers": { "apify": { "command": "npx", "args": [ "mcp-remote", "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=jungle_synthesizer/gutenberg-gutendex-public-domain-ebook-scraper", "--header", "Authorization: Bearer " ] } } } ``` ## OpenAPI specification ```json { "openapi": "3.0.1", "info": { "title": "Project Gutenberg Ebook Scraper (Gutendex)", "description": "Scrape the full Project Gutenberg catalog via the Gutendex JSON API. Filter by search, language, subject, author era, and download count. Returns EPUB, Kindle, plain-text, and HTML download URLs — built for AI training corpora, NLP datasets, and TTS pipelines.", "version": "0.1", "x-build-id": "Y6t6UR8ETzdB5OpKE" }, "servers": [ { "url": "https://api.apify.com/v2" } ], "paths": { "/acts/jungle_synthesizer~gutenberg-gutendex-public-domain-ebook-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-get-dataset-items-jungle_synthesizer-gutenberg-gutendex-public-domain-ebook-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for its completion, and returns Actor's dataset items in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } }, "/acts/jungle_synthesizer~gutenberg-gutendex-public-domain-ebook-scraper/runs": { "post": { "operationId": "runs-sync-jungle_synthesizer-gutenberg-gutendex-public-domain-ebook-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor and returns information about the initiated run in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK", "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/runsResponseSchema" } } } } } } }, "/acts/jungle_synthesizer~gutenberg-gutendex-public-domain-ebook-scraper/run-sync": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-jungle_synthesizer-gutenberg-gutendex-public-domain-ebook-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for completion, and returns the OUTPUT from Key-value store in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } } }, "components": { "schemas": { "inputSchema": { "type": "object", "required": [ "maxItems" ], "properties": { "sp_intended_usage": { "title": "What is the intended usage of this data?", "minLength": 1, "type": "string", "description": "What will this data feed? E.g. lead lists, KYB checks, price tracking." }, "sp_improvement_suggestions": { "title": "How can we improve this crawler for you?", "minLength": 1, "type": "string", "description": "Provide any feedback or suggestions for improvements." }, "sp_contact": { "title": "Contact email (optional)", "minLength": 1, "type": "string", "description": "We'll personally help with your use case. No spam." }, "maxItems": { "title": "Max Items", "type": "integer", "description": "Maximum number of books to return. Leave empty to scrape the full catalog (~78 000 books)." }, "search": { "title": "Search Query", "type": "string", "description": "Optional free-text search query (title, author, or subject keywords). Leave blank to fetch the entire catalog." }, "languages": { "title": "Languages", "type": "string", "description": "Comma-separated ISO 639-1 language codes to filter by (e.g. \"en,fr,de\"). Leave blank for all languages." }, "topic": { "title": "Topic / Subject Filter", "type": "string", "description": "Topic or subject keyword to filter results (e.g. \"science fiction\"). Maps to Gutendex ?topic= param." }, "authorYearStart": { "title": "Author Birth Year Start", "type": "integer", "description": "Return only books whose authors were born after this year." }, "authorYearEnd": { "title": "Author Birth Year End", "type": "integer", "description": "Return only books whose authors were born before this year." }, "minDownloadCount": { "title": "Minimum Download Count", "type": "integer", "description": "Return only books with at least this many downloads." }, "sortBy": { "title": "Sort By", "enum": [ "popular", "ascending" ], "type": "string", "description": "Sort order for results: \"popular\" (most downloaded first) or \"ascending\" (by ID). Default is \"popular\"." } } }, "runsResponseSchema": { "type": "object", "properties": { "data": { "type": "object", "properties": { "id": { "type": "string" }, "actId": { "type": "string" }, "userId": { "type": "string" }, "startedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" }, "finishedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" }, "status": { "type": "string", "example": "READY" }, "meta": { "type": "object", "properties": { "origin": { "type": "string", "example": "API" }, "userAgent": { "type": "string" } } }, "stats": { "type": "object", "properties": { "inputBodyLen": { "type": "integer", "example": 2000 }, "rebootCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "restartCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "resurrectCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "computeUnits": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } }, "options": { "type": "object", "properties": { "build": { "type": "string", "example": "latest" }, "timeoutSecs": { "type": "integer", "example": 300 }, "memoryMbytes": { "type": "integer", "example": 1024 }, "diskMbytes": { "type": "integer", "example": 2048 } } }, "buildId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultKeyValueStoreId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultDatasetId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultRequestQueueId": { "type": "string" }, "buildNumber": { "type": "string", "example": "1.0.0" }, "containerUrl": { "type": "string" }, "usage": { "type": "object", "properties": { "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 1 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_SERPS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } }, "usageTotalUsd": { "type": "number", "example": 0.00005 }, "usageUsd": { "type": "object", "properties": { "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": { "type": "number", "example": 0.00005 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_SERPS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } } } } } } } } } ```