Discord Message Scraper

Scrape Discord channel and DM messages through the official Discord REST API using your own bot token (recommended) or user token. Returns clean, flat, MCP-ready records — message content, author, timestamps, attachments, reactions, replies, and a direct jump link — with no browser, no proxy, and official-API-grade reliability.

Built for community managers, moderators, researchers, and AI agents that need structured Discord message history out of channels they have access to.

What it does

You supply a Discord token and one or more channel IDs (or channel URLs). The actor pages through each channel's message history newest-first via GET /channels/{id}/messages, applies your filters, and writes one record per message to the dataset. It handles Discord rate limits (429 back-off), resumable pagination, and date/message-ID ranges.

When to use it

• Export a channel's full message history for analysis, backup, or compliance.
• Pull messages from a date range or since a known message ID (incremental scrapes).
• Collect messages from a specific user, containing a keyword, or with attachments.
• Feed structured Discord conversation data to an LLM/agent via Apify MCP.

When NOT to use it: for server size, member counts, channel lists, or emoji metadata (no auth needed), use the companion Discord All-in-One Scraper. This actor reads message content, which Discord always gates behind a token.

Output

One record per message. Example (detailed format):

{
  "messageId": "1180000000000000000",
  "channelId": "112233445566778899",
  "channelName": "general",
  "guildId": "998877665544332211",
  "authorId": "223344556677889900",
  "authorUsername": "jdoe",
  "authorGlobalName": "John",
  "authorIsBot": false,
  "content": "gm everyone, the giveaway starts now!",
  "timestamp": "2024-03-01T12:00:00.000Z",
  "editedTimestamp": null,
  "messageType": "default",
  "isPinned": false,
  "mentionsEveryone": true,
  "attachmentCount": 1,
  "embedCount": 0,
  "reactionCount": 12,
  "replyToMessageId": null,
  "jumpUrl": "https://discord.com/channels/998877665544332211/112233445566778899/1180000000000000000",
  "mentionedUserIds": ["223344556677889900"],
  "attachments": [{ "url": "https://cdn.discordapp.com/...", "filename": "banner.png", "size": 84211, "contentType": "image/png", "width": 1200, "height": 630, "isImage": true }],
  "reactions": [{ "emoji": "🔥", "emojiId": null, "count": 12 }],
  "stickerNames": []
}

Field	Type	Description
messageId	string	Discord message snowflake ID
channelId / channelName	string	Source channel ID and name
guildId	string | null	Server ID (null for DMs)
authorId / authorUsername / authorGlobalName	string	Author identity
authorIsBot	boolean	Whether the author is a bot
content	string	Raw message text
timestamp / editedTimestamp	ISO 8601	Sent / last-edited time
messageType	string	default, reply, thread_starter, …
isPinned / mentionsEveryone	boolean	Message flags
attachmentCount / embedCount / reactionCount	integer	Counts
replyToMessageId	string | null	Parent message for replies
jumpUrl	string	Direct link to the message
mentionedUserIds, attachments[], reactions[], stickerNames[]	array	Present in detailed format only

Choose concise response format to drop the arrays and keep only counts — a smaller, token-efficient payload for LLM/agent use.

Pricing

Pay-per-event (plus optional pay-per-usage):

Event	Price
Actor start	$0.00005
Message scraped	$0.0005 / message

Cost is roughly channels × maxMessagesPerChannel × $0.0005. Scraping 1,000 messages costs about $0.50. The actor logs the upper-bound cost before it starts charging.

How to get a Discord bot token (recommended)

1. Go to discord.com/developers/applications → New Application.
2. Open the Bot tab → Reset Token → copy the token. Paste it into the Discord token input (it is stored as a secret).
3. Under Bot → Privileged Gateway Intents, enable Message Content Intent.
4. Open OAuth2 → URL Generator, tick bot scope and the View Channels + Read Message History permissions, open the generated URL, and add the bot to your server.
5. Enable Developer Mode in Discord (Settings → Advanced), right-click a channel → Copy Channel ID, and paste it into channels.

Keep Token type = Bot (the default).

User tokens

Setting Token type = User lets the actor read any channel/DM the account can already see, without adding a bot. This is self-botting and violates Discord's Terms of Service — it can get the account banned. Use only on accounts you accept that risk for.

Input example

{
  "discordToken": "YOUR_BOT_TOKEN",
  "tokenType": "bot",
  "channels": ["112233445566778899"],
  "maxMessagesPerChannel": 500,
  "afterDate": "2024-01-01",
  "filterContains": "giveaway",
  "responseFormat": "detailed"
}

Run via API

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/khadinakbar~discord-message-scraper/runs?token=APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{ "discordToken": "YOUR_BOT_TOKEN", "channels": ["112233445566778899"], "maxMessagesPerChannel": 200 }'

Use with AI agents (MCP)

This actor is MCP-ready. Connect via https://mcp.apify.com?tools=khadinakbar/discord-message-scraper and an agent can call it with a channel ID and token, receiving structured JSON it can reason over directly. Use responseFormat: "concise" to minimize token usage.

Tips & behavior

• Threads: pass a thread's own channel ID in channels to scrape its messages.
• Resuming: save the oldest messageId you received and pass it as beforeMessageId next run; or use afterMessageId to fetch only newer messages.
• Inaccessible channels (bot not in server, missing Read Message History, or deleted) are skipped with a warning. If every channel is inaccessible, the run fails with a clear message rather than returning an empty success.
• Filters (filterContains, filterFromUserId, onlyWithAttachments) are applied after fetching, so the per-channel cap counts post-filter results.

FAQ

Do I need a bot token? Yes — Discord requires authentication to read messages. A bot token is the legitimate path. User tokens work but violate Discord TOS.

Does it need a proxy? No. Discord rate-limits per token, not per IP, so the actor talks directly to the API with no proxy cost.

How fast is it? Up to ~100 messages per API request, throttled to respect Discord's rate limits. Expect a few thousand messages per minute per token.

Can it read DMs? With a user token, yes — pass the DM channel ID. Bot tokens cannot read user DMs.

Will it get blocked? No anti-bot is involved; it's the official API. The only failure modes are an invalid token (401) or a channel the token can't access (403/404).

Legal & compliance

This actor accesses Discord only with credentials you provide, for channels you have permission to read. You are responsible for complying with Discord's Terms of Service, Developer Terms, applicable privacy laws (e.g. GDPR), and any server rules. Scrape only data you are authorized to access. User-token (self-bot) usage violates Discord's Terms of Service; the bot-token path is recommended. This tool is provided for legitimate moderation, backup, research, and analytics use.

Related actors

• Discord All-in-One Scraper — server size, channels, emojis, and discovery (no token needed).