Snapchat Spotlight Scraper

What is Snapchat Spotlight Scraper - Trending Videos & Data?

This Apify Actor is for analysts, builders, and AI agents that need structured public Snapchat Spotlight data. It accepts one of three starting points: a country code for the live trending discovery feed, exact Snapchat Spotlight URLs, or creator usernames. One record usually means one Spotlight video row in the dataset, with key fields such as viewCount, shareCount, boostCount, recommendCount, commentCount, creatorUsername, soundName, aiTitle, hashtags, videoUrl, and spotlightUrl; the dataset can also include diagnostic rows for workflow handling. The outcome is a normalized dataset plus a RUN_SUMMARY record for counts, cost telemetry, country, and stop reason.

Best fit and connected workflows

Use this Actor when your starting point is Snapchat Spotlight discovery or a known Spotlight target.

• Trend tracking by market: choose mode: "trending" and a country such as US or GB to collect current Spotlight videos from that country's discovery feed.
• Exact video collection: choose mode: "urls" when you already have Spotlight links and want those videos normalized into consistent rows.
• Creator-level Spotlight review: choose mode: "username" when your workflow starts from a Snapchat handle or profile URL and you want that creator's public Spotlight videos.
• Media and metadata pipelines: use the returned videoUrl, thumbnailUrl, transcriptUrl, hashtags, AI text fields, and engagement counts in downstream reporting or enrichment.

If your next Snapchat workflow step is ad-focused rather than Spotlight-focused, continue with the Snapchat Ads Scraper. This is a natural sibling step when Spotlight research leads into Snapchat ad review under its own focused contract.

Practical scenario

Nina works on short-form content research and starts with the country code GB. She runs the Actor in trending mode with maxResults set to 25. The returned rows include creatorUsername, creatorName, viewCount, boostCount, shareCount, recommendCount, soundName, hashtags, videoUrl, and spotlightUrl. Nina sorts the dataset by engagement, sees which sounds and creators are appearing in the public feed, and decides which videos deserve a closer editorial review. Her next action is to open the returned spotlightUrl values and send selected items into a reporting workflow.

Input

Field	Type	Description
mode	string	Scrape the trending feed by country, exact Spotlight URLs, or creator usernames. Accepted values: trending, urls, username. Default: trending.
spotlightUrls	array of strings	Full Snapchat Spotlight URLs for urls mode.
usernames	array of strings	Snapchat handles or profile URLs for username mode.
country	string	Two-letter ISO country code for the trending feed and residential proxy country. Default: US.
proxyType	string	Proxy choice for trending and urls modes. Accepted values: auto, residential, datacenter. Default: auto.
maxResults	integer	Result cap and billed video cap. Range: 1 to 1000. Default: 25.
includeRawData	boolean	Adds the raw Snapchat metadata node per video when enabled. Default: false.

Focused input example:

{
  "mode": "trending",
  "country": "US",
  "proxyType": "auto",
  "maxResults": 25,
  "includeRawData": false
}

Output

Field	Description
recordType	Row type such as spotlight-video for a video row or diagnostic for an actionable non-video row
status	Row status, including ok for saved video rows
mode	Input mode that produced the row
country	Two-letter trending feed country code when applicable
spotlightId	Snapchat Spotlight story or snap ID
spotlightUrl	Canonical Snapchat Spotlight URL
creatorUsername	Creator username
creatorName	Creator display name
creatorUrl	Public Snapchat creator URL
creatorFollowerCount	Creator follower count when Snapchat exposes it
title	Video title or name
description	Video description text
caption	Embedded on-screen caption text
aiTitle	Snapchat AI-generated title when present
aiDescription	Snapchat AI-generated description when present
aiKeywords	Snapchat AI-generated keyword tags
hashtags	Hashtags attached to the video
soundName	Sound or music title
soundCreator	Sound creator or credited artist
viewCount	Public view count
shareCount	Public share count
commentCount	Public comment count
boostCount	Public boost count
recommendCount	Public recommend count
durationMs	Video duration in milliseconds
width	Video width in pixels
height	Video height in pixels
isSponsored	Whether Snapchat marks the video as sponsored
uploadedAt	Upload timestamp in ISO 8601 format when available
thumbnailUrl	Thumbnail image URL
previewUrl	Low-resolution preview media URL
videoUrl	Direct video media URL
transcriptUrl	Transcript JSON URL when Snapchat provides it
sourceUrl	Requested source URL that produced the row
errorMessage	Actionable diagnostic text for non-video rows
runId	Apify run ID that produced the row
scrapedAt	ISO 8601 timestamp when the row was saved
rawData	Raw Snapchat metadata node when includeRawData is enabled

Illustrative output record:

{
  "recordType": "spotlight-video",
  "status": "ok",
  "mode": "trending",
  "country": "US",
  "spotlightId": "W7_EDlXWTBiXAEEniNoMPwAAYZHprbWtmZ3dlAZ4rygWeAZ4rygWGAAAAAQ",
  "spotlightUrl": "https://www.snapchat.com/spotlight/W7_EDlXWTBiXAEEniNoMPwAAYZHprbWtmZ3dl",
  "creatorUsername": "sofisofi6794",
  "creatorName": "Aliya Noor",
  "creatorUrl": "https://www.snapchat.com/@sofisofi6794",
  "creatorFollowerCount": 0,
  "title": "Spotlight Snap",
  "description": "Another Spotlight Snap brought to you by Snapchat",
  "caption": "",
  "aiTitle": "Aliya Noor and Friends on a Busy Street",
  "aiDescription": "In this lively street scene, friends enjoy drinks and books.",
  "aiKeywords": ["friends", "street", "drinks"],
  "hashtags": ["#spotlight", "#streetlife"],
  "soundName": "Original Sound",
  "soundCreator": "sofisofi6794",
  "viewCount": 3183822,
  "shareCount": 7291,
  "commentCount": 0,
  "boostCount": 176422,
  "recommendCount": 7560,
  "durationMs": 10050,
  "width": 540,
  "height": 982,
  "isSponsored": false,
  "uploadedAt": "2026-06-15T03:18:40.518Z",
  "thumbnailUrl": "https://cf-st.sc-cdn.net/n/example.256",
  "previewUrl": "https://cf-st.sc-cdn.net/n/example",
  "videoUrl": "https://cf-st.sc-cdn.net/n/example.27.I",
  "transcriptUrl": "https://bolt-gcdn.sc-cdn.net/3/example",
  "sourceUrl": "https://www.snapchat.com/spotlight",
  "runId": "abc123",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-06-17T00:00:00.000Z"
}

How it works

This Actor reads Snapchat's public web Spotlight pages over HTTP and parses the embedded __NEXT_DATA__ application state.

Implementation paths:

• trending mode samples Snapchat's live Spotlight discovery feed for a country.
• urls mode requests the exact Spotlight URLs you provide.
• username mode returns a creator's public Spotlight videos by handle through the primary data provider path.

For trending and urls, the Actor uses Apify proxies with proxyType options auto, residential, and datacenter. In auto, it tries residential first and then uses datacenter if the proxy path needs it. The default maxResults of 25 matches one trending feed page, and trending mode re-samples the feed across sessions to reach the requested total. When includeRawData is enabled, each video row can also include the raw Snapchat metadata node.

Pricing

This Actor uses Pay per event with Apify platform usage included. The live event prices and any current platform details are shown in the Pricing tab on the Actor page.

Charged events:

• Actor Start
• Scraped Spotlight Video

Example: if a run saves twenty-five Spotlight video rows, the billed event count is twenty-five video events plus the memory-based startup event. Apify platform usage is included in the event price. For current billing details, open the live Pricing tab.

Use with AI agents (MCP)

This Apify Actor is usable through Apify MCP. Exact Actor identity: khadinakbar/snapchat-spotlight-scraper.

Tool description: collect public Snapchat Spotlight videos from a country feed, exact Spotlight URLs, or creator usernames, then return structured dataset rows with creator details, engagement counts, sound metadata, AI text fields, hashtags, media URLs, and run context.

Use khadinakbar/snapchat-spotlight-scraper in trending mode for country US with maxResults set to 10. Return each video's creatorUsername, viewCount, boostCount, shareCount, soundName, hashtags, videoUrl, and spotlightUrl, then summarize which sounds appear most often.

How to interpret the output:

• recordType: "spotlight-video" marks a normalized video row.
• recordType: "diagnostic" marks a workflow or source row that is useful for handling results.
• sourceUrl, mode, country, runId, and scrapedAt provide provenance.
• videoUrl is the direct media URL.
• transcriptUrl appears when Snapchat provides transcript JSON.
• RUN_SUMMARY in the key-value store contains counts, cost telemetry, country, and stop reason.

Scope and cost guidance:

• Use maxResults to control how many video rows are collected and billed.
• Use includeRawData: true only when you want the original per-video metadata node for custom parsing.
• Read the default dataset for the normalized rows after the execution completes.

Apify API example

import { ApifyClient } from "apify-client";

const client = new ApifyClient({
  token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN,
});

const run = await client.actor("khadinakbar/snapchat-spotlight-scraper").call({
  mode: "trending",
  country: "US",
  proxyType: "auto",
  maxResults: 10,
  includeRawData: false,
});

const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();

for (const item of items) {
  console.log(item.creatorUsername, item.viewCount, item.spotlightUrl);
}

Best results and outcome guidance

• Choose trending when you want current public Spotlight discovery data for a market.
• Choose urls when you want exact normalization of known Spotlight links.
• Choose username when the workflow begins from creator handles or Snapchat profile URLs.
• Keep maxResults small for quick sampling, schema review, or prompt-driven agent tasks.
• Use proxyType: "auto" as the general-purpose option for trending and urls.
• Enable includeRawData when building custom parsing or reviewing Snapchat payload structure.
• Read both the dataset and RUN_SUMMARY so your workflow has video rows plus run-level telemetry.
• If the next analysis step shifts from Spotlight content into ad intelligence, continue with the Snapchat Ads Scraper for that separate contract when the next workflow needs that Actor's focused input and output contract.

Continue the workflow

• Then use Snapchat Video Downloader to continue Snapchat records selected with Snapchat Spotlight Scraper - Trending Videos & Data into a focused media workflow.
• Then use Social Media Influencer Scraper — Creator Discovery to extend Snapchat Spotlight Scraper - Trending Videos & Data with a neighboring social-media research source when the brief calls for Social data.

Design note

I found that the dataset contract clearly separates spotlight-video rows from diagnostic rows, which makes downstream filtering straightforward when you want only normalized video records in analytics or agent workflows.

FAQ

Which mode should I start with for market research?
Start with trending and set the country field to the market you want to inspect.

What should I pass in spotlightUrls?
Use full Snapchat Spotlight links such as https://www.snapchat.com/spotlight/... when you want exact videos.

What does username mode return?
It returns a creator's public Spotlight videos by handle through the provider-backed path.

Which fields are most useful for ranking videos?
Common ranking fields are viewCount, boostCount, shareCount, recommendCount, commentCount, soundName, creatorUsername, and hashtags.

Where do I get the media file URL?
Read videoUrl for the direct video media URL and previewUrl for the low-resolution preview URL.

Where is the run-level summary?
Use the RUN_SUMMARY record in the key-value store for counts, cost telemetry, country, and stop reason.

Responsible use

This Actor collects public Snapchat Spotlight data from web pages. Use the returned data, media URLs, and creator information in line with Snapchat's terms, applicable laws, and creator rights. Keep your workflow focused on lawful research, analytics, automation, or editorial use, and review the live Pricing tab before scaling runs.