Snapchat Spotlight Scraper — Trending Feed & URLs

Scrape Snapchat Spotlight videos three ways: pull the trending discovery feed for any country (no URLs needed), scrape specific Spotlight URLs, or get a creator's Spotlight videos by username. Returns full engagement metrics, creator, sound, AI captions, hashtags, and the direct video download URL. HTTP‑only, no login, no cookies. MCP‑ready for AI agents.

What it does

Most Snapchat Spotlight scrapers only accept a list of URLs you already have. This one adds discovery: point it at a country and it returns that country's live trending Spotlight videos — fully enriched — without a single URL. You can still pass exact URLs when you need a specific video.

• Trending mode — scrape the live Spotlight feed for a chosen country (US, GB, IN, PK, FR, DE, BR, and more).
• URLs mode — scrape one or more snapchat.com/spotlight/<id> links directly.
• Username mode — get a creator's public Spotlight videos by handle (e.g. mrbeast). Uses the ScrapeCreators provider; no residential proxy required.

When to use it

• Track viral short‑video trends and sounds on Snapchat by country.
• Benchmark creator performance (views, boosts, shares, recommends).
• Feed structured Spotlight data to an AI agent, dashboard, or content pipeline.
• Build trend reports without manually collecting URLs.

Not for Snapchat profiles (use a Snapchat Profile Scraper), private content, stories, lenses, or DMs.

Username mode is provider-backed: the actor owner must set a SCRAPECREATORS_API_KEY environment variable (Console → Settings → Environment variables). Trending and URL modes need no key.

Output — one row per video

Field	Description
spotlightId, spotlightUrl	Video ID and canonical Spotlight URL
creatorUsername, creatorName, creatorUrl, creatorFollowerCount	Creator identity and reach
title, description, caption	Video title, description, on‑screen caption
aiTitle, aiDescription, aiKeywords	Snapchat's own AI‑generated title, summary, and keyword tags
hashtags	Hashtags on the video
soundName, soundCreator	Sound / music used and its creator
viewCount, shareCount, commentCount, boostCount, recommendCount	Full public engagement metrics
durationMs, width, height	Video length and dimensions
uploadedAt, isSponsored	Upload time (ISO 8601) and sponsored flag
thumbnailUrl, previewUrl, videoUrl, transcriptUrl	Thumbnail, preview, direct video download, and transcript URLs
country, mode, sourceUrl, runId, scrapedAt	Run context

Pricing — pay per result

Event	Price
Actor start	$0.00005
Per Spotlight video saved	$0.004

A typical 25‑video trending run costs about $0.10. You are billed only for videos actually saved to the dataset. Both pay‑per‑event and platform usage billing are available.

Input

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

URL mode:

{
  "mode": "urls",
  "spotlightUrls": [
    "https://www.snapchat.com/spotlight/W7_EDlXWTBiXAEEniNoMPwAAY..."
  ],
  "maxResults": 50
}

Input	Type	Default	Notes
mode	enum trending | urls | username	trending	What to scrape
country	string (ISO‑2)	US	Trending feed country (also sets proxy country)
proxyType	enum auto | residential | datacenter	auto	Proxy for trending/urls. auto = residential then datacenter fallback
spotlightUrls	array	[]	Required when mode is urls
usernames	array	[]	Required when mode is username; Snapchat handles or profile URLs
maxResults	integer 1–1000	25	Caps videos scraped and billed
includeRawData	boolean	false	Attach the raw per‑video metadata node

Trending volume note

Snapchat's trending feed serves ~25 videos per request. To reach a higher maxResults, the actor re‑samples the feed across fresh proxy sessions and de‑duplicates by video ID, so a trending run may occasionally return slightly fewer than maxResults when Snapchat repeats videos. URL mode returns exactly one video per provided URL.

Use via API / MCP

The actor is exposed in the Apify MCP server as apify--snapchat-spotlight-scraper. Tool input is the same JSON above; the dataset is returned as structured rows an agent can read directly.

apify call khadinakbar/snapchat-spotlight-scraper \
  --input='{"mode":"trending","country":"US","maxResults":10}'

from apify_client import ApifyClient
client = ApifyClient("<APIFY_TOKEN>")
run = client.actor("khadinakbar/snapchat-spotlight-scraper").call(
    run_input={"mode": "trending", "country": "GB", "maxResults": 25}
)
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item["creatorUsername"], item["viewCount"], item["spotlightUrl"])

How it works

The actor reads Snapchat's public web Spotlight pages and parses the embedded __NEXT_DATA__ application state — the same structured data the website itself renders. Trending and URL modes run over Apify proxies with session rotation for reliability and country targeting; proxyType defaults to auto (residential first, datacenter fallback). Datacenter is cheaper and avoids residential quota but works mainly for US — other countries generally need residential. Username mode is provider-backed and uses no proxy. No Snapchat account, cookies, or login are required.

FAQ

Do I need a Snapchat login or cookies? No. Only public Spotlight web data is read.

Can I get the actual video file? Yes — videoUrl is the direct media URL. Respect Snapchat's terms and creator rights when downloading.

Why did trending return fewer than maxResults? The live feed repeats videos across sessions; after de‑duplication you get the unique set. Lower maxResults or try another country for more variety.

Which countries are supported? US, GB, CA, AU, IN, PK, FR, DE, ES, IT, BR, MX, NL, SA, AE, ID, PH, NG, ZA, JP — and any other ISO‑2 code works for the proxy.

Legal & compliance

This actor collects only publicly available data from Snapchat Spotlight web pages and does not access private content, accounts, or anything behind authentication. You are responsible for using the data in compliance with Snapchat's Terms of Service, applicable laws (including data‑protection and copyright law), and creator rights. Do not use scraped media or personal data in ways that violate those terms. This tool is provided for research, analytics, and lawful business use.