VK Groups Scraper for Public Communities

VK Groups Scraper is an Apify Actor for public VK (VKontakte) communities. Give it known group URLs, handles, numeric group IDs, or keyword queries, and it returns one normalized record per public group with fields such as group URL, name, members count, activity, type, verification and access status, avatar, website, city, country, links, contacts, source, and scrape timestamp. It is an Apify Actor usable through Apify MCP, so the same dataset can support human review, automation, and agent workflows.

Best fit and connected workflows

This Actor fits workflows that begin with a public VK community identifier or a topic for discovery.

Use it for:

• CIS social research based on public VK communities
• community lead mapping from public group metadata
• topic-based community discovery
• public profile enrichment for downstream analysis
• routing from community discovery into content collection

A natural next step after community discovery is VK Posts Scraper, which connects when your workflow moves from group identification to post-level collection for a known VK community.

Practical scenario

A researcher starts with the topic gaming and a short list of known communities such as vkvideo and club1. The Actor returns rows with name, groupUrl, membersCount, activity, website, city, country, sourceInput, and sourceRoute.

The researcher can sort the results by members count, review the activity label, and decide which communities belong in a lead list or which ones should move into a content review workflow next.

Input

Field	Type	Purpose
targets	array of strings	Known VK community URLs, handles, or numeric IDs such as vk, https://vk.com/vkvideo, club1, public1, or -1
searchQueries	array of strings	Keyword discovery terms such as gaming or маркетинг
maxGroups	integer	Caps the total number of billable group records saved across the run
maxGroupsPerSearch	integer	Caps how many communities each keyword can add before the next query is processed
vkAccessToken	string	Optional VK API service or user access token for structured API results, especially for search
proxyCountry	string	Residential proxy country used to reach VK
includeRawData	boolean	Includes the raw VK API group object or compact browser diagnostic data
saveHtmlSnapshot	boolean	Stores HTML snapshots for markup troubleshooting
proxyConfiguration	object	Optional override for the default Apify Residential proxy setup

Focused input example:

{
  "targets": ["vk", "https://vk.com/vkvideo", "club1"],
  "searchQueries": ["gaming"],
  "maxGroups": 10,
  "vkAccessToken": "YOUR_VK_TOKEN",
  "proxyCountry": "RU",
  "includeRawData": false,
  "saveHtmlSnapshot": false
}

Output

One record represents one public VK group or community.

Field	Type	Meaning
groupId	integer or null	Numeric VK community ID when VK exposes it
screenName	string or null	VK community handle when available
groupUrl	string	Canonical VK community URL
name	string	Public display name
description	string or null	Public description or meta description when exposed
status	string or null	Short public status or profile text
activity	string or null	VK activity or category label
type	string or null	Community type such as group, page, or event
isClosed	boolean or null	Public closed/private signal when exposed
accessStatus	string or null	Normalized public access status
isVerified	boolean or null	VK verification state when exposed
membersCount	integer or null	Public member, follower, or subscriber count
photoUrl	string or null	Public avatar or Open Graph image URL
coverUrl	string or null	Public cover image URL
website	string or null	Public website link
city	string or null	Public city label
country	string or null	Public country label
contacts	array	Public contact objects exposed by the API
links	array	Public external or community links exposed by the API
sourceInput	string	Original target or search query that produced the record
sourceType	string	target or search
sourceRoute	string	vk-api, browser-profile, or browser-search
searchQuery	string or null	Keyword that produced the record
scrapedAt	string	ISO timestamp of normalization
rawGroup	object or null	Raw VK API group object or compact browser diagnostic data

Illustrative output record:

{
  "groupUrl": "https://vk.com/vk",
  "name": "VK",
  "membersCount": 12500000,
  "activity": "Internet media",
  "type": "page",
  "isVerified": true,
  "accessStatus": "public",
  "photoUrl": "https://sun9-1.userapi.com/example.jpg",
  "website": "https://vk.com",
  "sourceInput": "vk",
  "sourceType": "target",
  "sourceRoute": "vk-api",
  "searchQuery": null,
  "scrapedAt": "2026-07-15T12:00:00.000Z"
}

How it works

This Actor supports two public VK collection routes:

1. Direct targets use a tokenless browser route by default and can also use VK API data when a VK access token is provided.
2. Keyword search fits the workflow with vkAccessToken, where the Actor uses groups.search. When no token is supplied, it can fall back to public web search where possible.

Both routes normalize records into the same dataset schema, so you can move between direct lookup and discovery without changing downstream code. The Actor also writes terminal run details to OUTPUT and RUN_SUMMARY in the key-value store.

Evergreen pricing

This Actor uses Pay per event pricing plus Apify platform usage.

• Actor start event: charged once when the Actor starts
• VK group scraped event: charged for each validated public VK group record saved to the default dataset

Open the live Pricing tab on Apify for the current pricing view. As an example, a run that saves fifty groups produces fifty group-scraped events plus one actor-start event. Apify platform usage is billed separately.

Use with AI agents (MCP)

This Actor is available as an Apify Actor usable through Apify MCP. It is a structured tool for retrieving public VK community records from direct targets or search queries, with provenance fields that help agents interpret where each row came from.

Exact Actor identity: khadinakbar/vk-groups-scraper

Tool description: find public VK communities from known identifiers or keyword discovery, then return normalized rows with public metadata, provenance, and scrape timestamps.

Find public VK communities for these topics and targets, then return one record per community with group URL, name, members count, activity, website, and source fields. Use the returned dataset rows as the source of truth for downstream selection.

Output interpretation for agents:

• groupUrl and name identify the community record
• membersCount, activity, type, and isVerified support grouping and ranking
• sourceInput, sourceType, sourceRoute, and searchQuery explain provenance
• scrapedAt shows when the record was normalized
• rawGroup can be useful when includeRawData is enabled

Scope and routing guidance:

• put known URLs, handles, and numeric IDs in targets
• put discovery terms in searchQueries
• use vkAccessToken for structured keyword discovery when available
• use proxyCountry to select the Residential egress region for VK access
• use maxGroups and maxGroupsPerSearch to shape record volume and billing counts
• the dataset is the primary machine-readable result; RUN_SUMMARY and OUTPUT add run-level context

Apify API example

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

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

const input = {
  targets: ['vk', 'https://vk.com/vkvideo'],
  searchQueries: ['gaming'],
  maxGroups: 5,
  proxyCountry: 'RU',
};

const run = await client.actor('khadinakbar/vk-groups-scraper').call(input);

const datasetId = run.defaultDatasetId;
const { items } = await client.dataset(datasetId).listItems({ clean: true });

console.log('Dataset ID:', datasetId);
console.log('First records:', items);

Best results and outcome guidance

Use targets when you already know the community. Use searchQueries when you want the Actor to discover public communities around a topic.

For structured discovery, add a VK access token. For debugging public-page markup, enable saveHtmlSnapshot. For downstream parsing, enable includeRawData.

The most useful lead-mapping fields are name, groupUrl, membersCount, activity, website, city, country, and links. The dataset overview view is tuned for those fields, and the lead list view highlights a shorter outreach-oriented subset.

Design note

I found that the output contract always includes groupUrl, name, sourceInput, sourceType, sourceRoute, and scrapedAt as required fields, which makes every saved row traceable to its original input and route.

FAQ

When should I use targets instead of searchQueries?

Use targets when you already know the VK community URL, handle, or numeric group ID. Use searchQueries when you want to discover public communities by topic.

Which workflow pairs naturally with this Actor after discovery?

If you want community content after you identify a group, pair this Actor with VK Posts Scraper to move from discovery into post-level collection.

What route is used for keyword discovery?

Keyword discovery uses groups.search when vkAccessToken is present, and it can fall back to public web search where possible.

What data fields are most useful for lead mapping?

name, groupUrl, membersCount, activity, website, city, country, and links are the strongest lead-list fields in the dataset view.

How does the Actor handle direct community targets?

Direct targets can be collected with the tokenless browser route, and they can also be resolved through VK API data when a token is supplied.

Related Actors

• VK Posts Scraper - use after community discovery when the next step is post-level collection for a known VK group.

Responsible use

Use this Actor for publicly accessible VK community data and in line with applicable laws, VK terms, and your own data-handling policies. It is designed for public groups and communities, and it returns structured public metadata for research, mapping, and downstream analysis.