Mastodon Email Scraper

Mastodon Email Scraper

Mastodon Email Scraper — Public Contact Emails from the Fediverse

The Mastodon Email Scraper collects publicly indexed contact emails from Mastodon accounts and turns them into a clean, exportable dataset.

Mastodon is decentralised, which makes contact discovery awkward. There is no single directory, no global search that reaches every server, and no central profile index.

The Mastodon Email Scraper works around that by reading Google's index of the largest public instances: mastodon.social, mastodon.online, mstdn.social and fosstodon.org.

Fediverse users are disproportionately developers, sysadmins, FOSS maintainers, academics, privacy researchers, illustrators and journalists — and a striking number of them publish a real email in their profile.

The Mastodon Email Scraper is a Mastodon email extractor built for lead generation, open-source outreach, technical recruiting and press research.

Important: this Mastodon Email Scraper never logs in, never calls the Mastodon or ActivityPub API, and never opens an instance directly. Every record comes from publicly indexed Google search results.

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Key Features of the Mastodon Email Scraper

Everything listed here is real behaviour of the crawler. Nothing is aspirational.

Feature	What it means in practice
Multi-instance site: search	The Mastodon Email Scraper searches mastodon.social, mastodon.online, mstdn.social and fosstodon.org
Query expansion	Each keyword × domain pair runs as base, quoted, intitle: and one variant per query modifier
Domain-filtered extraction	Only emails ending in your customDomains list are kept
Global deduplication	The same address is never written twice, across any query or page
Obfuscation-aware parser	Handles name [at] domain [dot] com, name (at) domain, name @ domain.com, domain .com, zero-width characters and the full-width ＠
Junk filter	Rejects placeholders such as email@, yourname@, test@, xxx@ and single-character locals
Boundary-correct matching	@gmail.com never matches inside @gmail.company or @gmail.com.br
Soft-wrap repair	Drops a hit that is only the tail of another email in the same block
Structural HTML parsing	Finds the <h3> title then the smallest surrounding block — no dependency on Google's CSS class names
Whole-page fallback parser	A Google markup change degrades to "emails without account metadata" instead of "no emails"
Concurrency	An asyncio worker pool runs queries in parallel with a shared stop signal on maxEmails
Retry logic	Up to 3 attempts per page, exponential backoff, a fresh proxy session per request
Block detection	CAPTCHA, "unusual traffic" and consent pages are recognised and retried rather than counted as empty
Blocked-query requeue	Blocked or failed queries are re-queued once at the end of the run
Resumable state	Key-value-store checkpoints keyed by an input hash, saved on PERSIST_STATE, MIGRATING and ABORTING
Streaming dataset writes	Each lead lands in the Apify dataset as soon as it is found
Run summary	Pages fetched, blocked pages, retries and emails per page are logged

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How the Mastodon Email Scraper Works

The Mastodon Email Scraper pipeline is short and fully inspectable. There is no headless browser, no JavaScript rendering, no authentication and no cookies.

1. Read input. Keywords, optional location, email domains and limits are loaded from the input schema.

2. Build search queries. Google queries are composed with the site: operator, for example site:mastodon.social developer "@gmail.com" "Amsterdam".

3. Fetch search result pages. Requests go out asynchronously via aiohttp through the Apify GOOGLE_SERP proxy, with proxy rotation and retry logic on every attempt.

4. Parse each result block. The Mastodon Email Scraper locates the <h3> heading, walks up to the tightest enclosing block, and reads title, site label and snippet.

5. Extract and normalise. A domain-filtered regex pulls out candidate addresses; normalisation, obfuscation handling and the junk filter clean the rest.

6. Deduplicate and push. Unique emails stream straight into the dataset, so exporting can begin mid-run.

Base queries run before expanded variants, so the first rows the Mastodon Email Scraper writes tend to be the strongest matches.

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What Data Does the Mastodon Email Scraper Extract?

Each dataset item represents one unique email address, described by 14 structured fields.

Beyond the address you get the account label Google printed, a parsed display name, the handle where the instance exposes one, a canonical profile URL and the bio snippet the email came from.

Provenance is included too: the keyword and the exact Google query behind the lead, plus a UTC timestamp.

That metadata is what lets you tell rust maintainer from security researcher in terms of actual yield, and prune your keyword list accordingly.

The Mastodon Email Scraper collects nothing beyond these fields — no follower counts, no toot history, no private data.

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Mastodon Email Scraper Input Schema

Every field below comes verbatim from the Mastodon Email Scraper input schema.

Field	Type	Default	Description
keywords	array (required)	["developer", "founder"]	Search terms describing the Mastodon accounts you want (niche, job title, industry)
location	string	""	Optional location phrase added to every query
customDomains	array	["@gmail.com", "@yahoo.com"]	Only emails on these domains are collected; leading @ optional
maxEmails	integer (1–10000)	20	Stop once this many unique emails have been collected
countryCode	string	""	Two-letter country code for the search proxy (US, GB, DE…)
expandQueries	boolean	true	Search each keyword × domain pair with several phrasings
queryModifiers	array	["email", "contact", "inquiries", "hire", "work with me"]	Extra words combined with each keyword when expansion is on
maxPagesPerQuery	integer (1–50)	30	Page cap per query
maxConcurrency	integer (1–20)	5	How many queries run in parallel

JSON input example

{
  "keywords": ["rust maintainer", "self-hosting sysadmin", "privacy researcher"],
  "location": "Amsterdam",
  "customDomains": ["@gmail.com", "@posteo.de", "@protonmail.com"],
  "maxEmails": 400,
  "countryCode": "NL",
  "expandQueries": true,
  "queryModifiers": ["email", "contact", "inquiries", "hire", "work with me"],
  "maxPagesPerQuery": 30,
  "maxConcurrency": 6
}

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Mastodon Email Scraper Output Schema

Every dataset item produced by the Mastodon Email Scraper carries all 14 fields.

Field	Meaning
network	Platform name
keyword	The keyword that produced the lead
query	The exact Google query used
title	Raw result title
accountName	Account label Google prints (handle or display name)
fullName	Display name parsed from a profile-style title; empty for post captions
username	URL-safe handle when the instance exposes one; otherwise null
profileUrl	Canonical account URL when a handle is known; otherwise empty
url	Direct platform link when exposed, else the profile URL
description	Bio or post snippet, cleaned of labels and engagement counters
email	Lower-cased email address
emailDomain	The matched domain (e.g. @gmail.com)
possiblyTruncated	true when Google's snippet ellipsis touched the email — verify before sending
foundAt	ISO 8601 UTC timestamp

JSON output example

{
  "network": "Mastodon",
  "keyword": "rust maintainer",
  "query": "site:mastodon.social rust maintainer \"@gmail.com\" \"Amsterdam\"",
  "title": "Jonas Veldkamp (@jveldkamp) - Mastodon",
  "accountName": "@jveldkamp",
  "fullName": "Jonas Veldkamp",
  "username": "jveldkamp",
  "profileUrl": "https://mastodon.social/@jveldkamp",
  "url": "https://mastodon.social/@jveldkamp",
  "description": "Rust + embedded. Maintainer of two crates you have probably never used. Amsterdam. Consulting: jonas.veldkamp.dev@gmail.com",
  "email": "jonas.veldkamp.dev@gmail.com",
  "emailDomain": "@gmail.com",
  "possiblyTruncated": false,
  "foundAt": "2026-08-31T11:08:44Z"
}

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How to Use the Mastodon Email Scraper

Step 1 — open the Actor. Launch the Mastodon Email Scraper from the Apify Store.

Step 2 — write specific keywords. The fediverse rewards precision: kubernetes SRE, digital humanities, linocut artist beat generic terms.

Step 3 — choose email domains. @gmail.com is the baseline. Because Mastodon skews privacy-conscious, add @protonmail.com, @posteo.de, @tutanota.com or @disroot.org.

Step 4 — configure limits and run. Keep expandQueries on so query expansion works around Google's per-query result ceiling.

Step 5 — export. Take the Mastodon Email Scraper dataset as JSON, CSV or XLSX, or pull it via the Apify API into your CRM.

Running the Mastodon Email Scraper on a weekly schedule keeps pace with newly indexed profiles, which matters on a network where accounts migrate between instances.

If your audience straddles networks, pair it with the Bluesky Email Scraper — the developer and journalist overlap between Bluesky and Mastodon is substantial.

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Use Cases for the Mastodon Email Scraper

Use case	How the Mastodon Email Scraper helps
Open-source sponsorship	Find maintainers and contributors who publish a contact address
Developer tool marketing	Reach engineers by stack keyword rather than by ad targeting
Technical recruiting	Source sysadmins, SREs and backend developers with public emails
Privacy and security research	Contact researchers and advocates concentrated on the fediverse
Academic outreach	Reach scholars who left commercial platforms for instance-based communities
Journalist and PR contact lists	Build beat-specific press lists from public bios
Creator partnerships	Contact illustrators, photographers and writers active on Mastodon
Conference speaker sourcing	Identify and invite specialists in a niche technical field
Newsletter and community growth	Find people already writing about your topic
CRM enrichment	Attach fediverse handles and profile URLs to existing records

Across all of these, the Mastodon Email Scraper handles the tedious search-and-read work and leaves the qualifying to you.

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Why Choose This Mastodon Email Scraper

It fits how Mastodon actually works. Decentralisation defeats single-instance tools; the Mastodon Email Scraper searches four major instances at once.

It is honest about its source. Google's public index, nothing else. No API, no login, no scraping behind a wall.

It is resilient. Structural parsing plus a whole-page fallback keeps the run producing data through Google layout changes.

It is resumable. Migrations and aborts are checkpointed, keyed by a hash of your input.

It is precise. Domain filtering, boundary-correct matching, obfuscation handling and the junk filter keep the dataset clean.

It has siblings. The same engine runs the X Email Scraper for people who stayed put, the Reddit Email Scraper for community-driven niches, and the Medium Email Scraper for long-form writers.

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Limitations

Read these before setting expectations. They are real, and none of them are bugs.

• Only publicly indexed emails. If an address is not in Google's index, the Mastodon Email Scraper cannot find it. Private data is never accessed.
• Four instances only. Coverage is mastodon.social, mastodon.online, mstdn.social and fosstodon.org. Smaller self-hosted instances are outside scope.
• Google's ~300-result cap. One query returns roughly 300 results at most. That is exactly why query expansion exists — leave expandQueries on.
• possiblyTruncated. A true value means Google's snippet ellipsis may have cut the address. Verify before sending.
• Apify GOOGLE_SERP proxy required. The Actor cannot run without Apify proxy credentials.
• Free-plan cap. Free Apify plans are limited to 100 emails per run; paid plans are uncapped.
• username and profileUrl availability. These are populated only when Google's result exposes a handle. Some rows will carry accountName and fullName with an empty username and profileUrl — a Google limitation, not a defect.
• No guaranteed volume. Yield varies with keywords, domains and location.

The Mastodon Email Scraper is independent and not affiliated with, endorsed by or officially supported by Mastodon gGmbH or any instance operator.

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Related Actors

Actor	What it collects
Mastodon Email and Phone Number Scraper	Emails and phone numbers from Mastodon
Mastodon Phone Number Scraper	Public phone numbers from Mastodon
Behance Email Scraper	Public contact emails from Behance
Bigo Live Email Scraper	Public contact emails from Bigo Live
Bluesky Email Scraper	Public contact emails from Bluesky
Bumble Email Scraper	Public contact emails from Bumble
Clubhouse Email Scraper	Public contact emails from Clubhouse
Dailymotion Email Scraper	Public contact emails from Dailymotion
DeviantArt Email Scraper	Public contact emails from DeviantArt
Discord Email Scraper	Public contact emails from Discord
Dribbble Email Scraper	Public contact emails from Dribbble
Facebook Email Scraper	Public contact emails from Facebook
Goodreads Email Scraper	Public contact emails from Goodreads
Hinge Email Scraper	Public contact emails from Hinge
Instagram Email Scraper	Public contact emails from Instagram
KakaoTalk Email Scraper	Public contact emails from KakaoTalk
Kick Email Scraper	Public contact emails from Kick
Lemon8 Email Scraper	Public contact emails from Lemon8
Likee Email Scraper	Public contact emails from Likee
LINE Email Scraper	Public contact emails from LINE
LinkedIn Email Scraper	Public contact emails from LinkedIn
Medium Email Scraper	Public contact emails from Medium
Mixcloud Email Scraper	Public contact emails from Mixcloud
Patreon Email Scraper	Public contact emails from Patreon
Pinterest Email Scraper	Public contact emails from Pinterest
Quora Email Scraper	Public contact emails from Quora
Reddit Email Scraper	Public contact emails from Reddit
Rumble Email Scraper	Public contact emails from Rumble
Snapchat Email Scraper	Public contact emails from Snapchat
SoundCloud Email Scraper	Public contact emails from SoundCloud
Substack Email Scraper	Public contact emails from Substack
Telegram Email Scraper	Public contact emails from Telegram
Threads Email Scraper	Public contact emails from Threads
TikTok Email Scraper	Public contact emails from TikTok
Tinder Email Scraper	Public contact emails from Tinder
Tumblr Email Scraper	Public contact emails from Tumblr
Twitch Email Scraper	Public contact emails from Twitch
Vimeo Email Scraper	Public contact emails from Vimeo
VK Email Scraper	Public contact emails from VK
WeChat Email Scraper	Public contact emails from WeChat
Weibo Email Scraper	Public contact emails from Weibo
X Email Scraper	Public contact emails from X

Mastodon Email Scraper Example Run

A developer-tools company wants beta testers for a self-hosting product.

They run the Mastodon Email Scraper with keywords: ["self-hosting", "homelab", "docker sysadmin"], customDomains: ["@gmail.com", "@protonmail.com"] and maxEmails: 350.

Query expansion turns three keywords into more than a dozen phrasings across four instances, and the crawler paginates through Google collecting matches.

They filter out rows flagged possiblyTruncated, deduplicate against their existing CRM, and export a clean CSV. Setup took minutes, not an afternoon.

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Mastodon Email Scraper FAQ

Does the Mastodon Email Scraper log into Mastodon?

No. It never logs in, never uses the Mastodon or ActivityPub API, and never opens an instance directly. All data comes from publicly indexed Google search results.

Which instances does the Mastodon Email Scraper cover?

mastodon.social, mastodon.online, mstdn.social and fosstodon.org. Self-hosted and smaller instances are not in scope.

Where do the emails come from?

From Google result titles, site labels and snippets — usually profile bios where the account holder published a contact address themselves.

Do I need an Apify proxy?

Yes. The Mastodon Email Scraper requires the Apify GOOGLE_SERP proxy and cannot run without Apify proxy credentials.

How many emails can I collect per run?

Free Apify plans are capped at 100 emails per run. Paid plans are uncapped, limited only by maxEmails and what Google has indexed.

Why is username empty on some rows?

Google did not expose a handle in that result. Those rows still include accountName, fullName and the bio snippet. It is a Google limitation, not a scraper defect.

What does possiblyTruncated: true mean?

Google's snippet ellipsis touched the address, so it may be cut off. Verify those rows before sending.

Should I leave query expansion on?

Yes. Google caps a single query at roughly 300 results; expansion is how the Mastodon Email Scraper reaches beyond that ceiling.

Can I target privacy-focused email providers?

Yes. customDomains accepts any list — @protonmail.com, @posteo.de, @tutanota.com and so on, with or without the leading @.

Does the Mastodon Email Scraper deduplicate results?

Yes, globally. Each email appears once per run regardless of how many queries surfaced it.

What if the run is interrupted?

State is checkpointed in the key-value store, keyed by a hash of your input, and flushed on PERSIST_STATE, MIGRATING and ABORTING. Restarting resumes.

Is this affiliated with Mastodon?

No. The Mastodon Email Scraper is independent and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or officially supported by Mastodon or any instance.

How should I use the data responsibly?

Comply with GDPR, CAN-SPAM and local law. The fediverse is culturally hostile to bulk marketing — keep outreach relevant, personal and easy to opt out of.

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Support

Questions, bug reports or a custom build? Email neurodata.apify@gmail.com with your run ID so the Mastodon Email Scraper logs can be reviewed.