# Skool Community Finder (`leadstack/skool-community-finder`) Actor

Discover Skool communities by keyword via DuckDuckGo search. Returns name, member count, activity ratio, pricing, and access type for each community. No login or cookies required.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/leadstack/skool-community-finder.md
- **Developed by:** [Leo Mercer](https://apify.com/leadstack) (community)
- **Categories:** Lead generation, Social media
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 87.5% runs succeeded, NaN bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

Pay per usage

This Actor is paid per platform usage. The Actor is free to use, and you only pay for the Apify platform usage, which gets cheaper the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-usage

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are a software tools running on the Apify platform, for all kinds of web data extraction and automation use cases.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

In JavaScript/TypeScript projects, use official [JavaScript/TypeScript client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js.md):

```bash
npm install apify-client
```

In Python projects, use official [Python client library](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python.md):

```bash
pip install apify-client
```

In shell scripts, use [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md):

````bash
# MacOS / Linux
curl -fsSL https://apify.com/install-cli.sh | bash
# Windows
irm https://apify.com/install-cli.ps1 | iex
```bash

In AI frameworks, you might use the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/mcp.md).

If your project is in a different language, use the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).


# README

## Skool Community Finder

Search and discover Skool communities by keyword — no login or cookies required.

---

### Quick Start

Paste this into the Input tab and click **Run**:

```json
{
  "keywords": ["cold email", "agency growth"],
  "limit": 20
}
````

Results appear in the **Dataset** tab within 1–2 minutes.

***

### What you get

Each result is a flat JSON object with all fields always present:

```json
{
  "slug": "cold-email-community",
  "url": "https://www.skool.com/cold-email-community",
  "group_id": "abc123",
  "name": "Cold Email Community",
  "description": "The #1 community for cold email practitioners...",
  "member_count": 15234,
  "online_members": 142,
  "access": "free_open",
  "price_usd": 0.0,
  "has_survey": false,
  "total_posts": 4821,
  "num_courses": 3,
  "activity_ratio": 0.3164,
  "last_post_date": "2026-06-03",
  "days_since_last_post": 1,
  "source": "ddg:cold email",
  "_meta": {
    "actor": "skool-community-finder",
    "version": "0.1.0",
    "scraped_at": "2026-06-04T09:00:00+00:00",
    "total_found": 47,
    "run_id": "xyz789"
  }
}
```

**Field reference:**

| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| `slug` | Community URL slug (unique identifier) |
| `url` | Direct link to the community |
| `name` | Display name |
| `description` | Community description (up to 400 chars) |
| `member_count` | Total member count |
| `online_members` | Members currently online |
| `access` | `free_open`, `free_survey`, `paid`, `invite_only`, or `public` |
| `price_usd` | Monthly price in USD (0 = free) |
| `has_survey` | Whether joining requires a questionnaire |
| `total_posts` | All-time post count |
| `num_courses` | Number of classroom courses |
| `activity_ratio` | `total_posts / member_count` — higher = more active per member |
| `last_post_date` | Date of most recent visible post (null if community is private) |
| `days_since_last_post` | Days since last post (null if not visible) |
| `source` | How the community was discovered (ddg:keyword or suggested) |

***

### Cost calculator

Pricing is **pay-per-result** — you only pay for what you get.

| Results | Approximate cost |
|---|---|
| 10 (try it) | ~$0.05 |
| 50 (default) | ~$0.25 |
| 100 | ~$0.50 |
| 200 (max) | ~$1.00 |

On Apify's **free plan** ($5/month credit) you get approximately **1,000 communities**.

Note: residential proxy traffic is included in the above estimates.

***

### Input parameters

| Parameter | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| `keywords` | string\[] | — | Search terms. Each runs a separate DuckDuckGo search. **Required.** |
| `limit` | integer | 50 | Max communities to return (1–200). Controls cost. |
| `minMembers` | integer | 0 | Skip communities with fewer members. |
| `requestTimeout` | integer | 30 | Seconds per page (increase for slow connections). |
| `proxyConfiguration` | object | Residential | Proxy settings. Residential required for Skool. |

***

### How it works

1. **Keyword search** — runs `site:skool.com <keyword>` on DuckDuckGo and extracts community slugs from results
2. **Community probe** — fetches each community page and parses the `__NEXT_DATA__` JSON embedded in the HTML (no browser needed)
3. **Suggested harvest** — collects additional communities from each page's `suggestedCommunities` list, then probes those too
4. Results are streamed to the Dataset as they are found — you can see them before the run completes

No authentication required. All data comes from publicly accessible community pages.

***

### Limitations

- **Public communities only.** Private and invite-only communities are detected and skipped with a clear `access: "invite_only"` label.
- `days_since_last_post` is null for communities where the post feed is not publicly visible.
- DuckDuckGo occasionally rate-limits searches. If all keywords return 0 slugs, the actor fails with a clear message — try again in a few minutes.
- Member count and post count reflect what Skool shows on the public page, which may lag behind real-time data by a few hours.

***

### Use cases

1. **Lead generation** — find active communities in your niche and reach out to members or admins
2. **Market research** — survey the Skool landscape before launching your own community
3. **Competitor analysis** — monitor competitor community growth and activity over time (run on a schedule)
4. **Partnership prospecting** — identify large free communities for cross-promotion opportunities
5. **AI pipeline input** — feed results into Make/Zapier or an LLM agent for automated outreach or analysis

***

### FAQ

**Do I need a Skool account or cookies?**
No. This actor scrapes publicly accessible community pages without any login.

**Why am I getting 0 results?**
DuckDuckGo may be temporarily blocking the search. Wait 2–3 minutes and try again. Also try broader keywords like "online course" or "community". If the issue persists, check the Issues tab.

**How fresh is the data?**
Data is scraped in real time — as fresh as the moment you run it.

**Can I run this automatically every week?**
Yes. In Apify Console → Schedules, set up a recurring run with your keywords. Results accumulate in the Dataset across runs.

**What does `activity_ratio` mean?**
It's `total_posts / member_count`. A ratio of 0.3 means members have posted on average 0.3 times each. Higher values indicate more active communities.

***

### Related actors

- [Skool Lookalike Finder](#) — given a community, find other communities with overlapping members
- [Skool Posts Scraper](#) — scrape posts, comments, and author LinkedIn/social contacts
- [Skool Community Profiler](#) — deep activity stats, top posters, admin detection

# Actor input Schema

## `keywords` (type: `array`):

Search terms to find Skool communities. Each keyword runs a separate DuckDuckGo search. Example: \["cold email", "online course", "agency growth"]

## `limit` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of communities to return. Lower values cost less. Each result is charged separately.

## `minMembers` (type: `integer`):

Skip communities with fewer members than this. Set to 0 to return all communities regardless of size.

## `requestTimeout` (type: `integer`):

Seconds to wait for each page to load. Increase if you see timeout errors.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Skool uses AWS WAF which blocks datacenter IPs. Residential proxies are required for reliable results.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "keywords": [
    "online community"
  ],
  "limit": 50,
  "minMembers": 0,
  "requestTimeout": 30,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": [
      "RESIDENTIAL"
    ]
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `communities` (type: `string`):

All discovered communities with member count, activity ratio, pricing and access type.

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "keywords": [
        "online community"
    ],
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": true,
        "apifyProxyGroups": [
            "RESIDENTIAL"
        ]
    }
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("leadstack/skool-community-finder").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "keywords": ["online community"],
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": True,
        "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"],
    },
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("leadstack/skool-community-finder").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"])
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "keywords": [
    "online community"
  ],
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": [
      "RESIDENTIAL"
    ]
  }
}' |
apify call leadstack/skool-community-finder --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=leadstack/skool-community-finder",
                "--header",
                "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

```

## OpenAPI specification

```json
{
    "openapi": "3.0.1",
    "info": {
        "title": "Skool Community Finder",
        "description": "Discover Skool communities by keyword via DuckDuckGo search. Returns name, member count, activity ratio, pricing, and access type for each community. No login or cookies required.",
        "version": "0.1",
        "x-build-id": "2v59h1nFLlQeEJ7N2"
    },
    "servers": [
        {
            "url": "https://api.apify.com/v2"
        }
    ],
    "paths": {
        "/acts/leadstack~skool-community-finder/run-sync-get-dataset-items": {
            "post": {
                "operationId": "run-sync-get-dataset-items-leadstack-skool-community-finder",
                "x-openai-isConsequential": false,
                "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for its completion, and returns Actor's dataset items in response.",
                "tags": [
                    "Run Actor"
                ],
                "requestBody": {
                    "required": true,
                    "content": {
                        "application/json": {
                            "schema": {
                                "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                },
                "parameters": [
                    {
                        "name": "token",
                        "in": "query",
                        "required": true,
                        "schema": {
                            "type": "string"
                        },
                        "description": "Enter your Apify token here"
                    }
                ],
                "responses": {
                    "200": {
                        "description": "OK"
                    }
                }
            }
        },
        "/acts/leadstack~skool-community-finder/runs": {
            "post": {
                "operationId": "runs-sync-leadstack-skool-community-finder",
                "x-openai-isConsequential": false,
                "summary": "Executes an Actor and returns information about the initiated run in response.",
                "tags": [
                    "Run Actor"
                ],
                "requestBody": {
                    "required": true,
                    "content": {
                        "application/json": {
                            "schema": {
                                "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                },
                "parameters": [
                    {
                        "name": "token",
                        "in": "query",
                        "required": true,
                        "schema": {
                            "type": "string"
                        },
                        "description": "Enter your Apify token here"
                    }
                ],
                "responses": {
                    "200": {
                        "description": "OK",
                        "content": {
                            "application/json": {
                                "schema": {
                                    "$ref": "#/components/schemas/runsResponseSchema"
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        },
        "/acts/leadstack~skool-community-finder/run-sync": {
            "post": {
                "operationId": "run-sync-leadstack-skool-community-finder",
                "x-openai-isConsequential": false,
                "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for completion, and returns the OUTPUT from Key-value store in response.",
                "tags": [
                    "Run Actor"
                ],
                "requestBody": {
                    "required": true,
                    "content": {
                        "application/json": {
                            "schema": {
                                "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                },
                "parameters": [
                    {
                        "name": "token",
                        "in": "query",
                        "required": true,
                        "schema": {
                            "type": "string"
                        },
                        "description": "Enter your Apify token here"
                    }
                ],
                "responses": {
                    "200": {
                        "description": "OK"
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    },
    "components": {
        "schemas": {
            "inputSchema": {
                "type": "object",
                "required": [
                    "keywords"
                ],
                "properties": {
                    "keywords": {
                        "title": "Keywords",
                        "minItems": 1,
                        "type": "array",
                        "description": "Search terms to find Skool communities. Each keyword runs a separate DuckDuckGo search. Example: [\"cold email\", \"online course\", \"agency growth\"]",
                        "items": {
                            "type": "string"
                        }
                    },
                    "limit": {
                        "title": "Max results",
                        "minimum": 1,
                        "maximum": 200,
                        "type": "integer",
                        "description": "Maximum number of communities to return. Lower values cost less. Each result is charged separately.",
                        "default": 50
                    },
                    "minMembers": {
                        "title": "Minimum member count",
                        "minimum": 0,
                        "type": "integer",
                        "description": "Skip communities with fewer members than this. Set to 0 to return all communities regardless of size.",
                        "default": 0
                    },
                    "requestTimeout": {
                        "title": "Request timeout",
                        "minimum": 10,
                        "maximum": 120,
                        "type": "integer",
                        "description": "Seconds to wait for each page to load. Increase if you see timeout errors.",
                        "default": 30
                    },
                    "proxyConfiguration": {
                        "title": "Proxy configuration",
                        "type": "object",
                        "description": "Skool uses AWS WAF which blocks datacenter IPs. Residential proxies are required for reliable results."
                    }
                }
            },
            "runsResponseSchema": {
                "type": "object",
                "properties": {
                    "data": {
                        "type": "object",
                        "properties": {
                            "id": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "actId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "userId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "startedAt": {
                                "type": "string",
                                "format": "date-time",
                                "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z"
                            },
                            "finishedAt": {
                                "type": "string",
                                "format": "date-time",
                                "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z"
                            },
                            "status": {
                                "type": "string",
                                "example": "READY"
                            },
                            "meta": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "origin": {
                                        "type": "string",
                                        "example": "API"
                                    },
                                    "userAgent": {
                                        "type": "string"
                                    }
                                }
                            },
                            "stats": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "inputBodyLen": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 2000
                                    },
                                    "rebootCount": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "restartCount": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "resurrectCount": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "computeUnits": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    }
                                }
                            },
                            "options": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "build": {
                                        "type": "string",
                                        "example": "latest"
                                    },
                                    "timeoutSecs": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 300
                                    },
                                    "memoryMbytes": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 1024
                                    },
                                    "diskMbytes": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 2048
                                    }
                                }
                            },
                            "buildId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "defaultKeyValueStoreId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "defaultDatasetId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "defaultRequestQueueId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "buildNumber": {
                                "type": "string",
                                "example": "1.0.0"
                            },
                            "containerUrl": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "usage": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATASET_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATASET_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 1
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "PROXY_SERPS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    }
                                }
                            },
                            "usageTotalUsd": {
                                "type": "number",
                                "example": 0.00005
                            },
                            "usageUsd": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATASET_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATASET_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "number",
                                        "example": 0.00005
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "PROXY_SERPS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    }
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
}
```