TopAI.tools Scraper: AI Tool Directory Export

Export public TopAI.tools listings into structured data for AI market research, category mapping, pricing checks, deal monitoring, and directory building. Start with 5 to 50 tools, review the output, then scale only if the data fits your workflow.

Part of the AI Directory Scraper Suite — see also Futurepedia Scraper, TAAFT Scraper, and MCP Server Directory Scraper.

What does TopAI.tools Scraper do?

This Actor scrapes the complete AI tool listings from TopAI.tools, extracting:

• Tool name, slug, and TopAI.tools URL
• Short description from each listing card
• Thumbnail/logo URL
• Pricing model (Free, Freemium, Free Trial, Paid, or price string)
• Category tags associated with each tool
• External website URL (tracking parameters stripped)
• Deal indicators (tools with active promotions)
• Internal tool IDs

TopAI.tools currently advertises 22,000+ AI tools across 120+ categories. This Actor collects public listing-card data from TopAI.tools; use maxTools to control run size and cost.

Why use this Actor?

• TopAI-specific coverage: Built for public TopAI.tools listing data
• Large active directory: TopAI.tools advertises 22,000+ tools across 120+ categories
• 3 flexible modes: Scrape all-mode listings, target specific category pages, or run best-effort keyword collection
• Clean, structured output: Normalized pricing labels, deduplication, tracking param stripping
• Residential proxy support: Built-in retry logic and proxy rotation for reliable access
• Part of a suite: Combine with TAAFT, Futurepedia, and MCP Directory scrapers for complete AI ecosystem coverage

Best first runs

TopAI.tools is useful when you want a second directory view of a category before trusting a market map or lead list. Start with one of these focused pulls:

Use case	Mode	Suggested input
AI developer-tool research	category	developer-tools, maxTools: 25
AI agent landscape scan	category	ai-agents, maxTools: 25
Image/video tool comparison	category	image-generation or video-generation, maxTools: 25
Broad sample before scaling	all	maxTools: 25

Use the result to compare names, official URLs, short descriptions, categories, pricing labels, and deal indicators across a niche.

How much does it cost?

This Actor runs on the Apify platform. Usage costs depend on how many tools you scrape:

Tools	Approx. Cost	Time
5	~$0.01	~15s
100	~$0.10	~2 min
1,000	~$0.50	~15 min
1,000+	varies	validate first

Costs are based on Apify platform compute units (CU) plus proxy bandwidth. Start with 5 to 50 tools before trying large runs.

Input

The Actor accepts the following input parameters:

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
mode	enum	all	Scraping mode: all, category, or search
categories	array	[]	Category slugs to scrape (only used with category mode)
searchQuery	string	""	Keyword to search for (only used with search mode)
maxTools	integer	5	Maximum number of tools to return (0 = unlimited)

Input modes

all mode — Scrape public TopAI.tools listings from the browse stream. This is the default mode and the safest first run.

category mode — Scrape tools from specific public category pages. Provide one or more category slugs from TopAI.tools URLs: topai.tools/category/{slug}. Examples: developer-tools, ai-agents, image-generation, video-generation, seo.

search mode — Best-effort keyword collection using TopAI.tools public listing endpoints. In current testing, this can return broad listing results, so use category mode when you need precise niche targeting.

Example input

Scrape 50 tools from the full directory:

{
    "mode": "all",
    "maxTools": 50
}

Scrape tools from specific categories:

{
    "mode": "category",
    "categories": ["developer-tools", "ai-agents", "image-generation"],
    "maxTools": 20
}

Search for code-related AI tools:

{
    "mode": "search",
    "searchQuery": "code assistant",
    "maxTools": 20
}

Scrape the full directory (no limit):

{
    "mode": "all",
    "maxTools": 0
}

Output

Each tool record contains the following fields:

Field	Type	Description
name	string	Tool name
slug	string	URL slug identifier
topaiUrl	string	Full TopAI.tools listing URL
externalUrl	string	Official tool website (tracking params stripped)
shortDescription	string	Brief tool description from listing card
thumbnailUrl	string	Tool thumbnail/logo image URL
categories	array	Category/tag labels associated with the tool
pricingModel	string	Pricing type: Free, Freemium, Free Trial, Paid, or price string
hasDeal	boolean	Whether the tool has an active deal/discount indicator
toolId	integer	TopAI.tools internal numeric tool ID
scrapedAt	string	ISO timestamp of when data was collected

Fields are null when the listing card does not provide that data.

Example output

{
    "name": "ChatGPT",
    "slug": "chatgpt",
    "topaiUrl": "https://topai.tools/t/chatgpt",
    "externalUrl": "https://chat.openai.com",
    "shortDescription": "An AI assistant by OpenAI that can help with writing, coding, analysis, and more.",
    "thumbnailUrl": "https://statics.topai.tools/img/tools/thumbs/chatgpt.webp",
    "categories": ["Chatbot", "Writing Assistant", "AI Assistant"],
    "pricingModel": "Freemium",
    "hasDeal": false,
    "toolId": 142,
    "scrapedAt": "2026-02-18T12:00:00.000Z"
}

Use cases

• AI tool market research: Analyze public TopAI.tools listings and category pages
• Competitive intelligence: Track which tools appear in your target categories and how they're priced
• Lead generation: Find AI tools in specific niches for partnership or integration opportunities
• Directory building: Build your own AI tool comparison site or vertical directory using pre-scraped data
• Pricing analysis: Survey the free/freemium/paid distribution across the AI tools market
• Deal monitoring: Schedule weekly runs to detect new tools with promotions
• Ecosystem mapping: Combine with TAAFT Scraper and Futurepedia Scraper for cross-directory AI tool research

Category slugs

TopAI.tools organizes tools into 121 categories. Find category slugs from the URL when browsing a category page: topai.tools/category/{slug}.

Common categories include: developer-tools, ai-agents, image-generation, video-generation, automation, data-analysis, marketing, no-code, customer-support, education, finance, design, e-commerce.

Integrations

This Actor works with standard Apify integrations:

• API — Call via REST API or Apify client libraries (Python, JavaScript, Go)
• Webhooks — Get notified when scraping completes
• Scheduler — Run on a schedule for fresh data (daily, weekly, etc.)
• Zapier / Make — Connect to 1,000+ apps for automated workflows
• Google Sheets — Export directly to spreadsheets
• Datasets — Browse and download results in JSON, CSV, XML, or Excel

Tips and best practices

• Start small: Begin with maxTools: 5-50 to validate output format before scaling up.
• Use category mode for targeted data collection instead of scraping everything. It is faster and more precise than keyword mode.
• Schedule weekly runs to maintain a fresh dataset. TopAI.tools adds new tools regularly.
• Residential proxies: This Actor automatically uses residential proxies for reliable access. Datacenter proxies may encounter blocks.
• Combine with our other scrapers: Use alongside TAAFT Scraper and Futurepedia Scraper to build a comprehensive AI tools dataset.

FAQ

Q: How fresh is the data? A: Data is scraped in real-time from TopAI.tools when the Actor runs. There is no caching.

Q: Can I scrape the full TopAI.tools directory? A: Use maxTools: 0 only after a small validation run. TopAI.tools now advertises tens of thousands of tools, so full runs can take substantially longer and cost more than small category or sample runs.

Q: Why are some fields null? A: TopAI.tools listing cards don't always include every field. For example, the external URL may not be visible in the listing card, and some tools don't have category tags displayed. Fields are null when the source page doesn't provide that data.

Q: Does this scrape individual tool detail pages? A: No. This Actor scrapes listing card data from the browse and category endpoints. Individual tool detail pages (/t/{slug}) require a full browser session to access. The listing cards contain the most commonly needed fields for most use cases.

Q: Why does the Actor use residential proxies? A: TopAI.tools uses Cloudflare protection. Residential proxies provide reliable IP rotation that mimics real user traffic, reducing the chance of IP blocks. The Actor falls back to datacenter proxies if residential proxies are unavailable.

Q: What's the difference between all and category mode? A: all mode scrapes every tool across all 121 categories in a single stream — no duplicates. category mode scrapes only tools from the categories you specify, which is faster and cheaper when you only need data from specific niches.

Q: How do I find category slugs? A: Browse to a category on TopAI.tools and look at the URL: topai.tools/category/{slug}. The slug is the part after /category/. For example, topai.tools/category/developer-tools → slug is developer-tools.

Related Actors

• TAAFT Scraper — Scrape 6,200+ AI tools from There's An AI For That
• Futurepedia Scraper — Export Futurepedia AI tool data
• MCP Server Directory Scraper — Aggregate MCP server listings from Glama.ai, PulseMCP, and mcp.so

Changelog

• 1.1 — Updated positioning for current TopAI.tools scale, safer first-run guidance, and category-first targeting.
• 1.0 — Initial release with all, category, and search modes, residential proxy support, pricing normalization, and deduplication.