Facebook Posts Scraper

Scrape public Facebook posts, reels, videos, and engagement data from pages, profiles, and public groups. This Apify actor is designed for lower-cost public-surface extraction, cleaner pricing, and API-first workflows without requiring a Facebook login.

Pages, profiles, groups, reels | No login | Keyword filters | API-ready | AI workflow friendly

Why use this Facebook scraper

• Extract public Facebook posts from pages, profiles, and public groups.
• Capture reels and video post URLs alongside captions, thumbnails, and visible engagement.
• Filter by keyword and date without making users pay an extra add-on for date filtering.
• Choose fast, balanced, or full extraction depending on cost and depth.
• Export results to JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, RSS, or any dataset format supported by Apify.
• Run on demand, schedule recurring runs, or call it through the Apify API from your own app.

What data can you extract from Facebook posts

Field	Description	Included
sourceType	page, profile, or group	Always
sourceName	Name of the Facebook source	Always
canonicalSourceUrl	Canonical page, profile, or group URL	Always
postId	Stable post, reel, story, photo, or video identifier	Always
postUrl	Clean Facebook post URL	Always
time	Best-effort ISO time when parseable	Usually
timeText	Visible Facebook time label such as 19h or 2d	Always
text	Visible post or reel caption text	Usually
textReferences	Hashtags and visible external links	Usually
totalReactions	Total visible reactions	When visible
comments	Visible comment count	When visible
shares	Visible share count	When visible
media	Media URLs detected on the post card	When visible
thumbnails	Thumbnails from images or video cards	When visible
video	Best-effort video metadata	When visible
topCommentsPreview	Small visible comment preview block	Optional
page	Source metadata such as followers, category, intro, website	Usually
warnings	Honest warnings when Facebook exposes partial data	Always

What makes this actor different

• Public-surface first: built around logged-out Facebook pages, profiles, reels, and groups that are visible without a session.
• Cleaner pricing model: meant to launch with one simple per-result price instead of charging extra for date filters.
• Better control: fast, balanced, and full modes let users tune speed and cost.
• Better observability: every run stores RUN_META so operators can audit empty runs, retries, and failures.
• Better output hygiene: tracking parameters are removed from Facebook URLs before results are stored.

Example workflows and case-study use cases

• Brand monitoring: track the latest posts and reels from competitor pages each morning and export them into Slack, Sheets, or your warehouse.
• Hospitality marketing: monitor hotel, resort, and venue pages to compare post cadence, reel usage, and visible engagement across markets.
• Lead research: pull public posts from local businesses, creators, or communities and use visible links and hashtags to enrich outreach lists.
• AI knowledge pipelines: schedule daily runs and feed cleaned Facebook post data into retrieval, summarization, or agent workflows.

How to scrape Facebook posts

1. Open this actor in Apify Store and click Try for free.
2. Paste one or more Facebook page, profile, or group URLs into startUrls.
3. Set maxPosts and choose fast, balanced, or full.
4. Optionally add keywordFilter, dateFrom, dateTo, or top comment previews.
5. Start the run and export the dataset in the format you need.

Input parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
startUrls	array	[]	Main list of Facebook pages, profiles, or public groups
pageOrProfileUrls	array	[]	Shortcut list for pages and profiles
groupUrls	array	[]	Shortcut list for public Facebook groups
maxPosts	integer	25	Maximum posts emitted across all targets
dateFrom	string	none	Keep posts on or after YYYY-MM-DD
dateTo	string	none	Keep posts on or before YYYY-MM-DD
keywordFilter	array	none	Only keep posts whose visible text matches one of the keywords
extractionMode	string	balanced	fast, balanced, or full
includeTopComments	boolean	false	Include visible top comments when Facebook shows them
commentPreviewLimit	integer	2	Max visible comment previews per post
includeTranscripts	boolean	false	Best-effort video transcript extraction in richer runs
deduplicate	boolean	true	Remove duplicates across overlapping sources
proxyConfiguration	object	none	Optional proxy configuration for harder targets
debugMode	boolean	false	Adds extra diagnostics for troubleshooting
emptyRunPolicy	string	retry_then_warn	Controls exit behavior when a reachable public surface emits zero posts; runs where every target errors still fail

Example input

{
  "startUrls": [
    { "url": "https://www.facebook.com/NASA" }
  ],
  "maxPosts": 50,
  "extractionMode": "balanced",
  "dateFrom": "2026-03-01",
  "keywordFilter": ["design", "launch", "website"],
  "includeTopComments": true,
  "commentPreviewLimit": 3
}

Output example

{
  "sourceType": "page",
  "sourceName": "NetDesignr",
  "canonicalSourceUrl": "https://www.facebook.com/netdesignr",
  "postId": "pfbidExample123",
  "postUrl": "https://www.facebook.com/netdesignr/posts/pfbidExample123",
  "time": "2026-03-17T18:40:00.000Z",
  "timeText": "19h",
  "text": "We just launched a new website performance and UX audit workflow for growing brands.",
  "totalReactions": 14,
  "comments": 3,
  "shares": 1,
  "warnings": ["timestamp_estimated_from_relative_time"],
  "scrapedAt": "2026-03-18T17:42:00.000Z"
}

Facebook scraper API examples

JavaScript

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

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

const run = await client.actor('netdesignr/facebook-posts-scraper').call({
  startUrls: [{ url: 'https://www.facebook.com/NASA' }],
  maxPosts: 25,
  extractionMode: 'balanced',
  includeTopComments: true,
});

const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN")

run = client.actor("netdesignr/facebook-posts-scraper").call(run_input={
    "startUrls": [{"url": "https://www.facebook.com/NASA"}],
    "maxPosts": 25,
    "extractionMode": "balanced",
})

items = client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).list_items().items
print(items)

cURL

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/netdesignr~facebook-posts-scraper/runs?token=$APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "startUrls": [{"url": "https://www.facebook.com/NASA"}],
    "maxPosts": 25,
    "extractionMode": "balanced"
  }'

Pricing and monetization

This actor uses simple per-result pricing based on dataset items. The pricing model is designed to stay straightforward, with no separate add-on fee for date filtering.

FAQ

Can I scrape Facebook pages without logging in?

Yes, for public surfaces that Facebook exposes to logged-out browsers. Private or restricted pages, groups, and profiles may return partial or empty data.

Does this actor support Facebook reels?

Yes. Reels are extracted as Facebook post URLs and marked as video media when they are visible on the public page.

Can I filter by date?

Yes. dateFrom and dateTo work against the visible publish time that Facebook exposes on public surfaces. When Facebook only shows relative times such as 19h, the actor stores an estimated timestamp and a warning.

Do I need proxies?

Not always. Many public pages work without them. Proxies are helpful when Facebook serves a degraded or region-sensitive logged-out experience.

Can I use this as a Facebook API alternative?

Yes, for public post collection, competitor monitoring, research, and content analysis. This actor is useful when you need public Facebook post data without building and maintaining your own scraper stack.

What are the main limitations?

Exact timestamps, full reaction breakdowns, and transcripts depend on what Facebook exposes publicly. The actor does not invent missing values and reports partial-visibility warnings instead.

Legal and responsible use

Use this actor only for data you have the right to collect and process. Respect Facebook's terms, local law, privacy obligations, and any downstream compliance requirements such as GDPR or CCPA. Review Apify's documentation and your legal requirements before using scraped public data in production.