# Medium Articles Scraper (`neuro-scraper/medium-articles-scraper`) Actor

Medium Scraper SD - Medium Scraper is a content data tool that extracts Medium articles by author, publication or tag: title, author, date, tags, claps, responses, reading time, member-only flag and article text, paging past the RSS limit.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/neuro-scraper/medium-articles-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Neuro Scraper](https://apify.com/neuro-scraper) (community)
- **Categories:** News, Social media
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $2.49 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event and usage. You are charged both the fixed price for specific events and for Apify platform usage.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

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

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
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.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## 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.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

### Medium Scraper — Medium articles by author, publication or tag

Medium Scraper collects Medium articles from authors, publications (including custom domains) and tags, and reads single article links. It returns the title, subtitle, author, publication, dates, tags, claps, responses, reading time, word count, the member-only flag and the article text.

It starts with Medium's official RSS feed for each source (the latest 10 articles), then pages back through older articles the same way Medium's own pages do. With `fetchArticleDetails` on, it opens each article page for the full text. No Medium account, no login and no cookies are used.

#### Input

| Field | Type | Default | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| `authors` | list | `netflixtechblog` (prefill) | Usernames, `@username`, `https://medium.com/@username` or `https://username.medium.com` |
| `publications` | list | – | Slugs (`netflix-techblog`), `https://medium.com/<slug>` or custom domains (`netflixtechblog.com`) |
| `tags` | list | `web-scraping` (prefill) | Tags or `https://medium.com/tag/<tag>` links |
| `tagSort` | select | `latest` | Latest, Hot, Top this week / month / year / all time |
| `articleUrls` | list | – | Article links (also on custom domains), one row each |
| `fetchArticleDetails` | boolean | `true` | Open each article page for full text and word count; off = listing only (faster) |
| `maxResults` | integer | `10` | Articles per author, publication or tag (RSS gives 10, more come from older pages) |
| `maxItems` | integer | – | Optional cap on the whole run |
| `proxyConfiguration` | proxy | Apify RESIDENTIAL | Proxy for Medium's pages |

#### Output (one row per article)

| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| `id`, `url` | Medium post id and canonical link |
| `title`, `subtitle` | Headline and subtitle |
| `authorName`, `authorUsername` | Author |
| `publicationName`, `publicationSlug` | Publication, when the article belongs to one |
| `publishedAt`, `updatedAt` | First published and last updated (UTC) |
| `tags` | Tag slugs |
| `clapCount`, `responseCount` | Claps and responses (comments) |
| `readingTimeMinutes`, `wordCount` | Reading time and word count |
| `isMemberOnly` | `true` for member-only (paywalled) stories |
| `language`, `imageUrl` | Detected language and preview image |
| `text` | Article text (paragraphs, lists and code as plain text) |
| `textIsPreview` | `true` when `text` is only the preview Medium shows logged-out visitors |
| `textSource` | `article page`, `rss`, `rss summary` or `medium web api` |
| `source`, `sourceInput`, `scrapedAt` | `author` / `publication` / `tag` / `article`, your input, UTC time |

#### Measured limits (2026-10-03, local runs)

- **Member-only stories: preview only.** Logged out, Medium shows the first paragraphs (one test story: 252 of 4,817 words). Those rows have `isMemberOnly` and `textIsPreview` set to `true`. In our "Top this week" python test, 72 of 120 articles were member-only.
- RSS feeds hold only the latest 10 articles; older ones were listed 25 per page (author, publication and tag all paged in our tests).
- Opening article pages takes about one second each: 120 articles in 189 seconds. Listing only: 61 articles in 11 seconds.
- Articles on a custom domain that does not answer are read through Medium's web API instead (4 of 120 in our test). This gives the same text and numbers.
- Unknown authors and publications answer 404 and are skipped with a log line.

#### Example

```json
{"authors": ["netflixtechblog"], "tags": ["web-scraping"], "maxResults": 10}
```

Medium's Rules (policy.medium.com) ban automated access and scraping, and Medium no longer issues API keys. Respect authors' copyright when you reuse article text.

# Actor input Schema

## `authors` (type: `array`):

Medium usernames, @usernames or profile links: netflixtechblog, @ev, https://medium.com/@ev or https://ev.medium.com

## `publications` (type: `array`):

Publication slugs, medium.com links or custom domains: netflix-techblog, https://medium.com/netflix-techblog or netflixtechblog.com

## `tags` (type: `array`):

Medium tags or tag links: python, web-scraping, https://medium.com/tag/python

## `tagSort` (type: `string`):

Tags only. Latest = newest first (the tag's RSS feed, then older pages); the others are Medium's own rankings.

## `articleUrls` (type: `array`):

Optional. Medium article URLs (also on custom domains), e.g. https://netflixtechblog.com/...-516d5a29b252. One row each.

## `fetchArticleDetails` (type: `boolean`):

On: adds full text (preview only for member-only stories), word count and exact claps from the article page - one page per article. Off: faster, listing data only.

## `maxResults` (type: `integer`):

Medium's RSS feeds hold the latest 10; above that the Actor pages through older articles.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Optional cap on the whole run. Leave empty for no total cap.

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

Residential proxy is the default for Medium's web pages.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "authors": [
    "netflixtechblog"
  ],
  "publications": [],
  "tags": [
    "web-scraping"
  ],
  "tagSort": "latest",
  "articleUrls": [],
  "fetchArticleDetails": true,
  "maxResults": 10,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": [
      "RESIDENTIAL"
    ]
  }
}
```

# 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 = {
    "authors": [
        "netflixtechblog"
    ],
    "publications": [],
    "tags": [
        "web-scraping"
    ],
    "articleUrls": [],
    "maxResults": 10,
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": true,
        "apifyProxyGroups": [
            "RESIDENTIAL"
        ]
    }
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("neuro-scraper/medium-articles-scraper").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 = {
    "authors": ["netflixtechblog"],
    "publications": [],
    "tags": ["web-scraping"],
    "articleUrls": [],
    "maxResults": 10,
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": True,
        "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"],
    },
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("neuro-scraper/medium-articles-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

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

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

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "authors": [
    "netflixtechblog"
  ],
  "publications": [],
  "tags": [
    "web-scraping"
  ],
  "articleUrls": [],
  "maxResults": 10,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": [
      "RESIDENTIAL"
    ]
  }
}' |
apify call neuro-scraper/medium-articles-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,neuro-scraper/medium-articles-scraper"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/ACnv9P48Ic0ao6Lvj/builds/bQqideWL3FtiT75dG/openapi.json