Stack Overflow Questions Scraper

An Apify actor that searches and scrapes Stack Overflow questions using the free Stack Exchange API (no authentication required).

Features

• Search Stack Overflow questions by query
• Filter by tags (e.g., python, javascript)
• Sort by relevance, votes, creation date, or activity
• Pagination support for large result sets
• API quota monitoring
• Full question metadata extraction

Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
query	string	"python web scraping"	Search terms for Stack Overflow questions
tag	string	""	Optional tag filter (e.g., python, javascript)
sort	string	"relevance"	Sort by: relevance, votes, creation, activity
maxResults	integer	50	Maximum number of questions to return (1-10000)

Output Fields

Each question returns the following data:

• questionId - Stack Overflow question ID
• title - Question title
• url - Link to the question
• score - Vote score
• viewCount - Number of views
• answerCount - Number of answers
• isAnswered - Boolean indicating if question has accepted answer
• acceptedAnswerId - ID of accepted answer (if applicable)
• tags - Array of tags
• authorName - Question author's display name
• authorReputation - Author's reputation score
• authorProfileUrl - Link to author's profile
• creationDate - Unix timestamp of creation
• lastActivityDate - Unix timestamp of last activity
• bountyAmount - Associated bounty (if any)
• body - Question body (truncated to 2000 chars)

API Details

• Endpoint: https://api.stackexchange.com/2.3/search/advanced
• Authentication: None required
• Rate Limit: 300 requests per day (IP-based)
• Quota Monitoring: Actor logs remaining quota and stops if < 5 requests remain

Files

• actor.json - Actor configuration
• input_schema.json - Input parameter schema
• Dockerfile - Python 3.14 runtime
• requirements.txt - Dependencies (apify, httpx)
• __main__.py - Entry point
• src/main.py - Core scraping logic

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💻 Code Example — Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("nexgendata/stackoverflow-questions").call(run_input={
    # Fill in the input shape from the actor's input_schema
})

for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

🌐 Code Example — cURL

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/nexgendata~stackoverflow-questions/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{ /* input schema */ }'

❓ FAQ

Q: How do I get started? Sign up at apify.com, grab your API token from Settings → Integrations, and run the actor via the Apify console, API, Python SDK, or any integration (Zapier, Make.com, n8n).

Q: What's the typical cost per run? See the pricing section below. Most runs finish under $0.10 for typical batches.

Q: Is this actor maintained? Yes. NexGenData maintains 140+ Apify actors and ships updates regularly. Bug reports via the Apify console issues tab get responses within 24 hours.

Q: Can I use the output commercially? Yes — you own the output data. Check the target site's Terms of Service for any usage restrictions on the scraped content itself.

Q: How do I handle rate limits? Apify manages concurrency and retries automatically. For very large batches (10K+ items), run multiple smaller jobs in parallel instead of one mega-job for better reliability.

💰 Pricing

Pay-per-event pricing — you only pay for what you actually extract.

• Actor Start: $0.0001
• result: $0.0050

🔗 Related NexGenData Actors

• Hacker News Scraper
• GitHub Trending Scraper
• WCAG Accessibility Auditor

🚀 Apify Affiliate Program

New to Apify? Sign up with our referral link — you get free platform credits on signup, and you help fund the maintenance of this actor fleet.

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Built and maintained by NexGenData — 140+ actors covering scraping, enrichment, MCP servers, and automation.