# Sitemap URL Extractor: all URLs, lastmod, indexes, gzip (`northpine-studio/sitemap-url-extractor`) Actor

Give it a website or sitemap URL and get every URL in its sitemaps: lastmod, changefreq, priority, image/video/hreflang counts. Finds sitemaps via robots.txt, follows sitemap indexes and .gz files, dedupes, and filters by regex or modified date. Reads only public sitemap files; no page scraping.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/northpine-studio/sitemap-url-extractor.md
- **Developed by:** [Northpine Studio](https://apify.com/northpine-studio) (community)
- **Categories:** SEO tools, Developer tools
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$1.00 / 1,000 urls

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

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

## Sitemap URL Extractor

Give it a website or a sitemap URL and get every URL listed in its sitemaps, one dataset row each.

### What it does

- Finds sitemaps from `robots.txt` (`Sitemap:` lines), falling back to `/sitemap.xml`, `/sitemap_index.xml`, `/sitemap-index.xml`, `/sitemap.xml.gz`.
- Follows sitemap index files (up to 5 levels), reads `.xml`, `.xml.gz` and plain-text sitemaps.
- Output fields: `url`, `lastmod`, `changefreq`, `priority`, `images`, `videos`, `alternates` (hreflang links), `sitemap` (source file), `site`.
- Dedupes URLs across files, filters by include/exclude regex and by `lastmodAfter`.
- Key-value store `SUMMARY`: sitemaps fetched, URLs found/emitted, duplicates, per-file errors.

### Input

| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| `startUrls` | Websites or direct sitemap URLs |
| `maxUrls` | Stop after N URLs (default 10000) |
| `maxSitemaps` | Cap on sitemap files fetched (default 200) |
| `include` / `exclude` | Regexes on the URL |
| `lastmodAfter` | `YYYY-MM-DD`; keep only newer URLs |
| `delayMs` | Delay between fetches (default 300) |

Example: `{ "startUrls": ["https://example.com"], "include": ["/blog/"], "lastmodAfter": "2026-01-01" }`

### Terms and scope

Reads only the public sitemap protocol files (sitemaps.org) that sites publish for crawlers. It does not fetch or scrape the pages themselves. Requests are sequential and rate-limited with a declared user agent. You are responsible for how you use the URLs, including the target site's terms.

### Develop

`npm install && npm test` (offline unit tests), `apify push` to deploy.

# Actor input Schema

## `startUrls` (type: `array`):

A website (e.g. https://example.com) to auto-discover sitemaps via robots.txt and common paths, or a direct sitemap URL (.xml, .xml.gz or .txt). Sitemap index files are followed.

## `maxUrls` (type: `integer`):

Stop after this many URLs have been output.

## `maxSitemaps` (type: `integer`):

Cap on sitemap files fetched per run (indexes can list thousands).

## `include` (type: `array`):

Only output URLs matching at least one of these regular expressions (e.g. /blog/). Leave empty for all.

## `exclude` (type: `array`):

Skip URLs matching any of these regular expressions.

## `lastmodAfter` (type: `string`):

Only output URLs whose lastmod is on or after this date (YYYY-MM-DD). URLs without lastmod are skipped when set.

## `delayMs` (type: `integer`):

Politeness delay between sitemap file requests to the same site.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "startUrls": [
    "https://www.sitemaps.org"
  ],
  "maxUrls": 10000,
  "maxSitemaps": 200,
  "delayMs": 300
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

# 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 = {
    "startUrls": [
        "https://www.sitemaps.org"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("northpine-studio/sitemap-url-extractor").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 = { "startUrls": ["https://www.sitemaps.org"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("northpine-studio/sitemap-url-extractor").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 '{
  "startUrls": [
    "https://www.sitemaps.org"
  ]
}' |
apify call northpine-studio/sitemap-url-extractor --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,northpine-studio/sitemap-url-extractor"
        }
    }
}
```

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/PvYoczYzj9ehicWfU/builds/CCMrYlzWd6YNyE13E/openapi.json