Craigslist Listings Scraper

Craigslist Listings Scraper

Scrape Craigslist listings from any city and category, up to a million per run. Every listing comes with its title, price, location, and posting date. No login or API key. Export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.

Craigslist has no official API, so gathering listings at scale means manual copy-paste or brittle screen scraping. This Actor reads the public search results directly, filtered by city, category, and keyword, and returns each match in one fixed schema. It works for furniture, electronics, cars, bikes, free stuff, and every other category on the site.

Who uses it	What they scrape Craigslist for
Market researchers	Track supply and pricing trends for used goods in a metro area.
Deal hunters	Monitor new free or underpriced listings the moment they appear.
Small business owners	Find inventory, equipment, or furniture available locally.
Data journalists	Analyze housing or goods availability across multiple cities.

What it does

This Actor collects Craigslist listings by search term, city, and category, and returns each one as a flat row.

• 🏙️ City targeting: pick any Craigslist city subdomain, from newyork to sfbay to seattle.
• 📂 Category filtering: narrow results to furniture, electronics, cars, bikes, free stuff, and more.
• 🔍 Keyword search: supply a search term like 'laptop' or 'couch' to find exactly what you need.
• 📊 Flat row output: every listing arrives with a consistent set of fields, ready for analysis.

Results export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML, or straight from the API.

What you can do with Craigslist data

📈 Monitor used goods prices.

A market researcher scrapes 'furniture' listings in Chicago weekly to track average asking prices and inventory levels over time.

🚗 Find car deals in your city.

A buyer scrapes the 'Cars & trucks' category in Los Angeles with a max budget keyword to spot undervalued listings before they sell.

🆓 Catch free stuff alerts.

A deal hunter runs the Actor daily on the 'Free' category in New York and exports new listings to a spreadsheet for quick review.

🏠 Research local housing markets.

A data journalist scrapes housing listings across five cities to compare rental supply and price differences in a regional report.

Why choose this scraper

	What you get
No API needed	Reads public Craigslist pages directly, no registration or API key.
Any city, any category	Works across every Craigslist city and all major listing categories.
Up to 1M listings	Collect a handful of listings or a full market snapshot in one run.
Structured exports	Download results as CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML for your workflow.

How it compares

This Actor focuses on fast, structured search-result scraping across all Craigslist cities and categories. Here is how it compares to other Craigslist scrapers on Apify.

Feature	ParseForge	Craigslist Scraper (Pay Per Result)	Craigslist Scraper | Fast & Reliable	Craigslist Search Results Scraper 🔍
Search by keyword	Yes	Not listed	Not listed	Yes
Filter by city subdomain	Yes	Not listed	Not listed	Not listed
Filter by listing category	Yes	Not listed	Not listed	Not listed
Up to 1,000,000 listings per run	Yes	Not listed	Not listed	Not listed
Email extraction	Not listed	Not listed	Yes	Not listed
Pay-per-result pricing option	Not listed	Yes	Not listed	Not listed

Configure the run

Drive the Actor with a search term, a city subdomain, and a listing category, and filters run as each listing is read so only matches reach your dataset. The Input tab lists every parameter.

A first run with the defaults:

{
 "query": "laptop",
 "maxItems": 10,
 "city": "newyork"
}

A larger pull:

{
 "query": "laptop",
 "maxItems": 200,
 "city": "newyork"
}

Pricing

Pay-per-result: $0.01599 per result collected. You pay only for the results written to your dataset.

Results collected	Approximate cost
100 results	$1.60
1,000 results	$15.99
10,000 results	$159.90

New Apify accounts start with $5 in free credit.

Free users

Free-plan runs return up to 10 results as a preview. Upgrade your Apify plan to collect up to 1,000,000 results per run.

Run it

1. Create a free Apify account with $5 in credit.
2. Open the Craigslist Listings Scraper.
3. Set your inputs and any filters, then click Start.
4. Export the results as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML from the Dataset tab.

Run it programmatically through the Apify API (run-sync-get-dataset-items) or the ApifyClient for JavaScript and Python.

Use with AI agents (MCP)

Give an AI agent live access to Craigslist through the Model Context Protocol. Add the Actor to Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client:

$claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=parseforge/craigslist-scraper"

Then prompt it in plain language to run the scraper and read back the results.

Troubleshooting

Why am I getting no results?

Check that your city slug is valid and matches a real Craigslist subdomain. Also verify that your search term and category combination returns listings on the live site. Try a broader search first.

The Actor returns fewer listings than my maxItems setting.

This is normal when there are fewer matching listings on Craigslist than your requested maximum. The Actor stops when it exhausts all available results for your query.

I see an error about an invalid city.

Make sure you are using the city slug exactly as it appears in the Craigslist URL. For example, 'newyork' not 'New York' or 'nyc'. Refer to craigslist.org/about/sites for the correct format.

Some listings are missing prices or locations.

Craigslist sellers sometimes leave the price or location fields blank. The Actor returns whatever data is present on the listing. Missing fields will appear empty in your dataset.

The run is taking a long time.

Large maxItems values or slow network conditions can increase run time. Try reducing the maximum listings or running during off-peak hours. Apify's infrastructure handles the scaling automatically.

FAQ

Question	Answer
Do I need a Craigslist account to scrape?	No. The Actor reads publicly visible search result pages, so no login, account, or API key is required.
Which cities can I scrape?	Any city that has a Craigslist subdomain. You provide the city slug, such as 'newyork', 'chicago', 'losangeles', 'sfbay', or 'seattle'. Find the full list at craigslist.org/about/sites.
What categories are supported?	The Actor supports all major listing categories: all for sale, furniture, electronics, cars & trucks, free, books, motorcycles, musical instruments, bikes, home & garden, auto parts, and general.
How many listings can I get in one run?	You can set the maximum from 1 up to 1,000,000 listings. The Actor stops when it reaches your limit or runs out of matching results.
Can I scrape listings without a search keyword?	Yes. Leave the search term empty to browse all listings in a city and category. Add a keyword to narrow results to specific items.
What data fields does each listing include?	Each row includes the listing title, price, location, posting date, and a link to the full ad. The exact field list is shown in the sample output on the Actor's page.
Can I export results to Google Sheets?	Yes. Export your dataset as CSV and import it directly into Google Sheets, or use the JSON or Excel formats for other tools.
Is this Actor faster than scraping by hand?	Yes. It reads multiple listings in parallel and can collect thousands of results in minutes, far faster than manual browsing or copy-paste.
Does this Actor handle Craigslist blocking or CAPTCHAs?	The Actor runs on Apify's infrastructure with built-in proxy rotation and smart request handling to reduce the chance of blocks during normal use.
Can I schedule this Actor to run automatically?	Yes. Apify supports scheduled runs. Set it to run hourly, daily, or weekly to monitor new listings without manual effort.

Related actors

Browse the full ParseForge collection for more scrapers.

🆘 Need help? Email parseforge@protonmail.com with your run ID, your input, and what you expected.

⚠️ Disclaimer. This Actor is unofficial and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Craigslist, Inc. It collects only publicly available data. You are responsible for using the collected data in compliance with the source's terms of service and applicable data-protection laws, including GDPR, CCPA, and PIPL. Do not use it to collect personal data unlawfully.