📚 Project Gutenberg (Gutendex) Scraper

🚀 Export 70,000+ public-domain books with metadata and full-text download links in seconds.

🕒 Last updated: 2026-05-26 · 📊 10 fields per record · 70,000+ books · 60+ languages · 10+ formats per book

This Apify Actor extracts structured data from Project Gutenberg (Gutendex), returning clean JSON / CSV / Excel / XML datasets ready for analytics, integrations, or research workflows. Built by ParseForge for reliability and freshness.

🎯 Target Audience	💡 Primary Use Cases
Data analysts, engineers, researchers	Analytics pipelines, BI dashboards, datasets
SaaS, fintech, marketing, ops teams	Lead gen, enrichment, monitoring
Hobbyists, journalists, indie devs	Side projects, content, exploration

📋 What the Project Gutenberg (Gutendex) Scraper does

• Queries the public Project Gutenberg (Gutendex) API / feed and structures the response
• Returns one record per item with 10 normalized fields
• Supports filters configurable from the input schema
• Outputs to CSV, Excel, JSON, XML via Apify dataset
• Auto-limits to 10 items on the free plan; up to 1,000,000 on paid

💡 Why it matters: clean, ready-to-query data without manual scraping, parsing, or babysitting an API client.

🎬 Full Demo (🚧 Coming soon)

⚙️ Input

Field	Type	Required	Description
maxItems	integer	No	Max items to return (free: 10, paid: 1,000,000)

{ "maxItems": 50 }

{ "maxItems": 1000 }

⚠️ Good to Know: the free plan caps results at 10 items per run. Upgrade to a paid plan to unlock the full dataset.

📊 Output

Field	Type	Description
🔹 id	string	Project Gutenberg (Gutendex) id field
🔹 title	string	Project Gutenberg (Gutendex) title field
🔹 authors	string	Project Gutenberg (Gutendex) authors field
🔹 languages	string	Project Gutenberg (Gutendex) languages field
🔹 download_count	string	Project Gutenberg (Gutendex) download_count field
🕒 scrapedAt	string	ISO timestamp of when the record was collected
❌ error	string	null

{
  "id": "...",
  "title": "...",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-05-26T00:00:00.000Z",
  "error": null
}

✨ Why choose this Actor

Differentiator	Benefit
🟢 Real-time public data	Always fresh, never cached
🟢 Structured output	Ready for BI, Excel, SQL imports
🟢 Pay-per-result pricing	Pay only for actual data collected
🟢 Apify-hosted runs	No servers, no maintenance
🟢 Free tier preview	Test with 10 items before scaling

📈 How it compares to alternatives

Method	Setup time	Reliability	Maintenance	Cost
Manual scripting	Hours	Medium	High	Dev time
Generic web scrapers	Hours	Low	High	Variable
This Actor	30 seconds	High	None	Pay-per-result

🚀 How to use

1. Create a free Apify account with $5 credit
2. Open this Actor and click Try for free
3. Configure the input (maxItems and any filters)
4. Click Start
5. Download the dataset as CSV / Excel / JSON / XML

💼 Business use cases

📊 Analytics & BI — feed Project Gutenberg (Gutendex) records into Looker, Tableau, Metabase for live dashboards.

🧠 Data enrichment — append Project Gutenberg (Gutendex) fields to your CRM / CDP records for better targeting.

🔍 Monitoring — schedule daily runs to detect new records, changes, or anomalies.

🤖 ML training data — use structured Project Gutenberg (Gutendex) data as features in models or test fixtures.

🔌 Automating Project Gutenberg (Gutendex) Scraper

Connect via Apify integrations: Make, Zapier, n8n, Slack, Discord, Airbyte, Google Drive, Google Sheets, GitHub, Webhook, REST API.

🌟 Beyond business use cases

🔬 Research — academics, journalists, policy researchers building public datasets.

🎨 Personal — hobbyists tracking favorite topics, building personal projects, exploring data.

🤝 Non-profit — NGOs, civic-tech, open-data initiatives needing structured Project Gutenberg (Gutendex) extracts.

🧪 Experimentation — students, builders, indie devs prototyping with real-world data.

🤖 Ask an AI assistant about this scraper

Drop a link to this page into ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, or Copilot and ask: "What can I do with the Project Gutenberg (Gutendex) Scraper?"

❓ Frequently Asked Questions

❓ Is the data fresh? Yes. Every run queries Project Gutenberg (Gutendex) in real time. No cached responses.

💰 How does pricing work? Pay-per-result: charged once per record collected. Free plan: 10 items per run preview.

🧾 What format is the output? CSV, Excel, JSON, XML — Apify dataset supports all four.

🔐 Do I need an API key? No. Project Gutenberg (Gutendex) public data only, no login required.

📈 What's the max I can scrape? 1,000,000 items per run on paid plans.

⏱️ How long does a run take? Typically seconds to minutes depending on maxItems.

🌍 Is this affiliated with Project Gutenberg (Gutendex)? No. Independent tool. Only publicly accessible data collected.

🛠️ What if a run fails? You're never charged for failed records. Errors appear as {error: "..."} rows.

🤝 Can I use this commercially? Yes, under Apify's standard terms and Project Gutenberg (Gutendex)'s public-data policies.

📞 Where do I get help? Open our contact form.

🔌 Integrate with any app

Apify's full integration list: Make · Zapier · n8n · Slack · Discord · Webhook · REST API · GitHub · Airbyte · Google Drive · Google Sheets · Gmail · HubSpot · Pipedream.

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💡 Pro Tip: browse the complete ParseForge collection.

🆘 Need Help? Open our contact form

⚠️ Disclaimer: independent tool, not affiliated with Project Gutenberg (Gutendex). Only publicly available data collected.