Mastodon Trends Scraper
Pricing
from $19.00 / 1,000 results
Mastodon Trends Scraper
Collects trending statuses, hashtags, and links from any Mastodon instance and returns each trend as a flat row. No authentication needed.
Pricing
from $19.00 / 1,000 results
Rating
0.0
(0)
Developer
ParseForge
Maintained by CommunityActor stats
0
Bookmarked
2
Total users
1
Monthly active users
8 days ago
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Mastodon Trends Scraper
Scrape trending statuses, hashtags, and links from any Mastodon instance, up to a million per run. Each trend comes with its title, URL, usage count, and description. No authentication or API key required. Export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.
Mastodon's official trends API gives you a window into what a community is talking about right now, but pulling that data at scale means handling pagination, rate limits, and instance-specific quirks. This Actor reads the public trends endpoint from any Mastodon instance you choose and returns every trending item in one flat, consistent schema. Pick trending statuses, hashtags, or links, set a cap, and get the results in minutes.
| Who uses it | What they scrape Mastodon for |
|---|---|
| Social media analysts | Track which topics and hashtags are gaining traction across different Mastodon communities. |
| Journalists and newsrooms | Monitor trending links and posts to spot breaking stories before they hit mainstream platforms. |
| Community managers | Understand what content resonates on a specific instance to guide engagement strategy. |
| Academic researchers | Collect longitudinal trend data from the fediverse for studies on decentralized social networks. |
What it does
This Actor collects trending statuses, hashtags, or links from a specified Mastodon instance and returns each trend as a flat row.
- 📈 Trending statuses: fetch the most-boosted and most-favorited posts currently trending on an instance.
- 🏷️ Trending hashtags: collect the hashtags that are seeing a surge in usage, with descriptions and usage counts.
- 🔗 Trending links: pull the news articles and external URLs that a community is sharing and discussing most.
- 🌐 Any instance: point the Actor at any Mastodon server, from mastodon.social to niche community instances.
Results export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML, or straight from the API.
What you can do with Mastodon data
📊 Monitor community sentiment.
A social media analyst runs the Actor daily on three instances to collect trending hashtags and spot shifts in community focus before they appear in reports.
📰 Catch breaking news early.
A journalist scrapes trending links from a news-heavy instance each morning to identify stories gaining traction in decentralized networks.
🔬 Gather fediverse research data.
An academic researcher collects trending statuses from ten instances weekly to build a dataset on topic diffusion across decentralized social platforms.
🤝 Guide community content.
A community manager pulls trending statuses from their instance to see which post formats and subjects get the most engagement and plans the next week's content accordingly.
Why choose this scraper
| What you get | |
|---|---|
| No authentication | Reads public trends endpoints with no login, token, or app registration required. |
| Three trend types | Switch between trending statuses, hashtags, and links in one Actor. |
| Any Mastodon instance | Works with mastodon.social, fosstodon.org, mas.to, and any other Mastodon server. |
| Fixed flat schema | Every trend arrives in the same columns, ready for analysis or a database. |
How it compares
This Actor focuses on instance-level trends across three content types, while the general Mastodon Scraper targets posts, profiles, and hashtag feeds by keyword or account.
| Feature | ParseForge | 🐘 Mastodon Scraper - Posts, Hashtags & Accounts |
|---|---|---|
| Trending statuses (posts) | Yes | Not listed |
| Trending links (news) | Yes | Not listed |
| Trending hashtags | Yes | Not listed |
| Scrape posts by keyword | Not listed | Yes |
| Scrape user profiles | Not listed | Yes |
| No authentication required | Yes | Yes |
Configure the run
Drive the Actor with an instance domain and a trend type, and set a maximum number of trends to cap the output. The Input tab lists every parameter.
A first run with the defaults:
A larger pull:
Pricing
Pay-per-result: $0.021 per result collected. You pay only for the results written to your dataset.
| Results collected | Approximate cost |
|---|---|
| 100 results | $2.10 |
| 1,000 results | $21.00 |
| 10,000 results | $210.00 |
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
- Create a free Apify account with $5 in credit.
- Open the Mastodon Trends Scraper.
- Set your inputs and any filters, then click Start.
- 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 Mastodon through the Model Context Protocol. Add the Actor to Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client:
Then prompt it in plain language to run the scraper and read back the results.
Troubleshooting
Why am I getting no results?
The instance may not have trending content enabled, or the selected trend type may have no current trends. Try a larger instance like mastodon.social and switch between statuses, tags, and links to confirm.
Why does the Actor return fewer trends than my maxItems setting?
The Mastodon API only returns trends it currently has. If an instance is tracking 8 trending hashtags, setting maxItems to 50 will still return only 8. This is expected behavior.
I get an error about the instance domain.
Make sure you are entering only the domain (e.g., mastodon.social) without https://, a trailing slash, or a path. The Actor constructs the full API URL from the domain you provide.
The run times out or takes very long.
Large maxItems values on instances with many trends can take time due to pagination. Reduce maxItems or target a smaller instance. The Actor respects rate limits and will slow down if the server requests it.
Why do some trends have missing descriptions or usage counts?
The Mastodon API does not always populate every field for every trend. A hashtag may lack a description, or a link may not have a usage count. The Actor returns whatever data the instance provides.
FAQ
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Do I need a Mastodon account or API key to use this? | No. The Actor reads the public trends API endpoint, which does not require authentication. provide the instance domain. |
| Which Mastodon instances does this work with? | Any Mastodon instance that exposes the public trends API. This includes mastodon.social, fosstodon.org, mas.to, and most other servers running standard Mastodon software. |
| What is the difference between trending statuses, tags, and links? | Trending statuses are posts gaining high engagement. Trending tags are hashtags seeing a usage spike. Trending links are external URLs being shared widely on that instance. |
| How many trends can I collect in one run? | You set the maximum with the maxItems field, up to 1,000,000. The actual number returned depends on how many trends the instance is currently serving. |
| Does this Actor handle pagination automatically? | Yes. The Actor follows pagination links from the Mastodon API until it reaches your maxItems limit or the instance has no more trends to return. |
| Can I scrape trends from multiple instances in one run? | One run targets one instance and one trend type. To scrape multiple instances, run the Actor multiple times with different instance domains, or use a task queue. |
| What format does the output come in? | The Actor returns data in a standard dataset you can export as CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML from the Apify console or via API. |
| How often are Mastodon trends updated? | Trend refresh frequency varies by instance. Some update every few minutes, others less frequently. The Actor returns whatever the instance is serving at the moment of the request. |
| Does this work with non-Mastodon fediverse servers like Pleroma or Misskey? | No. This Actor targets the Mastodon trends API specifically. Other fediverse software uses different APIs and is not supported. |
| Can I filter trends by language or region? | The Mastodon trends API does not provide language or region filters. The Actor returns whatever trends the instance reports, which may reflect that instance's user base and moderation choices. |
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 Mastodon gGmbH. 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.
