Stack Overflow Questions Scraper

Stack Overflow Questions Scraper

Scrape Stack Overflow questions by search query or tag, up to a million per run. Every question returns with its title, tags, score, answer count, and link. No browser needed. Export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.

Stack Overflow's public data dumps are quarterly snapshots that are stale the day they ship, and the official Stack Exchange API throttles you to 300 requests a day without a key. This Actor reads the live API directly, lets you filter by search term or tags, and returns each matching question in one flat row. You get fresh, queryable Stack Overflow data in minutes, not days.

Who uses it	What they scrape Stack Overflow for
Developer tool founders	Find every question about a competing library to understand where users struggle.
Technical content marketers	Pull the top-voted questions on a topic to build a content calendar that ranks.
Data analysts	Collect a tagged dataset of questions to analyze technology adoption trends over time.
Open source maintainers	Monitor new questions in your project's tag so you can answer them first.

What it does

This Actor collects Stack Overflow questions by search query or tag and returns each one as a flat row with its title, tags, score, answer count, and link.

• 🔍 Search by keywords: feed a search query like 'javascript async await' and get the most relevant questions.
• 🏷️ Filter by tags: supply comma-separated tags such as 'python,pandas' to pull every question in those topics.
• 📊 Sort control: order results by votes, recent activity, creation date, or relevance to your search.
• 🔑 Optional API key: bring your free Stack Apps key to raise the limit from 300 to 10,000 requests per day.

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

What you can do with Stack Overflow data

📈 Monitor technology trends.

A VC analyst collects questions tagged 'rust' and 'go' each month, sorts by votes, and reports which language is gaining more developer mindshare.

✍️ Build a content calendar.

A developer advocate pulls the top 50 unanswered questions in their product's tag and writes a blog post that answers each one.

🧠 Find product gaps.

A founder scrapes every question mentioning a competitor's API, reads the pain points, and prioritizes the features their own roadmap is missing.

📬 Generate a lead list.

A sales engineer collects questions tagged 'terraform' and 'aws' where the asker has a low reputation score, then reaches out with a helpful answer and a demo offer.

Why choose this scraper

	What you get
Live data, not a stale dump	The Stack Exchange data dumps are quarterly. This Actor hits the live API, so you get questions posted minutes ago.
No browser overhead	It calls the Stack Exchange API directly. You are not paying for headless Chrome to render a page that is already JSON.
Flat, predictable schema	Every run returns the same columns. No nested JSON to unpack later in your pipeline.
Runs on autopilot	Schedule it to pull new questions daily or hourly and feed a dashboard, a CRM, or a lead list.

How it compares

No other Store actor targets Stack Overflow the same way, so the honest comparison is with the alternatives teams actually weigh.

	Stack Overflow Questions Scraper	Build it in-house	By hand
Setup	Run it now, zero config	Days of engineering	None, but hours per pull
When Stack Overflow changes	Maintained for you	You fix it	You re-learn the page
Proxies, retries, anti-bot	Built in	Your problem	Browser only
Output	Fixed JSON schema, CSV/Excel export	Whatever you build	Copy-paste
Cost	Pay per result	Engineering time	Analyst hours

Configure the run

Drive the Actor from a search query or a list of tags, and set the sort order so only the questions you need land in your dataset. The Input tab lists every parameter.

A first run with the defaults:

{
 "searchQuery": "javascript async await",
 "maxItems": 10,
 "tags": "javascript"
}

A larger pull:

{
 "searchQuery": "javascript async await",
 "maxItems": 200,
 "tags": "javascript"
}

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

1. Create a free Apify account with $5 in credit.
2. Open the Stack Overflow Questions 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 Stack Overflow 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/stackoverflow-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 search query or tags match questions on Stack Overflow. Try a broad tag like 'javascript' first. Also confirm you did not set maxItems to 0.

The run stopped early and I did not get all the questions I asked for.

You likely hit the daily API request limit. Without an API key the limit is 300 requests. Add a free key from stackapps.com in the 'API Key' field to raise it to 10,000 requests per day.

I got a 'throttle violation' or 'too many requests' error.

The Actor backs off automatically, but if you are running many concurrent instances they share the same quota. Add an API key and reduce the number of parallel runs.

The search results do not look relevant.

The search endpoint matches keywords in the question title. Try a more specific phrase, or switch to filtering by tags if you know the exact topic labels used on Stack Overflow.

Can I get the full question body and answers?

This Actor returns question metadata. The Stack Exchange API can return the body, but it is not included in the current schema. You can request it as a feature or use the question links to fetch the full page separately.

FAQ

Question	Answer
Do I need a Stack Overflow account to scrape?	No. The Actor calls the public Stack Exchange API, which does not require authentication. An optional API key from stackapps.com raises the daily request limit from 300 to 10,000.
What data does each row include?	Every row returns the question title, tags, score, answer count, view count, creation date, last activity date, the asker's display name and reputation, a link to the question, and whether it has an accepted answer.
Can I scrape answers, not questions?	This Actor returns questions. If you need the full answer bodies, you can feed the question IDs into a separate step or request that feature.
How many questions can I collect in one run?	You set the maximum. The input accepts any number up to 1,000,000. The actual count depends on how many questions match your query or tags.
What is the difference between searching and filtering by tags?	A search query matches keywords in the question title. Tags filter by the topic labels the asker applied. You can use one or the other; the Actor picks the right API endpoint automatically.
How do I get an API key for higher rate limits?	Register at stackapps.com, create an app, and copy the key. Paste it into the optional 'API Key' field. With a key you get 10,000 requests per day instead of 300.
Can I schedule this to run every day?	Yes. After the first run, set a schedule in Apify (every hour, every day, etc.) and the Actor will collect new matching questions on that cadence.
What export formats are supported?	You can export your dataset to CSV, JSON, Excel, XML, or RSS from the Apify run tab.
Does this Actor respect Stack Overflow's rate limits?	Yes. It throttles requests to stay within the API's limits and backs off when the quota is exhausted. An API key gives you a much larger daily quota.
Can I filter by date range?	The Stack Exchange API supports a 'fromdate' and 'todate' parameter. This Actor does not expose them in the input yet, but you can sort by creation date to get the newest or oldest questions first.

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 Stack Exchange, 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.