# Hacker News Scraper - Stories, Comments & Hiring Jobs $0.15/1K (`plotpointtech/hacker-news-scraper`) Actor

Hacker News data from the official HN APIs: front-page stories, keyword search with date and points filters, full comment trees, user profiles, and Who is hiring posts parsed into job records. $0.15 per 1,000 results.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/plotpointtech/hacker-news-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Plot Point Technologies](https://apify.com/plotpointtech) (community)
- **Categories:** News, Jobs, Automation
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $0.09 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

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

## Hacker News Scraper: stories, comments, search, users and "Who is hiring" jobs

**Get Hacker News data as clean, structured records in seconds.** This Hacker News scraper reads the two official public HN APIs (the Hacker News Firebase API and the Algolia HN Search API) and returns stories, comments, user profiles and monthly "Who is hiring" job posts with ISO dates, points, comment counts, URL, domain and a direct HN link. No browser, no login, no blocking. **$0.15 per 1,000 results.**

### What can this Hacker News scraper do?

- **Front-page lists:** top (the front page ranking, up to 500), new, best, Ask HN, Show HN and YC job ads, with each story's rank.
- **Keyword search:** full-text search over stories and comments with date ranges (`2026-01-01` or `7 days`), minimum points, minimum comments, author filter and type tags (`story`, `comment`, `ask_hn`, `show_hn`, `job`, `poll`, `front_page`, `author_NAME`, `story_ID`). Sort by relevance or newest first; date-sorted searches go past the usual 1,000-hit limit.
- **Full comment trees:** give story IDs or links and get the story plus every comment, flattened in HN display order with `depth`, `parentId` and `position`, so you can rebuild the thread.
- **User profiles:** karma, join date, about text, number of submissions, plus their latest stories and comments.
- **"Who is hiring" job records:** the monthly *Ask HN: Who is hiring?* thread parsed into one record per company post: company, role, location, remote flag, workplace type (Remote / Hybrid / Onsite), employment type, salary text with numeric min/max/currency/period, visa note, company URL, all links and the full post text. Filter by keywords, remote only or posts with salary.

### What data do you get?

Stories and comments: `type`, `id`, `title`, `url`, `domain`, `author`, `points`, `commentsCount`, `createdAt`, `text`, `hnUrl`, `parentId`, plus `rank` and `list` (front page), `storyId`, `storyTitle`, `depth`, `position` (comment trees) and `isShowHN`, `isAskHN`, `onFrontPage` (search).

Users: `username`, `karma`, `createdAt`, `about`, `submittedCount`, `profileUrl`.

Job posts: `company`, `role`, `location`, `remote`, `workplaceType`, `employmentType`, `salaryText`, `salaryMin`, `salaryMax`, `salaryCurrency`, `salaryPeriod`, `visaSponsorship`, `companyUrl`, `links`, `headerLine`, `text`, `postedAt`, `hnUrl`, `threadMonth`.

All dates are ISO 8601 in UTC. Text is plain text with links expanded to their full URLs.

### Who uses it?

- **Recruiters and sourcers** who want each month's "Who is hiring" thread as a spreadsheet of companies, roles, locations and salaries.
- **Founders and marketers** tracking mentions of their product, competitors or keywords on Hacker News.
- **Developer-relations and research teams** measuring developer sentiment from full comment threads.
- **Newsletter writers and analysts** collecting the front page or the best stories every day.
- **AI and data teams** building datasets of technical discussion.

### How to use it

1. Click **Try for free** (or **Start**). With no changes it returns the current top 30 front-page stories in a few seconds.
2. Choose **What to scrape**: front-page lists, keyword search, stories with comments, user profiles or "Who is hiring" posts.
3. Fill in the fields for that mode (keywords and filters, story links, usernames, or a month like `2026-10`).
4. Set **Maximum results** and run it.
5. Export to Excel, CSV or JSON, or schedule it daily.

### Input example

```json
{
  "mode": "frontPage",
  "lists": [
    "top"
  ],
  "maxItems": 30
}
```

More examples:

- Search: `{"mode": "search", "query": "postgres", "tags": ["story"], "dateFrom": "30 days", "minPoints": 100, "sortBy": "date"}`
- Comment tree: `{"mode": "story", "storyIds": ["https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863"], "maxItems": 5000}`
- Hiring: `{"mode": "whoIsHiring", "hiringMonth": "2026-10", "hiringKeywords": ["rust", "python"], "remoteOnly": true, "maxItems": 1000}`

### Output example

From a real default run (top front-page story):

```json
{
  "type": "story",
  "id": 50307190,
  "title": "My favourite PowerMac is a Nintendo Wii",
  "url": "https://virtuallyfun.com/2026/10/29/my-favourite-powermac-is-a-nintendo-wii/",
  "domain": "virtuallyfun.com",
  "author": "DHowett",
  "points": 162,
  "commentsCount": 45,
  "createdAt": "2026-10-30T17:25:15Z",
  "text": null,
  "hnUrl": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50307190",
  "parentId": null,
  "list": "top",
  "rank": 1
}
```

### How much does it cost?

**$0.15 per 1,000 results** ($0.00015 each), plus a $0.00005 start fee per run. A result is one story, comment, user profile or job post.

| You get | You pay |
|---|---|
| Top 30 front-page stories | about $0.005 |
| One month's "Who is hiring" thread (about 300 posts) | about $0.05 |
| A 1,000-comment discussion thread | $0.15 |
| 100,000 search results | $15 |

**Volume discounts on higher Apify plans.** The prices above are for the Apify Free plan. On paid plans the per-result price drops automatically: about 15% lower on Bronze, 25% lower on Silver and 38% lower on Gold and above.

### Use it via API, Make, Zapier, n8n or an AI agent

**Apify API.** Start a run and get the results back in one HTTP request (replace `YOUR_API_TOKEN` with the token from Apify Console > Settings > Integrations):

```bash
curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/plotpointtech~hacker-news-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"mode": "frontPage", "lists": ["top"], "maxItems": 30}'
```

For longer jobs, start the run asynchronously and read the dataset when it finishes. Official `apify-client` libraries exist for Python and JavaScript; the **API** tab on this page has ready-made code.

**No-code automation.** Connect the tool to **Make, Zapier, n8n, Google Sheets, Slack, Airtable** or any webhook with Apify integrations, and use **Schedules** in Apify Console to run it hourly, daily or weekly.

**AI agents (MCP).** Give Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, VS Code or any MCP-compatible agent direct access to this tool through the hosted Apify MCP server. Add this server URL to your client:

```
https://mcp.apify.com?tools=plotpointtech/hacker-news-scraper
```

The agent can then call the tool with the same input fields shown above and read the results.

### FAQ

**Is it legal to scrape Hacker News?**
This tool does not scrape web pages. It uses the official Hacker News API (published by Y Combinator on Firebase for public use) and the public Algolia HN Search API. All data returned is publicly visible on news.ycombinator.com. You are responsible for how you use it, including any personal data in comments and user profiles, under the laws that apply to you (for example GDPR).

**How accurate is the "Who is hiring" parsing?**
Most posts follow the thread's `Company | Role | Location | REMOTE/ONSITE | Salary | URL` convention, and those parse cleanly. Free-form posts still return the company, the full text, links and the remote flag, but some fields may be empty. `headerLine` and `text` are always included so you can check.

**Why is a comment count different from what I see on HN?**
`commentsCount` comes from the API and includes comments later flagged or deleted; the comment-tree mode returns only visible comments.

**How fresh is the data?**
Front-page lists and comment trees are live from the official API. Search results come from Algolia's index, which usually lags by a few minutes.

**Does it get emails from job posts?**
No dedicated email field is extracted. The full post text is included as published.

### Related tools from Plot Point Technologies

- [Greenhouse, Lever & Ashby Jobs Scraper - 6 ATS, $1/1K](https://apify.com/plotpointtech/company-job-board-scraper): open jobs from Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby and 3 more ATS boards.
- [Remote Jobs Scraper - Remote OK, Jobicy & We Work Remotely](https://apify.com/plotpointtech/remote-jobs-aggregator): fresh remote jobs from three boards in one de-duplicated feed.
- [News Scraper - Worldwide News Search by Keyword, 65+ Languages](https://apify.com/plotpointtech/worldwide-news-search): news articles worldwide by keyword, country and language.
- [Website to Markdown Crawler for AI, LLM & RAG - $1/1K](https://apify.com/plotpointtech/website-to-markdown-crawler): any website as clean Markdown for LLMs and RAG.

Plot Point Technologies is not affiliated with Hacker News, Y Combinator or Algolia.

***

If this tool saved you time, we would be grateful for a short review on this page; it helps other people find it. If something did not work as expected, please open an issue on the **Issues** tab and we will look into it quickly.

# Actor input Schema

## `mode` (type: `string`):

Front-page lists (top/new/best/Ask/Show/jobs), keyword search, stories with their full comment trees, user profiles with submissions, or the monthly 'Who is hiring' thread parsed into job records.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Stop after this many results in total (stories, comments, users or job posts).

## `lists` (type: `array`):

Which HN lists to read. top = front page ranking (up to 500), new, best, ask (Ask HN), show (Show HN), job (YC job ads).

## `skipJobs` (type: `boolean`):

Leave out job ads that appear inside the top/new/best lists.

## `query` (type: `string`):

Full-text search over titles, URLs, story text and comments (Algolia HN Search). Leave empty to filter by tags/author only.

## `tags` (type: `array`):

Limit results to these types (any of them): story, comment, ask_hn, show_hn, job, poll, front_page. You can also add author_USERNAME or story_ID (these must all match).

## `author` (type: `string`):

Only items by this HN user.

## `sortBy` (type: `string`):

relevance (with popularity) or date (newest first). Date sort can go past Algolia's 1,000-hit limit per query.

## `dateFrom` (type: `string`):

Only items created on or after this date: YYYY-MM-DD, or relative like '7 days', '3 months'.

## `dateTo` (type: `string`):

Only items created on or before this date: YYYY-MM-DD, or relative like '1 day'.

## `minPoints` (type: `integer`):

Only stories with at least this many points.

## `minComments` (type: `integer`):

Only stories with at least this many comments.

## `storyIds` (type: `array`):

HN item IDs or news.ycombinator.com/item?id=... links. A comment link resolves to its story.

## `includeComments` (type: `boolean`):

Return every comment, flattened in HN display order with depth, parentId and position.

## `maxCommentsPerStory` (type: `integer`):

0 = all comments (still limited by Maximum results).

## `usernames` (type: `array`):

HN usernames, e.g. pg, dang.

## `includeSubmissions` (type: `boolean`):

Also return the user's most recent stories and comments.

## `maxSubmissionsPerUser` (type: `integer`):

0 = all (still limited by Maximum results).

## `hiringMonth` (type: `string`):

Which monthly 'Ask HN: Who is hiring?' thread to parse, e.g. 2026-10. Leave empty for the latest.

## `hiringKeywords` (type: `array`):

Only job posts mentioning any of these words, e.g. rust, python, machine learning.

## `remoteOnly` (type: `boolean`):

Only posts marked REMOTE in their header line.

## `salaryOnly` (type: `boolean`):

Only posts that state a salary or rate in their header line.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "mode": "frontPage",
  "maxItems": 30,
  "lists": [
    "top"
  ],
  "skipJobs": false,
  "tags": [
    "story"
  ],
  "sortBy": "relevance",
  "includeComments": true,
  "maxCommentsPerStory": 0,
  "includeSubmissions": true,
  "maxSubmissionsPerUser": 50,
  "remoteOnly": false,
  "salaryOnly": false
}
```

# 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 = {
    "maxItems": 30
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("plotpointtech/hacker-news-scraper").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 = { "maxItems": 30 }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("plotpointtech/hacker-news-scraper").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 '{
  "maxItems": 30
}' |
apify call plotpointtech/hacker-news-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,plotpointtech/hacker-news-scraper"
        }
    }
}
```

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/XW2QcdAmISAeNrdBt/builds/P1xby8bF47kyEJVj6/openapi.json