# Sitemap URL Extractor - All Pages from Any Website, $0.20/1K (`plotpointtech/sitemap-url-extractor`) Actor

Get every page URL of any website from its sitemaps: auto-finds robots.txt and CMS sitemaps, follows indexes and .gz, adds lastmod, images, video, news and hreflang. Date and pattern filters, optional status check. $0.20 per 1,000 URLs.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/plotpointtech/sitemap-url-extractor.md
- **Developed by:** [Plot Point Technologies](https://apify.com/plotpointtech) (community)
- **Categories:** SEO tools, Developer tools, Automation
- **Security:** Limited permissions
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $0.12 / 1,000 url extracteds

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

## Sitemap URL Extractor: All Pages from Any Website

**Get a complete list of a website's pages in seconds.** Enter a domain and this tool finds its XML sitemaps on its own, follows every sitemap index and `.gz` file, and gives you one clean row per URL with `lastmod`, `changefreq`, `priority`, the sitemap it came from, and any image, video, news and hreflang data. If a site has no sitemap, it falls back to its RSS/Atom feeds and then to a light crawl of internal links, so you always get a page list.

It costs **$0.20 per 1,000 URLs**. Checking the live HTTP status of each URL is optional and priced separately, so you only pay for it when you need it.

### What does Sitemap URL Extractor do?

- **Finds sitemaps automatically**: reads `Sitemap:` lines in robots.txt, then checks the usual locations (`/sitemap.xml`, `/sitemap_index.xml`, `/sitemap-index.xml`, `/wp-sitemap.xml`, `/sitemap.xml.gz`, `/sitemap/sitemap.xml`, `/sitemaps/sitemap.xml`, `/sitemap.txt`). This covers WordPress (core, Yoast, Rank Math, Jetpack), Shopify, Wix, Squarespace, Webflow, Next.js and most other platforms. robots.txt often lists only some of a site's sitemaps, so the main locations are always checked too.
- **Follows sitemap indexes** to any depth and reads gzip-compressed (`.gz`) sitemaps, plain-text sitemaps and RSS / Atom feeds used as sitemaps.
- **Reads Google's sitemap extensions**: image sitemaps (image URL, title, caption), video sitemaps (title, description, thumbnail, content and player URLs, duration), news sitemaps (publication, language, publication date, title, keywords) and `xhtml:link` hreflang alternates.
- **Filters while it reads**: keep only URLs matching a pattern, drop URLs matching another, keep only pages modified after a date. With a date filter, child sitemaps whose own `lastmod` is older than the date are skipped entirely, which makes runs on very large sites fast.
- **Handles sections**: enter `https://example.com/blog/` and you get only blog URLs. It also looks for a sitemap inside that folder first (common for WordPress installed in a sub-folder).
- **Removes duplicates** across sitemaps and sites.
- **Optional status check**: one light HEAD request per URL (GET if the server refuses HEAD) adds `statusCode`, `finalUrl`, `redirectChain` and `contentType`, so you can spot 404s, redirects and dead entries in your sitemap.
- **Fallback**: no sitemap and no feed? It crawls internal links from the home page (up to a page limit you set) and marks those rows `source: "crawled"`, with page title and hreflang links.
- **Fast and light**: plain HTTP requests, no browser and no proxy. A 1,000-URL site typically finishes in under 10 seconds.

### Who uses it?

- **SEO specialists and agencies**: audit sitemap coverage, find stale `lastmod` values, check that every listed URL returns 200, and compare hreflang sets.
- **Content and marketing teams**: get an inventory of every blog post, product or landing page with its last update date.
- **Developers and data teams**: build a URL list to feed a scraper, a migration script, a search index or a monitoring job.
- **AI and RAG builders**: collect the exact page list to crawl, or only pages changed since your last sync.
- **Competitive research**: see how many products, articles or locations a competitor publishes and how often they change.

### How to use it

1. Click **Try for free** (or **Start**).
2. Under **Websites or sitemap URLs**, enter one or more domains (`example.com`), sections (`https://example.com/blog/`) or direct sitemap / feed URLs.
3. Set **Maximum URLs per website**. This also caps your cost.
4. Optional: add **Only URLs matching** / **Skip URLs matching** patterns, set **Only URLs modified after** (e.g. `2025-01-01` or `30 days`), or turn on **Check HTTP status of every URL**.
5. Run it and open the **URLs** table, or export to CSV, Excel, JSON or XML. The key-value store record `SUMMARY` lists every sitemap file that was read for each site.

### Input

| Field | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
| `startUrls` | wordpress.org/news | Domains, home pages, sections or direct sitemap / RSS URLs |
| `maxUrlsPerSite` | 1000 | URLs to output per website (after filters and de-duplication) |
| `stayInStartPath` | true | For a section URL such as `/blog/`, keep only URLs under that folder |
| `includePatterns` | empty | Keep only URLs matching one of these regular expressions or `*` wildcards |
| `excludePatterns` | empty | Drop URLs matching any of these |
| `lastmodAfter` | empty | Keep URLs with lastmod (or news / feed date) on or after this date; `YYYY-MM-DD` or `7 days`, `3 months` |
| `keepUrlsWithoutLastmod` | false | With a date filter, also keep URLs that have no date |
| `dedupe` | true | Output each URL once |
| `includeExtras` | true | Add images, videos, news and hreflang alternates |
| `checkStatus` | false | HEAD/GET every URL for its status code and redirects (charged separately) |
| `crawlIfNoSitemap` | true | Crawl internal links when no sitemap or feed exists |
| `maxCrawlPages` | 100 | Page limit for that fallback crawl |
| `sameDomainOnly` | false | Drop sitemap entries that point to other domains |
| `statusCheckConcurrency` | 5 | Parallel status checks (1-10) |
| `timeoutSecs` | 20 | Timeout per status check |

### Input example

```json
{
  "startUrls": ["example.com", "https://shop.example.org/", "https://news.example.net/sitemap-news.xml"],
  "maxUrlsPerSite": 50000,
  "excludePatterns": ["/tag/", "/author/"],
  "lastmodAfter": "90 days",
  "checkStatus": true
}
```

### Output example

A real record from the default run (wordpress.org/news):

```json
{
  "url": "https://wordpress.org/news/2003/04/welcome/",
  "lastmod": "2021-06-04T11:57:33Z",
  "changefreq": null,
  "priority": null,
  "source": "sitemap",
  "sitemapUrl": "https://wordpress.org/news/sitemap-1.xml",
  "sitemapType": "urlset",
  "sitemapFoundVia": "sitemap index",
  "site": "https://wordpress.org/news/",
  "imageCount": 0,
  "images": null,
  "videos": null,
  "news": null,
  "alternates": null
}
```

A Shopify product URL from a test run, showing image sitemap data:

```json
{
  "url": "https://www.allbirds.com/products/mens-wool-runners",
  "lastmod": "2026-11-01T11:12:57-08:00",
  "changefreq": "daily",
  "sitemapUrl": "https://www.allbirds.com/sitemap_products_1.xml?from=1878193471557&to=7369944137808",
  "imageCount": 1,
  "images": [{ "url": "https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1104/4168/files/Allbirds_WL_RN_SF_PDP_Natural_Grey_LAT.png?v=1751143404", "title": "Men's Wool Runner - Natural Grey (Light Grey Sole)" }]
}
```

#### Output fields

| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| `url` | Page URL as listed in the sitemap (or found by the crawl) |
| `lastmod`, `changefreq`, `priority` | Values from the sitemap, exactly as published (feeds: publication date in ISO format) |
| `source` | `sitemap`, `feed` (RSS/Atom) or `crawled` |
| `sitemapUrl`, `sitemapType` | The file the URL came from and its type (`urlset`, `rss`, `atom`, `text`) |
| `sitemapFoundVia` | `robots.txt`, `common path`, `sitemap index`, `home page <link>`, `input` or `crawl (no sitemap found)` |
| `site` | The input this row belongs to |
| `images`, `imageCount` | Image sitemap entries (url, title, caption) |
| `videos` | Video sitemap entries |
| `news` | News sitemap data (publicationName, language, publicationDate, title, keywords) |
| `alternates` | hreflang alternates (`hreflang`, `url`) |
| `title` | Feed item title or crawled page title |
| `statusCode`, `finalUrl`, `redirectChain`, `contentType`, `statusNote` | Only with status checking on |

### How much does it cost?

You pay per result with Apify's pay-per-event pricing:

- **URL extracted: $0.20 per 1,000 URLs** ($0.0002 each)
- **URL status checked (optional): $0.25 per 1,000 URLs**, only when **Check HTTP status** is on
- A tiny start fee of $0.00005 per run

Worked examples:

- 1,000-page company site: **$0.20**
- 25,000-product Shopify store: **$5.00**; with status checks **$11.25**
- Weekly "what changed in the last 7 days" run on a news site returning 3,000 URLs: **$0.60**

Volume discounts apply automatically on higher Apify plans (Bronze, Silver, Gold and above). Apify's free monthly credit covers tens of thousands of URLs. Set **Maximum URLs per website** or a maximum cost per run to stay within budget; the run stops cleanly when the limit is reached.

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

Every run can be started through the Apify API and returns data as JSON, CSV or Excel:

```bash
curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/plotpointtech~sitemap-url-extractor/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"startUrls": ["example.com"], "maxUrlsPerSite": 5000}'
```

You can also schedule it in Apify Console, or connect it to **Make, Zapier, n8n, Google Sheets, Slack** and other tools through Apify integrations. AI agents (Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and others) can call it through the **Apify MCP server**, for example to fetch a site's page list before summarising or crawling it.

### FAQ

**Is it legal to extract sitemap URLs?**
Sitemaps and robots.txt are published by website owners specifically so that automated tools can discover their pages. This tool only reads public files, never logs in, does not use proxies or bypass blocking, and respects robots.txt for the fallback crawl and status checks. You are responsible for how you use the data and for following each website's terms.

**Why did I get fewer URLs than I expected?**
Check the `SUMMARY` record in the key-value store and the run log: they list every sitemap read, URLs filtered out, duplicates removed and any sitemap that returned an error. Some sites block automated requests (HTTP 403 or 429); those sitemaps cannot be read.

**Does it handle huge sites?**
Yes. Sitemaps are parsed as a stream, so 50,000-URL files and indexes with thousands of child sitemaps work. Use `lastmodAfter` to skip unchanged child sitemaps and finish much faster.

**What happens with the same URL in two sitemaps?**
With de-duplication on (the default), the first occurrence is kept. Turn it off to get every occurrence, for example to audit which sitemaps list a page.

**Does it render JavaScript?**
No. Sitemaps and feeds do not need it. The fallback crawl reads links in the HTML, which is how search engines first see a page.

**Why did a run take longer than usual?**
Some websites ask crawlers to wait between requests (`Crawl-delay` in robots.txt). The tool honours that delay, up to 10 seconds per request.

### Related tools from Plot Point Technologies

- [SEO Audit Crawler](https://apify.com/plotpointtech/sitemap-seo-page-audit): titles, meta descriptions, H1s, canonicals and status codes for every page in a sitemap.
- [Broken Link Checker](https://apify.com/plotpointtech/broken-link-checker): crawl a site and find every 404, redirect and dead image.
- [Website to Markdown Crawler](https://apify.com/plotpointtech/website-to-markdown-crawler): turn the pages you found into clean Markdown for AI and RAG.
- [Website Tech Stack Detector](https://apify.com/plotpointtech/website-technology-detector): CMS, analytics and other technologies behind a site.
- [PageSpeed Insights & Core Web Vitals Checker](https://apify.com/plotpointtech/bulk-pagespeed-lighthouse): Lighthouse scores for many URLs.

Plot Point Technologies is not affiliated with WordPress.org, Shopify, Allbirds, any website you extract, or Apify.

***

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

## `startUrls` (type: `array`):

Domains (example.com), home pages, or direct sitemap / RSS feed URLs. For a domain, the tool finds sitemaps in robots.txt and at common locations (/sitemap.xml, /sitemap_index.xml, /wp-sitemap.xml and more).

## `maxUrlsPerSite` (type: `integer`):

Stop after this many URLs from each website (after filters and de-duplication). This also caps your cost.

## `stayInStartPath` (type: `boolean`):

If you enter a section such as https://example.com/blog/, keep only URLs under /blog/. Turn off to get every URL of the whole website. Has no effect for domains, home pages or direct sitemap URLs.

## `includePatterns` (type: `array`):

Keep only URLs that contain a match for at least one of these regular expressions or \* wildcards, e.g. /blog/ or *product*.

## `excludePatterns` (type: `array`):

Drop URLs that match any of these regular expressions or \* wildcards, e.g. /tag/ or ?page=.

## `lastmodAfter` (type: `string`):

Keep only URLs whose lastmod (or news / RSS publication date) is on or after this date. Use YYYY-MM-DD or a relative period such as '7 days', '3 months'. Child sitemaps older than this date are skipped, which makes runs on big sites much faster.

## `keepUrlsWithoutLastmod` (type: `boolean`):

When 'Only URLs modified after' is set, also keep URLs that have no date in the sitemap.

## `dedupe` (type: `boolean`):

Output each URL once even if it appears in several sitemaps or for several input sites.

## `includeExtras` (type: `boolean`):

Add image, video and news sitemap data and hreflang alternate-language URLs to each record.

## `checkStatus` (type: `boolean`):

Send a light HEAD request (GET if HEAD is refused) to every URL and add statusCode, finalUrl and redirectChain. Charged as a separate 'URL status checked' event. Slower: about 10 URLs per second per site.

## `crawlIfNoSitemap` (type: `boolean`):

If a website has no sitemap or RSS/Atom feed, follow links from the home page instead. Those records have source = 'crawled'.

## `maxCrawlPages` (type: `integer`):

Page limit for the fallback crawl of sites without a sitemap.

## `sameDomainOnly` (type: `boolean`):

Drop sitemap URLs that point to other domains (subdomains and www are treated as the same site only when the host matches exactly apart from www).

## `statusCheckConcurrency` (type: `integer`):

How many status checks run at the same time (1-10). Requests to one server are also spaced at least 0.1 s apart.

## `timeoutSecs` (type: `integer`):

Timeout for each status check request.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "startUrls": [
    "https://wordpress.org/news/"
  ],
  "maxUrlsPerSite": 1000,
  "stayInStartPath": true,
  "includePatterns": [],
  "excludePatterns": [],
  "keepUrlsWithoutLastmod": false,
  "dedupe": true,
  "includeExtras": true,
  "checkStatus": false,
  "crawlIfNoSitemap": true,
  "maxCrawlPages": 100,
  "sameDomainOnly": false,
  "statusCheckConcurrency": 5,
  "timeoutSecs": 20
}
```

# 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 = {
    "startUrls": [
        "https://wordpress.org/news/"
    ],
    "maxUrlsPerSite": 1000
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("plotpointtech/sitemap-url-extractor").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 = {
    "startUrls": ["https://wordpress.org/news/"],
    "maxUrlsPerSite": 1000,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("plotpointtech/sitemap-url-extractor").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 '{
  "startUrls": [
    "https://wordpress.org/news/"
  ],
  "maxUrlsPerSite": 1000
}' |
apify call plotpointtech/sitemap-url-extractor --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

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

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/Cl2Zf7pH2IGLdsbHI/builds/3MSYFamdTX00LYTE7/openapi.json