FB Friends Count

What does FB Friends Count do?

FB Friends Count reads the friend count of up to 25 Facebook profiles per run, using your own logged-in Facebook sessions. Give it {cookie, cUser} pairs and it returns one result item per account — either the count or a machine-readable error. It is a lightweight API-style Actor (plain HTTPS + regex, no browser), ported from a proven readFriendCount helper, so runs finish in seconds. It only touches facebook.com profile pages you already have session cookies for.

Why use FB Friends Count?

• Session health + count in one call: a returned count proves the cookie is alive; an invalid_cookie or session_challenge error tells you exactly which session needs replacing.
• Batch-ready: check up to 25 sessions in one run with per-account items, so one expired cookie never sinks the whole batch.
• Stable contract: every item has identical keys; branch on error.code, never on message text.
• Platform advantages: schedule nightly session-health checks, call it from the Apify API, rotate through Apify Proxy automatically, and monitor runs in Console.

Main features

• Cookie → friend count via the friends_all profile view
• Contract envelope on every item (success and failure share one shape)
• Flat error catalog: invalid_input, invalid_cookie, session_challenge, rate_limited, upstream_error, service_unavailable
• Run summary (OUTPUT) with totals and errors grouped by code

What data can FB Friends Count extract?

Field	Type	Description
friendCount	integer	Number of friends, or 0 for a valid page with no count
ok	boolean	true when the check ran (even for 0 friends)
input	string	Echo of the cUser that was checked
error	object	{code, message, retryable} — null on success
checkedAt	string	ISO timestamp of the check
runId	string	Apify run id (or local-run locally)

Unused contract fields (eligible, pageName, linkedNumber, banReason) are always null for this Actor.

How to check Facebook friend counts

1. Log in to Facebook in your browser and copy the raw cookie header plus the c_user value of each session you want to check.
2. Open the Actor, paste up to 25 {cookie, cUser} pairs into the accounts input, and leave Proxy configuration on Apify Proxy.
3. Click Start and wait for status SUCCEEDED (usually under a minute).
4. Open the Dataset tab: each item holds one account's friendCount or its error.
5. Replace any cookie whose item reports invalid_cookie or session_challenge, then re-run.

How much will it cost to check friend counts?

Each account is one tiny HTTPS request, so compute usage is minimal — far below one compute unit per run at 25 accounts. Apify Proxy traffic is likewise a few kilobytes per account. The free tier covers thousands of such checks per month; larger plans just raise the scheduling and retention limits.

Input

See the input tab for full configuration options. accounts is a JSON array (1–25 items) of {"cookie": "<raw cookie header>", "cUser": "<numeric id>"}. The cookie must belong to the cUser it is paired with. proxyConfiguration uses the standard proxy editor and defaults to Apify Proxy, which Facebook-facing runs need.

{
  "accounts": [{ "cookie": "c_user=61592912563278; xs=...; fr=...", "cUser": "61592912563278" }],
  "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": true }
}

Output

You can download the dataset in various formats such as JSON, HTML, CSV, or Excel. A success item and an error item look like this:

{
  "ok": true,
  "actor": "fb-friends-count",
  "input": "61592912563278",
  "eligible": null,
  "pageName": null,
  "linkedNumber": null,
  "banReason": null,
  "friendCount": 132,
  "error": null,
  "checkedAt": "2026-10-13T12:00:00.000Z",
  "runId": "abc123XYZ"
}

{
  "ok": false,
  "actor": "fb-friends-count",
  "input": "61592912563278",
  "eligible": null,
  "pageName": null,
  "linkedNumber": null,
  "banReason": null,
  "friendCount": null,
  "error": { "code": "invalid_cookie", "message": "Cookie was rejected by Facebook (HTTP 400). Get a fresh logged-in cookie and retry.", "retryable": false },
  "checkedAt": "2026-10-13T12:00:00.000Z",
  "runId": "abc123XYZ"
}

The OUTPUT record in the key-value store summarizes the run:

{ "actor": "fb-friends-count", "runId": "abc123XYZ", "total": 2, "succeeded": 1, "failed": 1, "errorsByCode": { "invalid_cookie": 1 } }

Tips

• Keep batches at 25 or fewer. Larger lists are rejected with invalid_input — split them across runs instead.
• Pair cookies correctly. A cookie checked against someone else's cUser reads the wrong profile; always echo-check input in the output.
• Back off on rate_limited. That error is retryable; wait a few minutes before re-running those accounts.
• Refresh proactively. Schedule a daily run over your session pool and rotate cookies as soon as invalid_cookie appears, before downstream automations feel it.

FAQ, disclaimers, and support

Is this an official Facebook API?

No. It reads the same profile page a logged-in browser sees, using sessions you supply. Respect Facebook's Terms of Service and your local laws.

Why did I get session_challenge?

Facebook showed a login/2FA challenge for that session. Log in as that account in a real browser, complete the challenge, export a fresh cookie, and retry.

Why is friendCount 0 — is that an error?

No. ok: true with 0 means the page loaded fine but exposed no count (for example a brand-new profile). Only ok: false items are failures.

Our Actors are ethical and do not extract any private user data, such as email addresses, gender, or location. They only extract what the user has chosen to share publicly. We therefore believe that our Actors, when used for ethical purposes by Apify users, are safe. However, you should be aware that your results could contain personal data. Personal data is protected by the GDPR in the European Union and by other regulations around the world. You should not scrape personal data unless you have a legitimate reason to do so. If you're unsure whether your reason is legitimate, consult your lawyers.

Found a bug or need a feature? Use the Issues tab. For programmatic access (scheduling, API calls, integrations), see the API tab.