StackOverflow Scraper (Stack Overflow Scraper) · Questions, Answers & Tags

Stack Overflow Scraper and StackOverflow scraper to extract questions, answers, tags and user profiles through the public Stack Exchange API. No login, no cookies, no headless browser, and no API key needed for normal runs. Run it empty and you get the most recently active questions; add a tag, a score floor or a date window and you get exactly the slice you want.

Maintained by reapX. Every row cites the Apify run that produced it — nothing is inferred, modelled or filled in, and a field absent from the source is absent from the row. The extracted archive for this source is browsable at reapx.dev/data/stackoverflow-scraper/ and mirrored as an open dataset on Hugging Face and Kaggle. Questions: reapxdev@proton.me

Stack Overflow Scraper data output

Dataset	One row per	Keyed by
Questions	Question, with score, views, answer count, tags and author	questionId
Answers	Answer, with score, accepted flag and its question	answerId
Tags	Tag, with how many questions carry it	tagName
Users	User profile, with reputation and badge counts	userId

Optionally attach the full body text of each post, and every answer to each question - highest score first, with author, accepted flag and body.

Five named dataset views ship with it: Questions, Answers, Tags, Users and Unanswered & gaps.

How to scrape Stack Overflow questions and answers

1. Pick what to scrape. Leave everything else empty for the most recently active questions.
2. Filter by tag, title text, full-text search, score, answers, accepted status or a date window.
3. Turn on Include the full body text and Include answers with each question if you need the content, not just the metadata.
4. Set Max items. You are charged once per item returned, so that is your cost cap.

Filters

• Tagged with all of and Not tagged with - exact Stack Overflow tag names
• Full-text search and Title contains - the latter is far more precise
• Minimum score, minimum answers
• Has an accepted answer, Unanswered only, Closed questions only
• Author user ID - everything one person asked
• Date window - a rolling "last N days" or explicit from/to dates
• Tag name contains, display name contains, minimum reputation
• Stack Exchange site - any site key, not just Stack Overflow

What you can build with it

• Developer pain-point research - unansweredOnly on your library's tag shows exactly where docs fail.
• Technology trend tracking - scrape tags monthly and diff questionCount to see what is growing.
• Support-content mining - top-voted questions plus answers for a tag is a ready-made FAQ corpus.
• Competitive intelligence - question volume and sentiment across rival tools' tags.
• RAG and fine-tuning corpora - question and answer bodies with a stable id and a CC licence field on every row.
• Expert identification - top users by reputation in a tag, for recruiting or developer relations.
• Answer-quality analysis - accepted vs highest-scoring answers, and how long acceptance took.

Input configuration

Every field is optional. The prefilled values below are what runs if you press Start without changing anything.

What to scrape

Leave every filter below empty and the run returns the most recently active Stack Overflow questions.

Field	Type	Accepts	What it does
dataset	string	questions, answers, tags, users	Which Stack Exchange collection to read. Each returns a different kind of row, keyed by its own Stack Exchange identifier. Prefilled with "questions".
site	string	free text	Which site to read. Defaults to Stack Overflow; any Stack Exchange site key works, e.g. serverfault, superuser, askubuntu, math, unix, dba. Prefilled with "stackoverflow".

How much to fetch

Volume and ordering. You pay per item returned, so this decides the price of the run.

Field	Type	Accepts	What it does
maxItems	integer	1 to 2500	Hard cap on how many rows the run returns. This is also your cost cap: you are charged once per item returned. The API serves at most 2,500 items for one query. Prefilled with 100.
sortBy	string	one of 8: activity, votes, creation, relevance, ...	Ordering. Questions accept activity, votes, creation and relevance; answers accept activity, votes and creation; tags accept popular, activity and name; users accept reputation, creation, name and modified. An unsupported value falls back to the dataset's default. Prefilled with "activity".
order	string	desc, asc	Descending gives the highest or newest first. Prefilled with "desc".

Question filters

These apply when you are scraping questions.

Field	Type	Accepts	What it does
query	string	free text	Free-text search across question titles and bodies. Pair it with sort "Best match" for relevance ranking.
titleContains	string	free text	Match text in the question title only, which is far more precise than a body search.
tagged	list	one value per line	Only questions carrying every one of these tags. Use the exact Stack Overflow tag spelling, e.g. python, pandas, machine-learning.
notTagged	list	one value per line	Exclude questions carrying any of these tags.
minScore	integer	free text	Only items at or above this vote score. Requires sort "Votes / score", which is how the API applies a floor.
minAnswers	integer	1 to any	Only questions with at least this many answers.
acceptedOnly	true/false	checkbox	Only questions where the asker accepted an answer - the solved set.
unansweredOnly	true/false	checkbox	Only questions with no answers and nothing accepted - where the gaps are.
closedOnly	true/false	checkbox	Only questions the community has closed.
user	integer	free text	Only questions asked by this Stack Exchange user ID.

Tag and user filters

These apply when you are scraping tags or users.

Field	Type	Accepts	What it does
tagNameContains	string	free text	Only tags whose name contains this text. Applies when scraping tags.
userNameContains	string	free text	Only users whose display name contains this text. Applies when scraping users.
minReputation	integer	free text	Only users at or above this reputation. Requires sort "Reputation".

Dates

All dates are YYYY-MM-DD. Stack Overflow data runs back to 2008.

Field	Type	Accepts	What it does
lastNDays	integer	1 to 20000	Rolling window on the creation date. Ignored if you set an explicit "From date".
dateFrom	string	free text	Earliest creation date, YYYY-MM-DD.
dateTo	string	free text	Latest creation date, YYYY-MM-DD.

Output detail

Extra columns. These change the row size and the runtime, not the price.

Field	Type	Accepts	What it does
includeBody	true/false	checkbox	Add the question or answer body as both plain text and original HTML. Off by default to keep rows small.
includeAnswers	true/false	checkbox	Attach every answer to each question row, highest score first, with author and accepted flag. Applies when scraping questions. Costs one extra request per 100 questions.
apiKey	string	free text	Optional and free from stackapps.com/apps/oauth/register. Without one, Stack Exchange allows 300 requests per day per IP; with one, 10,000. Only needed for very large or frequent runs.

Pricing

Pay per event. The primary event is Item returned (item-returned), charged at $0.002 per event on the free plan, falling to $0.0008 on the highest tier.

Charged once per complete question, answer, tag or user row written to the default dataset. A throttled or unreachable API, a rejected query and a search that matches nothing are never charged.

Minimum charge cap per run: $0.002.

Tiered discounts apply automatically on every paid Apify plan. Platform usage is absorbed by the Actor, so the per-event price is the whole price.

Usage examples

The prefilled run, which is what Start does with nothing changed

{
  "dataset": "questions",
  "site": "stackoverflow",
  "maxItems": 100,
  "sortBy": "activity",
  "order": "desc"
}

Filter by stack exchange site

{
  "dataset": "questions",
  "site": "serverfault",
  "maxItems": 100,
  "sortBy": "activity",
  "order": "desc"
}

Filter by sort by

{
  "dataset": "questions",
  "site": "stackoverflow",
  "maxItems": 100,
  "sortBy": "votes",
  "order": "desc"
}

Filter by full-text search

{
  "dataset": "questions",
  "site": "stackoverflow",
  "maxItems": 100,
  "sortBy": "activity",
  "order": "desc",
  "query": "async await deadlock"
}

Filter by title contains

{
  "dataset": "questions",
  "site": "stackoverflow",
  "maxItems": 100,
  "sortBy": "activity",
  "order": "desc",
  "titleContains": "memory leak"
}

Output example

One row, exactly as the actor wrote it to the dataset:

{
  "itemId": "22343224",
  "itemType": "question",
  "site": "stackoverflow",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-08-03T04:01:45Z",
  "questionId": 22343224,
  "title": "What's the difference between tilde(~) and caret(^) in package.json?",
  "link": "https://stackoverflow.com/questions/22343224/whats-the-difference-between-tilde-and-caret-in-package-json",
  "score": 5611,
  "viewCount": 2158729,
  "answerCount": 23,
  "isAnswered": true,
  "hasAcceptedAnswer": true,
  "acceptedAnswerId": 22345808,
  "tags": [
    "node.js",
    "npm",
    "package.json",
    "caret",
    "semantic-versioning"
  ],
  "createdAt": "2014-03-12T06:02:21Z",
  "lastActivityAt": "2025-05-14T10:28:46Z",
  "ownerUserId": 1154350,
  "ownerDisplayName": "Fizer Khan"
}

That row carries 21 fields in total; 18 are shown.

Fields on every row

Field	Type	What it is
acceptRate	integer	Percentage of the user’s questions with an accepted answer. Present on: users.
acceptedAnswerId	integer	Id of the accepted answer, when there is one. Present on: questions.
answerCount	integer	How many answers the question has. Present on: questions.
answerId	integer	Numeric Stack Overflow answer id. Present on: answers.
answers	list	Answers to the question, highest score first, each with id, score, accepted flag and author. Present only when Include answers with each question is on. Present on: questions.
answersFetched	integer	How many answers were attached to this question row. Present on: questions.
bodyHtml	string	Post body as the original HTML. Present only when Include the full body text is on. Present on: answers, questions.
bodyText	string	Post body as plain text, HTML stripped. Present only when Include the full body text is on. Present on: answers, questions.
bronzeBadges	integer	Bronze badge count. Present on: users.
contentLicense	string	Creative Commons licence the content is published under. Present on: answers, questions.
createdAt	string	UTC ISO 8601 timestamp the item was created. Present on: answers, questions, users.
displayName	string	User display name. Present on: users.
goldBadges	integer	Gold badge count. Present on: users.
hasAcceptedAnswer	true/false	Whether the asker accepted an answer. Present on: questions.
hasSynonyms	true/false	Whether the tag has registered synonyms. Present on: tags.
isAccepted	true/false	Whether this answer was accepted by the asker. Present on: answers.
isAnswered	true/false	Whether Stack Overflow considers the question answered. Present on: questions.
isClosed	true/false	Whether the question has been closed. Present on: questions.
isModeratorOnly	true/false	Whether only moderators may apply the tag. Present on: tags.
isRequired	true/false	Whether the tag is required on this site. Present on: tags.
itemId	string	Stack Exchange identifier for the thing this row describes - question id, answer id, user id or tag name. Stable and how the row is addressed downstream.
itemType	string	Which kind of Stack Exchange object this row is.
lastAccessAt	string	UTC ISO 8601 timestamp the user was last active. Present on: users.
lastActivityAt	string	UTC ISO 8601 timestamp of the most recent activity. Present on: answers, questions.
link	string	Canonical link to the question, answer, tag or user profile.
location	string	Self-reported location on the profile. Present on: users.
ownerDisplayName	string	Display name of the author. Present on: answers, questions.
ownerReputation	integer	Reputation of the author at scrape time. Present on: answers, questions.
ownerUserId	integer	Stack Exchange user id of the author. Present on: answers, questions.
questionCount	integer	How many questions carry the tag. Present on: tags.
questionId	integer	Numeric Stack Overflow question id. Present on: answers, questions.
reputation	integer	Total reputation. Present on: users.
reputationChangeMonth	integer	Reputation gained in the last month. Present on: users.
reputationChangeYear	integer	Reputation gained in the last year. Present on: users.
score	integer	Net votes on the post. Present on: answers, questions.
scrapedAt	string	UTC ISO 8601 timestamp of this run.
silverBadges	integer	Silver badge count. Present on: users.
site	string	Stack Exchange site key the row came from.
tagName	string	The tag itself, as Stack Overflow spells it. Present on: tags.
tags	list	Tags on the question, reusable as the Tagged with all of input. Present on: questions.
title	string	Question title, HTML entities decoded. Present on: questions.
userId	integer	Numeric Stack Exchange user id. Present on: users.
userType	string	Account type, e.g. registered or moderator. Present on: users.
viewCount	integer	How many times the question has been viewed. Present on: questions.
websiteUrl	string	Self-reported website on the profile. Present on: users.

5 named dataset views ship with it: Questions, Answers, Tags, Users, Unanswered & gaps. They drive the Output tab in Console and the Output block on the Actor's .md page.

FAQ

How do I scrape Stack Overflow questions?

Run this actor with no input and it returns the most recently active questions. Everything comes from api.stackexchange.com, the official Stack Exchange API.

Do I need an API key or a login?

Not for normal runs. Stack Exchange allows 300 requests per day per IP anonymously, and this actor pulls 100 items per request. For very large or frequent jobs, register a free key at stackapps.com and paste it into the optional Stack Apps API key field to raise the limit to 10,000 requests per day.

How do I get all questions for a tag?

Put the tag into Tagged with all of - for example python - and set Max items. Add more tags to require all of them at once, which is how Stack Overflow's own tag intersection works.

How do I find unanswered questions?

Turn on Unanswered only. You get questions with no answers and nothing accepted, which is the fastest way to find gaps in a library's documentation or support coverage.

Can I get the answers as well as the questions?

Yes. Turn on Include answers with each question and each row gains an answers array, highest score first, with author, accepted flag and - if body text is on - the answer text. It costs one extra API request per 100 questions.

How do I get the highest-voted questions?

Set Sort by to "Votes / score" and optionally a Minimum score. The score floor only works with that sort, which is how the API applies it.

Can I scrape other Stack Exchange sites?

Yes. Change Stack Exchange site to any site key - serverfault, superuser, askubuntu, math, unix, dba and so on. Every filter works the same way.

How many items can one run return?

Up to 2,500 for a single query, which is the API's own paging ceiling. Split larger jobs into date windows and run each one.

What licence does the content carry?

Every question and answer row includes contentLicense - normally CC BY-SA. Attribution requirements apply when you republish the text.

Can an AI agent call this actor?

Yes. Every input and output field carries a title, description and example, and every row is addressed by its Stack Exchange itemId, so an agent can fill the input and chain the output without extra prompting.

---

Unofficial - not affiliated with Stack Overflow. Collects public data only. reapx. Contact reapxdev@proton.me.

The full published archive

• stackoverflow scraper archive — every entity this Actor has observed
• All reapx datasets — 20 sources, tens of thousands of pages
• llms.txt · feed.json · feed.xml — the machine-readable index, for agents

Each archive page carries Dataset JSON-LD, a canonical URL and the identifiers used, so an agent can resolve an entity without running anything. Nothing on those pages is estimated or modelled.

🧪 Example input

A real, runnable configuration — this is an actual input this Actor has run with.

{
  "dataset": "questions",
  "tagged": [
    "node.js"
  ],
  "sortBy": "votes",
  "order": "desc",
  "maxItems": 300
}

📄 Sample output

One real row from a real run of this Actor, unedited.

{
  "itemId": "22343224",
  "itemType": "question",
  "site": "stackoverflow",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-08-03T04:01:45Z",
  "questionId": 22343224,
  "title": "What's the difference between tilde(~) and caret(^) in package.json?",
  "link": "https://stackoverflow.com/questions/22343224/whats-the-difference-between-tilde-and-caret-in-package-json",
  "score": 5611,
  "viewCount": 2158729,
  "answerCount": 23,
  "isAnswered": true,
  "hasAcceptedAnswer": true,
  "acceptedAnswerId": 22345808,
  "tags": [
    "node.js",
    "npm",
    "package.json",
    "caret",
    "semantic-versioning"
  ],
  "createdAt": "2014-03-12T06:02:21Z",
  "lastActivityAt": "2025-05-14T10:28:46Z",
  "ownerUserId": 1154350,
  "ownerDisplayName": "Fizer Khan",
  "ownerReputation": 93957,
  "isClosed": false,
  "contentLicense": "CC BY-SA 4.0"
}

How it works

1. You set the filters below, or none at all.
2. The Actor calls the source's own public endpoint and pages through the results.
3. Every row is pushed to the dataset as it is built, not buffered to the end — so a run that hits its time limit still returns everything it collected up to that point.
4. You are charged per row returned, so the maximum-results field is also your cost cap.

💬 Your feedback

Found a bug, or need a field this does not return yet? Open an issue on the Actor's Issues tab, or write to reapxdev@proton.me. Bugs get fixed and reasonable field requests get added.