# Substack Newsletter Posts Scraper Lite (`runtime/substack-posts-lite`) Actor

List posts from one or many Substack newsletters with titles, dates, reactions, comments, authors and paywall status. No login needed.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/runtime/substack-posts-lite.md
- **Developed by:** [scraping automation](https://apify.com/runtime) (community)
- **Categories:** Social media, News
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $2.50 / 1,000 posts

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

## Substack Newsletter Posts Scraper Lite

List the posts of one or many Substack newsletters in seconds. Paste newsletter names or URLs, get a clean table of titles, dates, reactions, comments, authors and paywall status. No login, no browser, no API key.

### What you get

One dataset item per post:

- `title`, `subtitle`, `url`, `postDate`, `type` (newsletter, podcast, thread)
- `reactions` (likes), `comments`, `restacks`
- `isPaywalled` and `audience` (free or paid)
- `authors`, `authorHandles`, `section`, `tags`
- `excerpt`, `wordcount`, `coverImage`, `language`
- `publication` and `publicationUrl`

### Input

- **Newsletters**: names (`platformer`), Substack addresses (`platformer.substack.com`) or custom domains (`https://www.lennysnewsletter.com`). One per line. Different names for the same newsletter are scraped once.
- **Max posts per newsletter**: default 20.
- **Sort**: newest first or top posts first.
- **Only posts from the last N days**, **minimum reactions**, **free or paid posts**, and a **keyword search** inside each newsletter.
- **Max posts in total**: hard cap across all newsletters.

### Example

```json
{
    "publications": ["https://www.lennysnewsletter.com", "platformer"],
    "maxPostsPerPublication": 20,
    "sinceDays": 30,
    "audience": "free"
}
```

### Pricing

Pay per result: you are charged for each post saved to the dataset, plus a tiny start fee. Set a maximum cost per run in the Apify run options to cap spending. A 20-post run on one newsletter usually finishes in a few seconds.

### Good to know

- Only public information is collected: what Substack shows on a newsletter archive. Paywalled posts show their title and excerpt, never their paid content.
- Newsletters that do not exist are skipped and reported in the log; the rest of the run continues.
- Need full article text, comments or subscriber data? This Actor is intentionally lightweight and does not collect them.

# Actor input Schema

## `publications` (type: `array`):

Substack names or URLs, one per line. Examples: platformer, platformer.substack.com, https://www.lennysnewsletter.com (custom domains work too).

## `maxPostsPerPublication` (type: `integer`):

Maximum posts kept for each newsletter, after filters.

## `sort` (type: `string`):

Newest posts first, or the most popular posts first.

## `sinceDays` (type: `integer`):

Keep only recent posts. 0 disables the filter.

## `search` (type: `string`):

Optional keyword searched in each newsletter archive, for example pricing or AI.

## `minReactions` (type: `integer`):

Keep only posts with at least this many likes/reactions. 0 disables the filter.

## `audience` (type: `string`):

Keep all posts, only free posts, or only paywalled posts.

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

Hard cap across all newsletters. 0 means no total cap.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Not needed for normal runs. Enable only if Substack rate-limits your requests.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "publications": [
    "https://www.lennysnewsletter.com",
    "platformer"
  ],
  "maxPostsPerPublication": 20,
  "sort": "new",
  "sinceDays": 0,
  "minReactions": 0,
  "audience": "all",
  "maxItems": 0
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `posts` (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 = {
    "publications": [
        "https://www.lennysnewsletter.com",
        "platformer"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("runtime/substack-posts-lite").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 = { "publications": [
        "https://www.lennysnewsletter.com",
        "platformer",
    ] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("runtime/substack-posts-lite").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 '{
  "publications": [
    "https://www.lennysnewsletter.com",
    "platformer"
  ]
}' |
apify call runtime/substack-posts-lite --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,runtime/substack-posts-lite"
        }
    }
}
```

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/a29DQOrlOejrcKr9E/builds/Iw9CKdfk1lMXk5GA2/openapi.json