Facebook Followers & Following Scraper

Facebook Followers & Following Scraper

Facebook Followers & Following Scraper is an Apify actor that extracts public followers and following lists from Facebook profiles or pages and exports them as structured records. It solves the manual, error-prone process of collecting Facebook audience data by automatically scraping profile names, profile URLs, images, and relationship type at scale — perfect for marketers, developers, data analysts, and researchers. With selectable modes for followers, following, or both, this Facebook followers scraper and Facebook following list scraper enables repeatable audience research, influencer discovery, competitor analysis, and social network mapping.

What data / output can you get?

Below are the real fields this Facebook followers extractor outputs to the dataset. You can export results from Apify in CSV, JSON, or Excel to power a Facebook followers export tool or Facebook followers list downloader workflow.

Data field	Description	Example value
username	The profile whose network you’re scraping	LeonardoDiCaprio
facebookUrl	Canonical Facebook URL for the input profile/page	https://www.facebook.com/LeonardoDiCaprio
inputUrl	The base URL used for requests	https://www.facebook.com/LeonardoDiCaprio
followType	Relation type for the item (followers or following)	followers
id	Facebook ID of the extracted user/page	100066738826538
title	Display name of the follower/following	Ama N Cio
subtitle_text	Public subtitle/location/workplace line if available	st. Peter's College of balingasag
url	Direct link to the extracted profile/page	https://www.facebook.com/amancio.bacarro
image	Profile image URL	https://scontent-%E2%80%A6/t39.30808-1/%E2%80%A6_s80x80_%E2%80%A6jpg
facebookId	Collection identifier used during extraction	YXBwX2NvbGxlY3Rpb246…
navSections	Navigation metadata for Followers/Following tabs	[{"id":"…","name":"Followers","url":"…/followers"}, {"id":"","name":"Following","url":"…/following"}]
pageAdLibrary	Page ad library info (business activity flag)	{"is_business_page_active": false, "id": ""}
privacy_scope	Privacy scope if present in response	null
__typename	GraphQL typename	User
__isEntity	GraphQL entity flag	User
followersId	Collection id when item comes from followers	YXBwX2NvbGxlY3Rpb246…
followingId	Collection id when item comes from following	""

Bonus: The actor also saves a full, organized JSON of all results grouped by username and relation type to the Key-Value Store under the OUTPUT key. Use it with a Facebook following exporter flow or to scrape Facebook followers and following for downstream analytics.

Key features

• ⚙️ Robust proxy fallback Automatically escalates from direct connection to datacenter and then to residential proxies when needed for reliability on Facebook requests.

• 🧭 Followers vs following control Choose relation type via the followType input: scrape Only Followers, Only Following, or Both followers and following in a single run.

• 🔎 Keyword filtering Provide a keyword in startUrls (as a non-URL string) to filter extracted items by title and subtitle_text — handy for focused audience slices with a Facebook subscribers scraper workflow.

• 🔤 Deterministic sorting Sort results alphabetically by name with sort_order (asc for A–Z, desc for Z–A) for consistent exports and comparisons.

• 📈 Smart limit allocation When scraping both followers and following, the actor splits the resultsLimit across types and intelligently makes a second pass to hit the overall target if one side has fewer available results.

• 🗂️ Batch URL support Paste multiple profile/page URLs or usernames to fetch at scale — ideal for a Facebook page followers scraper dataset or Facebook profile followers scraper runs.

• 📦 Clean exports and storage Every item is pushed to the Apify dataset (ready to Export Facebook followers to CSV/JSON/Excel). A full aggregated JSON is also written to Key-Value Store as OUTPUT.

• 🧪 Developer-friendly, async architecture Built on the Apify Python SDK with async requests to Facebook’s GraphQL endpoint, plus structured OUTPUT JSON for pipelines and programmatic use.

• 🔒 Public data focus Targets publicly available follower/following lists and avoids private or restricted information.

How to use Facebook Followers & Following Scraper - step by step

1. Create or log in to your Apify account.
2. Open the Facebook Followers & Following Scraper actor in the Apify Store.
3. Add input data:
   • startUrls accepts:
     • Facebook usernames (e.g., "LeonardoDiCaprio")
     • Full profile/page URLs (e.g., "https://www.facebook.com/username")
     • A keyword (non-URL string) to filter results by name/subtitle
   • Set resultsLimit (max per profile), choose followType ("both", "followers", "following"), and pick sort_order ("asc" or "desc").
   • Optionally configure proxyConfiguration (the actor can also auto-fallback to datacenter/residential if blocked).
4. Click Start to run the actor.
5. Monitor the run; the actor paginates through followers/following and applies keyword filtering and sorting if configured.
6. Download your results:
   • Dataset: Export to CSV, JSON, or Excel for a Facebook followers exporter workflow.
   • Key-Value Store: Download the full grouped JSON from the OUTPUT key.

Pro Tip: Use the dataset for fast “Export Facebook followers to CSV” and the OUTPUT JSON for programmatic pipelines or social network mapping.

Use cases

Use case	Description
Competitor audience analysis	Map who follows or is followed by competitor profiles/pages to benchmark reach and community makeup.
Influencer discovery	Identify relevant followers/following for collaboration by filtering names/subtitles with targeted keywords.
Facebook followers data extractor for research	Build structured datasets for academic or market research on public audience networks.
Facebook page followers export	Export page followers into CSV/Excel from the dataset for segmentation and outreach.
Facebook following exporter	Analyze outgoing connections (following) to understand interests and partnerships.
Social network mapping	Combine followers and following to visualize public network relationships across profiles.
Growth monitoring	Track changes in public followers/following over time by scheduling recurring runs.
Data pipeline enrichment (API/SDK)	Consume the OUTPUT JSON in downstream analytics or enrichment pipelines.

Why choose Facebook Followers & Following Scraper?

Built for precision and reliability on public Facebook audience data extraction.

• ✅ Accuracy-first pagination and parsing for clean, structured records
• 🔁 Resilient proxy fallback (direct → datacenter → residential) for robust runs
• 📊 Scales across multiple profiles/pages in one run with smart limits
• 🧩 Developer-ready outputs: per-item dataset + aggregated OUTPUT JSON
• 🔒 Public data focus for safer, ethical scraping
• 💾 Easy exports to CSV/JSON/Excel from Apify datasets
• 🏗️ Production-ready Apify infrastructure for consistent, repeatable jobs

Compared to browser add-ons or unstable scripts, this production actor delivers a stable Facebook followers scraper and Facebook following list scraper experience you can automate and trust.

Is it legal / ethical to use Facebook Followers & Following Scraper?

Yes — when used responsibly. This actor targets publicly available Facebook data and does not access private or restricted information.

Guidelines for compliant use:

• Scrape only public profiles/pages and publicly visible followers/following.
• Avoid collecting or using sensitive personal data.
• Review and comply with Facebook’s Terms of Service and applicable data protection laws.
• Use the data for legitimate research, analytics, or audience insights, not spam or misuse.
• Consult your legal team for edge cases in your jurisdiction.

Input parameters & output format

Input JSON example

{
  "startUrls": [
    "LeonardoDiCaprio",
    "https://www.facebook.com/natgeo",
    "climate"
  ],
  "resultsLimit": 50,
  "followType": "both",
  "sort_order": "asc",
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}

Input fields (from schema):

• startUrls (array, required): List of Facebook profile URLs (e.g., https://www.facebook.com/username), usernames (e.g., username), or a keyword (non-URL string) to filter results. Default: none (required).
• resultsLimit (integer, optional): Maximum number of results to collect per profile. Min: 1, Max: 10000. Default: 50.
• followType (string, optional): Relation type to scrape. Allowed: "both", "followers", "following". Default: "both".
• sort_order (string, optional): Sort results alphabetically by name. Allowed: "asc", "desc". Default: "asc".
• proxyConfiguration (object, optional): Choose which proxies to use. The actor can automatically fallback to residential if requests are blocked. Default prefill: {"useApifyProxy": false}.

Notes:

• Keyword filtering: If startUrls includes a non-URL string, the actor treats the first such string as a keyword and filters items by title and subtitle_text (case-insensitive).
• When followType is "both", the actor divides resultsLimit across followers and following and makes a second pass to reach the overall limit when possible.

Output JSON example

[
  {
    "username": "LeonardoDiCaprio",
    "facebookUrl": "https://www.facebook.com/LeonardoDiCaprio",
    "followType": "followers",
    "id": "100066738826538",
    "image": "https://scontent-…/t39.30808-1/…_s80x80_…jpg",
    "title": "Ama N Cio",
    "subtitle_text": "st. Peter's College of balingasag",
    "url": "https://www.facebook.com/amancio.bacarro",
    "privacy_scope": null,
    "__typename": "User",
    "__isEntity": "User",
    "facebookId": "YXBwX2NvbGxlY3Rpb246cGZiaWQwNHdSMlJ1b05oUmliUlhybXMxOXA4UG4xalpXN3ljNzluSHE0Z0hic0puNWZDVVJEZ01nc2tVZWk1OFJhTTdyalRKenQzUTd6dU1YRUdUakhyMW0yc1ZnYVpNTnl4bA==",
    "navSections": [
      {
        "id": "YXBwX2NvbGxlY3Rpb246cGZiaWQwNHdSMlJ1b05oUmliUlhybXMxOXA4UG4xalpXN3ljNzluSHE0Z0hic0puNWZDVVJEZ01nc2tVZWk1OFJhTTdyalRKenQzUTd6dU1YRUdUakhyMW0yc1ZnYVpNTnl4bA==",
        "name": "Followers",
        "url": "https://www.facebook.com/LeonardoDiCaprio/followers"
      },
      {
        "id": "",
        "name": "Following",
        "url": "https://www.facebook.com/LeonardoDiCaprio/following"
      }
    ],
    "pageAdLibrary": {
      "is_business_page_active": false,
      "id": ""
    },
    "followersId": "YXBwX2NvbGxlY3Rpb246cGZiaWQwNHdSMlJ1b05oUmliUlhybXMxOXA4UG4xalpXN3ljNzluSHE0Z0hic0puNWZDVVJEZ01nc2tVZWk1OFJhTTdyalRKenQzUTd6dU1YRUdUakhyMW0yc1ZnYVpNTnl4bA==",
    "followingId": "",
    "inputUrl": "https://www.facebook.com/LeonardoDiCaprio"
  },
  {
    "username": "LeonardoDiCaprio",
    "facebookUrl": "https://www.facebook.com/LeonardoDiCaprio",
    "followType": "followers",
    "id": "100072626593157",
    "image": "https://scontent-…/t39.30808-1/…_s80x80_…jpg",
    "title": "Arf Bojonegoro",
    "subtitle_text": "",
    "url": "https://www.facebook.com/yono.koplak.311",
    "privacy_scope": null,
    "__typename": "User",
    "__isEntity": "User",
    "facebookId": "YXBwX2NvbGxlY3Rpb246cGZiaWQwNHdSMlJ1b05oUmliUlhybXMxOXA4UG4xalpXN3ljNzluSHE0Z0hic0puNWZDVVJEZ01nc2tVZWk1OFJhTTdyalRKenQzUTd6dU1YRUdUakhyMW0yc1ZnYVpNTnl4bA==",
    "navSections": [
      {
        "id": "YXBwX2NvbGxlY3Rpb246cGZiaWQwNHdSMlJ1b05oUmliUlhybXMxOXA4UG4xalpXN3ljNzluSHE0Z0hic0puNWZDVVJEZ01nc2tVZWk1OFJhTTdyalRKenQzUTd6dU1YRUdUakhyMW0yc1ZnYVpNTnl4bA==",
        "name": "Followers",
        "url": "https://www.facebook.com/LeonardoDiCaprio/followers"
      },
      {
        "id": "",
        "name": "Following",
        "url": "https://www.facebook.com/LeonardoDiCaprio/following"
      }
    ],
    "pageAdLibrary": {
      "is_business_page_active": false,
      "id": ""
    },
    "followersId": "YXBwX2NvbGxlY3Rpb246cGZiaWQwNHdSMlJ1b05oUmliUlhybXMxOXA4UG4xalpXN3ljNzluSHE0Z0hic0puNWZDVVJEZ01nc2tVZWk1OFJhTTdyalRKenQzUTd6dU1YRUdUakhyMW0yc1ZnYVpNTnl4bA==",
    "followingId": "",
    "inputUrl": "https://www.facebook.com/LeonardoDiCaprio"
  }
]

Where to find your data:

• Dataset: Contains one record per extracted follower/following (best for “Export Facebook followers to CSV” or “Download Facebook following list”).
• Key-Value Store: The OUTPUT key holds the complete grouped JSON for each input username.

FAQ

Can I export Facebook followers to CSV?

Yes. Open the run’s dataset in Apify and use the built-in export to CSV, JSON, or Excel. This makes it a practical Facebook followers export tool for analysts and marketers.

Does it work for both followers and following?

Yes. Set followType to "both", "followers", or "following" to scrape Facebook followers and following as needed. In "both" mode, the actor allocates your resultsLimit across both lists.

How many results can I collect per profile?

You can set resultsLimit up to 10,000 per profile (subject to public availability). The actor paginates until it reaches the limit or the list ends.

Can I filter results by keyword?

Yes. If startUrls contains a non-URL string, the actor treats the first one as a keyword and filters items by title and subtitle_text (case-insensitive). This is useful for focused Facebook followers data extractor runs.

How are results sorted?

Use sort_order to sort alphabetically by name: "asc" (A–Z) or "desc" (Z–A). Sorting is applied after optional keyword filtering.

What happens if requests get blocked?

The actor includes a proxy fallback strategy. It can escalate from no proxy to datacenter and then to residential proxies to improve reliability on Facebook endpoints.

Where are the results stored?

Each item is pushed to the Apify dataset, and the full grouped JSON is saved to the Key-Value Store under the OUTPUT key. You can download both after the run.

Does it access private or restricted data?

No. The Facebook followers extractor targets public follower/following information. Ensure your usage complies with Facebook’s terms and applicable laws.

Closing CTA / Final thoughts

Facebook Followers & Following Scraper is built to reliably extract public followers and following lists from Facebook at scale. It delivers clean, structured audience data with sorting, keyword filtering, and robust proxy fallback — ideal for marketers, developers, analysts, and researchers alike. Export to CSV/JSON/Excel from the dataset or consume the OUTPUT JSON for automation pipelines. Start extracting smarter audience insights with this Facebook page followers scraper and Facebook following exporter today.