# Substack Publications & Newsletters Scraper (`scrapers_lat/substack-publications-scraper`) Actor

Scrape Substack category leaderboards for ranked publications and newsletters with author, category, leaderboard rank, bestseller tier, paid status, subscriber signal, subscription pricing, description, socials and links. Export to JSON, CSV or Excel.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/scrapers\_lat/substack-publications-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Scrapers Lat](https://apify.com/scrapers_lat) (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 $12.75 / 1,000 results

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/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
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.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## 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.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## Substack Publications & Newsletters Scraper

> Pull ranked Substack publications and newsletters straight from the category leaderboards. Get the publication name, author, category, leaderboard rank, bestseller tier, paid status, subscriber signal, subscription pricing, description, socials and links as clean structured data for creator research, media intelligence and lead generation.

**📥 [Input](https://apify.com/scrapers_lat/substack-publications-scraper/input-schema) · 📤 [Output](https://apify.com/scrapers_lat/substack-publications-scraper/output-schema) · 💰 [Pricing](https://apify.com/scrapers_lat/substack-publications-scraper/pricing) · ▶️ [Examples](https://apify.com/scrapers_lat/substack-publications-scraper/examples)**

![Apify](https://img.shields.io/badge/Platform-Apify-1CE1CE?logo=apify\&logoColor=white)
![Creator economy](https://img.shields.io/badge/Data-Creator%20economy-blue)
![Output](https://img.shields.io/badge/Output-JSON%20%7C%20CSV%20%7C%20Excel-orange)

<table><tr>
<td align="center"><strong>Ranked leaderboards</strong><br>by category</td>
<td align="center"><strong>Author + socials</strong><br>bestseller tier & pricing</td>
<td align="center"><strong>JSON / CSV / Excel</strong><br>output formats</td>
</tr></table>

<br>

### Who is it for

| Use case | Who benefits |
|---|---|
| Creator research | Analysts mapping the top newsletters in a niche |
| Media intelligence | Teams tracking who is winning attention by category |
| Lead generation | Sponsors and tools finding creators to reach out to |
| Market sizing | Investors gauging paid vs free and pricing across a vertical |

### How to use it

1. Add one or more **categories** (for example `technology`, `business`, `finance`, `crypto`, `news`).
2. Set **Max Publications To Scrape** and run.
3. Export as JSON, CSV or Excel, or pull it through the Apify API.

### Frequently Asked Questions

**Which categories can I use?**
Any Substack leaderboard category slug, such as `technology`, `business`, `finance`, `crypto`, `culture`, `news`, `health`, `sports`, `us-politics`, `music`, `science` and more. Add several in one run.

**What is the bestseller tier?**
It is Substack's badge that reflects how many paid subscribers a publication has crossed. A higher tier signals a larger paying audience.

**Do I get subscriber counts?**
You get the public subscriber signal Substack exposes (an order-of-magnitude estimate like `233K+`) plus the leaderboard rank, which together indicate reach and momentum.

**Are empty runs charged?**
No. You are only charged for real publication records. A run that returns nothing is not billed.

**How fresh is the data?**
Leaderboards are read live at run time, so each record reflects the ranking at the moment of the run (see observedAt).

### Related scrapers

- [Reddit Posts & Comments Scraper](https://apify.com/scrapers_lat/reddit-scraper)
- [Google News Scraper](https://apify.com/scrapers_lat/google-news-scraper)
- [Crunchbase Companies Scraper](https://apify.com/scrapers_lat/crunchbase-scraper)

### More scrapers at scrapers.lat

This actor is built and maintained by [scrapers.lat](https://scrapers.lat), where we publish scrapers for public platforms: finance, news, real estate, jobs, e-commerce and government data. Browse the full catalog or ask us for a custom scraper at [scrapers.lat](https://scrapers.lat).

***

> This actor is an independent tool and has no affiliation with Substack. It only accesses publicly available publication data. Use the results in accordance with the source's terms.

# Actor input Schema

## `categories` (type: `array`):

One or more Substack category leaderboards to scrape. Use category slugs such as 'technology', 'business', 'finance', 'crypto', 'news', 'culture', 'health', 'sports', 'us-politics'. One run collects the ranked publications for every category listed.

## `maxPublications` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of publications to collect across all categories in this run.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "categories": [
    "technology",
    "business"
  ],
  "maxPublications": 30
}
```

# 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 = {
    "categories": [
        "technology",
        "business"
    ],
    "maxPublications": 30
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("scrapers_lat/substack-publications-scraper").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 = {
    "categories": [
        "technology",
        "business",
    ],
    "maxPublications": 30,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("scrapers_lat/substack-publications-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"])
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "categories": [
    "technology",
    "business"
  ],
  "maxPublications": 30
}' |
apify call scrapers_lat/substack-publications-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=scrapers_lat/substack-publications-scraper",
                "--header",
                "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

```

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/DvT1dtBtvrufO9WBb/builds/e47EzP433PQDFEduH/openapi.json