🏷️ Facebook Hashtag Scraper

Collect public Facebook posts by hashtag — fast, structured, and ready to export. Feed in one or more hashtags (bulk supported), and the Actor streams clean records (post text, media type, likes, comments, shares, total engagement, video views, date, and a direct link) straight into your dataset in real time.

⭐ Why Choose This Actor?

• Bulk hashtags — scrape many hashtags / search terms in a single run.
• Real-time output — every post is saved the moment it's found, so a long run never loses data.
• Smart connection — starts on a direct connection and automatically upgrades to datacenter then residential proxies only if Facebook pushes back.
• Clean, engagement-rich data — likes, comments, shares, total engagement and video views per post.
• Two ready-made table views — a posts overview and an engagement breakdown.

✨ Key Features

Feature	Description
🏷️ Bulk hashtags	Pass a list of hashtags / search terms
🎯 Max posts	Cap how many posts to collect per hashtag
🔁 Auto pagination	Pages through results until the cap or end is reached
🌐 Proxy escalation	Direct → Datacenter → Residential (sticky), residential retried up to 3×
💾 Live saving	Results pushed per post, not at the end
📊 Table views	Posts Overview + Engagement Breakdown

📥 Input

Field	Type	Required	Description
hashtags	array	✅	Hashtags / search terms (the leading # is optional)
maxItems	integer	—	Max posts per hashtag (default 50)
c_user	string	✅	Your Facebook c_user cookie
xs	string	✅	Your Facebook xs cookie
proxyConfiguration	object	—	Apify proxy settings

Example input

{
  "hashtags": ["#nyc", "#travel"],
  "maxItems": 50,
  "c_user": "100000000000000",
  "xs": "your-xs-cookie-value",
  "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": true }
}

🔑 Where do the cookies come from? Log into Facebook in your browser, open DevTools → Application → Cookies → https://www.facebook.com, and copy the values of c_user and xs. These identify a logged-in session so Facebook returns full public search results. Refresh them when they expire.

📤 Output

Each post is one dataset record:

{
  "hashtag": "#nyc",
  "permalink": "https://www.facebook.com/reel/1375957764375375/",
  "content": "Episode 728: I think all drinks should be fizzy!! #subwaytakes #nyc",
  "media_type": "video",
  "like_count": 989,
  "comment_count": 64,
  "share_count": 26,
  "total_engagement": 1079,
  "video_views_count": 0,
  "date": "2026-06-17 16:57:35",
  "success": true
}

Field	Description
hashtag	The hashtag / search term this post came from
permalink	Direct link to the post
content	Post text
media_type	video, photo, album, link, or text
like_count / comment_count / share_count	Engagement counts
total_engagement	likes + comments + shares
video_views_count	Video view count (when available)
date	Post creation time (UTC)

🚀 How to Use (Apify Console)

1. Log in at console.apify.com → Actors.
2. Open Facebook Hashtag Scraper.
3. Add your hashtags, set Max posts per hashtag, and paste your c_user + xs cookies.
4. Pick a proxy (default Apify proxy is fine).
5. Click Start and watch the log fill up in real time. 🎉
6. Open the Output tab — switch between Posts Overview and Engagement Breakdown.
7. Export to JSON / CSV / XLSX.

🤖 Use via API

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/<ACTOR_ID>/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=$APIFY_TOKEN" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{"hashtags":["#nyc"],"maxItems":50,"c_user":"...","xs":"..."}'

💡 Best Use Cases

• Social listening & trend tracking for a hashtag
• Competitor / campaign monitoring
• Content research and inspiration
• Engagement benchmarking across hashtags

💳 Pricing

This Actor uses a pay-per-event model. You are charged per post scraped (post-scraped). You only pay for the data you actually receive.

❓ FAQ

Do I need cookies? Yes — Facebook only returns full public search results to a logged-in session. Provide your own c_user and xs.

Why did a run stop early? Either the hashtag has no more posts, or your cookies expired. Refresh them and re-run.

Is a proxy required? No. The Actor starts direct and only escalates to proxies if Facebook blocks the request.

⚖️ Legal & Compliance

This Actor collects only publicly available data. You are responsible for complying with Facebook's Terms of Service and applicable laws (GDPR, CCPA, etc.). Do not scrape private or non-public content.

🛟 Support

Found a bug or want a new field? Open an issue on the Actor's Issues tab.