Craigslist Scraper - Listings, Full Details, Monitoring and Market Analytics

Search public Craigslist listings across regions and categories, extract complete posting details and visible contacts, monitor changes, and turn the results into structured market data.

• Search with keywords, Craigslist URLs, regions, categories, price ranges, seller type, location radius, and native category-specific filters
• Decode exact posting IDs, timestamps, prices, locations, coordinates, images, and deep paginated results
• Enrich listings with the full description, category attributes, public phones and emails, vehicle, housing, job, and event fields
• Monitor new listings and meaningful changes through scheduled runs with persistent state
• Produce price, inventory, region, category, contact, and status analytics
• Process multiple searches and detail pages concurrently with retries and proxy rotation
• No Craigslist account, cookie, API key, or user-supplied proxy is required; production traffic always uses the built-in Apify Residential Proxy
• Export to JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, or consume results through the Apify API

What can you do with this Actor?

Mode / action	Input	Output	Best for
search	Friendly search fields or Craigslist search URLs	Fast normalized listing summaries	Discovery, lead lists, inventory collection, price tracking
searchAndDetails	The same search inputs	Search records enriched from every public posting page	Complete descriptions, visible contacts, specifications, amenities
details	Direct Craigslist posting URLs	Full normalized posting records	Enriching a known URL list or checking listing availability
monitor	Search inputs plus a stable monitor key	Only new listings or new and changed listings	Scheduled alerts, price drops, inventory and status monitoring
analytics	Search inputs and filters	Listing rows plus one aggregate analytics row	Market research and regional/category comparisons

Search URLs and posting URLs may be mixed in one run outside details mode. Search enrichment replaces each summary with one complete detail record; it does not create duplicate summary and detail rows.

Quick start

1. Open the Actor and click Try for free.
2. Keep Search summaries selected.
3. Use the default mountain bike, sfbay, and sss values or enter your own search.
4. Set Results per search and click Start.
5. Open the single Results table or download the dataset.

The default input is deliberately small and returns useful public listings without requiring any account or proxy configuration.

Input examples

Search listing summaries

{
  "mode": "search",
  "searchTerms": ["mountain bike", "road bike"],
  "regions": ["sfbay"],
  "categories": ["bia"],
  "maxResults": 25,
  "sort": "date",
  "hasImage": true
}

maxResults applies to every independent term × region × category combination or supplied search URL. maxItems can add one global cap after merging and deduplication.

Search and extract full details

{
  "mode": "searchAndDetails",
  "searchTerms": ["toyota rav4"],
  "regions": ["sfbay", "sacramento"],
  "categories": ["cta"],
  "maxResults": 20,
  "minPrice": 5000,
  "maxPrice": 30000,
  "condition": ["20", "30", "40"],
  "sellerType": "owner",
  "includePublicContacts": true
}

Extract direct posting details

{
  "mode": "details",
  "listingUrls": [
    "https://www.craigslist.org/view/d/example-listing/AbCdEf123456",
    "https://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/apa/d/example-apartment/7952817881.html"
  ],
  "includeImages": true,
  "includePublicContacts": true
}

Monitor new listings and changes

{
  "mode": "monitor",
  "searchTerms": ["macbook pro"],
  "regions": ["sfbay"],
  "categories": ["ela"],
  "maxResults": 250,
  "monitorMode": "changes",
  "monitorKey": "bay-area-macbooks",
  "monitorIncludeDetails": true
}

Use the same monitorKey on every scheduled run. The first run treats discovered listings as new; later runs emit only newly discovered or meaningfully changed records.

Build market analytics

{
  "mode": "analytics",
  "searchTerms": ["apartment"],
  "regions": ["sfbay"],
  "categories": ["apa"],
  "maxResults": 1000,
  "minPrice": 1000,
  "maxPrice": 5000,
  "onlyWithPrice": true,
  "analyticsOnly": true
}

Use a Craigslist search URL and advanced native filters

{
  "mode": "searchAndDetails",
  "startUrls": [
    "https://www.craigslist.org/search/area/sfbay?cat=cta&query=toyota&sort=date"
  ],
  "maxResults": 100,
  "filters": {
    "min_auto_year": 2018,
    "auto_transmission": [1, 2],
    "auto_fuel_type": 1
  }
}

Complete output examples

The Actor emits three stable top-level row shapes. A summary, full detail, removed listing, and monitored change all use the same 113-field listing shape; unavailable values remain explicit as null, false, {}, or [].

Complete listing output - 113 top-level fields

{
  "recordType": "listing",
  "resultType": "detail",
  "id": "7952817881",
  "serviceId": "mGsExampleService",
  "url": "https://www.craigslist.org/view/d/macbook-pro-14-inch/mGsExampleService",
  "canonicalUrl": "https://www.craigslist.org/view/d/macbook-pro-14-inch/mGsExampleService",
  "sourceSearchUrl": "https://sfbay.craigslist.org/search/ela?query=macbook&sort=date",
  "sourceType": "search",
  "sourceRank": 1,
  "searchTerm": "macbook",
  "requestedRegion": "sfbay",
  "requestedCategory": "ela",
  "region": "sfbay",
  "regionName": "SF bay area",
  "regionCountry": "US",
  "regionState": "CA",
  "subarea": "sby",
  "category": "ela",
  "categoryId": 96,
  "categoryGroup": "for sale",
  "categoryName": "electronics",
  "subcategory": "electronics",
  "title": "MacBook Pro 14-inch",
  "description": "Well-maintained laptop. Public contact: +1 415 555 2671.",
  "descriptionHtml": "Well-maintained laptop.<br>Public contact: +1 415 555 2671.",
  "price": 750.0,
  "currency": "USD",
  "priceText": "$750",
  "priceDetailText": "cash only",
  "locationText": "Cupertino",
  "neighborhood": "Apple Park",
  "address": "1 Infinite Loop",
  "city": "Cupertino",
  "state": "CA",
  "postalCode": "95014",
  "country": "US",
  "latitude": 37.3318,
  "longitude": -122.0312,
  "postedAt": "2026-08-10T19:00:00Z",
  "updatedAt": "2026-08-11T01:00:00Z",
  "availableFrom": null,
  "validThrough": null,
  "eventDates": [],
  "images": [
    "https://images.craigslist.org/example_600x450.jpg"
  ],
  "imageCount": 1,
  "primaryImage": "https://images.craigslist.org/example_600x450.jpg",
  "hasImages": true,
  "imageDimensionCode": "0t20CI",
  "condition": "excellent",
  "sellerType": "owner",
  "year": null,
  "make": null,
  "model": null,
  "makeModel": null,
  "vin": null,
  "odometer": null,
  "cylinders": null,
  "drivetrain": null,
  "fuel": null,
  "transmission": null,
  "titleStatus": null,
  "bodyType": null,
  "bedrooms": null,
  "bathrooms": null,
  "squareFeet": null,
  "housingType": null,
  "rentPeriod": null,
  "availability": null,
  "laundry": null,
  "parking": null,
  "petsAllowed": [],
  "furnished": null,
  "smokingAllowed": null,
  "wheelchairAccessible": null,
  "airConditioning": null,
  "evCharging": null,
  "compensation": null,
  "employmentType": null,
  "employer": null,
  "telecommuting": null,
  "internship": null,
  "nonprofit": null,
  "education": null,
  "attributes": {
    "condition": "excellent",
    "delivery_available": "delivery available"
  },
  "attributeList": [
    {
      "key": "condition",
      "label": "condition",
      "value": "excellent"
    },
    {
      "key": "delivery_available",
      "label": "delivery available",
      "value": "delivery available"
    }
  ],
  "searchMetadataCodes": {
    "4": ["3:exampleImageId"],
    "6": ["macbook-pro-14-inch"],
    "10": ["$750"],
    "13": ["mGsExampleService"]
  },
  "phones": [
    "+14155552671"
  ],
  "phoneDetails": [
    {
      "e164": "+14155552671",
      "display": "+1 415 555 2671",
      "countryCode": 1,
      "nationalNumber": "4155552671"
    }
  ],
  "emails": [
    "seller@example.com"
  ],
  "externalLinks": [
    "https://example.com/specifications"
  ],
  "hasPublicPhone": true,
  "hasPublicEmail": true,
  "hasReplyControl": true,
  "replyUrl": "/reply/sfo/ela/7952817881/mGsExampleService",
  "listingStatus": "active",
  "isActive": true,
  "isDeleted": false,
  "isExpired": false,
  "isUnavailable": false,
  "statusReason": null,
  "monitorStatus": "changed",
  "monitorKey": "bay-area-laptops",
  "previousPrice": 800.0,
  "previousScrapedAt": "2026-08-10T01:00:00Z",
  "changedFields": [
    "price",
    "description"
  ],
  "previousSnapshot": {
    "title": "MacBook Pro 14-inch",
    "description": "Earlier description",
    "price": 800.0,
    "currency": "USD",
    "locationText": "Cupertino",
    "postedAt": "2026-08-10T19:00:00Z",
    "updatedAt": null,
    "images": ["https://images.craigslist.org/example_600x450.jpg"],
    "attributes": {"condition": "excellent"},
    "phones": ["+14155552671"],
    "emails": ["seller@example.com"],
    "listingStatus": "active",
    "isDeleted": false,
    "isExpired": false,
    "isUnavailable": false
  },
  "detailEnriched": true,
  "detailHttpStatus": 200,
  "detailError": null,
  "parseConfidence": 100,
  "warnings": [],
  "scrapedAt": "2026-08-11T02:00:00Z",
  "schemaVersion": 1
}

Complete analytics output - 27 top-level fields

{
  "recordType": "analytics",
  "resultType": "analytics",
  "totalListings": 250,
  "newListings": 18,
  "changedListings": 7,
  "activeListings": 248,
  "deletedListings": 1,
  "expiredListings": 1,
  "unavailableListings": 2,
  "withPrice": 231,
  "withImages": 219,
  "withPhone": 36,
  "withEmail": 12,
  "minimumPrice": 10.0,
  "maximumPrice": 5500.0,
  "averagePrice": 742.68,
  "medianPrice": 425.0,
  "currencyCounts": {
    "USD": 250
  },
  "regionCounts": {
    "sfbay": 250
  },
  "categoryCounts": {
    "ela": 250
  },
  "statusCounts": {
    "active": 248,
    "removed": 2
  },
  "topAttributes": [
    {
      "name": "condition",
      "count": 214
    }
  ],
  "postedAtMinimum": "2026-08-01T10:00:00Z",
  "postedAtMaximum": "2026-08-11T01:55:00Z",
  "generatedAt": "2026-08-11T02:00:00Z",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-08-11T02:00:00Z",
  "schemaVersion": 1
}

Complete diagnostic output - 12 top-level fields

{
  "recordType": "diagnostic",
  "resultType": "diagnostic",
  "severity": "info",
  "diagnosticType": "zeroResults",
  "message": "Craigslist returned no matching listings for this search.",
  "input": "rare vintage workstation",
  "sourceSearchUrl": "https://sfbay.craigslist.org/search/sss?query=rare+vintage+workstation",
  "url": null,
  "httpStatus": null,
  "retryable": false,
  "scrapedAt": "2026-08-11T02:00:00Z",
  "schemaVersion": 1
}

Diagnostics describe an empty or failed input clearly and are not billing events. They appear in the same neutral Results table so a successful run is not presented as a wall of errors.

What data can you extract?

Every top-level output key is listed below. Category-specific values that Craigslist introduces are preserved in attributes and repeated in the readable attributeList.

Category	Fields
Row identity	recordType, resultType, id, serviceId, url, canonicalUrl
Search context	sourceSearchUrl, sourceType, sourceRank, searchTerm, requestedRegion, requestedCategory
Region and category	region, regionName, regionCountry, regionState, subarea, category, categoryId, categoryGroup, categoryName, subcategory
Content and price	title, description, descriptionHtml, price, currency, priceText, priceDetailText
Location	locationText, neighborhood, address, city, state, postalCode, country, latitude, longitude
Dates and media	postedAt, updatedAt, availableFrom, validThrough, eventDates, images, imageCount, primaryImage, hasImages, imageDimensionCode
General listing data	condition, sellerType
Vehicle data	year, make, model, makeModel, vin, odometer, cylinders, drivetrain, fuel, transmission, titleStatus, bodyType
Housing data	bedrooms, bathrooms, squareFeet, housingType, rentPeriod, availability, laundry, parking, petsAllowed, furnished, smokingAllowed, wheelchairAccessible, airConditioning, evCharging
Job data	compensation, employmentType, employer, telecommuting, internship, nonprofit, education
Flexible attributes	attributes, attributeList, searchMetadataCodes
Public contact data	phones, phoneDetails, emails, externalLinks, hasPublicPhone, hasPublicEmail, hasReplyControl, replyUrl
Availability	listingStatus, isActive, isDeleted, isExpired, isUnavailable, statusReason
Monitoring	monitorStatus, monitorKey, previousPrice, previousScrapedAt, changedFields, previousSnapshot
Parsing and provenance	detailEnriched, detailHttpStatus, detailError, parseConfidence, warnings, scrapedAt, schemaVersion
Analytics counts	totalListings, newListings, changedListings, activeListings, deletedListings, expiredListings, unavailableListings, withPrice, withImages, withPhone, withEmail
Analytics prices and groups	minimumPrice, maximumPrice, averagePrice, medianPrice, currencyCounts, regionCounts, categoryCounts, statusCounts, topAttributes
Analytics dates	postedAtMinimum, postedAtMaximum, generatedAt
Diagnostics	severity, diagnosticType, message, input, httpStatus, retryable

Input parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
mode	string	Yes	search	search, searchAndDetails, details, monitor, or analytics
searchTerms	string[]	Search workflows	["mountain bike"]	Keywords; combined with every friendly region and category
regions	string[]	Search workflows	["sfbay"]	Craigslist host/region names such as sfbay, newyork, london, tokyo
categories	string[]	Search workflows	["sss"]	Three-character category codes such as sss, cta, apa, jjj, ggg, bbb
startUrls	string[]	No	-	Current or legacy Craigslist search URLs and/or posting URLs
listingUrls	string[]	Details mode	-	Direct public Craigslist posting URLs
maxResults	integer	No	50	Results per independent friendly search or search URL; 1-5,000
maxItems	integer	No	0	Global listing limit after merge and deduplication; 0 means unlimited, maximum 100,000
maxConcurrency	integer	No	5	Parallel searches/detail requests; 1-20
maxRequestRetries	integer	No	4	Retry attempts with backoff and proxy-session rotation; 1-10
country	string	No	US	Two-letter request locale country; the Craigslist region controls listing currency
language	string	No	en	Interface language/locale such as en, de, fr, ja, or en-GB
sort	string	No	date	date, rel, priceasc, pricedsc, dateoldest, or dist
minPrice	number	No	-	Minimum non-negative listing price
maxPrice	number	No	-	Maximum non-negative listing price
condition	string[]	No	-	Craigslist condition codes: 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60
sellerType	string	No	all	all, owner, or dealer
hasImage	boolean	No	false	Ask Craigslist for listings containing an image
postedToday	boolean	No	false	Ask Craigslist for listings posted today
hideDuplicates	boolean	No	true	Ask Craigslist to hide bundled duplicates
deliveryAvailable	boolean	No	false	Require delivery where supported by the category
titlesOnly	boolean	No	false	Match the search term against titles only
postalCode	string	With distance	-	Center of a radius search
searchDistance	number	With postal code	-	Non-negative radius in the region's native distance units
filters	object	No	{}	Native Craigslist parameters; scalar and array values are supported
maxAgeDays	number	No	-	Locally discard records older than this many days
includeImages	boolean	No	true	Include full image URLs and media counts
includePublicContacts	boolean	No	true	Extract only phones/emails written publicly in the posting body
onlyWithPrice	boolean	No	false	Discard records without a numeric price before storage and billing
onlyWithImages	boolean	No	false	Discard records without images before storage and billing
deduplicate	boolean	No	true	Keep one record per posting across overlapping inputs
includeAnalytics	boolean	No	false	Add one analytics row in a search, detail, or monitor run
analyticsOnly	boolean	No	false	Calculate and store analytics without individual listing rows
monitorMode	string	No	changes	changes emits new and changed records; newListings emits only new records
monitorKey	string	Monitor mode	craigslist-monitor	Stable 1-80 character identity for persistent monitor state
monitorIncludeDetails	boolean	No	false	Open details during monitoring to detect content/contact/attribute changes

There is intentionally no proxy field. Apify Residential Proxy is created internally for every production run, and direct Craigslist traffic is rejected by the runtime.

Use cases

Classified lead discovery

Collect fresh owner, dealer, service, gig, or job postings across multiple cities. Use full-detail mode when the workflow needs public contact details written in the listing body.

Price and inventory intelligence

Track vehicles, electronics, furniture, rentals, or other categories by region. Filter comparable listings and use the analytics row for median, average, minimum, and maximum pricing.

Housing and vehicle datasets

Extract promoted fields such as bedrooms, bathrooms, square feet, amenities, VIN, mileage, drivetrain, transmission, and title status while keeping every other Craigslist attribute in a flexible object.

Scheduled change alerts

Run monitor on an Apify schedule. Send a webhook to Slack, Make, Zapier, n8n, a CRM, or a database only when a listing appears or changes.

Regional market research

Combine terms, regions, and categories into one run, deduplicate overlaps, and compare availability, image coverage, visible-contact coverage, attributes, and price distributions.

Performance and cost

This Actor is designed for pay-per-event pricing. Exact prices are displayed in the Actor's Pricing tab and depend on the published plan.

Event	Emitted for	Relative request work
listing-summary	One saved search-only listing	Lowest: search API requests are shared across many results
listing-detail	One successfully enriched detail record	Higher: opens one public detail page per listing
listing-change	One new or changed monitor result	Depends on monitorIncludeDetails
analytics-summary	One aggregate analytics row	One event after the source listings are processed

Diagnostic rows and unavailable direct-detail rows that could not be enriched do not call a custom charge event. Filtering happens before storage and billing. searchAndDetails, monitorIncludeDetails, high maxResults, many search combinations, and high retry counts increase runtime and proxy usage.

Measured Apify timing and price examples should be added after repeatable runs on the published Actor; this README does not invent fixed throughput or cost claims.

API usage

Replace YOUR_USERNAME with the published Actor owner name.

curl -X POST \
  "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/YOUR_USERNAME~craigslist-scraper/runs?token=APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "mode": "searchAndDetails",
    "searchTerms": ["mountain bike"],
    "regions": ["sfbay"],
    "categories": ["bia"],
    "maxResults": 10
  }'

Use the dataset API directly or connect Apify to Google Sheets, Make, Zapier, n8n, Airbyte, webhooks, Slack, a CRM, or a data warehouse.

Best for / not for

Best for: public Craigslist search, category browsing, known posting enrichment, public contact extraction, multi-region datasets, market analytics, and scheduled listing/change monitoring.

Not for: account-only data, posting or messaging sellers, anonymized Craigslist relay-email extraction, captcha solving, private contact discovery, account automation, or real-time streaming.

Limits and good to know

• One workflow mode is selected per run, but search and posting URLs can coexist outside details mode.
• maxResults is per independent search; maxItems is the optional global listing cap.
• The Actor reproduces Craigslist's cache-based batch pagination for results beyond the first response and stops at the requested/source limit.
• Craigslist category support is broad: umbrella codes and category-specific filters can be passed through filters without a code update.
• Search rows contain the fields exposed by search. Full descriptions, public contacts, JSON-LD data, and detailed attributes require searchAndDetails, details, or detail-enabled monitoring.
• Currency follows the selected Craigslist area. country and language influence request localization but do not convert prices.
• Missing source values remain explicit. Listing rows always keep the same 113 top-level fields.
• A removed or redirected posting is returned as an unavailable listing when it can be identified; failed/empty inputs produce clear diagnostic rows.
• Requests retry with exponential backoff, honor Retry-After, and rotate the proxy session on retryable failures. Other inputs continue after a partial failure.
• Public contact extraction never opens the reply challenge. replyUrl only records the public reply-control path already present in the HTML.
• Source websites and internal public-web endpoints can change. Pin production automations to tested Actor builds and report reproducible parser regressions.

Frequently asked questions

What input should I provide?

For a normal search, provide a keyword, region, and three-character category code, for example mountain bike, sfbay, and bia. You may instead paste a current/legacy Craigslist search URL or a direct posting URL.

Which category codes are supported?

The Actor accepts Craigslist's three-character codes instead of a short hardcoded list. Common umbrella codes are bbb services, ccc community, eee events, ggg gigs, hhh housing, jjj jobs, rrr resumes, and sss for sale. Examples of high-value subcategories are cta, ela, fua, bia, apa, roo, and sub.

How many results can I extract?

Set 1-5,000 results per independent search and optionally 0-100,000 listings globally. The actual count still depends on Craigslist availability, filters, duplicates, removed postings, and the selected category/region.

Why is description empty in search mode?

Fast search summaries do not open every detail page. Select searchAndDetails to retrieve the complete body, HTML, public contacts, and detailed attributes.

Why are vehicle or housing fields null?

The 113-field listing shape is shared across categories. A laptop does not have bedrooms and an apartment does not have a VIN. Category-specific values also remain available in attributes.

Can I process multiple inputs?

Yes. Friendly values form a term × region × category matrix, and startUrls can add search or posting URLs. Actor-level deduplication keeps one listing per posting identity by default.

Can I schedule recurring runs?

Yes. Use monitor with a stable monitorKey, an Apify schedule, and optional webhooks. State is committed only after successful output so a billing limit does not silently advance the monitor.

Do I need an account, API key, cookies, or proxy?

No Craigslist account, cookie, or API key is needed. The Actor automatically uses Apify Residential Proxy for every production request; users do not configure or see a proxy input.

Does it extract Craigslist relay email addresses?

No. The anonymized reply flow may require a challenge. This Actor intentionally avoids captcha/reply-email automation and extracts only phones and email addresses visibly written in the public listing body.

Responsible use

This Actor extracts publicly available information. Users are responsible for complying with applicable laws, privacy regulations, contractual obligations, and Craigslist's terms. Avoid unwanted contact, sensitive-data profiling, and excessive collection.

Craigslist is a trademark of craigslist, Inc. This Actor is an independent product and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by craigslist, Inc.

Support

If a public listing or search stops parsing, create an issue in the Actor's Issues tab. Include the Apify run ID, mode, non-sensitive input, expected result, and one reproducible public URL. Never include proxy credentials, cookies, tokens, or private contact information.

Local verification

Run the unit and fixture regression suite:

$python -m unittest discover -s tests -v

The optional scripts/live_smoke.py accepts a private local proxy file for development verification. It is excluded from the production image. The release runtime has no path to that file and always creates Apify Residential Proxy internally.