WeChat Article Scraper - Search, Full Text and Monitoring

Search public WeChat Official Account articles through Sogou, resolve fresh article links, extract complete public text and HTML, and monitor new publications without a WeChat account or browser.

• Search multiple keywords or publisher names with public pagination
• Resolve temporary Sogou redirect pages into canonical mp.weixin.qq.com article URLs
• Extract titles, publishers, publication dates, complete text, HTML, images, links, and public IDs
• Batch direct article URLs and check whether articles remain publicly available
• Monitor keyword or publisher searches and emit only new or changed rows
• Keep public boundaries explicit: comments, views, likes, shares, private accounts, and Channels feeds are not claimed
• Use Apify Residential Proxy automatically; no WeChat account, cookies, browser, or proxy setup is required
• Export results to JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, or access them through the Apify API

What can you do with this Actor?

Mode	Input	Output	Best for
articleSearch	Keywords or publisher names	Public article search rows	Discovery and SERP-style research
searchAndExtract	Keywords or publisher names	Search results enriched into full article rows	End-to-end content collection
articleDetails	Direct public article URLs	Complete public article records	Archiving and NLP pipelines
resolveLinks	Fresh Sogou redirect URLs	Resolved canonical article URLs	Converting temporary discovery links
articleStatus	Direct article URLs	Explicit public availability rows	Link-health checks
publisherMonitor	Publisher names or keywords	Only newly discovered search rows	Scheduled publication monitoring
auto	Mixed terms and URLs	Automatically routed records	Batch processing heterogeneous inputs

One run uses one selected mode. You can batch multiple search terms, publishers, article URLs, or redirect URLs. searchAndExtract connects discovery and extraction in one workflow while preserving search provenance on the article row.

Quick start

1. Open the Actor and click Try for free.
2. Keep articleSearch mode and enter a search term.
3. Choose the result and page limits.
4. Click Start.
5. Preview the single Results table or download it in your preferred format.

The default input searches for 人工智能 and returns current public article results.

Input examples

Search public articles

{
  "mode": "articleSearch",
  "searchTerms": ["人工智能", "跨境电商"],
  "maxItems": 50,
  "maxPages": 3
}

maxItems applies to each search or publisher input. One search dataset row represents one public result exposed by Sogou Weixin.

Search and extract full article content

{
  "mode": "searchAndExtract",
  "searchTerms": ["人工智能"],
  "maxItems": 10,
  "maxPages": 2,
  "includeText": true,
  "includeHtml": true,
  "includeImages": true,
  "includeLinks": true
}

Extract direct article URLs

{
  "mode": "articleDetails",
  "articleUrls": [
    "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/example-public-article"
  ],
  "includeText": true,
  "includeHtml": true
}

Resolve Sogou links

{
  "mode": "resolveLinks",
  "redirectUrls": [
    "https://weixin.sogou.com/link?url=example"
  ]
}

Check article status

{
  "mode": "articleStatus",
  "articleUrls": [
    "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/example-public-article"
  ]
}

Monitor a publisher or keyword

{
  "mode": "publisherMonitor",
  "publisherNames": ["人民日报"],
  "maxItems": 50,
  "monitorMode": "onlyNew",
  "monitorKey": "peoples-daily-wechat"
}

Publisher discovery uses public article search; it does not access an authenticated Official Account profile or follower graph.

Auto-detect mixed inputs

{
  "mode": "auto",
  "searchTerms": ["生成式AI"],
  "startUrls": [
    {"url": "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/example-public-article"},
    {"url": "https://weixin.sogou.com/link?url=example"}
  ],
  "maxItems": 20
}

Complete output examples

Every search, article, resolved-link, and status record has the same fixed set of 38 top-level fields. Non-applicable fields are returned as null or empty arrays and remain visible in the single Results table.

Complete article search row - 38 top-level fields

{
  "recordType": "articleSearchResult",
  "sourceMode": "articleSearch",
  "inputTarget": "人工智能",
  "sourceUrl": "https://weixin.sogou.com/weixin?type=2&query=%E4%BA%BA%E5%B7%A5%E6%99%BA%E8%83%BD&page=1",
  "sourceEndpoints": [
    "https://weixin.sogou.com/weixin?type=2&query=%E4%BA%BA%E5%B7%A5%E6%99%BA%E8%83%BD&page=1"
  ],
  "articleId": null,
  "resolvedUrl": null,
  "sogouRedirectUrl": "https://weixin.sogou.com/link?url=public-example",
  "query": "人工智能",
  "page": 1,
  "rank": 1,
  "title": "人工智能行业观察",
  "summary": "A public article summary returned by Sogou Weixin.",
  "accountName": "Example Official Account",
  "accountId": null,
  "biz": null,
  "appmsgId": null,
  "articleIndex": null,
  "commentId": null,
  "publishedUnix": 1786582800,
  "publishedAt": "2026-08-13T01:00:00+00:00",
  "coverUrl": "https://mmbiz.qpic.cn/public-cover.jpg",
  "contentText": null,
  "contentHtml": null,
  "contentTextLength": 0,
  "contentHtmlLength": 0,
  "imageUrls": null,
  "imageCount": 0,
  "outboundLinks": null,
  "linkCount": 0,
  "search": null,
  "status": "searchResult",
  "boundaryReason": null,
  "monitorStatus": null,
  "changedFields": null,
  "previousCapturedAt": null,
  "capturedAt": "2026-08-13T10:25:00.000000+00:00",
  "raw": null
}

Complete full article row - 38 top-level fields

{
  "recordType": "article",
  "sourceMode": "searchAndExtract",
  "inputTarget": "人工智能",
  "sourceUrl": "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/example-public-article",
  "sourceEndpoints": [
    "https://weixin.sogou.com/weixin?type=2&query=%E4%BA%BA%E5%B7%A5%E6%99%BA%E8%83%BD&page=1",
    "https://weixin.sogou.com/link?url=public-example",
    "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/example-public-article"
  ],
  "articleId": "MzA1Example:2650012345:1",
  "resolvedUrl": "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/example-public-article",
  "sogouRedirectUrl": null,
  "query": null,
  "page": null,
  "rank": null,
  "title": "人工智能行业观察",
  "summary": "A concise public article summary.",
  "accountName": "Example Official Account",
  "accountId": "gh_example",
  "biz": "MzA1Example",
  "appmsgId": "2650012345",
  "articleIndex": "1",
  "commentId": "123456789",
  "publishedUnix": 1786582800,
  "publishedAt": "2026-08-13T01:00:00+00:00",
  "coverUrl": "https://mmbiz.qpic.cn/public-cover.jpg",
  "contentText": "Complete public article text with headings and paragraphs.",
  "contentHtml": "<div id=\"js_content\"><p>Complete public article HTML.</p></div>",
  "contentTextLength": 2694,
  "contentHtmlLength": 18420,
  "imageUrls": [
    "https://mmbiz.qpic.cn/public-inline-image.jpg"
  ],
  "imageCount": 1,
  "outboundLinks": [
    "https://example.com/public-source"
  ],
  "linkCount": 1,
  "search": {
    "query": "人工智能",
    "page": 1,
    "rank": 1,
    "summary": "A public article summary returned by Sogou Weixin.",
    "sogouRedirectUrl": "https://weixin.sogou.com/link?url=public-example"
  },
  "status": "ok",
  "boundaryReason": null,
  "monitorStatus": null,
  "changedFields": null,
  "previousCapturedAt": null,
  "capturedAt": "2026-08-13T10:25:05.000000+00:00",
  "raw": null
}

recordType can also be resolvedLink or articleStatus while preserving all 38 keys. Explicit articleStatus rows use status and boundaryReason; their content fields are empty. Unavailable targets encountered in articleDetails are counted in RUN_SUMMARY, not emitted as paid error rows. raw is null unless includeRaw is enabled.

What data can you extract?

Category	Fields
Record and provenance	recordType, sourceMode, inputTarget, sourceUrl, sourceEndpoints, capturedAt
Stable identity and URLs	articleId, resolvedUrl, sogouRedirectUrl
Search provenance	query, page, rank, search
Article and publisher	title, summary, accountName, accountId, biz, appmsgId, articleIndex, commentId
Publication	publishedUnix, publishedAt, coverUrl
Content	contentText, contentHtml, contentTextLength, contentHtmlLength
Media and links	imageUrls, imageCount, outboundLinks, linkCount
Status and monitoring	status, boundaryReason, monitorStatus, changedFields, previousCapturedAt
Optional source data	raw

Input parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
mode	string	Yes	articleSearch	articleSearch, searchAndExtract, articleDetails, resolveLinks, articleStatus, publisherMonitor, or auto
searchTerms	string[]	In search modes	['人工智能']	Search keywords; each becomes a separate input
publisherNames	string[]	In publisher monitor	-	Publisher names searched through public article discovery
articleUrls	string[]	In details/status mode	-	Direct public mp.weixin.qq.com article URLs
redirectUrls	string[]	In resolve mode	-	Fresh Sogou Weixin redirect URLs
startUrls	request[]	In auto mode	-	Mixed direct article or redirect URLs
maxItems	integer	No	50	Maximum rows per input, from 1 to 10,000
maxPages	integer	No	3	Maximum search pages per input, from 1 to 50
includeText	boolean	No	true	Include complete plain article text
includeHtml	boolean	No	true	Include the public article HTML container
includeImages	boolean	No	true	Include public inline image URLs
includeLinks	boolean	No	true	Include public outbound links
requestDelayMs	integer	No	1000	Delay between Sogou requests, from 0 to 5,000 ms
monitorMode	string	No	off	off, onlyNew, or newAndChanged
monitorKey	string	No	default	Namespace for persistent comparison state
maxConcurrency	integer	No	2	Concurrent inputs, from 1 to 5
includeRaw	boolean	No	false	Include a sanitized source record

Use cases

Chinese content research

Search topics, extract complete public article text, and send the dataset to NLP, translation, summarization, or classification workflows.

Publisher monitoring

Schedule keyword or publisher discovery and send only newly found articles to a webhook, Slack channel, database, or spreadsheet.

Public article archiving

Store canonical URL, public IDs, publication date, text, HTML, image URLs, and outbound links for reproducible research.

Link resolution and health checks

Convert fresh Sogou redirect links into canonical article URLs or recheck a batch of direct URLs for current public availability.

Performance and cost

The Actor uses pay-per-event billing when configured on Apify, with separate search-result, article-result, resolved-link, and explicit status-check events. Consult the Actor's Pricing tab for current rates.

Search-only mode is the lightest. searchAndExtract adds redirect resolution and a full article download for each selected result; including HTML also increases dataset size. Exact runtime depends on source latency, article size, page limits, delay, retries, and public availability.

API usage

Replace YOUR_USERNAME with the published Actor owner name.

curl -X POST \
  "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/YOUR_USERNAME~wechat-official-account-article-scraper/runs?token=APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "mode": "searchAndExtract",
    "searchTerms": ["人工智能"],
    "maxItems": 10,
    "maxPages": 1
  }'

Results can flow through Apify API clients, schedules, webhooks, Google Sheets, Make, Zapier, n8n, Airbyte, vector databases, and data warehouses.

Best for / not for

Best for: public Official Account article discovery, complete text extraction, publisher/topic monitoring, canonical-link resolution, content research, and archival workflows.

Not for: private WeChat content, authenticated account data, follower graphs, article comments, view/like/share metrics, Mini Programs, chats, or WeChat Channels feeds.

Limits and good to know

• One mode is selected per run, but each mode accepts batches of relevant inputs.
• maxItems and maxPages apply per search term or publisher input.
• Sogou redirect links are temporary; resolve or extract them soon after discovery.
• A publisher name is implemented as public article search, not as an authenticated account lookup.
• WeChat controls public article availability and may return deleted, expired, or client-only boundary pages.
• Every successful row contains all 38 top-level keys; missing values use null or empty arrays.
• One failed target does not cancel successful targets. Failures appear in RUN_SUMMARY without paid error rows.
• The Actor uses Apify Residential Proxy automatically and does not expose proxy configuration in the input.

Frequently asked questions

What input should I provide?

Use Chinese or other public keywords for discovery, copied mp.weixin.qq.com URLs for details, or fresh weixin.sogou.com/link URLs for resolution.

How many results can I extract?

You can configure up to 10,000 rows and 50 pages per input. Actual depth is controlled by Sogou's current public results and article availability.

Why are some fields empty?

All record types share one schema. Search rows do not have full article content; status and resolved-link rows use only their relevant fields; direct pages may omit public IDs or cover metadata.

Can I process multiple terms or URLs?

Yes. Add multiple values to searchTerms, publisherNames, articleUrls, redirectUrls, or startUrls. Inputs run concurrently within the configured limit.

Can I schedule recurring runs?

Yes. Use Apify schedules with publisherMonitor, monitorMode, and a stable monitorKey, then connect a webhook for downstream alerts.

Do I need a WeChat account, API key, or proxy?

No account, API key, cookie, or browser is required. Apify Residential Proxy is configured internally and used automatically.

Responsible use

This Actor extracts publicly available WeChat Official Account articles. Users are responsible for complying with applicable laws, privacy regulations, contractual obligations, copyright requirements, and the source services' terms. WeChat is a trademark of Tencent; this Actor is not affiliated with or endorsed by Tencent or Sogou.

Support

If you encounter a problem, create an issue in the Actor's Issues tab. Include the run ID, selected mode, and a non-sensitive reproducible keyword or public URL. Do not include account cookies or credentials.