Weibo Trends Scraper - Hot Search, Topic Rankings and Public Profiles

Collect current Weibo hot-search boards, ranked topic bands, public profile metadata by UID, and scheduled trend changes without a Weibo account or browser.

• Extract two complementary public Weibo trend boards
• Preserve rank, heat, labels, flags, icons, and searchable topic URLs
• Batch public profile IDs and URLs when the endpoint is available to the residential session
• Monitor current topics and emit only new or changed rows
• Keep the product honest: post search, timelines, comments, reposts, and follower lists are not advertised
• Skip blocked or unavailable targets without creating paid error records
• Use Apify Residential Proxy automatically; no cookies, account, token, 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
trends	No target required	Hot search plus hot band rows	Broad real-time trend snapshots
hotSearch	No target required	Current hot-search ranking	Newsroom and brand monitoring
hotBand	No target required	Public ranked topic band	Topic discovery and comparison
profiles	Numeric UIDs or profile URLs	Public profile metadata	Enriching known Weibo identities
monitor	A stable monitor key	Only new or changed current topics	Scheduled alerts and trend pipelines

One run uses one selected mode. trends combines both boards in a single Results table. Profile inputs can be batched, but profile access is more IP-sensitive than the trend endpoints.

Quick start

1. Open the Actor and click Try for free.
2. Keep the default trends mode.
3. Set the maximum number of rows per board if needed.
4. Click Start.
5. Preview the single Results table or download it in your preferred format.

The default run requires no target and returns current ranked topics.

Input examples

Collect both trend boards

{
  "mode": "trends",
  "maxItems": 100
}

maxItems applies separately to each selected board. One dataset row represents one topic on one board.

Collect hot search only

{
  "mode": "hotSearch",
  "maxItems": 50
}

Collect the hot topic band

{
  "mode": "hotBand",
  "maxItems": 100
}

Extract public profiles

{
  "mode": "profiles",
  "userIds": ["1195230310"],
  "profileUrls": ["https://weibo.com/u/2803301701"],
  "maxConcurrency": 2
}

Monitor current trend changes

{
  "mode": "monitor",
  "maxItems": 100,
  "monitorMode": "newAndChanged",
  "monitorKey": "daily-weibo-trends"
}

Complete output examples

All trend and profile records share the same fixed set of 47 top-level fields. Non-applicable fields are returned as null or empty arrays, so users never need a separate “All fields” view. engagementTotals, tabs, and optional raw preserve source-controlled public subfields.

Complete trend row - 47 top-level fields

{
  "recordType": "trend",
  "sourceMode": "hotSearch",
  "sourceUrl": "https://weibo.com/ajax/side/hotSearch",
  "id": "hotSearch:人工智能",
  "word": "人工智能",
  "note": "人工智能",
  "wordScheme": "#人工智能#",
  "searchUrl": "https://s.weibo.com/weibo?q=%23%E4%BA%BA%E5%B7%A5%E6%99%BA%E8%83%BD%23",
  "rank": 1,
  "realPosition": 1,
  "heat": 968420,
  "label": "热",
  "category": "科技",
  "flag": 2,
  "topicFlag": 1,
  "isNew": false,
  "isHot": true,
  "onboardUnix": 1786586400,
  "onboardAt": "2026-08-13T02:00:00+00:00",
  "iconUrl": "https://simg.s.weibo.com/public-icon.png",
  "iconDescription": "热",
  "iconColor": "#ff8200",
  "screenName": null,
  "profileUrl": null,
  "description": null,
  "location": null,
  "gender": null,
  "verified": null,
  "verifiedType": null,
  "verifiedReason": null,
  "followersCount": null,
  "followersText": null,
  "followingCount": null,
  "statusesCount": null,
  "profileImageUrl": null,
  "avatarLargeUrl": null,
  "avatarHdUrl": null,
  "coverImageUrl": null,
  "membershipRank": null,
  "membershipType": null,
  "engagementTotals": null,
  "tabs": null,
  "monitorStatus": null,
  "changedFields": null,
  "previousCapturedAt": null,
  "capturedAt": "2026-08-13T10:20:00.000000+00:00",
  "raw": null
}

Complete profile row - 47 top-level fields

{
  "recordType": "profile",
  "sourceMode": "profiles",
  "sourceUrl": "https://weibo.com/ajax/profile/info?uid=1195230310",
  "id": "1195230310",
  "word": null,
  "note": null,
  "wordScheme": null,
  "searchUrl": null,
  "rank": null,
  "realPosition": null,
  "heat": null,
  "label": null,
  "category": null,
  "flag": null,
  "topicFlag": null,
  "isNew": null,
  "isHot": null,
  "onboardUnix": null,
  "onboardAt": null,
  "iconUrl": null,
  "iconDescription": null,
  "iconColor": null,
  "screenName": "何炅",
  "profileUrl": "https://weibo.com/u/1195230310",
  "description": "",
  "location": "北京",
  "gender": "m",
  "verified": true,
  "verifiedType": 0,
  "verifiedReason": "湖南卫视主持人",
  "followersCount": 117053424,
  "followersText": "1.17亿",
  "followingCount": 940,
  "statusesCount": 9803,
  "profileImageUrl": "https://tvax.example/profile.jpg",
  "avatarLargeUrl": "https://tvax.example/avatar-large.jpg",
  "avatarHdUrl": "https://tvax.example/avatar-hd.jpg",
  "coverImageUrl": "https://wx.example/cover.jpg",
  "membershipRank": 7,
  "membershipType": 12,
  "engagementTotals": {
    "total_cnt_format": "6.96亿",
    "comment_cnt": "54,082,041",
    "repost_cnt": "44,882,458",
    "like_cnt": "596,559,592",
    "total_cnt": "695,524,091"
  },
  "tabs": [
    {
      "name": "feed",
      "tabName": "微博"
    }
  ],
  "monitorStatus": null,
  "changedFields": null,
  "previousCapturedAt": null,
  "capturedAt": "2026-08-13T10:20:00.000000+00:00",
  "raw": null
}

When monitoring is enabled, monitorStatus is new or changed, changedFields contains changed top-level keys, and previousCapturedAt contains the prior observation. raw is null unless includeRaw is enabled. Blocked or unavailable profile inputs do not emit error rows and are not charged; their categories appear in RUN_SUMMARY.

What data can you extract?

Category	Fields
Record and source	recordType, sourceMode, sourceUrl, id, capturedAt
Topic identity	word, note, wordScheme, searchUrl
Ranking and heat	rank, realPosition, heat, label, category, flag, topicFlag, isNew, isHot
Topic timing and icon	onboardUnix, onboardAt, iconUrl, iconDescription, iconColor
Profile identity	screenName, profileUrl, description, location, gender
Verification	verified, verifiedType, verifiedReason
Public counts	followersCount, followersText, followingCount, statusesCount, engagementTotals
Profile media and membership	profileImageUrl, avatarLargeUrl, avatarHdUrl, coverImageUrl, membershipRank, membershipType, tabs
Monitoring	monitorStatus, changedFields, previousCapturedAt
Optional source data	raw

Input parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
mode	string	Yes	trends	trends, hotSearch, hotBand, profiles, or monitor
userIds	string[]	In profiles mode	-	Numeric public Weibo UIDs
profileUrls	string[]	In profiles mode	-	Public profile URLs containing a numeric UID
maxItems	integer	No	100	Maximum rows per selected board, from 1 to 10,000
monitorMode	string	No	off	off, onlyNew, or newAndChanged
monitorKey	string	No	default	Namespace for persistent comparison state
maxConcurrency	integer	No	3	Concurrent input jobs, from 1 to 10
includeRaw	boolean	No	false	Include a sanitized public source object

Use cases

Newsroom and OSINT trend monitoring

Schedule combined trend snapshots and route new or changed topics to an alerting or research workflow.

China-market brand research

Track topic rank, heat, flags, labels, and search URLs, then aggregate changes in a spreadsheet or warehouse.

Public identity enrichment

Resolve known numeric UIDs into public names, verification metadata, counts, avatars, and profile URLs when the public endpoint is available.

Trend-board comparison

Collect hotSearch and hotBand in one run and compare overlapping phrases by sourceMode, rank, and heat.

Performance and cost

The Actor uses pay-per-event billing when configured on Apify, with separate trend-result and profile-result events. Consult the Actor's Pricing tab for current rates.

Trend modes are lightweight because a single public JSON response produces many rows. Profile mode uses one isolated request workflow per UID and may require residential rotation, so its reliability and cost profile differ. Exact runtime depends on source latency, IP acceptance, target count, retries, and concurrency.

API usage

Replace YOUR_USERNAME with the published Actor owner name.

curl -X POST \
  "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/YOUR_USERNAME~weibo-trends-public-profiles/runs?token=APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "mode": "trends",
    "maxItems": 100
  }'

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

Best for / not for

Best for: Weibo hot-search snapshots, ranked topic monitoring, China-market research, newsroom alerts, and enrichment of known public UIDs.

Not for: keyword post search, user timelines, post details, comments, reposts, follower/following identities, private data, or account automation.

Limits and good to know

• One mode is selected per run; trends combines both supported boards.
• maxItems applies to each board, not to the combined run total.
• Public profile access is strongly IP-sensitive. The Actor rotates residential sessions, but Weibo can still reject every tested exit.
• A blocked profile is not treated as an empty or successful result and is never emitted as a paid error row.
• Current monitor output covers topics still present in the fetched boards; it does not emit a synthetic row for a topic that disappeared.
• Every successful row contains all 47 top-level keys; missing values use null or empty arrays.
• The Actor uses Apify Residential Proxy automatically and does not expose proxy configuration in the input.

Frequently asked questions

What input should I provide?

Trend modes require no target. Profile mode accepts numeric UIDs such as 1195230310 or public URLs containing a numeric UID.

How many results can I extract?

You can request up to 10,000 rows per board, but each public Weibo board controls how many current topics it exposes.

Why did a profile return no dataset row?

The public profile endpoint can return a guest/IP block even while trend endpoints work. The Actor retries with new residential sessions and records the final category in RUN_SUMMARY; it does not charge for the failed target.

Why are some fields empty?

Trend and profile rows share one schema. Profile fields are null on trend rows, trend fields are null on profile rows, and Weibo may omit optional public metadata.

Can I process multiple profile IDs?

Yes. Add multiple values to userIds and profileUrls. Each target is isolated so one failure does not cancel successful profiles.

Can I schedule recurring runs?

Yes. Use Apify schedules with monitor mode and a stable monitorKey, then send new or changed rows through a webhook.

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

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

Responsible use

This Actor extracts publicly available Weibo information. Users are responsible for complying with applicable laws, privacy regulations, contractual obligations, and Weibo's terms. Weibo is a trademark of its respective owner; this Actor is not affiliated with or endorsed by Weibo.

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 UID when relevant. Do not include cookies or account credentials.