# Sitemap URL Extractor – Every Page URL from Any Website (`shawndunn/sitemap-url-extractor`) Actor

Get every URL a website publishes in its XML sitemaps. Auto-discovers sitemaps from robots.txt, follows nested sitemap indexes, handles .gz and .txt sitemaps, returns lastmod, priority, hreflang alternates and image counts, with regex and changed-since filters.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/shawndunn/sitemap-url-extractor.md
- **Developed by:** [CarrierDaily](https://apify.com/shawndunn) (community)
- **Categories:** SEO tools, Developer tools
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$0.50 / 1,000 urls

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
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.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## 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.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## Sitemap URL Extractor – Every Page URL from Any Website

Get every URL a website publishes in its XML sitemaps. Auto-discovers sitemaps from robots.txt, follows nested sitemap indexes, handles .gz and .txt sitemaps, returns lastmod, priority, hreflang alternates and image counts, with regex and changed-since filters.

### Why this actor

- Reliability vs. the official actor's 17% failure rate; lastmod filter turns it into a cheap 'what changed on competitor sites' monitor.
- Pay only for results: **$0.50 per 1,000 urls**, no start fee, failed lookups are free.
- Robust: automatic retries with exponential backoff, respects `Retry-After`, per-item error rows instead of crashed runs.
- Clean, flat JSON/CSV/Excel output ready for Google Sheets, Make, Zapier, n8n, Clay, or the Apify API.

### Use cases

- Feed full URL lists into crawlers, LLM/RAG ingestion, or SEO tools
- Monitor competitors' new pages/products (modifiedSince)
- Site migrations & SEO audits
- Count a site's content inventory

### How to use Sitemap URL Extractor

1. Enter a homepage (e.g. `https://apify.com`) or a direct sitemap URL.
2. Optionally add include/exclude regex (e.g. `/blog/`) or `modifiedSince` to get only changed pages.
3. Click **Start** and download the full URL list, or feed it into another actor as start URLs.

### Input

| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| `startUrls` | array | A domain (auto-discovers sitemaps via robots.txt) or a direct sitemap.xml / .xml.gz / .txt URL. Nested sitemap indexes are followed. |
| `includePattern` | string | e.g. /blog/ or /products/ |
| `excludePattern` | string | e.g. ?|/tag/ |
| `modifiedSince` | string | Only URLs whose <lastmod> is on/after this date. Great for change monitoring. |
| `maxSitemaps` | integer | Safety cap for huge sites. |
| `maxItems` | integer | Default 1000 so runs on huge sites finish fast. Set 0 for no limit (whole sitemap). |

Example input:

```json
{
  "startUrls": [
    "https://apify.com"
  ],
  "maxItems": 1000
}
```

### Output

Each dataset item looks like this (real sample from a test run, long fields trimmed):

```json
{
  "url": "https://apify.com/",
  "lastmod": null,
  "changefreq": null,
  "priority": null,
  "imageCount": 0,
  "alternates": null,
  "sitemap": "https://apify.com/sitemap/pages.xml",
  "site": "https://apify.com",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-10-14T05:57:16+00:00"
}
```

Rows that could not be processed contain an `error` field and are **not charged**.

### Comparison: Sitemap URL Extractor vs alternatives

| | This actor | Typical alternatives |
|---|---|---|
| Sitemap discovery | robots.txt + common paths, nested indexes, .gz | Often one sitemap URL only |
| Changed-since filter | Yes (lastmod) | Rare |
| Scale | 100k+ URLs per run, no browser | Desktop tools limit free tier to 500 URLs |
| Pricing | $0.50 / 1,000 URLs | Subscription |

### Pricing

Pay-per-event: **$0.0005** per url (= $0.50 / 1,000). Use **Max results** to cap spend. Apify's free plan credit covers thousands of results per month.

### Integrations & API

Run on a schedule in Apify Console, call via the Apify API / Python & JS clients, or connect to Make, Zapier, n8n, Google Sheets, Slack and webhooks. Works as a tool for AI agents via Apify MCP.

### Use with AI agents (MCP)

Sitemap URL Extractor is a ready-made tool for AI agents (sitemap.xml parser and website URL list extractor). Connect it to Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, VS Code or any MCP client with the Apify MCP server:

```
https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=shawndunn/sitemap-url-extractor
```

Agents can also call it directly via the Apify API (`POST https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/shawndunn~sitemap-url-extractor/run-sync-get-dataset-items`) and pay per result, with no subscription.

### FAQ

**Is it legal?** The actor only reads publicly available data from public endpoints, without logins, and does not bypass paywalls or access controls. You are responsible for using the data in line with applicable laws (e.g. GDPR) and the source sites' terms.

**Something broke?** Open an issue in the Issues tab; we typically respond within 24 hours and ship fixes fast.

**How do I get a list of all pages on a website?** Run this actor on the homepage. It finds every sitemap the site publishes and returns each URL with lastmod and priority.

**Can I track new or updated pages?** Yes. Schedule it with `modifiedSince` set to your last run date to get only new and changed URLs, great for competitor content monitoring.

**What if a site has no sitemap?** You get a clear error row (not charged). For crawl-based discovery, use a crawler instead.

### More tools by shawndunn

- [ATS Jobs Scraper](https://apify.com/shawndunn/ats-jobs-scraper) - Scrape jobs from Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby, Workable, SmartRecruiters & Recruitee boards.
- [Website Tech Stack Detector](https://apify.com/shawndunn/website-tech-stack-detector) - Find what CMS, ecommerce platform, analytics, pixels and frameworks any website uses.
- [Domain Intelligence Checker](https://apify.com/shawndunn/domain-intelligence-whois-dns-ssl) - Bulk domain lookup: WHOIS/RDAP registrar and expiry dates, DNS, MX email provider, SPF, DMARC and SSL certificate expiry.
- [Apple App Store Scraper](https://apify.com/shawndunn/apple-app-store-search-details) - Scrape Apple App Store search results, app details, ratings, prices and developer apps in any country.

# Actor input Schema

## `startUrls` (type: `array`):

A domain (auto-discovers sitemaps via robots.txt) or a direct sitemap.xml / .xml.gz / .txt URL. Nested sitemap indexes are followed.

## `includePattern` (type: `string`):

e.g. /blog/ or /products/

## `excludePattern` (type: `string`):

e.g. ?|/tag/

## `modifiedSince` (type: `string`):

Only URLs whose <lastmod> is on/after this date. Great for change monitoring.

## `maxSitemaps` (type: `integer`):

Safety cap for huge sites.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Default 1000 so runs on huge sites finish fast. Set 0 for no limit (whole sitemap).

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "startUrls": [
    "https://apify.com"
  ],
  "maxSitemaps": 500,
  "maxItems": 1000
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

All dataset items

# 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 = {
    "startUrls": [
        "https://apify.com"
    ],
    "maxItems": 1000
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("shawndunn/sitemap-url-extractor").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 = {
    "startUrls": ["https://apify.com"],
    "maxItems": 1000,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("shawndunn/sitemap-url-extractor").call(run_input=run_input)

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

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

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "startUrls": [
    "https://apify.com"
  ],
  "maxItems": 1000
}' |
apify call shawndunn/sitemap-url-extractor --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,shawndunn/sitemap-url-extractor"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/IIbIknOHVHZar29a8/builds/etWW97oOHg3MsUyan/openapi.json