Stack Overflow Q&A Scraper

Extract questions and answers from Stack Overflow via the official Stack Exchange API. Filter by tags, search by keywords, or get the top-voted questions of all time. Returns full question body, accepted answer, and top answers.

Perfect for AI training datasets, technical knowledge bases, RAG pipelines, and building Q&A chatbots.

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What data does it extract?

Questions

Field	Description	Example
questionId	Stack Overflow question ID	11227809
title	Question title	"What does the yield keyword do?"
body	Full question body (HTML)	"<p>I'm trying to understand..."
tags	Associated tags	["python", "generator", "yield"]
score	Net upvotes	13133
viewCount	Number of views	4200000
answerCount	Total number of answers	32
isAnswered	Has an accepted answer	true
author	Question author username	"e-satis"
createdAt	Question creation date	"2012-03-15T10:00:00Z"
url	Direct link	"https://stackoverflow.com/q/11227809"
answers	Array of top answers	[...]
extractedAt	Extraction timestamp	"2026-04-21T12:00:00Z"

Answers (nested)

Field	Description	Example
answerId	Answer ID	231855
author	Answer author	"e-satis"
score	Net upvotes	18307
isAccepted	Accepted by question author	true
body	Full answer body (HTML)	"<p>To understand what yield does..."
createdAt	Answer creation date	"2012-03-15T10:30:00Z"
url	Direct answer link	"https://stackoverflow.com/a/231855"

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Use cases

• AI training data: High-quality problem/solution pairs for LLM fine-tuning
• RAG pipelines: Build a Q&A bot that answers based on real Stack Overflow solutions
• Technical knowledge base: Export answers for a specific technology stack
• Developer tools: Power autocomplete or search features with curated Q&A
• Research: Analyze how developers solve specific problems
• Chatbot training: Create domain-specific support bots

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How to use

1. Open the actor and configure:
   • Mode: By tags, keyword search, or top voted all-time
   • Tags: e.g. python, javascript, docker, react
   • Keywords: e.g. "how to reverse a list in python"
   • Site: Stack Overflow, Super User, Server Fault, etc.
   • Include answers: Fetch top answers for each question
   • API key: Optional — increases daily quota from 300 to 10,000 requests
2. Click Start
3. Download results as JSON, CSV, or Excel

Agent-ready via x402: AI agents can run this actor directly with USDC on Base — no Apify account needed. See x402 protocol docs.

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API Key (optional)

The Stack Exchange API allows 300 free requests/day without authentication. To increase this to 10,000 requests/day, register a free app at stackapps.com and paste the key in the apiKey field.

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Example output (JSON)

{
  "questionId": 231767,
  "title": "What does the \"yield\" keyword do in Python?",
  "body": "<p>What is the use of the <code>yield</code> keyword in Python?...",
  "tags": ["python", "iterator", "generator", "yield"],
  "score": 13133,
  "viewCount": 4200000,
  "answerCount": 32,
  "isAnswered": true,
  "author": "e-satis",
  "createdAt": "2008-10-23T22:21:01.000Z",
  "url": "https://stackoverflow.com/questions/231767/what-does-the-yield-keyword-do-in-python",
  "answers": [
    {
      "answerId": 231855,
      "author": "e-satis",
      "score": 18307,
      "isAccepted": true,
      "body": "<p>To understand what <code>yield</code> does, you must understand what generators are...",
      "createdAt": "2008-10-23T22:48:54.000Z",
      "url": "https://stackoverflow.com/a/231855"
    }
  ],
  "extractedAt": "2026-04-21T12:00:00.000Z"
}

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Pricing

This actor charges $0.002 USD per question extracted. Extracting 100 questions (with answers) costs approximately $0.20 USD.

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FAQ

Does it work on other Stack Exchange sites (Super User, Server Fault, etc.)? Yes — set the site field to superuser, serverfault, askubuntu, math, or any Stack Exchange site slug.

What is the daily API quota? Without an API key: 300 requests/day. With a free key from stackapps.com: 10,000 requests/day. Each page of 100 questions uses 1 request; fetching answers adds 1 request per question.

Can I get unanswered questions? Yes — set onlyAnswered to false. By default only answered questions are returned.

Is authentication required? No. The Stack Exchange API is public. An optional API key increases your daily quota.

How many questions can I extract per run? Up to 10,000 (100 pages × 100 per page). For most use cases 50–500 is sufficient.

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Keywords

stackoverflow scraper, stack overflow Q&A extractor, technical Q&A dataset, stack exchange API scraper, developer knowledge base, AI training data, programming Q&A, stack overflow answers, RAG dataset, LLM fine-tuning data

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Legal Disclaimer

This actor extracts publicly available data only from Stack Overflow and Stack Exchange sites using the official Stack Exchange API v2.3, in compliance with Chilean Law 19.628 on the Protection of Private Life (Ley 19.628 sobre Protección de la Vida Privada).

All content on Stack Exchange is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Users are responsible for complying with attribution requirements when using extracted content.

What this actor does NOT collect:

• Private messages or non-public content
• User emails, passwords, or private account information
• Any data not freely accessible via the public API

What this actor collects:

• Question titles, bodies, and tags (public content)
• Publicly visible usernames and answer text
• Engagement metrics (scores, view counts)

Users are solely responsible for ensuring their use of this data complies with applicable laws and Stack Exchange's terms of service.