Snapchat User Spotlight Scraper By Keyword & Hashtag

Snapchat Spotlight Scraper — Videos, Creators & Hashtag Topics

Snapchat Spotlight Scraper By Keyword & Hashtag returns Spotlight videos, creator accounts and hashtag topics for any search term — no starting username required. Each row carries viewCount, shareCount, commentCount, boostCount, hashtags, subscriberCount and snapCount read straight from Snapchat's own public pages, plus the keyword that produced it. Influencer researchers, trend analysts and content teams use it to go from a topic idea to a ranked list of matching videos, creators and hashtag topics in one run. Add a known username and its own Spotlight set is collected alongside the keyword results.

🧭 What is Snapchat Spotlight Scraper By Keyword & Hashtag?

It is a keyword-first Snapchat scraper: give it a term or hashtag, and it reads Snapchat's public /explore/<term> discovery page to return the Spotlight videos, creator accounts and hashtag topics Snapchat itself associates with that term. No Snapchat login, account or API key is used anywhere in the run — every page it reads is publicly reachable.

• Discovery by keyword or hashtag — a leading # is optional; football and #football normalize the same way.
• Known accounts too — add usernames or profile URLs in startUrls and their public Spotlight videos are collected in the same run.
• Creator identity and reach — username, displayName, profileUrl, subscriberCount, businessProfileId for every discovered account.
• Real engagement, not the rounded tile label — viewCount, shareCount, commentCount, boostCount and recommendCount come from Snapchat's own numeric fields; the rounded "415K"-style label is kept separately as approxPlayCount.
• Two expansion paths — follow discovered hashtag topics one or two steps further, or open every discovered creator's full public Spotlight set.
• Quality and volume filters — minViews, minSubscribers, oldestVideoDate, skipDuplicates and maxResults, all applied to data already fetched.
• Standard Apify export — results land in the run's dataset and download as JSON, CSV, Excel or the other formats the Apify dataset export supports.

📊 What data can I extract with Snapchat Spotlight Scraper?

Every selected discoverySources value becomes its own row type, and lineage fields tie every row back to the term or account that produced it.

Spotlight video fields

Field	Example value	Use case
type	"spotlightVideo"	Tell this row apart from creator, topic, lens or status rows
username	"nxrlnrblx"	Who posted the video
displayName	"TrendCrateFootball"	Human-readable creator name
profileUrl	"https://www.snapchat.com/@nxrlnrblx"	Link straight to the creator's profile
spotlightId	"W7_EDlXWTBiXAEEniNoMPwAA..."	Stable identifier for the video
spotlightUrl	"https://www.snapchat.com/spotlight/W7_..."	Canonical public link to the video
videoTitle	"What is Tuchel doing bro"	Snapchat's own on-tile label, when present
llmTitle	"England vs Argentina Match Moment"	Snapchat's AI-generated descriptive title
description	"#football #spotlight #worldcup"	Creator's own caption text
hashtags	["#football", "#spotlight"]	Content and trend tagging
viewCount	374442	Rank by real popularity
shareCount	13244	Virality signal
commentCount	581	Engagement depth
boostCount	31822	Snapchat's "boost" reaction count
recommendCount	7008	Recommend count
approxPlayCount	"415K"	Snapchat's rounded tile label — a string, not a number
publishedAt	"2026-07-17T21:43:35.954000Z"	ISO timestamp for recency filtering
uploadDate	1784324615954	Same timestamp as epoch milliseconds, numeric
uploadDateMs	"1784324615954"	Same value, as a string
durationMs	"6030"	Video length in milliseconds
width / height	540 / 960	Video dimensions
thumbnailUrl	"https://..."	Preview image link
contentUrl	"https://..."	Direct media URL
deeplink	"https://click.snapchat.com/..."	App-open link
isResolved	true	Whether the creator/caption completion step ran on this row
success	true	Whether this row represents a fully-fetched item

├── Creator, hashtag topic, lens and show fields

• Creator (discoveredCreator) — username, displayName, creatorDescription, creatorLogoUrl, profileUrl, businessProfileId, subscriberCount, isOfficialAccount, hasHighlights. This is the decision-driving data for influencer sourcing: subscriber count and official-account status let you rank and filter candidates without opening each profile.
• Hashtag topic (hashtagTopic) — topicText, snapCount, topicThumbnailUrl, topicUrl. snapCount is the real number of Snaps behind the topic, straight from Snapchat, not a rounded label.
• AR lens (discoveredLens) — lensName, lensId, lensIconUrl, lensUnlockUrl, lensCreatorName, isOfficialLens.
• Show / publisher (discoveredPublisher) — publisherName, publisherDescription, publisherId, businessProfileId, subscriberCount, publisherUrl, publisherIconUrl.

└── Lineage, targeting and bookkeeping fields

These are the fields you filter and segment on, present on every row: seedKeyword (the term you submitted), resolvedQuery (the term Snapchat itself says it answered), discoveredVia (keywordSpotlightVideo, keywordCreator, keywordHashtagTopic, keywordLens, keywordPublisher, creatorProfileExpansion or knownAccount), discoveryRank (position within that term and source), expandedFromTopic (the hashtag topic this row came from, when topic expansion is on), expansionDepth (0 for your own terms, 1 or 2 for followed topics and opened creators), isChild, scrapedAt. A status row (never charged) instead carries target, targetKind, outcome, message, username, error and videoCount, explaining a term or account that had nothing to return.

How does Snapchat Spotlight Scraper differ from the official Snapchat API?

Snapchat's own developer platform, the Public Profile API's Creator Discovery endpoint, takes a query parameter — but as documented, that parameter searches creator metadata, not Spotlight video content, and its only Spotlight signal is min_spotlight_views / max_spotlight_views, restricted to the last 24 hours (checked 2026-08-15).

Feature	Snap Public Profile API — Creator Discovery	Snapchat Spotlight Scraper By Keyword & Hashtag
Keyword search over Spotlight video content	query searches creator metadata, not videos	Any keyword or hashtag returns matching Spotlight videos directly
Spotlight view metrics window	min_spotlight_views/max_spotlight_views, last 24 hours only	viewCount, shareCount, commentCount, boostCount, recommendCount as shown at request time, no fixed window
Hashtag topic discovery	Not exposed by this endpoint	Dedicated hashtagTopics source with 1–2 levels of expansion
Access	Bearer token issued through Snap's developer/business program	An Apify account; no Snapchat credentials
Result delivery	Authenticated REST call, cursor-paginated, limit default 100	Apify dataset — JSON, CSV, Excel and other export formats

├── Can I just search Snapchat's own API by keyword?

Not for Spotlight video content. The Creator Discovery endpoint's query parameter is documented as a keyword search "on the creator's metadata and content" — it returns matching creators, not a ranked list of matching videos — and the only Spotlight-related figure it exposes, min_spotlight_views/max_spotlight_views, only covers the last 24 hours, so it cannot answer "what has this term produced historically." This actor reads Snapchat's own public discovery page for the term instead, which returns the videos, creator accounts and hashtag topics Snapchat currently ranks for it, with each video's full current engagement figures rather than a 24-hour window.

Use the official API when you already operate inside Snap's business/marketing tooling and only need creator-level metrics for accounts that have opted into data sharing. Use this actor when you need keyword- or hashtag-driven video discovery without applying for API access.

💡 How to use data extracted from Snapchat

├── 🎯 Influencer and talent scouts

Run a niche keyword — a sport, a beauty category, a game title — with discoverySources including creators, set minSubscribers to your floor, and the run returns a ranked shortlist of public creator accounts with subscriberCount, creatorDescription and profileUrl ready to open. Turn on expandDiscoveredCreators to also pull each shortlisted creator's own Spotlight videos in the same run, so you can judge content quality before reaching out.

├── 🏢 Social media agencies

Point the same keyword set at a client's category on a schedule and compare viewCount, shareCount and boostCount across runs to track how their Spotlight presence, and their competitors', is trending. Because resolvedQuery and seedKeyword are both recorded on every row, you can prove which term produced which numbers when reporting back to the client.

├── 📈 Market research and trend intelligence

Enable hashtagTopics and expandHashtagTopics with topicExpansionDepth: 2 to map how far a subject's hashtag cluster extends, using snapCount on each hashtagTopic row as the volume signal. expandedFromTopic and expansionDepth on every downstream row show exactly which branch of the topic tree it came from.

└── 🤖 AI agents and automated pipelines

Feed description, hashtags and llmTitle into a classification or RAG pipeline to summarize what a term's Spotlight content is actually about, or call the actor as a discovery step ahead of a video-download or transcription pipeline. The Actor is reachable as a standard Apify REST call, so any agent framework that can make an authenticated HTTP request can trigger a run.

🔼 Input sample

None of the 17 fields are required — an empty input still runs, using each field's own default, provided at least one keyword, hashtag or known account ends up in scope.

Parameter	Required	Type	Description	Example value
searchKeywords	No	array (stringList)	Words, phrases or hashtags to look up, for example 'football', 'makeup' or '#footballchallenge'. A leading # is optional.	["football", "#makeup"]
discoverySources	No	array (select, enum: spotlightVideos, creators, hashtagTopics, lenses, publishers)	Choose which kinds of results are collected. Every selected kind becomes its own labelled row type in the output.	["spotlightVideos", "creators", "hashtagTopics"]
resolveVideoDetails	No	boolean	A discovery result lists a video without naming its creator. Switch this on to complete each video with its creator handle, caption, hashtags, publish date and duration.	true
maxVideoResolutions	No	integer (0–50000)	Upper limit on how many videos are completed with creator and caption details in one run. Videos beyond the limit are still returned, with the details left empty rather than guessed.	10
expandHashtagTopics	No	boolean	Each hashtag topic found for your keyword becomes a new term of its own, producing a further set of videos, creators and topics with the parent topic recorded on every row.	true
topicExpansionDepth	No	integer (1–2)	1 follows the topics found for your keyword. 2 also follows the topics those topics reveal.	1
maxTopicsPerKeyword	No	integer (0–200)	Upper limit on how many hashtag topics are followed from any single term.	2
expandDiscoveredCreators	No	boolean	Every creator account found for a term is opened and their public Spotlight videos are collected, carrying the term that led to them.	false
maxCreatorsPerKeyword	No	integer (0–500)	Upper limit on how many discovered creators are opened from any single term.	3
maxVideosPerCreator	No	integer (0–20000)	Upper limit on the Spotlight videos taken from any one creator profile. 0 means take everything the public profile shows.	10
skipDuplicates	No	boolean	The same video, creator or topic can surface under several terms. Leave this on to write each one exactly once and report how many repeats were skipped.	true
minViews	No	integer (min 0)	Only keep Spotlight videos with at least this many views. 0 keeps everything.	0
minSubscribers	No	integer (min 0)	Only keep discovered creator accounts with at least this many subscribers. 0 keeps everything.	0
oldestVideoDate	No	string (datepicker, absolute or relative)	Drop Spotlight videos published before this point. Accepts a date or a relative value such as '3 months'. Applies to videos whose publish date is known, which requires the creator and caption step above.	"3 months"
maxResults	No	integer (0–100000)	Hard ceiling on how many result rows the run writes, so a broad set of keywords cannot run away with your budget. 0 means no ceiling.	10
startUrls	No	array (stringList)	Optional list of Snapchat usernames (for example 'realmadrid') or profile URLs (for example 'https://www.snapchat.com/@realmadrid').	["realmadrid"]
proxyConfiguration	No	object (proxy)	Choose the connection settings for this run. By default the run goes out directly. Enabling this can improve reliability on large runs.	{ "useApifyProxy": false }

{
  "searchKeywords": ["football", "#makeup"],
  "discoverySources": ["spotlightVideos", "creators", "hashtagTopics"],
  "resolveVideoDetails": true,
  "maxVideoResolutions": 25,
  "expandHashtagTopics": true,
  "topicExpansionDepth": 1,
  "maxTopicsPerKeyword": 2,
  "expandDiscoveredCreators": false,
  "maxCreatorsPerKeyword": 3,
  "maxVideosPerCreator": 20,
  "skipDuplicates": true,
  "minViews": 0,
  "minSubscribers": 0,
  "oldestVideoDate": "3 months",
  "maxResults": 500,
  "startUrls": [],
  "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": false }
}

⚠️ Common pitfall: maxVideoResolutions is a run-wide budget, not a per-keyword one — it is spent in the order terms are processed, and every attempt counts against it even when Snapchat doesn't return a usable answer. With several keywords and a low value, videos from the first term get completed while later terms' videos are returned with isResolved: false and empty creator/caption fields. Raise maxVideoResolutions if you need completed rows across every term. Separately, oldestVideoDate only filters rows whose publish date is known — for keyword-discovered videos that requires resolveVideoDetails: true, since a bare discovery card carries no timestamp.

🔽 Output sample

Every result row is pushed as it is collected and billed under the row_result pay-per-event, except status rows, which explain an outcome (no page found, no usable answer, nothing to show) and are never charged — filter them out with type != "status" or keep only success: true rows. Discovered creators are additionally mirrored to a <runId>-creators dataset and hashtag topics to a <runId>-topics dataset. Results download as JSON, CSV, Excel or any other format the Apify dataset export supports.

{
  "type": "spotlightVideo",
  "isChild": false,
  "username": "nxrlnrblx",
  "displayName": "TrendCrateFootball",
  "profileUrl": "https://www.snapchat.com/@nxrlnrblx",
  "spotlightId": "W7_EDlXWTBiXAEEniNoMPwAAYbW9tbGNpZmFsAZ9yCPzYAZ9yCO8SAAAAAw",
  "spotlightUrl": "https://www.snapchat.com/spotlight/W7_EDlXWTBiXAEEniNoMPwAAYbW9tbGNpZmFsAZ9yCPzYAZ9yCO8SAAAAAw",
  "videoTitle": "What is Tuchel doing bro",
  "llmTitle": "England vs Argentina Match Moment: Coach Reaction & Player Action",
  "description": "#football #spotlight #worldcup #fifa #viral",
  "hashtags": ["#football", "#spotlight", "#worldcup", "#fifa", "#viral"],
  "viewCount": 374442,
  "shareCount": 13244,
  "commentCount": 581,
  "boostCount": 31822,
  "recommendCount": 7008,
  "approxPlayCount": "415K",
  "publishedAt": "2026-07-17T21:43:35.954000Z",
  "uploadDate": 1784324615954,
  "uploadDateMs": "1784324615954",
  "durationMs": "6030",
  "width": 540,
  "height": 960,
  "thumbnailUrl": "https://cf-st.sc-cdn.net/d/...",
  "contentUrl": "https://cf-st.sc-cdn.net/d/...",
  "deeplink": "https://click.snapchat.com/...",
  "isResolved": true,
  "seedKeyword": "football",
  "resolvedQuery": "football",
  "discoveredVia": "keywordSpotlightVideo",
  "discoveryRank": 1,
  "expandedFromTopic": null,
  "expansionDepth": 0,
  "success": true,
  "scrapedAt": "2026-08-08T10:04:43.514Z"
}

{
  "type": "discoveredCreator",
  "isChild": true,
  "username": "footballarena11",
  "displayName": "Football Arena",
  "creatorDescription": "If you love football, you are in the right place.",
  "creatorLogoUrl": "https://cf-st.sc-cdn.net/d/...",
  "profileUrl": "https://www.snapchat.com/@footballarena11",
  "businessProfileId": "0bec0cce-3810-4d74-840e-f79ecd925af3",
  "subscriberCount": 1084,
  "isOfficialAccount": false,
  "hasHighlights": false,
  "seedKeyword": "football",
  "resolvedQuery": "football",
  "discoveredVia": "keywordCreator",
  "discoveryRank": 1,
  "expandedFromTopic": null,
  "expansionDepth": 0,
  "success": true,
  "scrapedAt": "2026-08-08T10:04:43.514Z"
}

{
  "type": "hashtagTopic",
  "isChild": true,
  "topicText": "footballchallenge",
  "snapCount": 2348,
  "topicThumbnailUrl": "https://cf-st.sc-cdn.net/d/...",
  "topicUrl": "https://www.snapchat.com/explore/footballchallenge",
  "seedKeyword": "football",
  "resolvedQuery": "football",
  "discoveredVia": "keywordHashtagTopic",
  "discoveryRank": 1,
  "expandedFromTopic": null,
  "expansionDepth": 0,
  "success": true,
  "scrapedAt": "2026-08-08T10:04:43.514Z"
}

discoveredLens and discoveredPublisher rows follow the same lineage shape, carrying lensName/lensId/lensIconUrl/lensUnlockUrl/lensCreatorName/isOfficialLens or publisherName/publisherDescription/publisherId/businessProfileId/subscriberCount/publisherUrl/publisherIconUrl respectively, written only when lenses or publishers is included in discoverySources.

🎯 How do you filter and target specific Spotlight videos?

Term vs. source selection. searchKeywords is free text — Snapchat, not the actor, decides what matches. discoverySources then controls what you collect for each match: pick spotlightVideos alone for a lean video-only run, or add creators and hashtagTopics when you also need who is posting and what related topics exist.

Scope precision. Three independent knobs widen scope past the first discovery page: expandHashtagTopics with topicExpansionDepth follows the topic graph outward from your term; expandDiscoveredCreators opens every discovered creator's own Spotlight set; startUrls adds specific known accounts regardless of what any keyword finds. Each carries its own per-term ceiling (maxTopicsPerKeyword, maxCreatorsPerKeyword, maxVideosPerCreator).

Quality thresholds. minViews and minSubscribers are applied to figures Snapchat already returned with the result, so filtered-out items cost nothing extra. oldestVideoDate drops videos published before a date or a relative window like "3 months".

Volume controls. maxResults is the hard ceiling for the whole run, maxVideoResolutions caps the completion step specifically, and skipDuplicates keeps the same video, creator or topic from being written twice when several terms surface it.

{ "searchKeywords": ["footballchallenge"], "discoverySources": ["hashtagTopics", "spotlightVideos"], "expandHashtagTopics": true, "topicExpansionDepth": 2, "maxTopicsPerKeyword": 5 }

{ "searchKeywords": ["makeup"], "discoverySources": ["creators"], "minSubscribers": 5000, "expandDiscoveredCreators": true, "maxCreatorsPerKeyword": 10, "maxVideosPerCreator": 5 }

{ "searchKeywords": [], "startUrls": ["realmadrid", "https://www.snapchat.com/@teamsnapchat"], "minViews": 10000, "oldestVideoDate": "1 month" }

▶️ Want to try other Snapchat scrapers?

Scraper name	What it extracts
Snapchat Spotlight Scraper By Link, ID Or Share URL	Full metadata for specific Spotlight videos you already have a link, ID or share URL for
Snapchat Popular Accounts Scraper: Story & Spotlight Content	Public profiles by keyword or URL, plus their Story and Spotlight items as individual listable snaps
TikTok Scraper With Repost Insights Data	TikTok profile videos, hashtag and keyword search, with repost analytics
Instagram Post Details Scraper With Engagement Data	Instagram post details with engagement figures
Pinterest Autocomplete Scraper — Topic Audience & Reach	Keyword-driven Pinterest topic suggestions with topic follower counts
Facebook Video Transcript Extractor By Keyword Search	Transcripts for public Facebook videos found by keyword, link or Page

How to extract Snapchat data programmatically

This actor runs like any Apify Actor: one authenticated call starts the run, and the results come back as structured JSON from the run's dataset.

├── Python example

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>")

run = client.actor("<store-username>/snapchat-user-spotlight-scraper-by-keyword-hashtag").call(
    run_input={
        "searchKeywords": ["football"],
        "discoverySources": ["spotlightVideos", "creators", "hashtagTopics"],
        "minViews": 5000,
        "maxResults": 200,
    }
)

for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    if item.get("type") == "spotlightVideo":
        print(item["spotlightUrl"], item["viewCount"], item.get("hashtags"))

└── Export to spreadsheets or CRM

Export the dataset as CSV directly from the Apify Console or the API, and map columns straight onto their JSON keys: username and displayName to a contact-name column, profileUrl to a link column, subscriberCount and viewCount to numeric columns, seedKeyword to whatever campaign or tag field your CRM uses to group the import.

⚖️ Is it legal to scrape Snapchat?

Scraping publicly available data, such as public Spotlight videos and public creator profiles, is generally permitted — this is the same position taken in hiQ Labs v. LinkedIn. This actor only reads pages Snapchat serves without a login: public discovery pages, public video pages and public profile pages.

Because the output includes personal identifiers — creator usernames, display names and profile links tied to individual accounts — data protection law can still apply once you store or reuse it. If your use involves EU or California residents, GDPR and CCPA govern the lawful basis for storing and using that personal data, separately from whether the data was public when collected. Scraping is also still subject to Snapchat's Terms of Service. Consult legal counsel for commercial applications involving bulk storage of personal data.

❓ FAQ

What happens when a keyword or account no longer has a page on Snapchat? You get a status row with outcome: "unavailable" and a plain explanation, and it is not charged. This is reported separately from "noResults" (Snapchat answered but had nothing for the term) and "notReachable" (no usable answer was received in this run) — a missing page, an empty answer and a failed attempt are never conflated.

Can I get creator accounts and hashtag topics along with the videos? Yes. Select creators and hashtagTopics in discoverySources alongside spotlightVideos, and each becomes its own row type in the same dataset, carrying the term that produced it.

How accurate are the view, share, comment and boost counts? viewCount, shareCount, commentCount, boostCount and recommendCount are Snapchat's own numeric figures at request time, not the rounded "415K"-style tile label — that label is kept separately as approxPlayCount precisely so it is never mistaken for the real number. Because these are live public counts, re-run the actor if you need a current reading rather than relying on a cached one.

How many rows can I get per run? Up to maxResults (0–100000, 0 means no ceiling). Each keyword's Snapchat discovery page returns one fixed page of results — the underlying public page has no cursor-based pagination — so scale comes from adding more keywords and known accounts and from enabling topic and creator expansion, not from paging a single term further.

How do I filter out low-quality creators and videos? minViews and minSubscribers apply to the figures already returned with each result, so unwanted rows cost nothing extra to exclude. Combine with oldestVideoDate to also drop older videos once resolveVideoDetails has filled in their publish dates.

Does Snapchat Spotlight Scraper work with Claude, ChatGPT and other AI agent frameworks? Yes, as a standard HTTP endpoint. Any agent framework that can make an authenticated Apify API call can start a run and read back the dataset; no dedicated MCP server is documented for this actor.

How does this differ from your other Snapchat scrapers? This one starts from a keyword or hashtag with no username needed. A sibling actor, Snapchat Spotlight Scraper By Link, ID Or Share URL, instead pulls one specific video you already have a link, ID or share URL for. Another sibling, Snapchat Popular Accounts Scraper, discovers profiles by keyword or URL and returns their Story and Spotlight items as individual listable snaps, rather than ranking Spotlight videos across the platform for a term.

Can I use this without a Snapchat account, login or API key? Yes. Every page this actor reads is public. You only need an Apify account to run it — no Snapchat credentials of any kind.

Does it download video files, or only metadata? Only metadata and URLs — contentUrl, thumbnailUrl, spotlightUrl and similar links. No video, image or audio file is downloaded or stored by the actor.

Can it reach private accounts or Snaps? No. It only reads what Snapchat's public discovery, profile and video pages already show; private content is never accessed.

Conclusion

Snapchat Spotlight Scraper By Keyword & Hashtag turns a keyword or hashtag into a structured, keyword-traceable set of Spotlight videos, creator accounts and hashtag topics — the step most Snapchat scrapers skip, since they assume you already know the handle. Influencer researchers, agencies and trend analysts use it to go from a topic idea to a filtered, ranked shortlist without touching a Snapchat login. Start a run from the Apify Console or the API with a single keyword to see the output shape before scaling up to a full keyword list.