Mastodon Profile Scraper

Mastodon Profile Scraper 🔍

Mastodon Profile Scraper is a tool that extracts metadata from Mastodon profiles—including display names, bios, follower counts, and more—so you can quickly turn public Fediverse profiles into structured data. If you’re looking for a Mastodon profile scraper, a Mastodon scraper tool, or Fediverse profile scraper workflows, this actor helps automate profile lookup and data extraction at scale. Whether you’re a marketer, recruiter, or data enthusiast, Mastodon Profile Scraper saves you hours of manual work by fetching profile metadata for the handles you provide.

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Why choose Mastodon Profile Scraper?

Feature	Benefit
✅ Profile metadata extraction	Extracts profile details from Mastodon accounts in one run
✅ Input accepts Mastodon handles	Lets you submit handles like Mastodon or dataforleads@gmail.com directly
✅ Instance detection + fallback lookup	Improves success when accounts are on different instances by falling back when needed
✅ Structured output you can use immediately	Produces JSON objects that are easy to analyze or import into other tools
✅ Reliable scraping with proxy support	Uses built-in proxy support for more dependable requests
✅ Real-time saving per profile	Pushes each result as it’s processed so you don’t lose all progress

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Key features

• 📊 Structured JSON profile metadata: Returns account profile JSON for each provided handle.
• 🌐 Mastodon handle support: Accepts both plain handles (e.g., Mastodon) and handle-with-instance format (e.g., dataforleads@gmail.com).
• 🧭 Cross-instance lookup support: Detects the instance from dataforleads@gmail.com and includes a fallback lookup to improve coverage.
• 🛡️ Proxy support for resilient runs: Uses built-in proxy support to help with reliable fetching across batches.
• 🔄 Resilient processing flow: Includes error handling so failures are returned as result objects instead of breaking the entire run.
• 💾 Incremental result pushing: Saves each profile result immediately as it’s scraped, not only at the end.
• 🤖 Automation-friendly: Designed for automated Mastodon account scraping and data pipelines using the handles list as input.

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Input

Provide input via an input.json file. Example structure:

{
  "profile_ids": [
    "Mastodon",
    "warandpeas"
  ]
}

Input Fields

Field	Required	Description
profile_ids	Yes	A list of Mastodon handles to scrape. You can use a plain handle like Mastodon or an instance-qualified handle like dataforleads@gmail.com.

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Output

The actor saves each profile’s data in JSON format by pushing results as they’re processed.

Sample output for one profile (success or failure object is returned):

{
  "id": "1055539",
  "username": "mastodon",
  "acct": "mastodon@mastodon.social",
  "display_name": "Mastodon",
  "note": "Hello Fediverse!",
  "followers_count": 12345,
  "following_count": 678,
  "avatar_static": "https://example.com/avatar.jpg",
  "url": "https://mastodon.social/@mastodon"
}

If a lookup fails for a given handle, the actor pushes an error object shaped like this:

{
  "error": "Failed to fetch user@instance.social: Status 404",
  "profile_id": "user@instance.social"
}

Output Fields

Field	Type	Description
id	string	Account id from the profile metadata response (when successful).
username	string	The account username (when successful).
acct	string	The account handle in username@instance form (when successful).
display_name	string	Profile display name (when successful).
note	string	Profile bio text (when successful).
followers_count	number	Number of followers (when successful).
following_count	number	Number of accounts the user is following (when successful).
avatar_static	string	URL to the static avatar image (when successful).
url	string	Canonical profile URL (when successful).
error	string	Error message when the lookup fails or an exception occurs.
profile_id	string	The input handle that produced the error object.

Note: On success, the actor returns the full JSON from the Mastodon accounts/lookup endpoint for each profile id. On failure, it returns an error object containing error and profile_id.

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How to use Mastodon Profile Scraper (via Apify Console)

1. Open Apify Console
   Log in at https://console.apify.com and navigate to the Actors page.

2. Find the actor
   Search for Mastodon Profile Scraper and open the actor details page.

3. Go to the INPUT tab
   Use the built-in input form and set profile_ids to the list of Mastodon handles you want to scrape (e.g., Mastodon or dataforleads@gmail.com).

4. Review proxy behavior (if shown in your console UI)
   The actor uses built-in proxy support for more dependable requests during runs.

5. Click Run
   Start the run. You’ll see logs indicating which profile is being fetched.

6. Monitor progress in real time
   The actor pushes each profile result as it’s processed (so you can track outcomes per handle).

7. Open the OUTPUT / Dataset
   After the run completes, open the dataset created by the actor and inspect the JSON results (success objects or error objects).

8. Export as needed
   Export your dataset (e.g., JSON) for analysis, enrichment, or downstream processing.

No coding required—get structured Mastodon profile metadata in minutes.

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Advanced features & SEO optimization

• 🔎 Engineered for Mastodon profile scraping: Uses profile lookup and structured output, making it a strong Mastodon profile scraper tool for automated Mastodon profile harvesting.
• 🌐 Supports instance-qualified handles: Great for Mastodon username to profile scraper workflows where you want correct instance targeting from dataforleads@gmail.com.
• 🧰 Designed for resilience: Includes fallback lookup and error handling so you get per-handle results even when some profiles fail.
• 💾 Built for data pipelines: Works well as a Fediverse profile scraper step in research, enrichment, or ActivityPub profile scraper workflows—especially when you need consistent JSON records.

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Best use cases

• 📈 Lead generation enrichment: Quickly build a structured list of profile metadata for outreach targeting based on publicly visible bios and follower counts.
• 🧪 Fediverse research: Export Mastodon data extraction results for analysis of communities, branding, and account characteristics across instances.
• 🗞️ Brand monitoring: Track and compare profile bios and display names over time for competitors or collaborators.
• 🎯 Recruiting & community discovery: Use a Mastodon account scraping workflow to identify relevant creators, communities, and experts by profile metadata.
• 🧾 Data analyst projects: Feed structured JSON into your analysis pipeline to model relationships using followers and profile descriptions.
• 💻 Automation via API pipeline: Integrate Mastodon profile crawler output into ETL jobs and CRM-like systems for repeatable Mastodon profile export tasks.
• 🧠 Hashtag and bio studies: Use scraped bios as a basis for categorization when you’re scraping Mastodon bios and hashtags-related signals (from the profile note content).

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Technical specifications

• Supported Input Formats

  • ✅ profile_ids as an array of Mastodon handles
  • ✅ Handles can be plain (e.g., Mastodon) or instance-qualified (e.g., dataforleads@gmail.com)

• Proxy Support

  • ✅ Built-in proxy support for more reliable fetching during runs

• Retry Mechanism

  • ✅ Includes resilience via fallback lookup and exception handling (implementation details are handled internally)

• Dataset Structure

  • ✅ One pushed JSON result per profile id while processing the list

• Rate Limits & Performance

  • ✅ Uses a lightweight request flow with a small delay between profiles when scraping multiple accounts to improve run stability

• Limitations

  • ❌ If a profile lookup fails for a handle, you’ll receive an error object for that handle
  • ❌ Only publicly available profile metadata from the Mastodon lookup endpoint is returned

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FAQ

What does Mastodon Profile Scraper return?

✅ It returns JSON profile metadata for each handle you provide. The actor pushes the successful account lookup JSON per profile_ids entry, and for failures it pushes an error object containing error and profile_id.

Can I scrape profiles from different Mastodon instances?

✅ Yes. The actor accepts dataforleads@gmail.com-style handles. It detects the instance from your input and also includes a fallback lookup approach to improve coverage when initial fetches don’t succeed.

Do I need to provide full URLs or just handles?

✅ You can provide handles. Use plain handles like Mastodon or instance-qualified handles like dataforleads@gmail.com in profile_ids.

Is this suitable for automated Mastodon profile harvesting in bulk?

✅ Yes. You can pass a list of handles in profile_ids, and the actor pushes results incrementally as it processes them, which is useful for larger batches.

How do I use it in my own workflow?

💻 You can run it from Apify Console and export the resulting dataset. For programmatic use, you can integrate the actor into your pipeline and consume the JSON records it outputs.

What happens if a specific handle can’t be fetched?

✅ The actor pushes an error object for that handle with an error message and the original profile_id value, while continuing to process the remaining handles.

Is the scraped data publicly accessible?

✅ The actor is intended for extracting profile metadata from publicly available sources returned by the Mastodon API lookup. You should still verify your usage complies with applicable laws and platform terms.

Does it include email addresses?

❌ This actor extracts profile metadata returned by the Mastodon accounts/lookup response. It does not specifically extract or guarantee email fields.

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Support & feature requests

If you’re using Mastodon Profile Scraper for Mastodon data extraction, we’d love to hear what would make it better.

• 💡 Feature Requests: For example, enhancements like additional output shaping, pagination controls, or more dataset-friendly export options.
• 📧 Contact: Reach out at dataforleads@gmail.com.

Your feedback helps shape the roadmap for future Mastodon scraper tool improvements.

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Mastodon Profile Scraper — final thoughts

If you need a reliable Mastodon profile scraper for automated account lookups and structured JSON export, this is an excellent, SEO-optimized choice for your next Fediverse profile scraper workflow.

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Disclaimer

This tool only accesses publicly accessible sources. It does not access private profiles, authenticated data, or password-protected content.

You are responsible for ensuring your use complies with applicable laws (for example, GDPR or CCPA), spam regulations, and the platforms’ Terms of Service. For data removal requests, contact dataforleads@gmail.com.

Use Mastodon Profile Scraper responsibly, ethically, and for legitimate purposes only.