Bluesky Scraper

Fast, low-cost scraper for Bluesky social network using the AT Protocol public API. Extracts posts, profiles, followers, follows, and search results. HTTP-only — no browser or headless rendering needed.

Why this scraper is cheap

Bluesky's AT Protocol exposes a fully public, unauthenticated API with generous rate limits (~3000 requests per 5 minutes). No proxy is required, no login needed, no anti-bot measures to bypass. This means:

• $0 proxy cost — direct HTTP requests
• 256 MB memory — no browser overhead
• ~1000 results per $0.01 of compute

Supported Actions

getProfiles

Fetch detailed profiles for a list of handles or DIDs.

Input:

{
    "action": "getProfiles",
    "handles": ["jay.bsky.team", "bsky.app"]
}

searchPosts

Search for posts matching a query.

Input:

{
    "action": "searchPosts",
    "searchQuery": "artificial intelligence",
    "sort": "top",
    "maxResults": 500
}

getAuthorFeed

Get posts from specific authors.

Input:

{
    "action": "getAuthorFeed",
    "handles": ["jay.bsky.team"],
    "filter": "posts_no_replies",
    "maxResults": 1000
}

searchActors

Search for users/profiles.

Input:

{
    "action": "searchActors",
    "searchQuery": "data scientist",
    "maxResults": 200
}

getFollowers

Get the followers of specified accounts.

Input:

{
    "action": "getFollowers",
    "handles": ["jay.bsky.team"],
    "maxResults": 5000
}

getFollows

Get accounts that the specified users follow.

Input:

{
    "action": "getFollows",
    "handles": ["jay.bsky.team"],
    "maxResults": 5000
}

getPostThread

Get a post and its replies (full thread).

Input:

{
    "action": "getPostThread",
    "postUrls": [
        "https://bsky.app/profile/jay.bsky.team/post/3abc123",
        "at://did:plc:abc123/app.bsky.feed.post/3xyz789"
    ]
}

Output Format

Profile output

{
    "type": "profile",
    "did": "did:plc:...",
    "handle": "jay.bsky.team",
    "displayName": "Jay",
    "description": "Building Bluesky",
    "avatar": "https://...",
    "followersCount": 150000,
    "followsCount": 500,
    "postsCount": 3200,
    "url": "https://bsky.app/profile/jay.bsky.team"
}

Post output

{
    "type": "post",
    "uri": "at://did:plc:.../app.bsky.feed.post/...",
    "authorHandle": "jay.bsky.team",
    "authorDisplayName": "Jay",
    "text": "Hello world!",
    "createdAt": "2024-01-15T10:30:00.000Z",
    "likeCount": 42,
    "repostCount": 5,
    "replyCount": 3,
    "quoteCount": 1,
    "images": [],
    "hasMedia": false,
    "url": "https://bsky.app/profile/jay.bsky.team/post/3abc123"
}

Input Configuration

Field	Type	Description	Default
action	enum	What to scrape (required)	—
handles	string[]	Bluesky handles or DIDs	—
searchQuery	string	Search term	—
postUrls	string[]	Post URLs (bsky.app or at:// URIs)	—
maxResults	integer	Max results per handle/query	100
sort	enum	Sort order for searchPosts	"latest"
filter	enum	Feed filter for getAuthorFeed	"posts_no_replies"
proxy	object	Proxy config (not needed!)	No proxy

Rate Limits

The AT Protocol public API allows ~3000 requests per 5 minutes. The scraper automatically:

• Adds a 50ms baseline delay between requests
• Handles 429 (Too Many Requests) with exponential backoff
• Retries on server errors (5xx)

Cost Estimation

Action	1000 items	Estimated cost
getProfiles	1000 requests	~$0.01
searchPosts	10 paginated requests	~$0.001
getAuthorFeed	10 paginated requests	~$0.001
getFollowers	10 paginated requests	~$0.001

No proxy cost. No browser cost. Just HTTP requests to a public API.

Pay-per-event pricing

This actor uses Apify pay-per-event pricing with a small Actor start charge and per-result events. Current event prices:

Event	Price
apify-actor-start	$0.00005
profile	$0.00003
search-post	$0.00002
author-feed-post	$0.00002
search-actor	$0.00003
follower	$0.00003
follow	$0.00003
thread-post	$0.00002