Substack Lead Gen Scraper

Substack lead scraper: newsletters, authors, subscribers, pricing and leaderboards

Get Substack newsletter leads in two ways: profiles for newsletters you already know, or whole category leaderboards. Paste links or pick a category, press Start, and download one row per newsletter with the author, subscriber count, pricing and activity.

$1.00 per 1,000 newsletters. No login, cookies or proxy needed.

Every extra (recommendations, contributors, full pricing, guests) is included at the same price.

Pick what to fill in

Fill one section, or both. Links and discovery can run together in one run.

You want	Fill in
Profiles for newsletters you already have	urls (newsletter, post or profile links)
The top paid newsletters of a category	category + newsletterType: "paid"
Newsletters trending right now	category + newsletterType: "rising"
Newsletters without a paid plan	category + newsletterType: "free"

Every input can be scheduled. Run it weekly and you have a leaderboard or prospect tracker.

Why this Substack lead scraper?

• 📊 Subscriber counts on every row, as text and as a number you can sort.
• 💵 Prices with their currency, so a $20 plan and a 20 euro plan never look the same.
• 🏆 Paid, rising and free leaderboards for all 33 Substack categories, up to 525 newsletters per board.
• 👤 The real owner as the author, not whichever staff writer posted last.
• 🔗 Who recommends whom: up to 99 newsletters recommending each one, with their authors.
• 🧾 Never billed twice. The same newsletter reached through two links is one row and one charge.

1. Newsletters: profiles for links you paste

Paste newsletter links (https://www.lennysnewsletter.com), post links, share links or substack.com/@handle profiles. Custom domains and .substack.com addresses both work.

Get one row per newsletter: name, description, logo, language, the owner's name, handle, bio and Twitter, subscriber count, paid status, monthly and yearly price, posting activity, and podcast and community flags.

Option	Field	Default	What it does
Max newsletters	maxResults	50	Up to 1,000, links and discovery together
Add posting activity	includeActivityMetrics	true	Last post date and posts per month

Extras (all optional, same price)

Extra	Field
Homepage links and a sponsorship signal	includeHomepageLinks
Who the newsletter recommends, and who recommends it	includeRecommendations
Co-authors and contributors	includeContributors
Every plan, the founding-member plan, group coupons	includeFullPricing
Payment state, pause date, spam, explicit and invite-only flags	includeHealthSignals
Guest authors from recent posts	includeGuests

Input

{
  "urls": ["https://www.lennysnewsletter.com", "https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com"],
  "includeRecommendations": true,
  "includeFullPricing": true
}

Output (one real row, selected fields)

{
  "name": "Lenny's Newsletter",
  "url": "https://www.lennysnewsletter.com",
  "substackUrl": "https://lenny.substack.com",
  "language": "en",
  "authorName": "Lenny Rachitsky",
  "authorHandle": "lenny",
  "twitterHandle": "lennysan",
  "subscriberCount": "1,200,000",
  "subscriberCountNumber": 1200000,
  "subscriberCountEstimate": "1.2M+",
  "paidSubscriberDetail": "Tens of thousands of paid subscribers",
  "bestsellerTier": 10000,
  "hasPaidSubscription": true,
  "monthlyPriceCents": 2000,
  "yearlyPriceCents": 20000,
  "priceCurrency": "USD",
  "lastPostDate": "2026-10-13T12:45:41.160Z",
  "estimatedPostsPerMonth": 3.4,
  "hasPodcast": true,
  "recommendsCount": 11,
  "recommendedByCount": 99,
  "foundingPlanName": "Insider Tier"
}

2. Discovery: a category's leaderboard

Pick a category, such as Technology, Culture or Finance, and a leaderboard.

Get the same row for every newsletter on the board, plus its rank and which board it came from.

Option	Field	Default	What it does
Category	category	empty	One of Substack's 33 categories
Leaderboard	newsletterType	all	paid, rising, free (no paid plan) or all (paid plus top, without repeats)
Max newsletters	maxResults	50	Substack shows up to 525 per board

The extras above work here too.

Input

{
  "category": "culture",
  "newsletterType": "paid",
  "maxResults": 100
}

Output (one real row, selected fields)

{
  "name": "Diabolical Lies",
  "url": "https://www.diabolicalliespod.com",
  "authorName": "Diabolical Lies",
  "authorHandle": "diabolicallies",
  "subscriberCount": "89,000",
  "subscriberCountNumber": 89000,
  "paidSubscriberDetail": "Tens of thousands of paid subscribers",
  "hasPaidSubscription": true,
  "monthlyPriceCents": 800,
  "priceCurrency": "USD",
  "estimatedPostsPerMonth": 2.6,
  "category": "Culture",
  "leaderboardRank": 2,
  "leaderboard": "paid"
}

Use it from an AI agent

Connect Claude, Cursor or any MCP client to Apify's MCP server with this scraper as a tool:

https://mcp.apify.com?tools=sourabhbgp/substack-lead-gen

Then ask in plain words. The agent fills in the input, and you pay the same per newsletter. For example:

• "Find 50 paid Business newsletters on Substack I could sponsor, with subscriber counts and prices."
• "Which Substack newsletters are trending in Culture right now?"
• "Check lennysnewsletter.com before I sponsor it: subscribers, price and how often it posts."
• "Who recommends The Pragmatic Engineer on Substack?"

What people use it for

• 📨 Outreach: contact newsletter owners with their name, handle and Twitter.
• 💰 Sponsorships: size an audience by subscribers and price before you pitch.
• 📈 Market research: map every paid newsletter in a category and what it charges.
• 🔗 Partnerships: follow the recommendations network to find related newsletters.
• 🚀 Trend spotting: watch the rising board each week for newsletters taking off.

How much does it cost?

One price for every newsletter row, the same on every Apify plan. All extras are included.

What you get	Per 1,000
Newsletter profiles	$1.00

Each run also costs $0.00005 to start.

• Free plan: your $5 monthly credit covers about 5,000 newsletters.
• Starter plan ($29): about 29,000 newsletters a month.

Limitations

• Up to 525 newsletters per leaderboard. That's as deep as Substack's boards go.
• Subscriber counts are Substack's displayed number, "over 1,200,000", so a floor that counts free and paid readers together. Some newsletters hide it.
• Up to 99 recommending newsletters per newsletter. Substack lists no more, so recommendedByCount stops at 99.
• No email addresses. Substack does not publish them.
• Invite-only newsletters can't be read. They come back as not found, with Substack's own message.

FAQ

How do I find Substack newsletters without coding?

Pick a category and a leaderboard, or paste newsletter links, and press Start. Download the results as Excel, CSV or JSON.

What is the difference between the leaderboards?

Paid is Substack's paid bestsellers. Rising is what's trending now. Free keeps newsletters without a paid plan. All is the paid board plus Substack's top board, with no newsletter twice.

Why did I get fewer newsletters than I asked for?

The board ran out. Substack shows up to 525 per board, and fewer once the free filter drops paid newsletters. The run's status message says so, and you pay only for rows delivered.

Do I need a Substack account or a proxy?

No. It reads only what any logged-out visitor can see, and handles blocks by itself.

Can I use it from code or an AI agent?

Yes. Call it through the Apify API, or connect it to an AI agent through Apify's MCP server.

Is scraping Substack legal?

It collects only what Substack shows any visitor, with no login. How you use the data is your responsibility, especially personal data such as author names when you contact people.

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