Twitter/X Followers Scraper

Scrape follower and following lists from any public Twitter/X account. Extract usernames, display names, bios, follower counts, verified status, profile pictures, and more.

What does this actor do?

This actor scrapes Twitter/X profiles and their follower/following lists using Nitter mirrors (open-source Twitter front-ends). No Twitter API key or authentication required.

For each target handle, the actor:

1. Scrapes the profile page (display name, bio, stats, verified status, join date)
2. Paginates through the follower list and extracts each follower's data
3. Optionally paginates through the following list too

Data extracted per follower

Field	Description
username	Twitter handle (without @)
displayName	Full display name
bio	Profile bio/description
followerCount	Number of followers
followingCount	Number of accounts they follow
verified	Whether the account has a verified badge
profilePicUrl	Profile picture URL
joinDate	Account creation date
listType	"profile", "followers", or "following"
targetHandle	Which handle this entry was scraped from

Use Cases

Influencer Analysis

Analyze an influencer's audience composition before committing to a sponsorship deal. Identify fake followers, engagement potential, and audience demographics.

Competitor Audience Research

Map out your competitors' follower bases to find shared audiences, untapped segments, and opportunities for targeted outreach.

Lead Generation

Extract follower lists from industry thought leaders to build targeted prospect lists. Filter by bio keywords (e.g., "CEO", "founder", "marketing") to find decision-makers.

Social Intelligence

Monitor who follows key accounts in your industry. Track audience growth and shifts over time by running periodic scrapes.

Network Mapping

Understand the social graph between key players in any niche. Identify mutual connections, community clusters, and bridge accounts.

Talent Sourcing

Find potential candidates by scraping followers of industry leaders, conference accounts, or community hubs in your target field.

Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
handles	Array of strings	Required	Twitter/X usernames to scrape (without @)
maxFollowers	Integer	100	Max followers to scrape per handle
scrapeFollowing	Boolean	false	Also scrape the "following" list
maxConcurrency	Integer	2	Concurrent requests (keep low)
proxyConfiguration	Object	None	Apify proxy settings

Example Input

{
    "handles": ["openai", "ycombinator", "paulg"],
    "maxFollowers": 200,
    "scrapeFollowing": true,
    "maxConcurrency": 2
}

How It Works

The actor uses a multi-strategy approach:

1. Nitter Instances (primary) — Probes 15+ public Nitter mirrors to find working instances, then scrapes follower/following pages as plain HTML. Handles pagination, rate limits, and automatic failover between instances.

2. Twitter Syndication API (fallback) — If all Nitter instances are down, attempts to retrieve basic profile data from Twitter's public syndication endpoint.

3. Instance Rotation — Distributes requests across multiple Nitter instances and automatically retries failed requests on alternative instances.

Rate Limit Handling

• Conservative request pacing (20 requests/minute max)
• Automatic detection of rate limit responses
• Failover to alternative Nitter instances when blocked
• Randomized User-Agent rotation (12 distinct browser signatures)

Output Example

[
    {
        "username": "openai",
        "displayName": "OpenAI",
        "bio": "Creating safe AGI that benefits all of humanity.",
        "followerCount": 4200000,
        "followingCount": 120,
        "tweetCount": 3500,
        "verified": true,
        "profilePicUrl": "https://pbs.twimg.com/...",
        "joinDate": "December 2015",
        "location": "San Francisco",
        "website": "https://openai.com",
        "listType": "profile",
        "targetHandle": "openai",
        "source": "nitter:nitter.net",
        "scrapedAt": "2026-03-01T12:00:00.000Z"
    },
    {
        "username": "johndoe",
        "displayName": "John Doe",
        "bio": "AI researcher at Stanford. Previously Google Brain.",
        "followerCount": 15200,
        "followingCount": 890,
        "verified": false,
        "profilePicUrl": null,
        "joinDate": null,
        "listType": "followers",
        "targetHandle": "openai",
        "source": "nitter:nitter.net",
        "scrapedAt": "2026-03-01T12:00:05.000Z"
    }
]

Tips for Best Results

• Start small: Test with maxFollowers: 20 first to verify the actor works with current Nitter instances.
• Use proxies: For large scrapes or multiple handles, enable Apify proxy configuration to rotate IPs.
• Keep concurrency low: Nitter instances are community-run and rate-limit aggressively. Keep maxConcurrency at 1-3.
• Nitter availability: Nitter instances go up and down frequently. The actor probes 15 instances automatically, but if all fail, try again later.
• Handle limits: Accounts with private/protected profiles cannot be scraped.
• Pagination: Nitter pages show ~20 followers per page. Scraping 1,000 followers requires ~50 page loads.

Limitations

• Depends on Nitter instance availability (community-run, may go offline)
• Rate limits vary by Nitter instance (typically 100-300 requests/hour)
• Private/protected accounts cannot be scraped
• Follower counts in individual entries may not always be available (depends on Nitter instance)
• Very large accounts (millions of followers) may take significant time to paginate

Cost

This actor uses the pay-per-event (PPE) pricing model:

• 1 event per profile scraped
• 1 event per follower/following entry scraped

Support

Found a bug or have a feature request? Open an issue on GitHub or contact us at ricardo.yudi@gmail.com.