Facebook Group Posts & Comments Scraper

Extract posts from public Facebook groups - no login, no cookies, no API token needed. Just provide group URLs and get structured post data. Optionally, also capture the people who comment on each post (repliers) - names, profiles, text, and phone numbers - which is ideal for lead generation.

What makes this scraper different?

Feature	This Scraper	Other Scrapers
Comments (repliers)	Optional: commenter name, profile, text, phone	Count only, or none
Images	All images per post (avg 4)	First image only or none
Posts per group	Up to 50 (cursor pagination)	3-5 per group
Speed	Parallel scraping (3 groups at once)	Sequential
Login required	No	No

Turn on Fetch comments to include repliers. To keep it cheap, the scraper reads the comment count from the feed and only opens the posts that actually have comments (posts with zero comments are skipped). | Private groups | Optional (with cookies) | Not supported |

Use Cases

• Real estate companies harvesting apartment-for-rent posts from local FB housing groups to build listing feeds competitors don't have
• Market researchers tracking brand mentions, sentiment, and trending topics across niche hobbyist and industry communities
• Recruiting teams monitoring jobs-wanted and jobs-offered groups to source passive candidates in tech, design, and trades
• E-commerce sellers scanning buy/sell/swap groups for product demand signals, price benchmarks, and resale opportunities
• Journalists and OSINT analysts archiving public posts with full image sets for reporting, fact-checking, and event reconstruction
• Community managers benchmarking engagement (likes, comments, shares) on competing groups to sharpen their own content strategy

What data can you extract?

Field	Description
text	Full post text content
url	Direct permalink to the post
time	ISO 8601 timestamp
user	Author info: { id, name }
imageUrl	First image URL (convenience)
images	All image URLs from the post
likesCount	Total reactions (likes, love, etc.)
commentsCount	Number of comments
sharesCount	Number of shares
comments	Repliers on the post (only when Fetch comments is on)
facebookUrl	Source group URL
groupTitle	Group name

Comments (repliers)

Turn on Fetch comments to also capture the people replying to each post — useful for finding buyers/renters who comment on listings (rent and sale). No login required. Each post gains a comments array:

"comments": [
  { "id": "10164677056970943", "authorName": "Dana L.", "authorId": "712056041",
    "authorUrl": "https://www.facebook.com/712056041",
    "text": "Interested! is it still available? 052-7902388", "phone": "0527902388",
    "time": "2026-06-30T12:34:00.000Z", "depth": 0 }
]

depth is 0 for a top-level comment, higher for replies. phone is any Israeli number found in the comment text. It costs one extra request per post (slower). Note: it captures the comments shown on the post page (the most recent/visible set), not deep pagination of very large threads.

How to use

1. Create a free Apify account
2. Open this scraper
3. Add one or more public Facebook group URLs
4. Set how many posts you want per group (default: 10)
5. Click Start and wait for results
6. Download in JSON, CSV, Excel, or HTML

Input example

{
  "startUrls": [
    { "url": "https://www.facebook.com/groups/webscrapingandautomation" },
    { "url": "https://www.facebook.com/groups/selftaughtprogrammers" }
  ],
  "maxPostsPerGroup": 10,
  "resultsLimit": 100
}

Output example

{
  "text": "Looking for a 2-bedroom apartment in downtown...",
  "url": "https://www.facebook.com/groups/123456/posts/789012/",
  "time": "2026-04-19T13:24:48.000Z",
  "facebookUrl": "https://www.facebook.com/groups/123456",
  "groupTitle": "Apartments for Rent",
  "user": {
    "id": "1751460557",
    "name": "John Smith"
  },
  "imageUrl": "https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/photo1.jpg",
  "images": [
    "https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/photo1.jpg",
    "https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/photo2.jpg",
    "https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/photo3.jpg"
  ],
  "likesCount": 5,
  "commentsCount": 12,
  "sharesCount": 2
}

Input options

Field	Type	Default	Description
startUrls	array	required	List of Facebook group URLs to scrape
maxPostsPerGroup	number	10	Max posts to extract per group (uses pagination)
resultsLimit	number	100	Total max posts across all groups
cookies	string	empty	Optional Facebook cookies for private group access
proxyCountry	string	US	Proxy country code (use group's country for best results)

How it works

This scraper uses Facebook's internal GraphQL API to extract structured post data. It:

1. Fetches the public group page to obtain CSRF tokens (no login needed)
2. Calls Facebook's GraphQL endpoint with cursor pagination
3. Parses the structured response to extract post data, images, and engagement metrics
4. Processes multiple groups in parallel for speed

All requests go through Apify residential proxies - no risk of IP blocking.

Private / closed groups

Public groups work straight out of the box, no cookies needed.

For private or closed groups, the scraper needs to act as a logged-in Facebook user who is already a member of that group. There is no way around this: Facebook only exposes private-group posts to members, and we cannot join groups on your behalf.

To scrape a private group, paste your Facebook session cookies into the cookies field. The account those cookies belong to must already be a member of the group before you run the scraper.

How to copy your Facebook cookies

Easiest — via a browser extension:

1. Install a cookie-export extension. Two popular ones:
   • Cookie-Editor (Chrome / Edge / Brave / Firefox)
   • EditThisCookie
2. Log in to facebook.com with the account that is a member of the group.
3. Click the extension icon while you're on facebook.com.
4. Choose Export → Header String (or "Copy as HTTP header" depending on the extension).
5. Paste the result into the cookies field of this actor.

Both export formats work: if your extension only offers Export as JSON, paste that JSON output directly into the cookies field and the actor will convert it automatically.

Manual — via your browser's developer tools:

1. Open facebook.com and log in with the account that is a member of the group.
2. Press F12 (or right-click anywhere on the page → Inspect).
3. Open the Application tab (Chrome / Edge / Brave) or the Storage tab (Firefox).
4. In the left sidebar, expand Cookies and click on https://www.facebook.com.
5. Find these rows and copy each one's Value: c_user, xs, datr, fr, sb.
6. Paste them into the cookies field as one line separated by ; , like:

   c_user=12345; xs=abcd; datr=efgh; fr=ijkl; sb=mnop
   

What if I get 0 posts?

If the run completes successfully but returns zero posts, the log will tell you why. The most common causes:

• "cookies were accepted but the account is NOT a member" → the Facebook account those cookies came from needs to JOIN the group first.
• "cookies expired or invalid" → log out and back in to Facebook, then re-copy the cookies.
• No error, just an empty feed → the group is accessible but has no recent posts in the chronological feed.

Security note

These cookies grant full access to your Facebook account. Apify encrypts the cookies field at rest, but you should still treat it like a password. Don't share runs that contain these cookies, and rotate the session (log out + log in) if you're worried.

Pricing

This scraper uses Apify's pay-per-result pricing. You only pay for the posts you extract - no wasted compute on empty pages or failed requests.

FAQ

Q: Do I need a Facebook account? No. This scraper works without login for public groups.

Q: How many posts can I get per group? Up to 50 per group using cursor pagination. Default is 10.

Q: Can I scrape private groups? Yes, but the Facebook account whose cookies you paste must already be a member of the group. Facebook only shows private-group posts to members, so we cannot scrape a private group on your behalf without member-level access. See the "Private / closed groups" section above for how to copy your cookies.

Q: Will my IP get blocked? No. All requests go through Apify's residential proxy network, which rotates IPs automatically.

Q: What languages are supported? All languages. The scraper extracts raw text content regardless of language.

Integrations

Export data via API, webhooks, or integrate with:

• Google Sheets, Slack, Zapier, Make
• Python & Node.js SDKs
• Any app via Apify API

Keywords

Facebook group scraper, Facebook posts API, FB group data extractor, Facebook public groups scraper, social media monitoring, Facebook group posts, scrape Facebook without login, FB group content export, Facebook OSINT tool, social listening Facebook, Facebook group analytics, Facebook community data