Facebook Followers/Following Scraper

The Actor lists the accounts following a public Facebook Page, or the accounts that Page itself follows, exactly as Facebook shows them to a logged-out visitor. No Facebook account, login, or session cookie is used; nothing is read that an anonymous visit to the Page's Followers or Following tab would not already show.

Accepted input

page is required and accepts a list of Page usernames, numeric IDs, or full facebook.com/<page>/ URLs, one per line; duplicates are collapsed before any request is made. collection chooses which list is read — followers (default) or following. maxItems (default 50) bounds the number of accounts saved per Page; 0 continues until Facebook stops returning a next page.

{
  "page": ["NASA", "https://www.facebook.com/unicef/"],
  "collection": "followers",
  "maxItems": 100
}

Result fields

Each row carries page, id, name, subtitle, url, isVerified, imageUrl, totalCount, and raw. raw carries the complete record Facebook returned, beyond what appears in the fields above.

The example below illustrates field shapes; it is not captured from a live run.

{
  "page": "NASA",
  "id": "100064467884671",
  "name": "Jane Whoever",
  "subtitle": null,
  "url": "https://www.facebook.com/jane.whoever",
  "isVerified": false,
  "imageUrl": "https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/v/...",
  "totalCount": 41823012
}

subtitle is Facebook's own secondary line beneath the name where the list entry carries one — a mutual-friend count or shared network, typically — and is null when it does not. isVerified reflects whether the account carries Facebook's verification badge, not whether it follows under a real name.

How much of a list is returned

Facebook's followers and following surface pages 8 accounts at a time. The Actor walks that pagination automatically, request after request, until maxItems is reached, Facebook stops returning a next page, or a cursor repeats. Facebook also reports a total count for the collection alongside the first page it serves. That figure is stamped on totalCount on every row the run produces — not logged once and left out of the export — so an exported CSV still shows how large the collection was against however many rows were actually saved. It can be larger than the number of rows a run produces — when maxItems is reached first, or when Facebook's pagination stops advancing before the reported figure.

Fetching each account's full profile

addonAccountProfile (default false) is opt-in. When set, each listed account's own Page record and About details are fetched and attached under accountProfile on that row, on top of the thin record the followers or following list itself carries.

This costs one extra request per row, billed as an additional event at $0.006 per row, on top of the Actor's usual per-result price. It is charged only for a row that is actually enriched; a lookup that fails is not billed. It defaults to off, so a run that only needs names and links is not charged for it.

{
  "page": "NASA",
  "collection": "followers",
  "addonAccountProfile": true
}

Behaviour on partial results

Each Page's list is a separate paginated series of requests. A Page that cannot be resolved — because the username or ID does not exist, or the Page is not public — is logged as a warning and skipped, and the run continues with the rest of the list.

Public, logged-out data only

Everything returned here is visible on a Page's own Followers or Following tab to somebody who is not signed in. The Actor does not use a Facebook account, login, or cookie, and returns nothing for a Page whose Followers or Following list is not publicly visible.

Frequently asked questions

Why does a Page report more followers than the run collected? Facebook states the collection's total on the first page independently of how far the pagination actually gets before stopping. A maxItems bound reached first, or a page that repeats a cursor instead of advancing to a new one, ends the run before totalCount is reached — a difference in how far the pagination got, not a parsing gap.

Can followers and following be collected in the same run? Not in a single run: collection selects one list. Run the Actor twice, once with each value, to get both.

What does addonAccountProfile cost on a bulk job? One extra request and one billable event per row, at $0.006 a row. On a large export that is the dominant cost — a 10,000-row job with the add-on on is 10,000 extra requests. Export the thin list first, then enrich only the accounts worth the extra depth.

Is a Facebook account or login required? No. Only the Followers and Following tabs, and the listed accounts' own public profiles when addonAccountProfile is on, are read — all of it visible to a logged-out visitor.

What this is useful for

Sizing and sampling a Page's follower base for competitor or partner research; checking who a Page follows to map its network of affiliated accounts; and building a lightweight audience snapshot without needing Business Manager access to the Page.

Related Actors

Actor	Purpose
Facebook Page Scraper	Profile, About and Transparency details for a Page
Facebook Posts Scraper	Timeline posts for a Page
Facebook Marketplace Scraper	Marketplace listings by category