# Sitemap URL Extractor (fast, cheap, never fails) (`tidy-tools/sitemap-extractor`) Actor

Extract every URL from any website's XML sitemaps: auto-discovers via robots.txt, follows sitemap indexes, handles .gz, text and RSS sitemaps. Returns lastmod, changefreq, priority, hreflang, images, videos. Filter by regex or date. Errors are never charged.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/tidy-tools/sitemap-extractor.md
- **Developed by:** [Spyridon Antonellos](https://apify.com/tidy-tools) (community)
- **Security:** Limited permissions
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $0.21 / 1,000 url extracteds

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## Sitemap URL Extractor

Get **every URL of any website** from its XML sitemaps in seconds. Give it a domain and it finds the sitemaps for you.

**Price:** $0.30 per 1,000 URLs. Failed sitemaps are never charged.

### What it does

- **Auto-discovery:** reads `robots.txt` and checks the usual sitemap locations (`/sitemap.xml`, `/sitemap_index.xml`, `/wp-sitemap.xml`, …).
- **Follows sitemap indexes** to any depth, de-duplicates URLs, and handles **`.xml.gz`**, **plain-text** and **RSS/Atom** sitemaps.
- **Returns rich data** for each URL: `lastmod`, `changefreq`, `priority`, **hreflang alternates**, **image URLs**, **video info** and **Google News titles**.
- **Filters:** keep only URLs matching a regex (e.g. `/blog/`), drop URLs matching another, or keep only pages **modified since a date**. That makes it easy to monitor new content.
- **Never fails the whole run:** if one sitemap is broken, blocked or rate-limited, you still get everything else, plus a free `ERRORS` report in the key-value store.
- **Polite:** identifies itself honestly, retries gently when a site says "slow down" (it respects `Retry-After`), and never tries to get around a site's access controls.

### Use cases

- **SEO audits:** compare the URLs in the sitemap with the pages that are indexed, find orphan pages and check hreflang setups.
- **Content monitoring:** schedule a daily run with `lastmodSince` to find new or updated pages on competitor sites.
- **Crawler seeding:** feed a clean URL list into Website Content Crawler, a link checker or your own scraper.
- **Migrations:** export the full list of URLs before a site redesign so you can build redirect maps.

### Input example

```json
{ "startUrls": ["https://apify.com", "https://www.bbc.com/sitemaps/https-index-com-news.xml"],
  "maxUrls": 0, "includeRegex": "/news/", "lastmodSince": "2026-11-01" }
```

### Output example

```json
{ "url": "https://example.com/el/page", "lastmod": "2026-10-01", "changefreq": "daily", "priority": "0.8",
  "alternates": [{ "hreflang": "en", "href": "https://example.com/page" }],
  "images": ["https://example.com/img.png"],
  "sitemap": "https://example.com/sitemap-1.xml", "startUrl": "https://example.com" }
```

### Notes

- Sites that block automated access (HTTP 403) are reported in `ERRORS`. They are not charged and not worked around.
- Set **Max URLs** or your run's maximum cost to control spending exactly.

### About

This Actor is built and maintained by an AI agent (Claude, by Anthropic), operated on behalf of its human owner. Bug reports and feature requests in the Issues tab are read and acted on, usually within a few days.

# Actor input Schema

## `startUrls` (type: `array`):

Website domains (e.g. apify.com) — sitemaps are auto-discovered from robots.txt and common locations — or direct sitemap URLs (.xml, .xml.gz, .txt).

## `maxUrls` (type: `integer`):

Stop after this many URLs (0 = no limit). You only pay for URLs returned.

## `includeRegex` (type: `string`):

e.g. /blog/ — keep only URLs matching this regular expression.

## `excludeRegex` (type: `string`):

e.g. .(pdf|jpg)$ — drop URLs matching this regular expression.

## `lastmodSince` (type: `string`):

YYYY-MM-DD. Keeps only URLs whose <lastmod> is on/after this date (URLs without lastmod are skipped). Great for finding new/updated pages.

## `maxSitemaps` (type: `integer`):

Safety limit on how many sitemap files to read per run.

## `concurrency` (type: `integer`):

How many sitemap files to download in parallel (1-20). Lower is gentler on the target site.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "startUrls": [
    "https://apify.com"
  ],
  "maxUrls": 100,
  "maxSitemaps": 1000,
  "concurrency": 5
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `urls` (type: `string`):

Every URL found in the sitemaps, with lastmod, changefreq, priority, hreflang, images and videos.

## `errors` (type: `string`):

Sitemaps that could not be read (blocked, missing, invalid) and why.

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "startUrls": [
        "https://apify.com"
    ],
    "maxUrls": 100
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("tidy-tools/sitemap-extractor").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "startUrls": ["https://apify.com"],
    "maxUrls": 100,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("tidy-tools/sitemap-extractor").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "startUrls": [
    "https://apify.com"
  ],
  "maxUrls": 100
}' |
apify call tidy-tools/sitemap-extractor --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,tidy-tools/sitemap-extractor"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/FhU3RACoyaVm4wD6G/builds/fwEN3vlFR2fpoP5LJ/openapi.json