# Substack Scraper — Posts, Likes, Paywall Status & Cadence (`tidyfeed/substack-scraper`) Actor

Every post a Substack publication lists, newest first, with likes, comments, restacks, word count, tags and whether it sits behind the paywall. Or one summary row per newsletter: how often it publishes, how much is paid, median engagement. Works on custom domains. No login, no API key.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/tidyfeed/substack-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [tidyfeed](https://apify.com/tidyfeed) (community)
- **Stats:** 3 total users, 2 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $2.10 / 1,000 posts

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?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
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.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## 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.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## Substack Scraper — Posts, Likes, Paywall Status & Cadence

**What does this newsletter actually publish, how often, and how much of it is behind the paywall?**

Every post a Substack publication lists, newest first, with likes, comments, restacks, word count, tags, author and whether it sits behind the paywall. Or flip the switch and get one summary row per newsletter — publishing cadence, paid share, median engagement — for a whole list of them in one run.

Works on `.substack.com` addresses and on custom domains alike. No API key. No login. No proxies.

***

### Two modes

**Posts — one row per post.** The default. Point it at a publication and get its archive as a table: title, subtitle, date, type (newsletter, podcast, thread), paywall status, likes, comments, restacks, word count, tags, authors, public excerpt, link. Turn on the body option and free posts come with their full text.

**Summary — one row per publication.** Give it twenty newsletters and get twenty rows you can sort: posts per week, share of paywalled posts, median likes and comments, median length, days since the last post, the tags it keeps returning to, and the subscriber band the publication states about itself.

Measured 11 September 2026 on three publications, summary mode, newest 100 posts each:

| Publication | Posts / week | Paid posts | Median likes | Median comments | Median words |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lenny's Newsletter | 0.78 | 75% | 335 | 10 | 2,955 |
| The Pragmatic Engineer | 2.41 | 62% | 156.5 | 5 | 3,935 |
| Noahpinion | 3.73 | 26% | 430 | 82.5 | 2,884 |

Three very different businesses, visible in one table.

***

### What you get

#### Posts mode

**The post** — `postTitle`, `subtitle`, `postUrl`, `postType`, `section`, `excerpt`, `coverImageUrl`, `postId`

**When** — `publishedAt`, `daysSincePublished`

**Who can read it** — `paywalled` (true/false) and the raw `audience` value Substack uses (`everyone`, `only_paid`, `founding`)

**Engagement** — `likes`, `comments`, `restacks`

**Content** — `wordCount`, `podcastDurationMin`, `tags`, `authors`, and `body` as plain text when you ask for it (free posts only — see below), with `hasFullText` telling you which rows have one

**Where it came from** — `publication` (the domain it actually lives on) and `publicationName`

#### Summary mode

`publication`, `publicationName`, `publicationAuthor`, `publicationUrl`, `subscribersBand`, `postsRead`, `postsLast30d`, `postsLast90d`, `postsPerWeek90d`, `paidPostsPercent`, `podcastPostsPercent`, `medianLikes`, `medianComments`, `medianWordCount`, `latestPostAt`, `daysSinceLastPost`, `oldestPostReadAt`, `topTags`, `authors`, `status`

***

### Typical uses

- **Size up a category of newsletters.** Summary mode on a list of competitors: who publishes daily, who has gone quiet, who charges for most of their writing, who gets the comments.
- **Track one publication over time.** Posts mode with a 7- or 30-day window on a schedule, and you have a dated log of every post and how it landed.
- **Find what works.** Sort a year of posts by likes or restacks and read the titles. Filter to free posts and pull the bodies for a content brief.
- **Check a sponsorship or partnership target.** Cadence, paid share and the publication's own subscriber band, before the call.

***

### Input

| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| `publicationUrls` | Newsletters to read. `https://www.lennysnewsletter.com`, `noahpinion.substack.com`, or just `noahpinion`. Custom domains work; a `.substack.com` address that has moved to a custom domain is followed there. |
| `mode` | `posts` (one row per post, default) or `summary` (one row per publication). |
| `daysBack` | `0` for no date filter; `30` for the last month. Applies in both modes. |
| `maxPostsPerPublication` | Cap per publication, newest first. Default 100; up to 5,000. In summary mode this is what the figures are computed from. |
| `includeBody` | Add the full text of free posts as plain text. One extra request per post. Posts mode only. |

Nothing else is needed. Substack serves the archive of every public publication without a login, and this actor reads exactly that.

***

### What it costs

**$3.00 per 1,000 posts** in posts mode, **$10.00 per 1,000 publications** in summary mode, plus $0.005 per run. Apify's Starter, Scale and Business plans get 10%, 20% and 30% off.

You pay for rows delivered, not for requests. A private publication, an address that is not on Substack, or a filter that matches nothing costs nothing. Fetching post bodies costs nothing extra.

For scale: one publication's whole archive is usually 100–600 posts, so a typical run is a few cents. Summary mode on 50 newsletters is 50 cents.

***

### How it works

Substack publishes every public newsletter's archive as JSON at `/api/v1/archive` — the same data the publication's own archive page is rendered from — and each post at `/api/v1/posts/<slug>`. This actor reads those two endpoints and nothing else: no HTML scraping of post pages, no browser, no proxies. That is why it is cheap and why it does not break when a publication changes its theme.

The archive is walked newest-first in pages of 50 until the date filter, the cap or the end of the archive is reached. Where a `.substack.com` address redirects to a custom domain, the redirect is followed and the row reports the domain the publication actually lives on.

The publication's name and its subscriber band come from the sentence Substack writes into every publication's page description — "a Substack publication with tens of thousands of subscribers". That band is the only size figure Substack makes public, and it is reported in the publication's own words rather than turned into a number.

***

### Honest limits

- **Paywalled posts never come with a body.** Substack's post endpoint will hand most of a paywalled post's text to anyone who asks. This actor does not ask. Paywalled rows carry the title, date, engagement and the public excerpt, `hasFullText` is `false`, and `body` is empty. If you need the text of a paid post, subscribe to the publication.
- **Likes, comments and restacks are the counts at the moment of the run.** They keep changing on Substack; a scheduled run gives you the curve.
- **`subscribersBand` is a band, not a number** — "thousands", "tens of thousands", "hundreds of thousands", "millions" — because that is all Substack publishes. It is blank when the publication has not stated one.
- **Cadence figures in summary mode are computed from the posts read.** If the cap is reached before the 90-day window is covered, `postsLast30d`, `postsLast90d` and `postsPerWeek90d` are left empty rather than reported as a floor, and `status` says so. Raise the cap to fill them in.
- **Private publications** (invite-only) answer with HTTP 403 and are reported as such, with no rows. **Publications that have left Substack** for another platform answer 404 and are reported the same way.
- **`tags` is empty for publications that do not tag their posts**, and `section` is empty for those without sections. That is the publication's choice, not missing data.
- **The whole archive can be long.** Daily publications have thousands of posts. The default cap of 100 keeps a first run quick; raise it when you want everything.

***

### Scheduling

Newsletters move weekly. Schedule posts mode with `daysBack: 7` on your list and every run adds the week's posts with their engagement at that moment; schedule summary mode monthly and you have a dated record of each publication's cadence and paid share over time.

***

### Legal

This actor reads only data that Substack serves publicly for each publication, at addresses it serves to anyone. It collects no personal data beyond author names the publication itself prints on its posts, requires no login, bypasses no access control, and never retrieves the text of paywalled posts. You remain responsible for how you use the exported data.

***

Questions, or a publication that behaves oddly? Open an issue on the actor — issues are read and answered.

# Actor input Schema

## `publicationUrls` (type: `array`):

The newsletters to read. Paste the address as you would type it in a browser — https://www.lennysnewsletter.com, https://noahpinion.blog or lenny.substack.com. Custom domains and the .substack.com address both work; a bare name like "lenny" is read as lenny.substack.com. No login or API key is needed.

## `mode` (type: `string`):

"Posts" gives one row per post. "Summary" gives one row per publication — publishing cadence, paid share, median likes and comments, top tags — computed from the posts it reads.

## `daysBack` (type: `integer`):

Leave at 0 for no date filter. Set 30 for a monthly check, 7 for a weekly one. Applies in both modes.

## `maxPostsPerPublication` (type: `integer`):

Upper limit per publication, newest first. A weekly newsletter has roughly 50 posts a year; some daily ones have thousands. In summary mode this is how many posts the figures are computed from.

## `includeBody` (type: `boolean`):

Adds the full text of each free post. Paywalled posts are never fetched — their row still carries title, date, engagement and the public excerpt. One extra request per post, so runs take longer. Posts mode only.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "publicationUrls": [
    "https://www.lennysnewsletter.com",
    "https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com",
    "https://www.noahpinion.blog"
  ],
  "mode": "posts",
  "daysBack": 0,
  "maxPostsPerPublication": 100,
  "includeBody": false
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `rows` (type: `string`):

No description

## `rowsCsv` (type: `string`):

No description

# 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 = {
    "publicationUrls": [
        "https://www.lennysnewsletter.com"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("tidyfeed/substack-scraper").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 = { "publicationUrls": ["https://www.lennysnewsletter.com"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("tidyfeed/substack-scraper").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 '{
  "publicationUrls": [
    "https://www.lennysnewsletter.com"
  ]
}' |
apify call tidyfeed/substack-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

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

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/YnYTdYBNb5RqGerCM/builds/A4a6APhJK0FdeEzD9/openapi.json