Substack Scraper

Returns every post from any Substack newsletter as a table you can export to CSV, Excel or JSON or read through the API.

Give it a newsletter name, a substack.com address, a custom domain or any post link. It reads the publication's public archive, newest posts first, and can also pull the full text of each post.

How it behaves

It uses Substack's public JSON endpoints with plain HTTP requests. There's no browser, no login and no proxy, so runs are fast and cheap, and the default memory is 256 MB.

Custom domains work the same as *.substack.com addresses. A post link is turned into its publication, so you can paste whatever URL you have.

Posts that show up twice in the archive (pinned posts, for example) are saved once.

Paid posts are listed with all their metadata. Their text is only the free preview a logged-out reader sees, and those rows have contentIsPreview: true.

If one publication fails (a typo, or a site that isn't on Substack), the error goes to the log and the Actor moves on to the next one.

What people use it for

• Newsletter research: what a writer publishes, how often, and which posts get the most likes, comments and restacks
• Competitor and market tracking: schedule it with "Posted since" to get only new posts
• Sponsorship and outreach: sizing up newsletters before pitching them
• Content analysis and AI datasets: the full text of free posts as HTML and plain text
• Archiving a newsletter you write or subscribe to

Input

Field	What it does
Substack publications	Names (lenny), handles (@lenny), subdomains (lenny.substack.com), custom domains (www.lennysnewsletter.com) or any post URL.
Max posts per publication	Newest posts first. 0 means the whole archive.
Posted since	Keeps only posts published on or after this date, for example 2026-01-31.
Include full post text	Adds contentHtml and contentText. This makes one extra request per post.

Example input:

{
    "publications": ["www.lennysnewsletter.com", "astralcodexten"],
    "maxPostsPerPublication": 50,
    "postedSince": "2026-01-01",
    "includeContent": false
}

Output

One row per post:

{
    "id": 219482066,
    "publication": "https://www.lennysnewsletter.com",
    "url": "https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-to-tell-if-a-startup-has-a-moat",
    "title": "How to tell if a startup has a moat",
    "subtitle": "A framework for assessing whether the company you're considering joining is built to last",
    "slug": "how-to-tell-if-a-startup-has-a-moat",
    "postDate": "2026-10-13T12:45:41.160Z",
    "type": "newsletter",
    "audience": "only_paid",
    "isPaid": true,
    "authors": ["Dan Hockenmaier"],
    "tags": ["Career"],
    "section": null,
    "wordcount": 4153,
    "reactionCount": 350,
    "commentCount": 2,
    "restacks": 18,
    "coverImage": "https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/...",
    "description": "A framework for assessing whether the company you're considering joining is built to last"
}

With "Include full post text" on, each row also has contentHtml, contentText and contentIsPreview.

type is newsletter, podcast or thread. audience is everyone for free posts, and only_paid or founding for paid ones.

Pricing

You pay per post saved. Posts with full text cost more because each one needs an extra request. See the pricing tab for current prices. If you set a spending limit on the run, the Actor stops before going over it.

Limits

• Only public data. It can't read paid content, subscriber lists or private posts.
• Substack doesn't publish this API, so it may change. If a run breaks, report it in the Issues tab.
• Comments and Substack Notes aren't included.