Mastodon Posts & Hashtags Scraper: Hashtag Timeline Export

Mastodon Hashtag Timeline Exporter: Posts, Accounts & Trends

Use this to scrape Mastodon posts by hashtag, export any account's timeline, look up profiles in bulk, and pull trending posts and hashtags from any Mastodon instance, with full engagement counts, media, link cards and timestamps. It reads the official public Mastodon REST API that every instance exposes. No login, no cookies, no API key, no proxy.

Every post row carries 46 fields: the full text (plain text and original HTML), author handle, display name, follower count, following count and post count, replies / boosts / favourites counts, language, hashtags, mentions, media attachments with URLs and alt text, the link preview card, poll options, reply and boost flags, timestamps and a ready-to-open URL. Every profile row carries followers, following, post counts, bio, join date, last post date and profile fields. Hashtag rows carry daily and seven-day usage numbers.

Run in 30 seconds

1. Open the Input tab. The prefilled values (mode Posts for hashtags, hashtag python, instance mastodon.social, 25 results) are a ready-to-run test.
2. Click Start. The first dataset is normally ready in about 10 seconds.
3. Open the Posts table in the Output tab, or download the dataset as JSON, CSV, Excel or HTML.
4. Change What to scrape to switch between hashtags, an account's timeline, profile lookups, trending posts, trending hashtags and search.

What does this Actor do?

Mastodon is a federated social network: thousands of independent servers (instances), each with its own public API. This Actor wraps the public endpoints of that API into one pay-per-result tool with nine modes:

Mode	Input	Returns
Posts for hashtags	Hashtags, one or many instances	Recent public posts that use the tag
An account's posts	Usernames, full handles or profile URLs	The account's timeline (optionally without replies or boosts)
Account profiles	Usernames, handles or profile URLs	One enriched profile row per account
Trending posts	Instances	The instance's trending posts
Trending hashtags	Instances	Trending tags with daily and 7-day usage
Search accounts	Keywords	Accounts matching the keywords
Search hashtags	Keywords	Hashtags matching the keywords, with usage
Public timeline	Instances	The local or federated public timeline, where the instance allows it
Search posts	Keywords	Post search, where the instance allows it

Public timeline and post search are switched off for anonymous callers on many large instances (mastodon.social answers with "This method requires an authenticated user"). When that happens the Actor does not fail: it ends cleanly and tells you in the run status that the instance requires a login for that endpoint, and charges nothing. Hashtag timelines, account timelines, profiles, trends and account and hashtag search work without login on mastodon.social and most other instances.

Why use it

• 46 fields per post, including the original HTML, plain text, spoiler text, sensitivity, visibility, edit time, application name, all media attachments (type, URL, preview URL, alt text), the link preview card (URL, title, description, image, provider), poll options with vote counts, mentions, and the author's follower, following and post counts on every row.
• Many instances in one run. List mastodon.social, fosstodon.org, infosec.exchange and any other server in one input. Each is queried through its own public API and every row records its instance.
• Proper pagination. Pages follow the Link header the API returns, so large pulls walk the full timeline rather than stopping after the first page.
• Polite by design. Requests are serial and spaced, the Actor reads X-RateLimit-Remaining and waits for the window to reset when an instance is nearly out of requests, and it honours Retry-After on HTTP 429 and backs off on server errors.
• Boosts handled correctly. A boost row reports the original post's content and counts, flags isBoost and names the booster in boostedBy, so engagement numbers are not blank.
• Filters that save money. Date range, language, minimum favourites, replies, boosts and media filters are applied before charging. Skipped rows and duplicates are never billed.
• Predictable cost. One flat price per row. The Actor respects your "Maximum cost per run" setting exactly and stops cleanly when it is reached.

Input

• What to scrape: the mode above.
• Mastodon instances: server hostnames such as mastodon.social, fosstodon.org, mas.to. Default mastodon.social.
• Hashtags: with or without the #.
• Accounts: Gargron, @Mastodon@mastodon.social or https://fosstodon.org/@nixCraft. A bare username is looked up on the first instance in the list.
• Search terms: keywords for the search modes.
• Max results: total rows to return (1 to 100,000), shared evenly across hashtags, accounts and instances.
• Posted since / until, Language, Minimum favourites, Only posts with media, Local posts only, Exclude replies, Exclude boosts.

Example input

Hashtag monitoring across instances:

{
  "mode": "hashtagPosts",
  "hashtags": ["opensource", "infosec"],
  "instances": ["mastodon.social", "fosstodon.org", "infosec.exchange"],
  "language": "en",
  "since": "2026-10-01",
  "maxItems": 500
}

An account's original posts only:

{
  "mode": "accountPosts",
  "accounts": ["Gargron", "@Mastodon@mastodon.social"],
  "excludeReblogs": true,
  "maxItems": 200
}

What is trending today:

{
  "mode": "trendingTags",
  "instances": ["mastodon.social", "mas.to"],
  "maxItems": 40
}

Output sample

A post row (shortened):

{
  "recordType": "post",
  "instance": "mastodon.social",
  "id": "117527140766746513",
  "url": "https://post.lurk.org/@IllestPreacha/117527140633626529",
  "createdAt": "2026-10-30T00:57:28.000Z",
  "text": "RangeOfQuintain ... coded in #Python ...",
  "language": "en",
  "authorHandle": "IllestPreacha@post.lurk.org",
  "authorFollowers": 1234,
  "repliesCount": 0,
  "reblogsCount": 2,
  "favouritesCount": 5,
  "hashtags": ["mathober", "python", "poetry"],
  "mediaType": null,
  "cardTitle": null,
  "isReply": false,
  "isBoost": false,
  "query": "#python",
  "source": "hashtag"
}

Profile rows carry authorHandle, authorDisplayName, text (bio), authorFollowers, authorFollowing, authorPostsCount, createdAt, lastPostAt, locked, discoverable and profileFields. Hashtag rows carry hashtag, usesToday, accountsToday, uses7d, accounts7d and a daily history. Fields that do not apply to a row type are null.

Use cases

• Brand and topic monitoring. Schedule a daily run on your brand hashtags with a start date of yesterday, and send new posts to Slack or a sheet.
• Trend research. Pull trending hashtags and posts from several instances every day and compare what each community cares about.
• Community and academic datasets. Collect public posts on a topic with language and date filters, with engagement counts to separate signal from noise.
• Influencer and account analysis. Look up profiles in bulk with follower counts, join dates and last-post dates, then export timelines to check engagement per post.
• Link and news tracking. The link preview card on each row shows which articles and sites are being shared under a hashtag.
• Fediverse growth tracking. Run Profiles on a schedule and compare follower counts over time.

Tips for good results

• Start with a small Max results (25 to 50) to confirm the hashtag returns what you expect, then scale up.
• Hashtag timelines are time-ordered, newest first. Set Posted since and the Actor stops paging as soon as it passes that date.
• Use several instances for more coverage: each instance only sees posts that federated to it.
• Across runs, deduplicate on url or on instance plus id. Inside one run duplicates are removed automatically.
• The Actor runs fine with 256 MB of memory.

Field reference

Post rows. id, url and uri identify the post; createdAt and editedAt give the times; text is plain text and html the original markup; spoilerText, sensitive, visibility and language describe it. authorHandle (always user@instance), authorUsername, authorDisplayName, authorUrl, authorFollowers, authorFollowing, authorPostsCount, authorBot, authorCreatedAt and authorAvatar describe the author. repliesCount, reblogsCount and favouritesCount are the engagement counters. isReply, inReplyToId, isBoost and boostedBy describe the thread position. hashtags, mentions, mediaType, media, cardUrl, cardTitle, cardDescription, cardImage, cardProvider, pollOptions, pollVotes and application carry the content details. query, source, instance and scrapedAt record where the row came from.

Profile and hashtag rows. See the Output sample above; the dataset tables in the Output tab show the main columns for each type.

Pricing and cost control

Pay per result: $0.000428 per row on the free plan, falling to $0.000372 on the Gold plan (Bronze $0.000409, Silver $0.000391), plus a $0.00005 start fee per run. There are no subscriptions, proxy fees or compute add-ons. Set "Maximum cost per run" to cap spend.

How this compares with the other Mastodon scrapers (live Store prices read through the Apify API on 2026-10-29, free-plan rate, 1,000-row run including start fees):

Actor	Users	Per row	Start fee	Cost for 1,000 rows
This Actor	new	$0.000428	$0.00005	$0.43
goat255/mastodon-scraper	23	$0.00046	$0.00115	$0.46
newpo/mastodon-scraper	195	$0.001	$0.01	$1.01

We are cheaper than both at the free-plan rate and at every paid plan level (the 7% margin holds against the other Actor's own Bronze, Silver and Gold rates). Our run of 25 rows on the Apify platform completed in about 4 seconds of run time.

Limits

• Up to 100,000 rows per run (the Max results setting).
• Public API endpoints only. Public timeline and post search are refused for anonymous callers on many large instances; then the run ends with a status message and charges nothing.
• Requests are serial and spaced, and the Actor waits when an instance reports it is nearly out of requests. A run stops starting new work after about 4.5 minutes and keeps what it has delivered.
• Each instance only holds posts that federated to it, so one instance never shows everything on a hashtag; list several instances for wider coverage.
• Private, followers-only and direct posts are never returned.

Integrations and scheduling

Schedule the Actor from the Schedules tab (hourly, daily, weekly) to build a monitoring feed. Send results onward with the Apify integrations for Slack, email, Google Sheets, Make, Zapier or n8n, or call the Actor from your own code through the REST API. The Open API tab has ready-to-copy snippets.

Fair use and data

The Actor reads the official public Mastodon REST API of the instances you name, using only endpoints that are open to anonymous clients, and returns data that is already publicly visible. It does not log in, does not read private or followers-only posts, and spaces its requests politely, backing off when the server asks it to slow down. Each instance sets its own terms and rate limits; you remain responsible for using the data lawfully and in line with the rules of the instances you query and with privacy law such as the GDPR when you process personal data.

Use with the API, n8n, Make, Zapier or AI agents

API (one call, returns the rows as JSON):

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/transparent_meteorite~mastodon-posts-hashtags-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"mode":"hashtagPosts","hashtags":["python"],"instances":["mastodon.social"],"maxItems":25}'

The call waits up to 5 minutes. For bigger inputs, start the run with /runs instead and read the dataset when it finishes.

Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient
client = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("transparent_meteorite/mastodon-posts-hashtags-scraper").call(run_input={"mode": "hashtagPosts", "hashtags": ["python"], "instances": ["mastodon.social"], "maxItems": 25})
for row in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(row)

• n8n, Make, Zapier: use the Apify app's "Run Actor" step with actor transparent_meteorite/mastodon-posts-hashtags-scraper, paste the input JSON, then map the dataset items to your sheet or CRM.
• Clay: add an HTTP API column that calls the run-sync endpoint above.
• Schedules: in Apify Console, Schedules, run it daily or weekly with the same input for a steady feed.
• AI agents (MCP): connect the Apify MCP server at https://mcp.apify.com?tools=transparent_meteorite/mastodon-posts-hashtags-scraper to Claude, Cursor or any MCP client, and your agent can run Mastodon Hashtag Timeline Exporter on request.

FAQ

Do I need a Mastodon account or API token? No. Everything comes from public endpoints.

Why did Public timeline or Search posts return nothing on mastodon.social? That instance requires a login for those two endpoints. The run ends cleanly with a clear status message and charges nothing. Use Posts for hashtags, which is open, or name an instance that allows anonymous access.

Can it read posts from any instance? Yes, any instance whose public API is reachable. An instance can restrict or disable endpoints; you get a clear message in the run status in that case.

Does it return private or followers-only posts? No. Only public posts that the API serves to anonymous callers.

What happens when an account does not exist? It is skipped, a warning is logged and noted in the run output, and nothing is charged for it.

What happens if I hit my maximum cost per run? The Actor stops cleanly, keeps what it already delivered and shows a clear message in the run status.

Why did my run return fewer rows than Max results? The hashtag, date range or filters matched fewer posts than you asked for. The final status message says so.

Can I run it from code or no-code tools? Yes: the Apify API and client libraries, plus Make, Zapier, n8n and Google Sheets integrations all work with any Actor.

Related actors

• Bluesky Scraper: Posts, Profiles, Followers & Feeds for Bluesky posts and profiles.
• Hacker News Scraper for Hacker News stories, comments and Who is hiring threads.
• Lemmy Scraper: Communities, Posts & Comments for Lemmy communities and posts.
• Threads Profile Scraper for Meta Threads accounts.
• TikTok Public Profile Scraper for TikTok creators.
• YouTube Channel Scraper for channels and subscriber counts.

Support

Found a bug or need a field? Open an issue on the Issues tab with the run URL and you will get a reply there. Feature requests are welcome.

Changelog

• 0.2: Nine modes, multi-instance runs, Link-header pagination, rate-limit and Retry-After handling, clear message when an instance requires login, charge-limit and soft-timeout handling.