Substack Scraper

Get Substack posts as clean rows with likes, comments, restacks, word count and a paywall flag, for any newsletter’s full archive. Or discover newsletters about a topic.

What it does

• Reads each newsletter’s public archive, newest first (works with custom domains too).
• Flags paywalled posts; it never reads paid content.
• Filters by a posted-since date and limits posts per newsletter.
• Discover mode finds newsletters matching a search term, with description, language and whether they have a paid tier.
• Fixes the broken characters (like ’) that appear in some Substack text.

Why this one: Full archives with likes, comments, restacks and a paywall flag, a posted-since filter, newsletter discovery by keyword, and clean text (fixes broken characters).

In our last check, 20 runs over varied inputs succeeded 100% of the time.

Use cases

• Tracking what top newsletters in your field publish and what gets engagement
• Finding newsletters for sponsorships, guest posts or research
• Building a reading list or archive of a publication’s free posts

Input example

{
  "publications": [
    "https://www.lennysnewsletter.com",
    "https://www.noahpinion.blog"
  ],
  "postsPerPublication": 3,
  "maxItems": 6
}

• mode: posts or discover
• publications: names or URLs
• searchTerm: discover newsletters by topic
• postsPerPublication, postedSince

Output sample

Real results from a run of this Actor:

[
  {
    "publication": "https://www.lennysnewsletter.com",
    "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",
    "url": "https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-to-tell-if-a-startup-has-a-moat",
    "postedAt": "2026-10-13T12:45:41.160Z",
    "type": "newsletter",
    "audience": "only_paid",
    "isPaywalled": true,
    "likes": 372,
    "comments": 2,
    "restacks": 21,
    "wordCount": 4153,
    "authors": [
      "Dan Hockenmaier"
    ],
    "sourceUrl": "https://www.lennysnewsletter.com",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-10-27T19:58:45.840Z"
  },
  {
    "publication": "https://www.lennysnewsletter.com",
    "title": "All of the Lenny & Friends Summit talks are now online!",
    "subtitle": "Plus, some reflections and takeaways from the day",
    "url": "https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/all-of-the-lenny-and-friends-summit",
    "postedAt": "2026-09-29T13:15:57.512Z",
    "type": "newsletter",
    "audience": "everyone",
    "isPaywalled": false,
    "likes": 292,
    "comments": 8,
    "restacks": 5,
    "wordCount": 1276,
    "authors": [
      "Lenny Rachitsky"
    ],
    "sourceUrl": "https://www.lennysnewsletter.com",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-10-27T19:58:45.840Z"
  }
]

Fields:

• Posts: publication, title, subtitle, url, postedAt, type, audience, isPaywalled, likes, comments, restacks, wordCount, authors
• Discover: name, url, subdomain, description, language, paidSubscriptions, createdAt, author

Pricing

Pay per result: $3.00 per 1,000 results. You pay only for results you get; Apify platform costs are included. Set a maximum charge for a run and the Actor stops cleanly when it's reached, keeping everything collected so far.

Tips

• Use the newsletter’s own URL if it has a custom domain (e.g. https://www.lennysnewsletter.com).
• If a site redirects away or returns nothing, it may have moved off Substack.

FAQ

Do I need an account on Substack? No. It only reads public pages and data.

Does it get the full text of paid posts? No. It returns post details and the paywall flag, never paid content. Something broke or a field is missing? Open an issue on the Issues tab and include your run link. We fix scrapers quickly when sites change.

Legal

This Actor collects publicly available data only. You're responsible for using it lawfully and in line with Substack's terms.