# Medium Scraper — Articles by Author, Publication or Tag (`vulcandata/medium-scraper`) Actor

Extract Medium articles with title, subtitle, author, publication, claps, responses, reading time, tags, member-only flag and optional full text of free stories. Works from any Medium profile, publication, tag or story URL.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/vulcandata/medium-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Sergey Lutsak](https://apify.com/vulcandata) (community)
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $2.10 / 1,000 story scrapeds

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

## Medium Scraper — Articles by Author, Publication or Tag

Extract Medium stories with full metadata — title, subtitle, author, publication, claps, responses, reading time, tags, member-only flag — from any **author profile**, **publication**, **tag** or **single story URL**. Optionally include the full text of free stories. No login, no cookies: only Medium's public endpoints, so runs are fast and cheap.

### Use cases

- **AI agents & RAG pipelines** — pull the latest stories on a tag or from an author as clean JSON with plain-text content, ready for embedding or summarization.
- **Content & marketing research** — track what competitors, thought leaders or publications publish, how much engagement (claps, responses) each story gets and which tags they use.
- **Newsletter and curation** — monitor a set of authors and publications on a schedule and get new stories as they appear.
- **Analytics** — build datasets of publishing frequency, reading time and engagement per author or topic.

### Input

| Field | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| `startUrls` | array | — | Medium URLs: `https://medium.com/@username`, `https://username.medium.com`, `https://medium.com/publication-slug`, `https://medium.com/tag/tag-name`, or a story URL |
| `maxItems` | integer | 50 | Hard cap on stories across all start URLs — you are charged only for stories actually returned |
| `includeContent` | boolean | false | Add `content_text` (plain-text paragraphs). Member-only stories return the public preview only |
| `tagSort` | `latest` / `top` | `latest` | Sorting for tag URLs |
| `proxy` | object | Apify datacenter proxy | Proxy configuration |

```json
{
  "startUrls": [
    { "url": "https://medium.com/@barackobama" },
    { "url": "https://medium.com/tag/artificial-intelligence" }
  ],
  "maxItems": 100,
  "includeContent": false
}
```

### Output (one item)

```json
{
  "id": "5623e38aa89",
  "url": "https://medium.com/the-atlantic/im-not-yet-ready-to-abandon-the-possibility-of-america-5623e38aa89",
  "title": "I’m Not Yet Ready to Abandon the Possibility of America",
  "subtitle": "I wrote my book for young people — as an invitation…",
  "author": { "id": "9e422a605dc5", "name": "Barack Obama", "username": "barackobama", "url": "https://medium.com/@barackobama" },
  "publication": { "id": "3666ec396666", "name": "The Atlantic", "slug": "the-atlantic", "url": "https://medium.com/the-atlantic" },
  "published_at": "2020-11-16T23:24:00.730000Z",
  "updated_at": "2020-11-16T23:24:00.730000Z",
  "language": "en",
  "reading_time_min": 7.17,
  "word_count": 1846,
  "claps": 10355,
  "responses": 68,
  "tags": ["politics", "america", "barack-obama", "election-2020"],
  "is_member_only": true,
  "preview_image_url": "https://miro.medium.com/v2/1*20aXAMdpczvmmMn-u6zzxw.jpeg",
  "excerpt": "I wrote my book for young people — as an invitation…",
  "source": "profile:barackobama",
  "content_text": "…"            // only when includeContent = true
}
```

Field names are a stable contract: new fields may be added in minor versions; renames only in a major version (see Changelog).

### Coverage & limits

- **Profiles and publications** are paginated — you can go back through an author's or publication's full history (up to `maxItems`).
- **Tags** are not paginated by Medium: a tag URL returns up to ~35 stories (latest or top + RSS), deduplicated.
- **Publications on custom domains** (e.g. `towardsdatascience.com`) are not supported yet — use their `medium.com/...` URL if one exists.
- Member-only stories: metadata is complete; `content_text` contains only the public preview and `content_is_preview_only` is set to `true`.
- Public data only. No login, no paywall bypass, no personal contact data.

### Pricing

Pay only for results: **$3.00 per 1,000 stories** plus a negligible $0.00005 per run start. Platform usage is included — no compute bills, no proxy costs. A run that finds nothing costs (almost) nothing.

Discounts on paid Apify plans:

| Apify plan | Price per 1,000 stories |
|---|---|
| Free plan | $3.00 |
| Starter | $2.70 |
| Scale | $2.40 |
| Business | $2.10 |

Examples (Free plan price):

- 100 stories from an author → **$0.30**
- 1,000 stories on a tag over a month (scheduled) → **$3.00**
- 10,000 stories from 50 publications → **$30.00**

### FAQ

**Does it work with `username.medium.com` URLs?** Yes — both `medium.com/@username` and subdomain profiles.

**Why are some stories missing full text?** They are member-only. The scraper returns the public preview and flags it; it never bypasses the paywall.

**Can I get the newest stories on a tag every hour?** Yes — schedule the actor with a tag URL and `tagSort: latest`.

**How far back can I go?** Profiles and publications: all the way back, subject to `maxItems`. Tags: ~35 most recent/top stories per run.

**Is it stable?** The scraper relies on Medium's public JSON endpoints, not on HTML layout, which makes it far less fragile than DOM-based scrapers.

### API & integrations

Run it from code — Python:

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>")
run = client.actor("vulcandata/medium-scraper").call(run_input={"startUrls": [{"url": "https://medium.com/tag/artificial-intelligence"}], "maxItems": 100})
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)
```

…or plain HTTP (returns the dataset items directly):

```bash
curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/vulcandata~medium-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=<YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"startUrls": [{"url": "https://medium.com/tag/artificial-intelligence"}], "maxItems": 100}'
```

- **No-code:** connect to Make, Zapier, n8n, Google Sheets, Slack or webhooks from the actor's *Integrations* tab.
- **Schedules:** run daily/weekly from *Schedules* and get fresh data automatically.
- **AI agents (MCP):** add `vulcandata/medium-scraper` to the Apify MCP server (mcp.apify.com) and let Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor call it as a tool.
- **Exports:** JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, RSS — straight from the dataset.

### More scrapers by VULCAN

- [Google Ads Transparency Center Scraper](https://apify.com/vulcandata/google-ads-transparency)
- [Airbnb Scraper](https://apify.com/vulcandata/airbnb-scraper)
- [Google Hotels Scraper](https://apify.com/vulcandata/google-hotels-scraper)

### Changelog

- **0.1** — initial release: profiles, publications, tags, single stories, optional full text.

# Changelog

This Actor's version history is a separate document: https://apify.com/vulcandata/medium-scraper/changelog.md

# Actor input Schema

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

Medium URLs to scrape: author profiles (https://medium.com/@username or https://username.medium.com), publications (https://medium.com/publication-slug), tags (https://medium.com/tag/tag-name) or single stories.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Hard cap on stories returned across all start URLs. You are charged per returned story.

## `includeContent` (type: `boolean`):

Fetch each story and add `content_text` (plain text paragraphs). Member-only stories return only the public preview. Slower: one extra request per story.

## `tagSort` (type: `string`):

For tag URLs: newest stories or top stories.

## `proxy` (type: `object`):

Apify Proxy settings. Datacenter proxies are sufficient for Medium.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "startUrls": [
    {
      "url": "https://medium.com/@barackobama"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://medium.com/tag/artificial-intelligence"
    }
  ],
  "maxItems": 50,
  "includeContent": false,
  "tagSort": "latest",
  "proxy": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `stories` (type: `string`):

All scraped Medium stories as JSON (also available as CSV, Excel or XML via the dataset API).

## `overview` (type: `string`):

Compact table view: title, author, publication, date, claps, responses.

# 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": [
        {
            "url": "https://medium.com/@barackobama"
        },
        {
            "url": "https://medium.com/tag/artificial-intelligence"
        }
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("vulcandata/medium-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 = { "startUrls": [
        { "url": "https://medium.com/@barackobama" },
        { "url": "https://medium.com/tag/artificial-intelligence" },
    ] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("vulcandata/medium-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 '{
  "startUrls": [
    {
      "url": "https://medium.com/@barackobama"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://medium.com/tag/artificial-intelligence"
    }
  ]
}' |
apify call vulcandata/medium-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,vulcandata/medium-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/jSDm8KNDYw0P1U09L/builds/NLMlTeaT431FiSE59/openapi.json