# Medium Scraper (Articles, Claps, Tags, Reading Time) (`webdatatools/medium-scraper`) Actor

Scrape Medium stories by tag, author or publication: title, subtitle, author, date, claps, responses, tags, reading time, word count, link and optional full text.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/webdatatools/medium-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Murat Uzun](https://apify.com/webdatatools) (community)
- **Categories:** News, Lead generation, Marketing
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $2.40 / 1,000 articles

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

### What is Medium Scraper?

Medium Scraper collects stories from Medium by tag, author or publication. Each story becomes one dataset row with its title, subtitle, author, dates, claps, responses, tags, reading time, word count and link. The full article text is optional. No Medium login or API key is needed.

### Why use Medium Scraper?

- Claps and responses for each story, from the tag and author pages, to see what is getting traction.
- Reading time and word count as Medium computes them.
- Tags on every story, for topic research and content planning.
- Optional full article text as plain paragraphs.
- Pay only for stories saved.

### How to use Medium Scraper

1. Enter tag slugs (`javascript`), author handles (`@addyosmani`) and/or publication slugs (`towards-data-science`). Full Medium URLs also work.
2. Set how many stories to collect from each source.
3. Turn on "Include full article text" if you need the body.
4. Run it and download the dataset as JSON, CSV, Excel or HTML, or read it through the API.

### Example input

```json
{
    "tags": ["javascript"],
    "authors": ["addyosmani"],
    "publications": [],
    "maxArticlesPerSource": 12,
    "includeFullText": false
}
```

### Example output

A real row from a run on 2026-10-23 (tag `javascript`):

```json
{
    "source": "tag",
    "query": "javascript",
    "postId": "integrals-where-i-learned-web-development-by-doing-it-bc20b3c53351",
    "title": "Integrals: Where I Learned Web Development by Doing It",
    "subtitle": "A small web studio in Tbilisi, a lot of client meetings, and two years of building websites between 2016 and 2018.",
    "author": "Giorgi Mgebrishvili",
    "authorUsername": "mgebrov",
    "publishedAt": "2026-10-09T14:52:39.464Z",
    "updatedAt": "2026-10-09T14:56:52.688Z",
    "claps": 48,
    "responses": 8,
    "readingTimeMinutes": 5.4,
    "wordCount": 1387,
    "tags": ["php", "web-development", "agmashenebeli-avenue", "career-development"],
    "url": "https://medium.com/@mgebrov/integrals-where-i-learned-web-development-by-doing-it-bc20b3c53351",
    "locked": false,
    "fullText": null,
    "position": 1
}
```

### Data table

| Field | Meaning | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| `title`, `subtitle`, `author`, `authorUsername`, `url` | story text and links | tag/author page or feed |
| `publishedAt`, `updatedAt` | first and latest publish time (UTC) | tag/author page or feed |
| `claps`, `responses` | clap count and response count | tag/author page; story page when missing; empty for feed-only rows |
| `readingTimeMinutes`, `wordCount` | Medium's own values | story page; empty when the story page does not expose them |
| `tags` | tag slugs on the story | tag/author page or feed |
| `fullText` | body paragraphs (only with "Include full article text") | story page |
| `locked` | Medium's members-only flag | tag/author page |

### Input parameters

- **Tags**: tag slugs or tag URLs. A tag page shows about 30 stories.
- **Authors**: author handles or profile URLs. An author page shows about 10 stories.
- **Publications**: publication slugs. Publication feeds hold about 10 stories.
- **Max articles per tag, author or publication**: 1 to 100.
- **Include full article text**: off by default. Turn it on to add the body; it costs one more page request per story.
- **Max concurrency**: stories fetched at the same time.

### Pricing

Pay per article saved, with volume tiers (see the Actor page for the current prices). The run stops before it would exceed your max total charge.

### Medium Scraper vs. Medium's own tools

Medium has no public API for searching stories by tag. This Actor reads the public tag, author and publication pages, and the RSS feeds that Medium serves to any visitor. It does not read member-only content beyond what Medium shows to visitors, and it does not collect responses or the people who wrote them.

### Using Medium Scraper with AI agents and MCP

Use it from the Apify MCP server or the API with a tag, an author or a publication. Pay-per-event pricing is charged per article, so an agent that sets a `maxTotalChargeUsd` never goes over that budget.

### FAQ

**Why are some reading times empty?**
Stories published on a publication's own domain (for example a custom domain) did not expose reading time or word count on their story page during testing (2026-10-23). These fields stay empty rather than being estimated.

**Why does a tag return about 30 stories?**
Medium's tag page shows about 30 stories. Deeper pages are loaded by Medium's own app and are not used here.

**Why are claps empty for some rows?**
Publication feeds do not include claps. The story page is used to fill them when it exposes the count.

### Support and feedback

If you find a problem, open an issue in the Actor's Issues tab. A review helps other users find it.

# Actor input Schema

## `tags` (type: `array`):

Medium tag slugs, e.g. `javascript` or `machine-learning`. Full tag URLs also work. Each tag page shows about 30 stories.

## `authors` (type: `array`):

Author handles, e.g. `@addyosmani`, or profile URLs. Each profile shows its latest stories.

## `publications` (type: `array`):

Publication slugs, e.g. `towards-data-science` (the part after medium.com/). Publication feeds hold the latest stories.

## `maxArticlesPerSource` (type: `integer`):

Stories to collect from each source. Medium shows about 30 per tag and about 10 per feed.

## `includeFullText` (type: `boolean`):

Also save the article body as plain text (one request per article, members-only stories show only what Medium exposes).

## `maxConcurrency` (type: `integer`):

Articles fetched at the same time.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "tags": [
    "javascript"
  ],
  "authors": [],
  "publications": [],
  "maxArticlesPerSource": 20,
  "includeFullText": false,
  "maxConcurrency": 2
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

All articles from this run.

# 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 = {
    "tags": [
        "javascript"
    ],
    "authors": [],
    "publications": []
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("webdatatools/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 = {
    "tags": ["javascript"],
    "authors": [],
    "publications": [],
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("webdatatools/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 '{
  "tags": [
    "javascript"
  ],
  "authors": [],
  "publications": []
}' |
apify call webdatatools/medium-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,webdatatools/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/stoENrHlfN3a0CbB5/builds/DzXop6rSrkF32s3Q4/openapi.json