Mastodon Scraper — Posts, Accounts, Hashtags & Instances

Mastodon scraper that reads public posts from any instance — by hashtag, by the instance's own timeline, by what it is trending, or by account — and returns one structured row per post: the author and their follower counts, the post text, engagement counts, hashtags, media and any outbound link.

No token, no app registration, no login. It reads Mastodon's own public REST API. Run it with nothing set and it reads #photography on mastodon.social.

What you get per post

Field
handle	the author as instance/username — unique across the whole fediverse
accountAcct	the same author in Mastodon's native user@instance form
accountDisplayName · accountFollowers · accountStatusCount · accountIsBot	who posted it
content · spoilerText · language · visibility · isSensitive	the post
favouritesCount · reblogsCount · repliesCount	engagement as the reading instance sees it
hashtags · mentionCount · mediaCount · mediaTypes	what is in it
linkUrl · linkTitle	where it points
instanceDomain · sourceInstance · statusUrl · createdAt · retrievedAt

A hashtag timeline is federated

Reading #rustlang on one instance returns posts from across the fediverse, not only from that instance — a hashtag timeline is the cheapest wide view Mastodon offers. Set Only posts from this instance if you want the narrow one instead.

Track a hashtag over time

Put your hashtags in, set Maximum posts high, and schedule the run. Every row carries statusUrl and createdAt, so consecutive runs append cleanly and handle groups the whole set by author.

Watch an instance's own community

Turn on Include the instance's public timeline with Only posts from this instance and point it at fosstodon.org, hachyderm.io or any instance you care about. Note that some instances — mastodon.social among them — require a logged-in user for their public timeline; those are skipped with a note in the run status rather than failing the run, and their hashtag and trending timelines still work.

Follow specific accounts

Put user@instance addresses in Accounts. Each is resolved on the instance you are reading from and its public posts returned, with replies and boosts filtered out if you want only original material.

Pricing

Pay per event: $0.001 per post returned, with tiered discounts down to $0.0005. A refused instance or an empty result set is never charged, and the run's maximum cost caps how many posts it will fetch. Apify platform usage is absorbed, not billed to you separately.

FAQ

Does it need a Mastodon account or an access token? No. Every endpoint it uses is public and unauthenticated.

Does it read private or followers-only posts? No. Only what the instance serves publicly; visibility on every row says which it was.

Why does sourceInstance differ from instanceDomain? Because the post arrived by federation: instanceDomain is where the author lives, sourceInstance is where this run read it.

Are engagement counts exact? They are what the reading instance knows. Mastodon is federated, so a post's favourite count can differ slightly between instances. Reading the author's own instance gives the authoritative figure.

What is the stable identifier? handle. Instance and username together address one account across the whole network, and it is the right key to join runs together over time.

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Unofficial - not affiliated with Mastodon gGmbH or any instance operator. Collects public data only. reapx. Contact reapxdev@proton.me.