# Substack Newsletter Scraper (`scrapers-hub/substack-newsletter-scraper`) Actor

Substack Newsletter scraper extracts publicly available newsletter posts, titles, authors, publication dates, subscriber-facing content, and metadata 📰📊 Perfect for content research, trend analysis, competitive intelligence, and newsletter monitoring.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/scrapers-hub/substack-newsletter-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Scrapers Hub](https://apify.com/scrapers-hub) (community)
- **Categories:** Developer tools, News, Other
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $1.99 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event and usage. You are charged both the fixed price for specific events and for Apify platform usage.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
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.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## 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.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## Substack Newsletter Scraper

An [Apify Actor](https://apify.com/actors) that scrapes Substack newsletters — author
profile, publication metadata, leaderboard ranking, and posts (optionally with full
body text).

Built with **requests** + **parsel** + **regex**, with **curl\_cffi** (Chrome
impersonation) as an automatic fallback whenever a plain request gets blocked.

### Input

| Field | Type | Default | Description |
|-------|------|---------|-------------|
| `newsletterUrls` | array | – | List of newsletter URLs, e.g. `[{ "url": "https://www.lennysnewsletter.com" }]`. Custom domains and `*.substack.com` both work. |
| `postScrapingMode` | string | `information_and_content` | `information_only` (metadata only) or `information_and_content` (also fetch full post text). |
| `maxPostsPerNewsletter` | integer | `12` | Max posts scraped per newsletter. |
| `delayBetweenRequests` | integer | `3000` | Delay between HTTP requests, in milliseconds. |
| `maxRetries` | integer | `2` | Retries per request before giving up (falls back to curl\_cffi). |

```json
{
  "newsletterUrls": [
    { "url": "https://www.lennysnewsletter.com" },
    { "url": "https://andrewsullivan.substack.com" }
  ],
  "postScrapingMode": "information_and_content",
  "maxPostsPerNewsletter": 12,
  "delayBetweenRequests": 3000,
  "maxRetries": 2
}
```

### Output

One dataset item per newsletter: author fields (`author_*`), publication fields
(`publication_*`), leaderboard ranking, `all_publications`, and a `posts` array where
each post has `url`, `title`, `subtitle`, `date`, `author`, `likes`, `comments_count`,
`content_preview`, `content`, and `word_count`.

### How it works

1. Fetch the newsletter homepage and extract the embedded `window._preloads` JSON
   (regex + `parsel`) → publication object.
2. Fetch the author's public profile
   (`substack.com/api/v1/user/{handle}/public_profile`) → follower count, socials,
   leaderboard, all publications.
3. List posts via `/api/v1/archive`, and (in content mode) fetch each post's
   `body_html` via `/api/v1/posts/{slug}`, then strip it to plain text.

### Run locally

```bash
pip install -r requirements.txt
## via the Apify CLI (recommended):
apify run
## or drive the scraper directly without the Apify SDK:
python _local_test.py
```

# Actor input Schema

## `newsletterUrls` (type: `array`):

List of Substack newsletter URLs to scrape. Custom domains (e.g. https://lennysnewsletter.com) and \*.substack.com hosts are both supported.

## `postScrapingMode` (type: `string`):

'information\_only' scrapes just post metadata (fast). 'information\_and\_content' also fetches the full body text of every post.

## `maxPostsPerNewsletter` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of posts to scrape per newsletter.

## `delayBetweenRequests` (type: `integer`):

Delay in milliseconds between HTTP requests, to stay polite and avoid rate limiting.

## `maxRetries` (type: `integer`):

How many times to retry a failing request (falls back to curl\_cffi browser impersonation when a plain request is blocked).

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "newsletterUrls": [
    "https://www.lennysnewsletter.com",
    "https://andrewsullivan.substack.com"
  ],
  "postScrapingMode": "information_and_content",
  "maxPostsPerNewsletter": 12,
  "delayBetweenRequests": 3000,
  "maxRetries": 2
}
```

# 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 = {
    "newsletterUrls": [
        "https://www.lennysnewsletter.com",
        "https://andrewsullivan.substack.com"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("scrapers-hub/substack-newsletter-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 = { "newsletterUrls": [
        "https://www.lennysnewsletter.com",
        "https://andrewsullivan.substack.com",
    ] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("scrapers-hub/substack-newsletter-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"])
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "newsletterUrls": [
    "https://www.lennysnewsletter.com",
    "https://andrewsullivan.substack.com"
  ]
}' |
apify call scrapers-hub/substack-newsletter-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=scrapers-hub/substack-newsletter-scraper",
                "--header",
                "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

```

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/ymepZaXgOfrOYnupn/builds/dnaLT40e69hgp7bbm/openapi.json