# Mastodon Scraper (`gio21/mastodon-scraper`) Actor

Scrape any Mastodon (or Fediverse-compatible) server's public API: trending statuses and tags, public timeline, hashtag feeds, account statuses. Useful for social listening, Fediverse research, brand monitoring, and decentralized social analytics.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/gio21/mastodon-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Gio](https://apify.com/gio21) (community)
- **Categories:** E-commerce, Developer tools, AI
- **Stats:** 1 total users, 0 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $3.00 / 1,000 record scrapeds

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#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

## Mastodon Scraper

Scrape any Mastodon (or Fediverse-compatible) server's **public** API. Five datasets:

- **trending-statuses** - top posts trending on the instance
- **trending-tags** - hot hashtags
- **public-timeline** - recent local posts (paginated)
- **hashtag** - posts for a specific tag
- **account-statuses** - posts from a specific account

Useful for **social listening**, **Fediverse research**, **brand monitoring**, **decentralized social analytics**.

Works on **any Mastodon-compatible server**: mastodon.social, fosstodon.org, mas.to, hachyderm.io, etc.

### Free vs. paid

- **Free plan:** 15 clearly-labelled mock records.
- **Paid plan:** real, live data.

### Input

| Field | Type | Description |
|-------|------|-------------|
| `instance` | String (required) | Mastodon server domain (e.g. `mastodon.social`). |
| `dataset` | String (required) | `trending-statuses`, `trending-tags`, `public-timeline`, `hashtag`, `account-statuses`. |
| `query` | String | For `hashtag`: tag name. For `account-statuses`: handle (e.g. `tim@chaos.social`). |
| `maxItems` | Integer | Default 100, max 1000. |
| `debug` | Boolean | Verbose logs. |

### Output

For statuses:

```json
{
  "kind": "status",
  "id": "111234567890",
  "content": "Just shipped a new Mastodon scraper. So fast.",
  "author": "gio@mastodon.social",
  "authorDisplayName": "Gio",
  "authorFollowers": 1234,
  "createdAt": "2026-05-26T20:30:00.000Z",
  "favourites": 42,
  "reblogs": 8,
  "replies": 3,
  "tags": ["apify", "mastodon"],
  "mentions": [],
  "mediaCount": 0,
  "language": "en",
  "url": "https://mastodon.social/@gio/111234567890",
  "instance": "mastodon.social"
}
```

For tags:

```json
{
  "kind": "tag",
  "name": "apify",
  "url": "https://mastodon.social/tags/apify",
  "recentUses": 245,
  "recentAccounts": 89,
  "history": [{ "day": "1716681600", "uses": "245", "accounts": "89" }],
  "instance": "mastodon.social"
}
```

### Pricing

$0.003/record. 1,000 records = $3.

### Limitations

- Mastodon servers can rate-limit public API; the actor adds ~400ms between paginated calls.
- `account-statuses` requires a valid handle the instance can resolve. Cross-instance handles work via federation.

If this actor helped you, please leave a review on the Apify Store.

# Actor input Schema

## `instance` (type: `string`):

Domain of the Mastodon server (e.g. 'mastodon.social', 'mas.to', 'fosstodon.org'). Any Mastodon-compatible instance works.

## `dataset` (type: `string`):

Which dataset to pull: 'trending-statuses' (top posts), 'trending-tags' (hot hashtags), 'public-timeline' (recent local posts), 'hashtag' (posts for a specific tag), 'account-statuses' (posts from a specific account).

## `query` (type: `string`):

For dataset=hashtag: the tag name (without #, e.g. 'apify'). For dataset=account-statuses: the account handle (e.g. 'tim@chaos.social').

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

Max records to return.

## `debug` (type: `boolean`):

Enable verbose logging.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "instance": "mastodon.social",
  "dataset": "trending-statuses",
  "maxItems": 100,
  "debug": false
}
```

# Actor output Schema

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

Full record per Mastodon entry. Fields depend on dataset.

# 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 = {
    "instance": "mastodon.social",
    "query": "",
    "maxItems": 100
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("gio21/mastodon-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 = {
    "instance": "mastodon.social",
    "query": "",
    "maxItems": 100,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("gio21/mastodon-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 '{
  "instance": "mastodon.social",
  "query": "",
  "maxItems": 100
}' |
apify call gio21/mastodon-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,gio21/mastodon-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/X23q0DXYhqlUemOWj/builds/Nmj3vXL7F9V0QRrUg/openapi.json