# HTTP Request (`parsebird/http-request-actor`) Actor

Send HTTP requests (GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE) to any API endpoint with customizable headers, parameters, and body data. Forward responses via callback URL. Perfect for Clay users and no-code API integrations.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/parsebird/http-request-actor.md
- **Developed by:** [ParseBird](https://apify.com/parsebird) (community)
- **Categories:** Agents, AI, Developer tools
- **Stats:** 180 total users, 26 monthly users, 99.0% runs succeeded, 2 bookmarks
- **User rating**: 5.00 out of 5 stars

## Pricing

from $5.00 / 1,000 http request sents

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

### HTTP Request

Send HTTP requests (GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE) to any API endpoint from the Apify platform. Customize headers, query parameters, and request body. Forward responses to a callback URL for Clay and no-code integrations.

<table><tr>
<td style="border-left:4px solid #2563EB;padding:12px 16px;font-weight:600">Send any HTTP request from the cloud — GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE — with custom headers, query params, and JSON body. Forward responses to webhook URLs for Clay, Make, or Zapier.</td>
</tr></table>

<br>

<table>
<tr>
<td colspan="3" style="padding:10px 14px;background:#2563EB;border:none;border-radius:4px 4px 0 0">
<span style="color:#FFFFFF;font-size:14px;font-weight:700;letter-spacing:0.5px">ParseBird Infra Suite</span>
<span style="color:#BFDBFE;font-size:13px">&nbsp;&nbsp;&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;Utility tools for data pipelines</span>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="padding:10px 14px;border:1px solid #E7E5E4;border-radius:0 0 0 4px;border-right:none;border-top:none;vertical-align:top;width:33%;background:#DBEAFE">
&#128279; &nbsp;<a href="https://apify.com/parsebird/http-request-actor" style="color:#2563EB;text-decoration:none;font-weight:700;font-size:13px">HTTP Request</a><br>
<span style="color:#2563EB;font-size:11px;font-weight:600">&#10148; You are here</span>
</td>
<td style="padding:10px 14px;border:1px solid #E7E5E4;border-right:none;border-top:none;vertical-align:top;width:33%">
&#128218; &nbsp;<a href="https://apify.com/parsebird/dataset-deduplicator" style="color:#1C1917;text-decoration:none;font-weight:700;font-size:13px">Data Deduplicator</a><br>
<span style="color:#78716C;font-size:11px">Merge & deduplicate datasets by any field</span>
</td>
<td style="padding:10px 14px;border:1px solid #E7E5E4;border-radius:0 0 4px 0;border-top:none;vertical-align:top;width:33%">
&#128481; &nbsp;<a href="https://apify.com/parsebird/data-cleaner" style="color:#1C1917;text-decoration:none;font-weight:700;font-size:13px">Data Cleaner</a><br>
<span style="color:#78716C;font-size:11px">Clean nulls, normalize case, format phones & emails</span>
</td>
</tr>
</table>

##### Copy to your AI assistant

Copy this block into ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, or any LLM to start using this actor.

```
parsebird/http-request-actor on Apify. Call: ApifyClient("TOKEN").actor("parsebird/http-request-actor").call(run_input={...}), then client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).list_items().items for results. Key inputs: method (string, "GET"/"POST"/"PUT"/"PATCH"/"DELETE", default "GET"), url (string, required), headers (object, optional), params (object, optional), data (object, optional — request body for POST/PUT/PATCH), callbackUrl (string, optional — forwards response as POST), lookupKey (string, optional — identifier for Clay row matching). Full actor spec: fetch build via GET https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/parsebird~http-request-actor (Bearer TOKEN). Get token: https://console.apify.com/account/integrations
```

### What does HTTP Request do?

This Actor sends an HTTP request to any API endpoint and returns the full response — status code, headers, and parsed body — as structured data in an Apify dataset. It supports all common HTTP methods: GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, and DELETE.

Key features:

- **Any HTTP method** — GET for fetching data, POST for creating resources, PUT/PATCH for updates, DELETE for removal
- **Custom headers** — pass Authorization tokens, API keys, Content-Type, or any custom header
- **Query parameters** — append URL query parameters without manually building the URL string
- **JSON request body** — send structured data with POST, PUT, and PATCH requests
- **Callback URL** — forward the full response to a webhook endpoint (Clay, Make, Zapier, n8n)
- **Lookup key** — tag each response with an identifier for row-level matching in Clay tables

### Why use this instead of Clay's built-in HTTP?

Clay's Explorer plan limits you to 25 credits/month for HTTP requests. At scale this means:

| Scenario | Clay Explorer | This Actor |
|----------|--------------|------------|
| 1,000 API calls/month | $200+/mo plan required | **$5.00 total** |
| 10,000 API calls/month | $800+/mo plan required | **$50.00 total** |
| 50,000 API calls/month | Custom enterprise pricing | **$250.00 total** |

By offloading HTTP requests to this Actor, you can stay on Clay's cheaper plan and save hundreds of dollars per month.

### Input parameters

| Parameter | Type | Required | Default | Description |
|-----------|------|----------|---------|-------------|
| `method` | string | No | `GET` | HTTP method: GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, or DELETE |
| `url` | string | **Yes** | — | Full URL to send the request to |
| `headers` | object | No | `{}` | Custom request headers (e.g. `{"Authorization": "Bearer ..."}`) |
| `params` | object | No | `{}` | URL query parameters (e.g. `{"page": "1", "limit": "50"}`) |
| `data` | object | No | — | JSON request body for POST, PUT, and PATCH |
| `callbackUrl` | string | No | — | Webhook URL to forward the full response as a POST |
| `lookupKey` | string | No | — | Identifier to include in the response for row matching |

### Output example

```json
{
    "data": {
        "id": 12345,
        "name": "John Doe",
        "email": "john@example.com"
    },
    "status": 200,
    "statusText": "OK",
    "headers": {
        "content-type": "application/json",
        "x-request-id": "abc-123"
    },
    "lookupKey": "row-42"
}
```

### How to use with Clay

1. In your Clay table, add a new column → **Run Actor**
2. Select **parsebird/http-request-actor**
3. Map your API URL column to the `url` input
4. Set `method` to `POST` and map your request body to `data`
5. Optionally set `lookupKey` to your row ID column for matching
6. Run the enrichment — responses appear as structured JSON in your table

### How to use via API

**Python**

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_API_TOKEN")

run = client.actor("parsebird/http-request-actor").call(run_input={
    "method": "GET",
    "url": "https://api.example.com/users",
    "headers": {"Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_TOKEN"},
    "params": {"limit": "100"},
})

results = client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).list_items().items
print(results[0]["data"])
```

**cURL**

```bash
curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/parsebird~http-request-actor/runs?token=YOUR_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "method": "POST",
    "url": "https://api.example.com/leads",
    "headers": {"Authorization": "Bearer API_KEY"},
    "data": {"name": "Jane", "email": "jane@co.com"}
  }'
```

### How it works

1. Reads input configuration (method, URL, headers, params, body)
2. Sends the HTTP request using `httpx` with a 120-second timeout
3. Parses the response — JSON bodies are parsed automatically, text bodies are stored as strings
4. Saves the full result (data, status, statusText, headers, lookupKey) to the dataset
5. If a callback URL is provided, forwards the result as a POST request

### Pricing

This Actor uses a pay-per-event pricing model.

| Event | Price per event | Price per 1,000 |
|-------|----------------|-----------------|
| `http-request-sent` | $0.005 | **$5.00** |

Each HTTP request sent counts as one billable event. Platform compute costs are additional.

### Integrations

This Actor works with any system that can trigger Apify runs: Clay, Make (Integromat), Zapier, n8n, custom scripts, and the Apify API.

# Actor input Schema

## `method` (type: `string`):

HTTP method to use for the request.

## `url` (type: `string`):

The full URL to send the request to (e.g. https://api.example.com/data).

## `headers` (type: `object`):

Custom HTTP headers to include in the request (e.g. Authorization, Content-Type).

## `params` (type: `object`):

URL query parameters to append to the request URL.

## `data` (type: `object`):

Data to send as the JSON request body. Used with POST, PUT, and PATCH methods.

## `callbackUrl` (type: `string`):

A URL to which the full API response will be forwarded as a POST request. Useful for Clay webhook integrations.

## `lookupKey` (type: `string`):

Optional identifier for matching the response to the original row in a Clay workflow or other external system.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "method": "GET",
  "url": "https://httpbin.org/get",
  "headers": {},
  "params": {}
}
```

# Actor output Schema

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

No description

# 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 = {
    "url": "https://httpbin.org/get"
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("parsebird/http-request-actor").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 = { "url": "https://httpbin.org/get" }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("parsebird/http-request-actor").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 '{
  "url": "https://httpbin.org/get"
}' |
apify call parsebird/http-request-actor --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,parsebird/http-request-actor"
        }
    }
}

```

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/gjH6v22HfQIcmBWRe/builds/eF6IC7l5YuU6DmNAp/openapi.json