# Wirecutter Product Recommendations (`sync-network/wirecutter-reviews-scraper`) Actor

Extract product picks, prices, and reviews from Wirecutter (New York Times). Scrape The Best roundup articles with top picks, runner-ups, budget picks, and affiliate links across 3,700+ reviews.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/sync-network/wirecutter-reviews-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Alam](https://apify.com/sync-network) (community)
- **Categories:** E-commerce, Automation, Developer tools
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 0 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $1.00 / 1,000 results

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

## Wirecutter Product Recommendations Scraper

Extract product recommendations, picks, prices, and reviews from **Wirecutter** (by The New York Times).

### What It Does

Wirecutter publishes expert product reviews and "Best \[X]" roundup articles across thousands of categories — from electronics and kitchen gear to home improvement and outdoor equipment. This actor extracts the structured product data from every review, including:

- **Product picks** — Top pick, Also great, Budget pick, Upgrade pick
- **Product names** and descriptive titles
- **Prices and stores** — where to buy, with pricing
- **Affiliate links** — direct purchase links
- **Product images** — high-resolution photos
- **Review metadata** — publish dates, categories, authors

### Use Cases

- **Price monitoring** — Track which products Wirecutter recommends and at what prices
- **Market research** — See which brands and products get endorsed across categories
- **Affiliate marketing** — Identify trending recommended products in your niche
- **Competitive analysis** — Monitor which products appear in "Best \[X]" lists
- **Product discovery** — Find top-rated products across 3,700+ reviews

### Input

| Parameter | Type | Default | Description |
|-----------|------|---------|-------------|
| **maxReviews** | integer | 100 | Maximum reviews to scrape (0 = all) |
| **sectionId** | integer | — | Filter by section (use fetchAllSections to get IDs) |
| **searchQuery** | string | — | Search reviews by keyword (e.g. "headphones") |
| **startPage** | integer | 1 | Start from a specific page (for resuming) |
| **includeEmpty** | boolean | false | Include reviews without product picks |
| **fetchAllSections** | boolean | false | Return section list instead of reviews |

### Output

Each result is a review article containing its recommended products:

```json
{
  "id": 9765,
  "title": "The Best Steak Knife Set",
  "url": "https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-steak-knife-set/",
  "datePublished": "2026-05-08T12:53:47",
  "dateModified": "2026-05-08T12:59:08",
  "productCount": 3,
  "products": [
    {
      "pickLabel": "Top pick",
      "productName": "Material The Table Knives",
      "pickTitle": "The best steak knife set",
      "description": "Modern, attractive, and incredibly sharp...",
      "imageUrl": "https://.../",
      "affiliateUrl": "https://.../",
      "prices": [{"price": "$110", "store": "Material Kitchen"}]
    }
  ]
}
```

### Tips

- Start with `fetchAllSections: true` to discover available section IDs and article counts
- The Money section (ID 237) has the most reviews (670+), followed by Home (647) and Electronics (537)
- Set `maxReviews: 0` to scrape all 3,700+ reviews (takes ~30 minutes)
- Results are sorted by most recently updated first

### Sections

35 categories available including: Money, Home, Electronics, Kitchen, Health & Fitness, Style, Gifts, Outdoors, Sleep, Baby & Kid, Beauty, Appliances, Travel, Office, Pets, Software & Apps, Games & Hobbies, Cars, and more.

# Actor input Schema

## `maxReviews` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of reviews to scrape. Set to 0 for all available.

## `sectionId` (type: `integer`):

Filter by Wirecutter section ID. Leave empty to scrape all sections. Use fetchAllSections=true to get available section IDs.

## `searchQuery` (type: `string`):

Search for specific review topics (e.g. 'headphones', 'laptop', 'mattress').

## `startPage` (type: `integer`):

Page number to start from (for resuming large scrapes).

## `includeEmpty` (type: `boolean`):

Include reviews that have no product picks (blog posts, guides). Usually you want this off.

## `fetchAllSections` (type: `boolean`):

Instead of scraping reviews, just return the list of all Wirecutter sections with their IDs and article counts. Useful to find the sectionId to filter by.

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

Include the complete review article text in the output. Increases output size significantly. Default is off — only excerpt is included.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "maxReviews": 100,
  "startPage": 1,
  "includeEmpty": false,
  "fetchAllSections": false,
  "includeFullText": false
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (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 = {};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("sync-network/wirecutter-reviews-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 = {}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("sync-network/wirecutter-reviews-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 '{}' |
apify call sync-network/wirecutter-reviews-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,sync-network/wirecutter-reviews-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/e6ncq1ubkhz625c6b/builds/Zlageyk4Y0LGjCrTK/openapi.json