Apify
Web scraping platform for AI agents and automation
What is Apify?
How to Use Apify
Ready to start extracting web data with Apify? This guide walks you through finding the right pre-built Actor, configuring it for your target website, running the scraper, and exporting the results for your AI pipeline, analysis, or automation workflow.
Create an Apify account and explore the marketplace
Sign up for a free Apify account at apify.com — no credit card required, and you get $5 in monthly store credit. Once logged in, browse the Apify Store featuring 35,000+ pre-built Actors. Use the search bar to find scrapers for popular platforms like Instagram, Google Maps, Amazon, or search for a general-purpose Website Content Crawler for AI pipelines.
Configure and run your chosen Actor
Click on an Actor to open its detail page. Enter the target URL, search query, or scraping parameters in the input form. Adjust optional settings like maximum pages to crawl, proxy configuration, or output format preferences. Hit 'Start' to launch the run and watch the data stream in real-time within the dashboard.
Export and integrate your scraped data
Once the run completes, preview the scraped data in the Apify dashboard. Export results as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, or Parquet, or push directly to cloud storage. For AI pipelines, copy the dataset API endpoint to feed data into LangChain, LlamaIndex, or your custom application via REST API.
Schedule recurring data collection
Set up automated data collection by scheduling your Actor to run daily, hourly, or on a custom cron schedule. Configure webhooks to receive notifications on run completion or failure, ensuring your datasets stay fresh without manual intervention. Monitor usage and costs from the billing dashboard.
Build a custom Actor for unique scraping needs
For websites not covered in the marketplace, use Apify's custom Actor builder. Clone a template from GitHub, write your crawler logic in JavaScript using the Crawlee SDK (which includes anti-blocking, automatic retry, and session management), and deploy it to the platform with one click. Version control, scaling, and proxy management are handled automatically.
Apify Core Features
Apify Use Cases
- 1AI-Enhanced Search & RAG — Crawl website content and convert to vector embeddings for LLM retrieval pipelines, enabling semantic search, knowledge bases, and intelligent chatbots that pull from live web data.
- 2Social Media Analytics — Extract posts, comments, likes, follower counts, and engagement metrics from TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter for brand monitoring, influencer vetting, and content strategy research.
- 3Competitive Price Monitoring — Scrape product listings, prices, stock levels, and reviews from Amazon, eBay, Shopify stores, and other e-commerce sites to track competitor movements and optimize pricing in real time.
- 4Lead Generation & Prospecting — Harvest business contact details, emails, phone numbers, and company information from Google Maps, Yellow Pages, and industry directories to build targeted sales prospect lists.
- 5Market Research & Trend Analysis — Collect hashtags, viral content, user reviews, and forum discussions to identify emerging trends, consumer sentiment shifts, and competitive positioning across digital channels.
Pros and Cons of Apify
Pros
- Massive library of 35,000+ ready-made Actors dramatically reduces development time for common scraping tasks, letting you start extracting data in minutes without writing code.
- Highly flexible platform supports both pre-built and fully custom crawlers, adapting to virtually any data extraction need from simple price monitoring to complex multi-site scraping operations.
- Transparent pay-as-you-go compute pricing with a generous $5 free credit tier for experimentation, making it accessible for small projects and large enterprises alike.
- Strong integration with modern LLM tooling like LangChain and LlamaIndex makes it the go-to choice for developers building AI-powered retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) pipelines.
✕ Cons
- Pricing can become costly at high compute volumes, especially on lower-tier plans without volume discounts, as compute units add up quickly for large-scale scraping operations.
- Building custom Actors requires JavaScript/Node.js knowledge, creating a steep learning curve for non-JS developers who prefer Python or other languages for web scraping.
- Advanced proxy and IP-rotation features are paid add-ons rather than included in base plans, adding unexpected costs for users who need sophisticated anti-blocking capabilities.
Apify vs Top Alternatives
| Feature | Bright Data | Zyte | Octoparse |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-built Scrapers | 5,000+ pre-collected datasets | 10,000+ spider templates | 1,000+ ready-made templates |
| API Access | REST API + Python SDK | REST API + Python/JS SDKs | Limited API, cloud extraction only |
| Proxy Management | World's largest proxy network | Built-in proxy rotation | Built-in IP rotation |
| AI/LLM Integration | Web Unlocker for AI data pipelines | Limited native AI integration | No native LLM integration |
Apify Pricing
Free
- $5 monthly store credit
- 8 GB RAM limit
- Community support
- $0.20/CU compute cost
Starter
- $29 monthly store credit
- 32 GB RAM limit
- Chat support
- Bronze store discount
- $0.20/CU compute cost
Scale
- $199 monthly store credit
- 128 GB RAM limit
- Priority chat support
- Silver store discount
- $0.16/CU compute cost
Business
- $999 monthly store credit
- 256 GB RAM limit
- Account manager
- Gold store discount
- $0.13/CU compute cost
Enterprise
- Unlimited store credit
- Custom RAM limits
- Dedicated team with SLA
- Custom pricing
- Priority support & training
Apify FAQ
What is Apify?+
How does Apify pricing work?+
Can I use Apify for AI and LLM applications?+
What websites can I scrape with Apify?+
Is Apify suitable for non-developers?+
What export formats does Apify support?+
Is Apify secure and enterprise-ready?+
Apify Review — Editor's Score
Who Should Use Apify?
Apify is ideal for AI and machine learning engineers building RAG pipelines, marketers and analysts needing competitive intelligence data, and growth teams running lead generation campaigns. It's also well-suited for developers who want a managed scraping infrastructure without the overhead of proxy management and server maintenance.
Apify is a powerful, feature-rich web scraping platform that stands out for its massive marketplace of 35,000+ pre-built Actors and deep integration with modern AI pipelines. While custom development requires JavaScript skills and costs can scale with usage, its flexibility and ease of getting started make it a top choice for both developers and non-technical users who need reliable, scalable web data extraction.
- 35,000+ pre-built Actors for instant scraping of major platforms
- Native LangChain and LlamaIndex integration for AI pipelines
- Pay-as-you-go compute pricing with free $5 monthly credit tier
- SOC 2, GDPR, and ISO-27001 compliant enterprise security
📺 Apify Tutorials & Introduction
This NEW AI Tool Lets You SCRAPE Any Website ... - YouTube
I Built an AI Agent That Scrapes Social Media in Seconds (n8n + ...
Tutorial: Ultimate AI Agent Setup 2025 | N8N MCP & APIFY - YouTube
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