Lemmy Community Posts Scraper

Lemmy Community Posts Scraper

Scrape Lemmy community posts from any instance, sorted your way, up to a million per run. Each post comes with its score, comments, and full body text. No login or API key. Export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.

Lemmy's API is fine for one-off reads, but it rate-limits you and forces you to handle pagination and schema drift yourself. This reads the public post feeds directly from any Lemmy instance, filtered by community and sort order, and returns each match in one fixed schema.

Who uses it	What they scrape Lemmy for
Market researchers	Which topics a niche is discussing this week
Community managers	Monitor engagement on their own Lemmy community
Data journalists	Pull post histories for a story on Fediverse trends
App developers	Seed a new client with real post data

What it does

This Actor collects Lemmy posts by instance, community, and sort order, and returns each one as a flat row.

• 📊 Computed signals: virality score, engagement rate, controversy score, and post age.
• 🔍 Flexible filtering: pick any instance, one community, or all communities, and sort by Active, Hot, New, or Top.
• 📦 Flat output: every post is one row, ready for CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.
• ⚡ No login: public feeds only, no OAuth, no API key, no rate-limit headaches.

Results export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML, or straight from the API.

What you can do with Lemmy data

📈 Track topics and trends.

A market researcher runs the Actor on a niche community every morning and exports the top posts to see what the community is discussing.

🛡️ Monitor your community.

A community manager scrapes their own Lemmy community daily to catch spam or off-topic posts before they take over.

📰 Gather data for a story.

A data journalist pulls a year of posts from a political community to analyze how the conversation shifted over time.

🧪 Seed a new app.

An app developer scrapes a few thousand posts from a popular instance to populate a test database for a new Lemmy client.

Why choose this scraper

	What you get
No API key	Read public feeds directly, no registration or OAuth
Any instance	Point it at lemmy.world, beehaw.org, or your own server
Sorted your way	Active, Hot, New, Top day, week, month, year, all-time
Flat schema	Every post is one row, no nested JSON to flatten

How it compares

This Actor focuses on posts only, while the competitors below also scrape comments, communities, or search results.

Feature	ParseForge	Lemmy Scraper · Communities, Posts, Comments & Instances	Lemmy Scraper	Lemmy Posts & Communities Scraper
Scrape posts from any instance	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Filter by community	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Sort by Active, Hot, New, Top	Yes	Not listed	Not listed	Yes
Scrape comments	Not listed	Yes	Yes	Yes
Scrape communities	Not listed	Yes	Yes	Yes
Scrape instance metadata	Not listed	Yes	Not listed	Not listed

Configure the run

Drive the Actor from an instance hostname, a community name, and a sort order, alone or together, and filters run as each post is read so only matches reach your dataset. The Input tab lists every parameter.

A first run with the defaults:

{
  "maxItems": 10
}

A larger pull:

{
  "maxItems": 200
}

Pricing

Pay-per-result: $0.021 per result collected. You pay only for the results written to your dataset.

Results collected	Approximate cost
100 results	$2.10
1,000 results	$21.00
10,000 results	$210.00

New Apify accounts start with $5 in free credit.

Free users

Free-plan runs return up to 10 results as a preview. Upgrade your Apify plan to collect up to 1,000,000 results per run.

Run it

1. Create a free Apify account with $5 in credit.
2. Open the Lemmy Community Posts Scraper.
3. Set your inputs and any filters, then click Start.
4. Export the results as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML from the Dataset tab.

Run it programmatically through the Apify API (run-sync-get-dataset-items) or the ApifyClient for JavaScript and Python.

Use with AI agents (MCP)

Give an AI agent live access to Lemmy through the Model Context Protocol. Add the Actor to Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client:

claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=parseforge/lemmy-community-posts-scraper"

Then prompt it in plain language to run the scraper and read back the results.

Troubleshooting

Why am I getting no results?

Check that the instance hostname is correct and reachable. If you set a community name, make sure it exists on that instance. Also try a different sort order, as some instances may not support all sorts.

Why does the run stop before reaching maxItems?

The Actor stops when the feed has no more posts. If you need more, try a different sort order or a larger instance.

Why do I get an error about the instance?

Some instances block automated access or have downtime. Try a different instance or retry later.

Why are some fields empty?

Lemmy posts can have optional fields like a URL or thumbnail. If a post does not have that data, the field will be empty.

FAQ

Question	Answer
Do I need a Lemmy account or API key?	No. The Actor reads public post feeds directly from the instance, so no login or key is required.
Which Lemmy instances does it work with?	Any instance that exposes the standard Lemmy API, including lemmy.world, beehaw.org, and self-hosted servers.
Can I scrape a single community?	Yes. Set the community name in the input, for example "programmer_humor", and the Actor will only return posts from that community.
Can I scrape all communities on an instance?	Yes. Leave the community field blank and the Actor will return posts from all communities on the instance, sorted by your chosen order.
What sort orders are available?	Active, Hot, New, Top day, Top week, Top month, Top year, and Top all-time.
How many posts can I get in one run?	Up to 1,000,000 posts per run, controlled by the maxItems input.
What format is the output?	Each post is returned as a flat row with fields like title, score, comment count, and body. You can export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.
Does it handle pagination?	Yes. The Actor automatically walks through pages of results until it reaches your maxItems limit or the feed ends.
Is the data real-time?	The Actor reads the live public feed at the moment you run it, so you get the current state of the instance.
Can I schedule this to run regularly?	Yes. Use Apify's scheduler to run the Actor daily, hourly, or on any cron schedule.

Related actors

Browse the full ParseForge collection for more scrapers.

🆘 Need help? Email parseforge@protonmail.com with your run ID, your input, and what you expected.

⚠️ Disclaimer. This Actor is unofficial and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Lemmy. It collects only publicly available data. You are responsible for using the collected data in compliance with the source's terms of service and applicable data-protection laws, including GDPR, CCPA, and PIPL. Do not use it to collect personal data unlawfully.