Open Library Books Scraper

Open Library Books Scraper

Scrape Open Library books by search term, subject, author, or direct URL, up to a million per run. Every book comes with its title, author, subjects, and full metadata. No API key or login. Export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.

Open Library's official API needs a key and rate-limits you. This reads the public book catalog directly, filtered by search query, type, or ebook availability, and returns each match in one fixed schema.

Who uses it	What they scrape Open Library for
Market researchers	Which books and subjects are trending in a niche
Librarians	Build a local catalog of books matching a subject
Data analysts	Enrich a dataset with book metadata
Book app developers	Seed a recommendation engine with book data

What it does

This Actor collects Open Library books by search query, subject, author, list, or direct URL, and returns each one as a flat row.

• 🔍 Search filters: query, type (books, authors, subjects, lists), and ebook-only toggle.
• 🔗 Direct URL: paste any Open Library search URL and scrape the results.
• 📊 Flat rows: each book is one row with title, author, subjects, and more.
• 📦 Bulk export: up to 1,000,000 books per run for paid users.

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

What you can do with Open Library data

📚 Build a subject catalog.

A librarian runs the Actor with searchType=subjects and a query like 'science fiction' to collect all matching books for a local database.

📈 Track publishing trends.

A market researcher scrapes books by a search term weekly to see which new titles and subjects are appearing.

🔎 Enrich a book list.

A data analyst pastes a list of Open Library URLs to fetch full metadata for each book in one run.

📱 Seed a book app.

A developer scrapes popular subjects to populate a recommendation engine with real book data.

Why choose this scraper

	What you get
No API key	Scrape without registering an app or handling rate limits
Flexible input	Search by term, subject, author, or paste a URL
Complete metadata	Title, author, subjects, and other fields in one row
Scalable	Up to a million books per run for paid users

How it compares

No other Store actor targets Open Library the same way, so the honest comparison is with the alternatives teams actually weigh.

	Open Library Books Scraper	Build it in-house	By hand
Setup	Run it now, zero config	Days of engineering	None, but hours per pull
When Open Library changes	Maintained for you	You fix it	You re-learn the page
Proxies, retries, anti-bot	Built in	Your problem	Browser only
Output	Fixed JSON schema, CSV/Excel export	Whatever you build	Copy-paste
Cost	Pay per result	Engineering time	Analyst hours

Configure the run

Drive the Actor from a search query, a search type, an ebook-only flag, or a direct Open Library URL, and filters run as each book is read so only matches reach your dataset. The Input tab lists every parameter.

A first run with the defaults:

{
  "maxItems": 10,
  "searchQuery": "Space",
  "searchType": "books",
  "ebooksOnly": false
}

A larger pull:

{
  "maxItems": 200,
  "searchQuery": "Space",
  "searchType": "books",
  "ebooksOnly": false
}

Pricing

Pay-per-result: $0.16 per result collected. You pay only for the results written to your dataset.

Results collected	Approximate cost
100 results	$16.00
1,000 results	$160.00
10,000 results	$1600.00

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 Open Library Books 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 Open Library 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/open-library-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 your searchQuery is not empty and that you have not provided both startUrl and API filters. They are mutually exclusive.

Why is my run limited to 100 books?

Free users are limited to 100 books per run. Upgrade to a paid plan to increase the limit up to 1,000,000.

Why is ebooksOnly not working?

ebooksOnly only works when searchType is 'books' and you are using API filters, not a startUrl.

Why did my run fail with a URL error?

Make sure the startUrl is a valid Open Library URL, such as https://openlibrary.org/search?q=your+query.

Can I scrape authors instead of books?

Yes. Set searchType to 'authors' and provide a searchQuery. The Actor will return author records instead of book records.

FAQ

Question	Answer
Do I need an API key?	No. The Actor reads the public Open Library website directly, so no registration or key is required.
What is the maximum number of books I can scrape?	Free users are limited to 100 books per run. Paid users can scrape up to 1,000,000 books per run.
Can I scrape by subject or author?	Yes. Set searchType to 'subjects' or 'authors' and provide a searchQuery. You can also paste a direct URL.
Can I filter to only ebooks?	Yes. Set ebooksOnly to true. This only works when searchType is 'books' and you are using API filters, not a startUrl.
What data does each book row include?	Each row includes the book's title, author, subjects, and other metadata fields as returned by Open Library.
Can I export the results?	Yes. You can export the dataset to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.
Is this legal?	Open Library provides public data. You should review their terms of service and respect robots.txt for your use case.
Can I scrape a list of books?	Yes. Set searchType to 'lists' and provide a searchQuery, or paste a direct URL to a list.
What if I get no results?	Check your search query and filters. Make sure you are not mixing startUrl with API filters, as they are mutually exclusive.
Can I run this on a schedule?	Yes. You can schedule the Actor to run daily, weekly, or at any interval to keep your data fresh.

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 Internet Archive. 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.