# Stack Overflow & Stack Exchange Q&A Scraper > Stack Overflow and Stack Exchange scraper: export questions with answers, votes, tags and authors by tag, search or link. No login. URL: https://cliqtomedia.com/actors/stack-exchange-scraper/ Category: Social media & communities · Status: coming soon · Apify profile: https://apify.com/cliqtomedia?fpr=cliqto Pick a site and a tag, a search or a list of question links. Get one row per question with the answers inside. It works with Stack Overflow and 170+ other sites. ## How to use it: 3 steps 1. **Follow us on Apify.** The tool is built and waits in the queue for the Apify Store. Apify is the cloud platform where our tools run. 2. **Paste your input and press Start.** No code needed: you fill in a form (the input). It already has a working example. For example: `apify` in Tags. Each start is one run. 3. **Download the results.** When the run ends, the results are in a table (the dataset). Open Output, press Export and pick Excel or CSV. JSON and the API are there too. ## What it does Stack Overflow & Stack Exchange Q&A Scraper exports questions with their answers from Stack Overflow and the other Stack Exchange sites (Super User, Server Fault, Ask Ubuntu, Mathematics and 170+ more). You pick a site and a tag, a search query or a list of question links, and get one table row per question with the title, body, tags, votes, author and the answers inside the same row. ### Good for - Watch new questions about your product tag on Stack Overflow. - Build a question-and-answer dataset in Markdown for search, RAG or an LLM. - Save a list of known threads with all answers and votes. - Find the most-voted questions on a topic on any Stack Exchange site. ### Not a good fit - No comments, user profiles, badges or chat. Only questions and their answers. - No private or deleted content. Deleted questions come back as `not_found` rows. - Answer links (`/a/`) are not looked up. Use the question link instead. - The data is live: votes, views and answers can change between runs. ## Price Prices will be shown after release. ## Questions ### Do I need a Stack Overflow account or API key? No. It uses the official public API. The key field is optional and only raises the quota. ### Are answers charged separately? No. Answers are inside the question row. One question row is one charge. ### Which sites work? Stack Overflow, Super User, Server Fault, Ask Ubuntu, Mathematics and many more public sites. ### Does it get comments or user profiles? No. It gets questions and their answers only. ### Are the numbers live? Yes. Each run reads the API at that moment; `fetchedAt` shows when. Votes, views and answers change over time. ### Is personal data included? Only public profile data shown on the site: the author's user ID, display name, reputation and profile link. No email, location or other profile details. ## Data fields - `site` (string): Site as requested, e.g. stackoverflow or math.stackexchange.com. - `questionId` (integer): Question ID on that site. - `title` (string): Question title, HTML entities decoded. - `link` (string): Question URL. - `tags` (array): Question tags. - `score` (integer): Score (up minus down votes). - `upVotes` (integer): Up votes. - `downVotes` (integer): Down votes. - `viewCount` (integer): Views. - `answerCount` (integer): Total answers on the site (0 = none, null = unknown). - `isAnswered` (boolean): true when the question has an accepted or upvoted answer (Stack Exchange definition). - `acceptedAnswerId` (integer): ID of the accepted answer, null if none. - `commentCount` (integer): Comments on the question. - `bountyAmount` (integer): Open bounty in reputation, null if none. - `isClosed` (boolean): true if the question is closed. - `closedReason` (string): Reason the question was closed. - `closedAt` (string): When it was closed, ISO 8601 UTC. - `createdAt` (string): Created, ISO 8601 UTC. - `lastActivityAt` (string): Last activity, ISO 8601 UTC. - `lastEditedAt` (string): Last edit, ISO 8601 UTC; null if never edited. - `author` (object): Public author profile: userId, displayName, reputation, userType, profileUrl. null for deleted users. - `bodyFormat` (string): Format of body fields in this row. - `body` (string): Question body in bodyFormat. - `answers` (array): Answers (accepted first, then score). null when includeAnswers is off. - `answersIncluded` (integer): Answers in this row; null when answers are off. - `answersComplete` (boolean): true when every answer of the question is included. - `license` (string): Question licence from the API, e.g. CC BY-SA 4.0. - `licenseUrl` (string): Creative Commons licence URL. - `attribution` (string): Ready-made CC BY-SA attribution line: title, author, link, licence. - `rank` (integer): Position in tag/search results (1 = first); null in question mode. - `input` (string): Your question ID or URL as given (question mode). - `inputs` (array): not_found and error rows: every question ID or URL this row covers (one row per batch with the same outcome). null on question rows. - `status` (string): Row result. complete and partial rows are charged; not_found and error rows are free. - `statusReason` (string): Plain-English reason for partial, not_found or error rows. - `errorCode` (string): Machine code for error rows, e.g. INVALID_INPUT, QUOTA_EXHAUSTED. - `sourceUrl` (string): Official API request that produced the row (no key). - `fetchedAt` (string): When the row was fetched, ISO 8601 UTC. ## Input settings - `mode` (string): tag: newest/top questions carrying all given tags. search: keyword search (query) with optional tags. question: exact question IDs or URLs from the questions list. - `site` (string): Stack Exchange site name or domain, e.g. stackoverflow, superuser, serverfault, askubuntu, math, math.stackexchange.com. A question URL in question mode sets its own site. - `tags` (array): Up to 5 tags, e.g. python or web-scraping. A question must carry all of them. Used in tag and search modes. Empty in tag mode = all questions of the site. - `query` (string): Search mode: free-text words matched in titles and bodies, e.g. headless chrome timeout. Not used in other modes. - `questions` (array): Question mode: up to 1000 question IDs (e.g. 11227809) or URLs (https://stackoverflow.com/questions/11227809/...). Answer links are rejected per item; missing questions come back as not_found rows (not charged). - `sort` (string): Order of tag and search results. hot works only in tag mode, relevance only in search mode. - `maxQuestions` (integer): Upper limit of question rows in tag and search modes (each row = one charged question). One API request reads up to 100 questions with answers, so 1000 questions need about 10 requests. - `includeAnswers` (boolean): Add the answers (body, score, accepted flag, author, licence) inside each question row. Accepted answer first, then by score. - `maxAnswersPerQuestion` (integer): Keep at most this many answers per question (accepted first, then highest score). answersComplete shows whether all answers fit. - `bodyFormat` (string): Format of question and answer bodies. Markdown is best for LLM and RAG datasets; plain text strips all markup. - `fromDate` (string): Only questions created on or after this date (UTC), e.g. 2025-01-01. Tag and search modes. - `toDate` (string): Only questions created on or before this date (UTC, whole day included). - `apiKey` (string): Optional free app key from stackapps.com (Register an app). It is not a login and grants no account access; it raises the daily quota and lifts the 25-page limit. Stored as a secret, never logged or written to output. ## Step by step on Apify 1. Open the Input tab. 2. Keep Site at the prefilled `stackoverflow` and Tags at the prefilled `apify`, or type your own tag. 3. Keep Max questions at the prefilled `10`. Mode stays at the default `tag`. 4. Click Start. 5. Open the Questions view of the output and check `title`, `score` and `answers`. ## Use cases | Task | Input | You get | Key fields | Next step | |---|---|---|---|---| | Follow questions about your product | `tags: ["your-tag"]`, `sort: newest`, scheduled | question rows | `title`, `link`, `createdAt`, `isAnswered` | Send unanswered ones to your support channel | | Build an LLM or RAG dataset | `tags`, `sort: votes`, `bodyFormat: markdown` | rows with answers | `body`, `answers[].body`, `answers[].isAccepted`, `attribution` | Load into a vector store, keep the credit line | | Research a topic | `mode: search`, `query`, `fromDate` | question rows | `score`, `viewCount`, `tags` | Count questions per month or per tag | | Save known threads | `mode: question`, `questions` | one row per thread | `answers`, `acceptedAnswerId`, `lastActivityAt` | Archive or compare over time | ## Tips - Use your own tag on a daily schedule to see new questions. - Add a free Stack Apps key to raise the daily quota. - Use question links when you need known threads with answers. ## Limits - Up to 1,000 questions per run. We tested 1,000 questions with 16,522 answers in one run: COMPLETE in 150–220 seconds. - Without an API key, the Stack Exchange API gives about 300 requests per day per IP address. One request reads up to 100 questions with answers, so normal runs use a few requests. `RUN_SUMMARY` shows the remaining quota. - The API asks clients to wait between some requests. The Actor follows this, so big runs take minutes, not seconds. - If the daily quota runs out, the run stops as `CAPPED` with reason `QUOTA_LIMIT`, keeps saved rows and suggests an `apiKey`. If nothing was saved yet, the run is `ERROR`. - The Actor stops reading at about 270 seconds so it can save the results within the 300-second timeout (`CAPPED`, `DEADLINE`). ## Sample result ```json { "site": "stackoverflow", "questionId": 77823456, "title": "Apify: weird costs for using key-value stores", "link": "https://stackoverflow.com/questions/77823456/apify-weird-costs-for-using-key-value-stores", "tags": ["node.js", "apify"], "score": 0, "upVotes": 1, "downVotes": 1, "viewCount": 213, "answerCount": 1, "isAnswered": true, "acceptedAnswerId": null, "commentCount": null, "bountyAmount": null, "isClosed": false, "closedReason": null, "closedAt": null, "createdAt": "2024-01-16T04:20:59.000Z", "lastActivityAt": "2024-01-16T13:03:25.000Z", "lastEditedAt": null, "author": { "userId": 2486638, "displayName": "Alvein", "reputation": 217, "userType": "registered", "profileUrl": "https://stackoverflow.com/users/2486638/alvein" }, "bodyFormat": "markdown", "body": "I'm working with Node.js but I think my question is language-agnostic.\n\nIn my Apify actor, First I do a few long scrapes…", "answers": [ { "answerId": 77825927, "link": "https://stackoverflow.com/questions/77823456/apify-weird-costs-for-using-key-value-stores/77825927#77825927", "score": 1, "upVotes": 1, "downVotes": 0, "isAccepted": false, "commentCount": 1, "createdAt": "2024-01-16T13:03:25.000Z", "lastActivityAt": "2024-01-16T13:03:25.000Z", "lastEditedAt": null, "author": { "userId": 9898465, "displayName": "Lukáš Křivka", "reputation": 983, "userType": "registered", "profileUrl": "https://stackoverflow.com/users/9898465/luk%c3%a1%c5%a1-k%c5%99ivka" }, "body": "Apify doesn't charge for how big the writes are. Apify charges for number of writes and then for time based storage…", "license": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "licenseUrl": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/" } ], "answersIncluded": 1, "answersComplete": true, "license": "CC BY-SA 4.0", "licenseUrl": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/", "attribution": "\"Apify: weird costs for using key-value stores\" by Alvein (https://stackoverflow.com/users/2486638/alvein), https://stackoverflow.com/questions/77823456/apify-weird-costs-for-using-key-value-stores, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0", "rank": 8 } ``` ## Similar tools - [Substack Newsletter Scraper](https://cliqtomedia.com/actors/substack-newsletter-scraper/) - [Hacker News Stories & Comments Scraper](https://cliqtomedia.com/actors/hacker-news-stories-comments-scraper/) - [Bilibili Scraper: Videos, Comments & Creators, No Login](https://cliqtomedia.com/actors/bilibili-scraper/) - [Bluesky Scraper — Posts, Profiles, Feeds & Threads, No Login](https://cliqtomedia.com/actors/bluesky-scraper/) - [Medium Article Scraper: Tags, Authors & Publications](https://cliqtomedia.com/actors/medium-articles-scraper/) - [Pinterest Search Scraper: Pins & Boards, No Login](https://cliqtomedia.com/actors/pinterest-search-scraper/)