Substack API endpoint
Use Crawlora's Substack Search API to extract supported public Substack data as structured JSON. This page includes request parameters, cURL examples, response schema, error behavior, credit cost, and a Playground link for testing before integration.
/substack/searchSearches posts across all of Substack and returns the publications that also matched, unlike /substack/publication/posts which searches within a single publication. Set focus_publication_id to additionally receive that one publication's own matching posts in focused_posts alongside the site-wide results. Developers commonly use this endpoint for data enrichment, monitoring, research dashboards, internal automation, and agent-native workflows that need repeatable structured public web data. Authentication uses the documented Crawlora headers, and usage is metered with the credit cost shown on this page.
Request parameters are generated from the active endpoint catalog. Required values must be sent before Crawlora can call the upstream public web data source.
| Parameter | Type | Required | Default | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| query | string | Yes | Search text | ||
| page | integer | No | Zero-based page, 20 posts per page | ||
| focus_publication_id | integer | No | Numeric publication id whose own matching posts are returned in focused_posts | ||
| focus_limit | integer | No | Cap on focused_posts, 1-20. Requires focus_publication_id. | ||
| x-api-key (header) | string | Yes | API key required |
curl -X GET "https://api.crawlora.net/api/v1/substack/search?query=coffee&page=1" \ -H "x-api-key: $CRAWLORA_API_KEY"
Send your scraping API key in the x-api-key header. Use the console API Keys page to rotate or select the active key.
Endpoint usage is metered in credits. The plan prices, included credits, limits, and overage rates below match the active backend billing configuration.
| Plan | Price | Included credits | Daily cap | Rate limit | Overage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/mo | 2,000 | 500 daily credits | 5/min | No overage |
| Starter | $9/mo | 20,000 | 5,000 daily credits | 15/min | $0.75/1,000 overage credits when enabled |
| Growth | $29/mo | 100,000 | 25,000 daily credits | 45/min | $0.45/1,000 overage credits when enabled |
| Pro | $79/mo | 400,000 | No daily cap | 120/min | $0.30/1,000 overage credits |
| Business | $199/mo | 1,200,000 | No daily cap | 300/min | $0.20/1,000 overage credits |
| Enterprise | $499/mo | 5,000,000 | No daily cap | 1,000/min | $0.12/1,000 overage credits |
This endpoint is executed through Crawlora's managed scraping infrastructure.
Crawlora does not silently return bad data when the upstream page cannot be used.
| Status | Common failure case |
|---|---|
| 400 | Invalid input or missing required parameter |
| 429 | Plan or endpoint rate limit exceeded |
| 500 | Internal execution error |
| 502 | Upstream platform failed, returned unusable HTML, or served a challenge page that could not be resolved |
When possible, Crawlora returns structured error context so your integration can retry, back off, or inspect the request.
| Status | Description | Schema |
|---|---|---|
| 400 | Bad Request | #/definitions/app.Response |
| 429 | Too Many Requests | #/definitions/app.Response |
| 503 | Service Unavailable | #/definitions/app.Response |
{
"code": 200,
"data": {
"query": "artificial intelligence",
"page": 0,
"has_more": true,
"posts": [
{
"id": 214198231,
"title": "The State of AI in 2026",
"url": "https://example.substack.com/p/the-state-of-ai-in-2026",
"type": "newsletter",
"audience": "everyone",
"paywalled": false
}
],
"publications": [
{
"id": 6349492,
"name": "SemiAnalysis",
"subdomain": "semianalysis",
"url": "https://semianalysis.substack.com"
}
]
},
"msg": "success"
}Request schema
No body schema
Response schema
#/definitions/substack.searchResponseDoc
| Field | Type | Required | Enum | Bounds | Example | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| code | integer | No | 200 | |||
| data | substack.SearchResult | No | ||||
| data.focused_posts | array | No | ||||
| data.focused_posts[].audience | string | No | everyone | |||
| data.focused_posts[].comment_count | integer | No | ||||
| data.focused_posts[].cover_image_url | string | No | ||||
| data.focused_posts[].description | string | No | ||||
| data.focused_posts[].id | integer | No | 213613469 | |||
| data.focused_posts[].paywalled | boolean | No | ||||
| data.focused_posts[].published_at | string | No | ||||
| data.focused_posts[].reaction_count | integer | No | ||||
| data.focused_posts[].slug | string | No | ||||
| data.focused_posts[].subtitle | string | No | ||||
| data.focused_posts[].title | string | No | ||||
| data.focused_posts[].type | string | No | newsletter | |||
| data.focused_posts[].url | string | No | ||||
| data.has_more | boolean | No | ||||
| data.page | integer | No | ||||
| data.posts | array | No | ||||
| data.posts[].audience | string | No | everyone | |||
| data.posts[].comment_count | integer | No | ||||
| data.posts[].cover_image_url | string | No | ||||
| data.posts[].description | string | No | ||||
| data.posts[].id | integer | No | 213613469 | |||
| data.posts[].paywalled | boolean | No | ||||
| data.posts[].published_at | string | No | ||||
| data.posts[].reaction_count | integer | No | ||||
| data.posts[].slug | string | No | ||||
| data.posts[].subtitle | string | No | ||||
| data.posts[].title | string | No | ||||
| data.posts[].type | string | No | newsletter | |||
| data.posts[].url | string | No | ||||
| data.publications | array | No | ||||
| data.publications[].author_handle | string | No | ||||
| data.publications[].author_id | integer | No | ||||
| data.publications[].author_name | string | No | Dylan Patel | |||
| data.publications[].custom_domain | string | No | ||||
| data.publications[].explicit | boolean | No | ||||
| data.publications[].hero_text | string | No | ||||
| data.publications[].id | integer | No | 6349492 | |||
| data.publications[].language | string | No | ||||
| data.publications[].logo_url | string | No | ||||
| data.publications[].name | string | No | SemiAnalysis | |||
| data.publications[].payments_enabled | boolean | No | ||||
| data.publications[].subdomain | string | No | semianalysis | |||
| data.publications[].subscribers | substack.SubscriberCounts | No | ||||
| data.publications[].subscribers.follower_count | integer | No | 365727 | |||
| data.publications[].subscribers.paid_rough | string | No | Thousands of paid subscribers | PaidRough and PaidRoughInt are the only paid-subscriber figures Substack publishes, and both are buckets rather than counts. PaidRoughInt is the finer of the two and is always present; PaidTier is the coarser threshold behind the public bestseller badge. | ||
| data.publications[].subscribers.paid_rough_int | integer | No | 1000 | |||
| data.publications[].subscribers.paid_tier | integer | No | 1000 | |||
| data.publications[].subscribers.total | integer | No | 315000 | |||
| data.publications[].subscribers.total_display | string | No | 315K+ | |||
| data.publications[].subscribers.total_hidden | boolean | No | ||||
| data.publications[].subscribers.total_rough | string | No | Hundreds of thousands of subscribers | |||
| data.publications[].subscription | substack.Subscription | No | ||||
| data.publications[].subscription.annual_disabled | boolean | No | ||||
| data.publications[].subscription.app_store_plans | array | No | ||||
| data.publications[].subscription.app_store_plans[].active | boolean | No | ||||
| data.publications[].subscription.app_store_plans[].amount_cents | integer | No | 1400 | |||
| data.publications[].subscription.app_store_plans[].currency | string | No | usd | |||
| data.publications[].subscription.app_store_plans[].display_name | string | No | ||||
| data.publications[].subscription.app_store_plans[].display_price | string | No | $14 | |||
| data.publications[].subscription.app_store_plans[].is_founding | boolean | No | ||||
| data.publications[].subscription.app_store_plans[].period | string | No | month | |||
| data.publications[].subscription.app_store_plans[].sku | string | No | ||||
| data.publications[].subscription.founding_benefits | array | No | ||||
| data.publications[].subscription.founding_plan_name | string | No | Founding Member | |||
| data.publications[].subscription.free_benefits | array | No | ||||
| data.publications[].subscription.free_trial_enabled | boolean | No | ||||
| data.publications[].subscription.group_discount_percent | number | No | 20 | |||
| data.publications[].subscription.monthly_disabled | boolean | No | ||||
| data.publications[].subscription.paid_benefits | array | No | ||||
| data.publications[].subscription.payments_state | string | No | enabled | |||
| data.publications[].subscription.plans | array | No | ||||
| data.publications[].subscription.plans[].active | boolean | No | ||||
| data.publications[].subscription.plans[].amount_cents | integer | No | 5000 | |||
| data.publications[].subscription.plans[].currencies | array | No | ||||
| data.publications[].subscription.plans[].currencies[].amount_cents | integer | No | 900 | |||
| data.publications[].subscription.plans[].currencies[].currency | string | No | eur | |||
| data.publications[].subscription.plans[].currency | string | No | usd | |||
| data.publications[].subscription.plans[].id | string | No | monthly50usd_982ddb86 | |||
| data.publications[].subscription.plans[].interval | string | No | month | |||
| data.publications[].subscription.plans[].interval_count | integer | No | 1 | |||
| data.publications[].subscription.plans[].kind | string | No | monthly | |||
| data.publications[].subscription.plans[].nickname | string | No | $50 a month | |||
| data.publications[].subscription.plans[].trial_period_days | integer | No | ||||
| data.publications[].subscription.pledges_enabled | boolean | No | ||||
| data.publications[].url | string | No | https://semianalysis.substack.com | |||
| data.query | string | No | artificial intelligence | |||
| msg | string | No | success |
Use environment variables for secrets and keep Crawlora API keys server-side.
curl -X GET "https://api.crawlora.net/api/v1/substack/search?query=coffee&page=1" \
-H "x-api-key: $CRAWLORA_API_KEY"Crawlora is designed for responsible structured public web data workflows. Customers are responsible for using Crawlora in compliance with applicable laws, third-party rights, target-platform rules, and Crawlora terms.
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