Apify MCP server
Connect your agent to the largest marketplace of tools for AI.
The official Apify Model Context Protocol (MCP) server gives AI agents web scraping, data extraction, and browser automation through thousands of ready-made Actors from Apify Store, at https://mcp.apify.com.
Apify is the marketplace of ready-to-run tools for AI agents. One connection to the Apify MCP server gives your agent thousands of tools to choose from, for jobs like web fetch, SERP monitoring, lead generation and enrichment, and pulling data from e-commerce sites and social media. The server loads only what each task needs.
Your agent searches Apify Store, checks an Actor's input and pricing, runs it, and reads the structured results, so you don't install a separate MCP server for every site. Connect to the hosted server with OAuth, or run it locally over stdio with the @apify/actors-mcp-server npm package.
Contents
How an agent uses Apify Actors
Actors are serverless programs on the Apify platform. Each one does a specific job, like scraping Google Maps, crawling a website for RAG, or collecting social media posts. The MCP server turns Actors into tools an agent can find and call without you configuring each one in advance.
A typical task follows four steps:
search-actors finds candidate Actors in Apify Store for the task.fetch-actor-details returns the Actor's input schema, README, and pricing, plus its output schema on request.call-actor starts the run and waits for it to finish, 30 seconds by default and up to 45. It returns the run status and storage IDs; the scraped items stay in the run's dataset.get-dataset-items reads the results from the run's dataset, with limit and offset for pagination.
The server adds get-dataset-items, get-key-value-store-record, get-actor-run, and abort-actor-run whenever call-actor or an Actor tool is loaded, so the agent can always read results and check on long runs that outlast the wait.
You can also expose a specific Actor as its own tool, for example apify/instagram-scraper. The server builds the tool's parameters from the Actor's input schema, so the agent knows exactly what to pass. A Server Actor with an API schema, such as apify/web-fetch, apify/web-search, or apify/rag-web-browser, gets a tool that sends one HTTP request to its API instead.
Actors that run their own MCP server. Some Actors are MCP servers themselves. fetch-actor-mcp-tool-list lists their tools, and call-actor-mcp-tool calls one. When such an Actor is loaded as a tool source and has no API schema, its tools are exposed under names in the form username--actor-name--tool-name; an Actor with an API schema, such as apify/web-search, gets its server tool instead, and call-actor-mcp-tool reaches its MCP tools. Apify Store also lists MCP-related Actors from independent creators; those are separate products with their own READMEs and pricing.
🛠️ Tools, resources, and prompts
Any Actor can be a tool, and agents discover new ones as they work. By default, the server loads the actors and docs categories, two Actor tools (Web Search and Web Fetch), and report-problem. Everything else is opt-in by category or by tool name.
Helper tools
Besides Actor tools, the server provides helper tools for the Apify platform:
- Actors: search Apify Store, list the Actors in your account, view their details, call tools on Actors that run MCP servers, send requests to Server Actors, and delete your own Actors.
- Documentation: search the Apify and Crawlee docs and fetch pages as context.
- Runs and storage: list runs, inspect them, read their logs, and read datasets and key-value stores.
- Tasks and schedules: manage saved Actor tasks and their public landing pages, and schedules that run Actors and tasks automatically.
- Builds and versions: build Actors, read build logs, and create, read, change, copy, and delete versions from files.
- Apify API: search the API reference, inspect an operation, and send requests to read or change data.
Available tools
Legend for the Enabled by default column:
- ✅ In the default tool set.
- ⚡ Added automatically when
call-actor, an Actor tool, or get-actor-run is loaded, which is true in the default configuration.
- ✅¹ Served by default only when telemetry is on and the client name doesn't contain
claude, anthropic, or local-agent-mode. Select it explicitly with tools=report-problem or tools=dev to serve it to any client; telemetry still has to be on.
| Tool name | Category | Description | Enabled by default |
|---|
search-actors | actors | Search for Actors in Apify Store. | ✅ |
fetch-actor-details | actors | Get an Actor's input schema, README (summary when available, full otherwise), pricing, and a Server Actor's HTTP operations. The output schema is opt-in. | ✅ |
call-actor | actors | Run an Actor and return its run status and storage IDs. Use fetch-actor-details first to get the input schema. | ✅ |
fetch-actor-mcp-tool-list | actors | List the tools of an Actor that runs an MCP server, with their schemas, annotations, and metadata. | ✅ |
call-actor-mcp-tool | actors | Call one tool on an Actor's MCP server and return its result. | ✅ |
send-server-actor-request | actors | Send one HTTP request to a Server Actor's API, as documented by its API schema, and return the response. | ✅ |
get-actor-run | runs | Get details about an Actor run. | ⚡ |
get-dataset-items | storage | Read items from a dataset, with filtering and pagination. | ⚡ |
get-key-value-store-record | storage | Get the value stored under a key in a key-value store. | ⚡ |
abort-actor-run | runs | Abort a running Actor run, optionally gracefully. | ⚡ |
search-apify-docs | docs | Search the Apify and Crawlee documentation for relevant pages. | ✅ |
fetch-apify-docs | docs | Fetch the full content of a documentation page by its URL. | ✅ |
apify--web-search | Actor (see Choose which tools load) | Search the web and return one page of results: titles, URLs, and snippets. | ✅ |
apify--web-fetch | Actor (see Choose which tools load) | Fetch a URL and return its content as Markdown, text, HTML, or other formats. | ✅ |
report-problem | dev | Report a problem with an Apify tool or Actor to the Apify team. | ✅¹ |
apify--rag-web-browser | Actor (see Choose which tools load) | Search the web and return the content of the top results. | |
get-actor-list | none (select by name: tools=get-actor-list) | List the Actors you own and those shared with you, including private ones. | |
delete-actor | none (select by name: tools=delete-actor) | Delete an Actor from your account permanently. Public Actors must be unpublished first. | |
get-actor-run-list | runs | List Actor runs, filtered by Actor and status. | |
get-actor-run-log | runs | Read the log of an Actor run. | |
get-dataset | storage | Get metadata about a dataset. | |
get-dataset-schema | storage | Generate a JSON schema from dataset items. | |
get-dataset-list | storage | List the datasets in your account. | |
get-key-value-store | storage | Get metadata about a key-value store. | |
get-key-value-store-keys | storage | List the keys in a key-value store. | |
get-key-value-store-list | storage | List the key-value stores in your account. | |
create-actor-task | tasks | Create a saved Actor task (a named, reusable Actor configuration). | |
get-actor-task | tasks | Get a saved Actor task, its publication state, and its public display configuration. | |
update-actor-task | tasks | Update a task's input, run options, or public display configuration. | |
publish-actor-task | tasks | Publish a task on its public landing page. | |
unpublish-actor-task | tasks | Unpublish a task from its public landing page. | |
create-schedule | schedules | Create a schedule that runs Actors or tasks on a cron expression. | |
get-schedule | schedules | Get a schedule, its cron expression, state, and the actions it runs. | |
update-schedule | schedules | Update a schedule's cron expression, time zone, enabled state, or actions. | |
delete-schedule | schedules | Delete a schedule. | |
build-actor | builds | Build an Actor version and wait a bounded time for the build to finish. | |
get-actor-build | builds | Get the status of an Actor build. | |
get-actor-build-list | builds | List the account's builds, or one Actor's, in every status, newest first. | |
get-actor-build-log | builds | Read the log of an Actor build. | |
get-actor-version | versions | Get an Actor version's file listing with hashes, plus the content of the files you ask for. | |
create-actor | versions | Create a private Actor in your account from files, optionally starting a build. | |
update-actor-version | versions | Write, edit, or delete files of an Actor version in one all-or-nothing write. | |
create-actor-version | versions | Add a version to an Actor, from files or as a copy of another version, optionally starting a build. | |
delete-actor-version | versions | Delete an Actor version. Its builds and their tags stay. | |
apify-api-search | api | Search the Apify API reference by keywords. Returns each operation's method, path, and docs page. | |
apify-api-details | api | Get the parameters and request body schema of the Apify API operations on a path. | |
apify-api-read | api | Send a GET request to an Apify API path, like apify api in the Apify CLI. It refuses GETs to the synchronous run endpoints, which start a paid run. | |
apify-api-write | api | Send a POST, PUT, PATCH, or DELETE request with a JSON body to any Apify API path, like apify api in the Apify CLI. | |
The tasks category manages saved Actor tasks. It is unrelated to the MCP Tasks protocol. The tool reference has full descriptions of each tool.
Tool annotations
Every tool carries a title, a readOnlyHint, and an openWorldHint. readOnlyHint is true for tools that only read data. Actor tools get it only for Apify-maintained Actors with limited permissions and no inputs that accept secrets, writable storage, an MCP connector, or code; other Actor tools are marked destructive. openWorldHint is true for tools that reach outside the Apify platform, such as call-actor, and false for platform-only tools.
Prompts and resources
No prompts are registered yet, so prompts/list returns an empty list. resources/read accepts any Apify API GET URL (https://api.apify.com/v2/...) and returns the response body using the session's Apify token, inlined up to 256 KB. Your data isn't enumerated in resources/list; resources/templates/list lists the common shapes with their paging parameters.
Choose which tools load
The tools parameter takes categories, tool names, and Actor names, separated by commas. When you set it, the defaults are dropped and only what you list is loaded, plus the ⚡ run and storage tools whenever the list includes call-actor or an Actor. The easiest way to build a selection is the configurator.
Hosted server:
https://mcp.apify.com?tools=actors,docs,apify/web-search,apify/web-fetch
Local server:
npx @apify/actors-mcp-server --tools actors,docs,apify/web-search,apify/web-fetch
To give an agent a single Actor, list only that Actor. The agent gets its tool plus the four ⚡ tools it needs to read the results:
https://mcp.apify.com?tools=apify/instagram-scraper
Pin your tools in production. The default tool set can change between versions. Set tools explicitly if you need a stable interface.
apify/web-search replaced apify/rag-web-browser in the default tools. To keep apify--rag-web-browser, add apify/rag-web-browser to your tools list, or set tools=actors,docs,apify/rag-web-browser,apify/web-fetch for the previous default categories and Actors.- The
actors URL parameter and --actors flag still work. They're merged into tools, so ?actors=apify/web-fetch equals ?tools=apify/web-fetch.
enableAddingActors, enable-adding-actors, and enableActorAutoLoading were removed and are ignored. Dynamic Actor calls come from call-actor, which the default actors category includes.- The selectors
add-actor, experimental, and preview are retired and load nothing. Use call-actor or the actors category.
get-actor-log was renamed to get-actor-run-log, and the source category to versions. The old names load nothing.call-actor no longer calls tools on MCP server Actors: the actorName:toolName form is rejected. Use call-actor-mcp-tool with actor, tool, and arguments. call-actor still starts a run of an MCP server Actor that has an input schema; one without is refused. A selection that names call-actor alone needs call-actor-mcp-tool added.fetch-actor-details no longer lists an MCP server Actor's tools, and output.mcpTools is ignored. Use fetch-actor-mcp-tool-list, which returns the definitions in structuredContent.tools. A selection that names fetch-actor-details alone needs fetch-actor-mcp-tool-list added.- A selected Actor with an API schema (a Server Actor) gets a tool that sends one HTTP request to its API, with
method, path, and query arguments, instead of a tool that starts a run. If the Actor is also an MCP server, the selection no longer loads its MCP tools: use call-actor-mcp-tool. call-actor still starts runs of the Actor when it has an input schema. A selected apify/rag-web-browser is served this way too, with GET /search.
apify--web-fetch sends one HTTP request to the Web Fetch Actor's API instead of starting a run, and returns the HTTP response. Its arguments are method, path, query and, for POST /, body, for example {"method": "GET", "path": "/", "query": {"url": "https://example.com", "formats": ["markdown", "links"]}}.apify--web-search sends one HTTP request to the Web Search Actor's API instead of starting a run, and returns the HTTP response. Its arguments are method, path, query and, for POST /, body, for example {"method": "GET", "path": "/", "query": {"query": "AI agent payment protocols", "maxResults": 5}}. call-actor still starts runs of the Actor, and call-actor-mcp-tool calls its search MCP tool.
UI mode configuration
The ui parameter controls MCP Apps widget tools. With UI mode on, the server adds search-actors-widget and fetch-actor-details-widget next to their base tools, which keep returning standard responses. By default (auto), UI mode turns on when the client supports MCP Apps.
| Value | Behavior |
|---|
auto (default) | Widget tools added when the client supports MCP Apps |
true, on, or apps | Widget tools always added |
false, off, or default | No widget tools |
Hosted server:
https://mcp.apify.com?tools=actors,docs&ui=true
Local server, with a CLI flag or the UI_MODE environment variable:
npx @apify/actors-mcp-server --ui true
UI_MODE=true npx @apify/actors-mcp-server
💬 Example prompts
Ask in plain language. The agent finds a suitable Actor, checks its input and pricing, runs it, and reads the results. These prompts cover the most common jobs:
| Use case | Example prompt | Example Actor |
|---|
| Web research | "Find what people on X said about autonomous AI agents this week and summarize the key developments." | Tweet Scraper V2 |
| Search and read the web | "Compare the current pricing plans of Notion, Coda, and Airtable and tell me which is cheapest for a 10-person team." | Web Search, Web Fetch |
| Search results (SERP) | "Get the top 20 Google results for 'best CRM for startups' in the US and show who ranks where." | Google Search Results Scraper |
| Lead generation | "Find dentists in Austin, Texas on Google Maps with their phone numbers, websites, and ratings." | Google Maps Scraper |
| LinkedIn profiles | "Get the current job title, company, and work history for these 20 LinkedIn profiles." | LinkedIn Profile Scraper |
| LinkedIn company posts | "Get the 30 latest posts from Apify's LinkedIn company page with their reaction counts." | LinkedIn Company Posts Scraper |
| Review analysis | "Pull the latest 100 Google Maps reviews for this hotel and group the complaints by theme." | Google Maps Reviews Scraper |
| Social media monitoring | "Get the 50 latest posts from @nasa on Instagram with likes and comments." | Instagram Scraper |
| Trend research | "Find the most viewed TikTok videos for #skincare this week." | TikTok Scraper |
| E-commerce | "List the 10 best-rated wireless earbuds on Amazon with prices and review counts." | Amazon Product Scraper |
| Knowledge base and RAG | "Crawl docs.example.com and turn every page into Markdown I can load into my vector database." | Website Content Crawler |
Follow-ups work too. "Show me the next 10 results from that run" makes the agent call get-dataset-items again with a higher offset. With the schedules category loaded, "Run that Google Maps search every Monday at 9 am" creates a schedule.
💰 Pricing and limits
- Connecting to the MCP server is free. Actor runs bill to your Apify account according to each Actor's pricing, which
fetch-actor-details shows before a run. The Apify free plan includes $5 of monthly platform usage.
- To cap what a run can cost, pass
maxTotalChargeUsd (pay-per-event Actors) or maxItems (pay-per-result Actors) in the callOptions of call-actor. timeout and memory limit the run's duration and memory, not its price.
- The hosted server accepts up to 20 requests per second per account.
search-actors returns only free and pay-per-event Actors that pass the platform's agent-safety filters, so rental and pay-per-result Actors don't appear in search. Full-permission Actors need your one-time approval; until then, call-actor returns an error with an approval link.- Some tools work without an Apify account:
search-actors, fetch-actor-details, search-apify-docs, fetch-apify-docs, apify-api-search, and apify-api-details. Select only those, for example https://mcp.apify.com?tools=search-actors, and the hosted server accepts the connection without a token.
🪙 Agentic payments (experimental). Agents can pay for Actor runs without an Apify account. AGI sells a prepaid, spend-capped Apify API token for an x402, MPP, or Skyfire payment. The agent then uses it as a normal Bearer token against mcp.apify.com, with any Actor. See the agentic payments documentation for supported methods and limits, and agi.apify.com/AGENTS.md for protocol details.
📡 Telemetry
The Apify MCP server collects telemetry about tool calls to help Apify understand usage patterns and improve the service. Telemetry is on by default. With telemetry on, Actor searches in Apify Store send the MCP session ID as _traceId, and tool-call events carry it as trace_id. search-actors also sends _useCase, a one-sentence reason for the search written by the model, which Apify uses to improve Store search results. The stdio transport also uses Sentry for error tracking, which helps the Apify team find and fix issues faster.
To opt out, including Sentry, set the telemetry-enabled URL parameter or the --telemetry-enabled CLI flag to false, or set TELEMETRY_ENABLED=false. CLI flags take precedence over environment variables.
https://mcp.apify.com?telemetry-enabled=false
npx @apify/actors-mcp-server --telemetry-enabled=false
TELEMETRY_ENABLED=false npx @apify/actors-mcp-server
🐛 Troubleshooting and limitations
- The local server won't start. Check your Node.js version: the package requires Node.js 22 or later.
- Authentication fails. Reconnect so the client repeats the OAuth flow, or switch to a Bearer token. For the local server, check that
APIFY_TOKEN is set in the client's server configuration, not only in your shell.
- Client features vary. Any MCP client can connect, but support for dynamic tool lists, OAuth, and MCP Apps differs between clients.
- Invalid Actor input. When
call-actor fails because of invalid input, the error includes the Actor's input schema so the agent can correct the input and retry.
The server adapts Actor input schemas so that more clients and models can use them:
- Descriptions longer than 500 characters are cut at the last complete sentence and marked
[Description truncated].
- Enums are kept in full up to 2,000 combined characters. Larger enums are replaced by a short note with example values.
- Required fields get a
REQUIRED prefix in their descriptions for frameworks that ignore the JSON Schema required list.
- Nested properties are built for special inputs such as proxy configuration and request lists.
- Missing array item types are inferred from the item type, the prefill, the default value, or the editor type, in that order.
- Prefill and default values are copied into descriptions as examples, for clients that ignore JSON Schema
examples.
For more help, see the MCP documentation or open an issue.
❓ FAQ
What is an MCP server?
An MCP server exposes tools and data to AI agents through the Model Context Protocol, an open standard supported by clients such as Claude, ChatGPT, and Cursor. The agent connects once and calls the server's tools when a task needs them. The Apify MCP server's tools are the Actors in Apify Store.
What is the Apify MCP server?
It's the official Model Context Protocol server for Apify. It lets AI agents search Apify Store, run Actors for web scraping, data extraction, and browser automation, and read the structured results.
When is it a good MCP server for web scraping?
When an agent needs data from many different sites. A typical case is Google Maps one day, Instagram or an online store the next. The agent picks a ready-made Actor for each site from Apify Store instead of you writing and maintaining a scraper. Each Actor works like a web scraping API for its site, and the Apify platform handles scaling, proxies, and storage of the results.
How does it compare to Playwright MCP?
Playwright MCP drives a browser on your machine step by step, through clicks and page snapshots. The Apify MCP server runs Actors in the Apify cloud. Each Actor handles JavaScript rendering, proxies, and blocking for its site and returns structured results, so the agent asks for the data instead of operating a browser. Many agents use both.
Can ChatGPT or Claude scrape websites with it?
Yes. Connect ChatGPT, Claude, or Claude Code to https://mcp.apify.com, then ask in plain language. The model searches for a suitable Actor, runs it, and reads the results.
Is it free?
Connecting is free, and some discovery tools work without an account. Actor runs bill to your Apify account at each Actor's price, and the free plan includes $5 of monthly platform usage.
Do I need an API token?
Not with the hosted server, because OAuth signs you in through the browser. The local server needs APIFY_TOKEN or an Apify CLI login.
Can I limit what the agent can do or spend?
Yes. Select tools with the tools parameter or expose a single Actor. To cap a run's cost, pass maxTotalChargeUsd for pay-per-event Actors or maxItems for pay-per-result Actors in call-actor options.
🔧 Development
This repository contains the open-source server package published to npm as @apify/actors-mcp-server. The hosted service at mcp.apify.com runs on this core logic from a separate private repository.
You need Node.js 22 or later and pnpm.
pnpm install
pnpm run build
pnpm run dev # Streamable HTTP server on http://localhost:3001, hot reload for widgets
pnpm run inspector:stdio # MCP Inspector against the stdio server
The development HTTP server doesn't read APIFY_TOKEN from the environment. Pass your token in an Authorization: Bearer header or a ?token= query parameter, for example from the MCP Inspector.
To publish a canary build of a pull request to pkg.pr.new, add the beta label to it.
DEVELOPMENT.md covers the project structure, tool loading phases, the Node.js version policy, and testing.
🤝 Contributing
Bug reports, feature requests, and documentation fixes are welcome. Open an issue with steps to reproduce a bug, or describe the problem a feature would solve and who runs into it. Send typos, broken links, and wrong commands straight to a pull request. For code, work only on an issue a maintainer has invited you to pick up; unsolicited pull requests are closed.
Read CONTRIBUTING.md before you start, including the rules for AI-assisted contributions.
🔒 Privacy and license
Requests and Actor inputs go to the Apify API to run the Actors you call. Apify doesn't share them with third parties beyond what running those Actors requires. See Apify legal documents for details on data collection and retention.
The project is licensed under the MIT license.
📚 Learn more