Wikipedia: scrapers and the official API, compared

Articles, summaries, categories, images, coordinates, revisions and page views from Wikipedia.

Short answer

Wikipedia's official MediaWiki Action API and Wikimedia Enterprise is public and free (no API key is needed for read requests); start there for single lookups, and use a scraper when you need many articles in one run. For most Wikipedia jobs, start with Wikipedia Article Lookup by URL or Keyword: it covers 7 of 7 core fields (title, url, summary, description and 3 more) at $0.99 per 1,000 results on Apify's Free plan. The top published score for Wikipedia goes to Wikipedia Scraper by santamaria-automations (89 of 100), a Store tool from another publisher, listed for reference.

From published Store listings, output schemas and the official documentation. Checked 2026-11-10. How the ranking works.

Wikipedia Article Lookup by URL or Keyword: inputs, code and costOpen in Apify Store

1 catalogue Actor 8 other Store tools Official API: Public API Lowest rate  $0.99 per 1K

Route map

Each line is one way to get Wikipedia data; each stop is a field you probably need. Green lines are catalogue Actors, ranked by the published formula.

Route diagram for Wikipedia dataWikipedia Article Lookup by URL or Keyword: stops at 7 of the 10 fields shown; Other Store tools (5): stops at 8 of the 10 fields shown; MediaWiki Action API and Wikimedia Enterprise: public, field coverage not compared.WikipediapageviewstitleurlsummarydescriptioncategoriesextracterrorlastEditedavailableLangu…1+API

Stops are fields. A ring means the field is in that route's published output schema; no ring means the line passes without it. Bold labels are the core fields for this website, the rest are fields that differ between routes. A white capsule means every data line stops there. The red line is the official API; its field coverage is not compared. A crossed red line means there is no open official API.

Catalogue Actors for Wikipedia

Wikipedia Article Lookup by URL or Keyword

Fetch structured data for Wikipedia articles by URL or keyword search, in any language edition - summary, description, categories, images, and…

7/7 core fields 39 output fields $0.99 per 1K Open in Apify Store

Field matrix: who returns what

Every tool with a published output schema, against the 7 fields most Wikipedia jobs need. A dot means the field name appears in the schema; rows can still leave it empty.

TooltitleurlsummarydescriptioncategorieslanguagepageviewsFields
Wikipedia Article Lookup by URL or Keyword●●●●●●●7/7
Wikipedia ScraperReference only, by santamaria-automations●●–●●●–5/7
Wikipedia ScraperReference only, by automation-lab●●–●●––4/7
Wikipedia ScraperReference only, by flash_scraper●●●●–●–5/7
WikipediaReference only, by omao●●–●–––3/7
Wikipedia ScraperReference only, by dami_studio●●–––––2/7
Tools returning it6625331

Field dictionary: the exact keys

The same core field has a different key in each Actor's output. Map these before you merge datasets; a dash means the published schema has no matching key. Need a field that is not listed here, such as email? Search every Wikipedia Actor by field.

Core field Wikipedia Article Lookup by…
title title, displayTitle, requestedTitle
url url, canonicalUrl, links
summary summary
description summary, description
categories categories, sourceCategory
language language, availableLanguages
pageviews pageviews

All 9 tools, scored

Catalogue Actors link to their detail pages; the score (0 to 100) is the published formula, identical for every tool. Other Store tools follow in their own table, for reference. Price is the published primary-result rate per 1,000 (the Free-plan rate where the price is tiered; higher Apify plans pay less); start events and platform usage are excluded.

Sample fields
88
Wikipedia Article Lookup by URL or Keyword Catalogue Actor, pay per event
title, url, summary 39 $0.99 2 runs, too few to rate Nov 2026

Other Store tools, for reference

Scored with the same published formula and listed for comparison only; this site does not link or recommend them.

Sample fields
89
Wikipedia Scraper Reference only, by santamaria-automations
title, url, description 24 $2.00 100% of 82 runs Oct 2026
86
Wikipedia Scraper Reference only, by automation-lab
title, url, description 18 $1.15 100% of 2,800 runs Sep 2026
86
Wikipedia Scraper Reference only, by flash_scraper
title, url, summary 7 $2.00 100% of 29 runs Nov 2026
77
Wikipedia Reference only, by omao
title, url, description 17 $1.00 100% of 29 runs Jul 2026
74
Wikipedia Scraper Reference only, by dami_studio
title, url, snippet 6 $1.00 100% of 29 runs Oct 2026
71
Wikipedia Article Scraper Reference only, by cloud9_ai
No published schema – $3.00 100% of 29 runs Oct 2026
69
Wikipedia Scraper Reference only, by fatihtahta
No published schema – $4.99 100% of 29 runs Nov 2025
48
Wikipedia Article Scraper Reference only, by kayhermes
No published schema 1 $50 100% of 30 runs Jul 2026

Official API route

MediaWiki Action API and Wikimedia Enterprise

Every Wikipedia edition exposes the MediaWiki Action API (for example en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php) for reading pages, search and metadata without a key. Wikimedia Enterprise offers On-demand, Snapshot and Realtime APIs for high-volume use.

Price. Free; no API key is needed for read requests. Wikimedia Enterprise free accounts get up to 50,000 On-demand requests and 30 Snapshot requests per month; paid pricing is bespoke and not published.

Limits. No hard speed limit on read requests; requests should be serial, use an informative User-Agent with contact details, and back off when rate-limited. Numeric limits may change.

Official documentation Official pricing

Text is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 and requires attribution; automated use must not be disruptive and must follow the API and User-Agent policies. This is general information, not legal advice.

Read Wikipedia's terms. Keep to public data, do not bypass logins or access controls, and check whether personal data is involved before you collect it. The can-I-scrape checklist walks through it.

How to start

  1. Open Wikipedia Article Lookup by URL or Keyword and start from its default input; its Actor page has the full example input and code.
  2. Set the Wikipedia search, profile, listing or URL you need and a result limit.
  3. Run it and export the dataset as JSON, CSV or Excel, or call it from the Apify API.

Call Wikipedia Article Lookup by URL or Keyword from code

The example input uses the Actor's published defaults; set your own Wikipedia query before you run it. You need an Apify API token.

Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>")
run_input = {
    "articleUrls": [
        "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Python_(programming_language)"
    ],
    "maxArticlesPerQuery": 5,
    "maxArticlesPerCategory": 20,
    "language": "en",
    "maxItems": 100,
    "includeFullContent": False,
    "includeSections": False,
    "includeExternalLinks": False,
    "includeLinks": False,
    "includeReferences": False,
    "includePageviews": False,
    "pageviewsGranularity": "monthly",
    "pageviewsPeriods": 12
}

run = client.actor("vexaloom-labs/wikipedia-article-lookup-by-url-or-keyword").call(run_input=run_input)
if run is None:
    raise RuntimeError("The Actor run was not found.")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

pip install apify-client

JavaScript

import { ApifyClient } from "apify-client";

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: "<YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>" });
const input = {
    "articleUrls": [
        "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Python_(programming_language)"
    ],
    "maxArticlesPerQuery": 5,
    "maxArticlesPerCategory": 20,
    "language": "en",
    "maxItems": 100,
    "includeFullContent": false,
    "includeSections": false,
    "includeExternalLinks": false,
    "includeLinks": false,
    "includeReferences": false,
    "includePageviews": false,
    "pageviewsGranularity": "monthly",
    "pageviewsPeriods": 12
};

const run = await client.actor("vexaloom-labs/wikipedia-article-lookup-by-url-or-keyword").call(input);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

npm install apify-client

cURL

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/vexaloom-labs~wikipedia-article-lookup-by-url-or-keyword/run-sync-get-dataset-items"   -H "Authorization: Bearer $APIFY_TOKEN"   -H "Content-Type: application/json"   -d '{"articleUrls":["https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Python_(programming_language)"],"maxArticlesPerQuery":5,"maxArticlesPerCategory":20,"language":"en","maxItems":100,"includeFullContent":false,"includeSections":false,"includeExternalLinks":false,"includeLinks":false,"includeReferences":false,"includePageviews":false,"pageviewsGranularity":"monthly","pageviewsPeriods":12}'

Waits for the run and returns the dataset items (runs over 300 seconds return HTTP 408; start an async run instead).

MCP (AI agents)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apify": {
      "url": "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=vexaloom-labs/wikipedia-article-lookup-by-url-or-keyword",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer <YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Adds this Actor as a tool in an MCP client that takes a remote server URL (Cursor, VS Code, Claude Code) through Apify's hosted MCP server. OAuth sign-in also works without the header. Clients that only start local servers can wrap the URL with npx mcp-remote.

Questions people ask

What is the cheapest catalogue Actor for Wikipedia data?

Wikipedia Article Lookup by URL or Keyword lists $0.99 per 1,000 results (pay per event), with 39 fields in its published output schema. Start events and platform usage are billed separately. Checked 2026-11-10.

Which Wikipedia scraper returns the most core fields?

Wikipedia Article Lookup by URL or Keyword covers 7 of the 7 core Wikipedia fields this page tracks (title, url, summary, description, categories, language, pageviews), based on its published output schema.

Does Wikipedia have an official API?

Public API: Every Wikipedia edition exposes the MediaWiki Action API (for example en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php) for reading pages, search and metadata without a key. Wikimedia Enterprise offers On-demand, Snapshot and Realtime APIs for high-volume use. Free; no API key is needed for read requests. Wikimedia Enterprise free accounts get up to 50,000 On-demand requests and 30 Snapshot requests per month; paid pricing is bespoke and not published.

Is it legal to scrape Wikipedia?

It depends on what you collect and how. Text is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 and requires attribution; automated use must not be disruptive and must follow the API and User-Agent policies. Read Wikipedia's terms (https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Policy:Terms_of_Use) before you collect, and check whether personal data is involved. This is general information, not legal advice.

More on Wikipedia

Sources

Data checked 2026-11-10
Cite this page

Scraper Finder. "How to get Wikipedia data." https://scraperfinder.com/sites/wikipedia/ (data checked 2026-11-10).

Highest-scoring catalogue Actor

Wikipedia Article Lookup by URL or Keyword: 7 of 7 core fields, $0.99 per 1,000 results, score 88. The highest score overall is 89 (Wikipedia Scraper, a Store tool from another publisher); both are in the table above.

Open in Apify Store