Apify MCP server

Connect Apify

{"mcpServers": {"apify": {"url": "https://mcp.apify.com"}}}

apify mcp install cursor

{"mcpServers": {"actors-mcp-server": {"command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "@apify/actors-mcp-server"], "env": {"APIFY_TOKEN": "YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN"}}}}

In Claude Desktop or Claude.ai, add https://mcp.apify.com as a custom connector or pick Apify from the connector directory. To use a token instead of OAuth, send Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_TOKEN>. The configurator at mcp.apify.com builds a config with only the Actors you choose.

What the Apify MCP server does

The Apify MCP server connects an AI agent to Apify, a platform of cloud scrapers and automations that Apify calls Actors. Instead of a fixed list of scraping functions, the agent can search Apify Store, read an Actor's input schema and price, and then run it. That gives it access to purpose-built scrapers for Google Search results, Google Maps contacts, Instagram, Facebook posts, e-commerce sites and many more.

Apify's server starts with two Actors loaded as tools: a RAG web browser that searches the web and returns the content of the top pages, and a web fetch tool that returns any URL as Markdown or text with JavaScript rendering. Helper tools read run results from datasets and key-value stores, check or stop runs, and search Apify's documentation. Optional tools manage saved tasks, schedules and Actor builds for people who run Apify in production.

Apify hosts the server at mcp.apify.com with OAuth sign-in or an API token, and the same package runs locally over stdio. It also accepts agent payments without an account, through prepaid tokens or x402 payments in USDC. The GitHub repo had 9,213 stars on 2026-10-01.

Tools it gives your agent

• search-actors
• fetch-actor-details
• call-actor
• get-actor-run
• get-dataset-items
• get-key-value-store-record
• abort-actor-run
• search-apify-docs
• fetch-apify-docs
• apify--rag-web-browser
• apify--web-fetch

When to use Apify

• You need data from a site that blocks simple fetching, such as Google Maps or social networks.
• You want leads, reviews or product listings as structured rows, not raw HTML.
• Your agent should pick the right scraper for a new site by itself.
• You already run Apify Actors and want to start, watch and read them from your editor.

When to pick something else

• Predictable cost: each Actor has its own price per run or per result, so check fetch-actor-details before letting an agent run scrapers in a loop.
• Scraping that breaks a site's terms of use; the Actors are third-party tools and you are responsible for how they are used.

What Apify needs

• An Apify account (OAuth sign-in) or Apify API token
• Node.js, only when running the server locally

What the Apify MCP server costs

Free and open source under MIT; scraper runs are billed to your Apify account, which has a free monthly allowance, and each Store Actor sets its own price.

Current prices: apify.com ↗. We do not list prices: vendors change them often, so check the publisher's own page.

Other MCP servers for web search and scraping

• Brave Search: The Brave Search MCP server gives AI agents Brave's independent search index: web, news, image, video, local and place search, plus pre-extracted page text for grounding and AI summaries.
• Exa: The Exa MCP server gives AI agents web search and page reading through Exa's search engine, plus optional advanced filters and Exa Agent runs for multi-step research with structured output.
• Firecrawl: The Firecrawl MCP server gives AI agents live web access through Firecrawl: search the web, scrape a URL into Markdown or JSON, map and crawl whole sites, and click through pages.
• Jina AI: The Jina AI MCP server gives AI agents Jina's Reader, Search, Embeddings and Reranker APIs: read any web page or PDF as Markdown, search the web, arXiv and SSRN, and rerank results.