Facebook Scraper Comments – Fast API-powered Facebook Comments Extractor

Fast and reliable scraper for extracting comments from Facebook posts. Perfect for social media monitoring, sentiment analysis, and research.

Features

• 🚀 Fast & Reliable: Built with high-performance API endpoints
• 🔄 Pagination Support: Automatically handles pagination to get all comments
• 📊 Multiple Output Formats: Export data as JSON, CSV, or Excel
• 🎯 Precise Targeting: Get comments from specific Facebook posts using post IDs
• 🔧 Flexible Configuration: Customize comment limits and output formats
• 💾 Structured Data: Clean, formatted output with consistent field names
• 🔍 Multi-Post Support: Process multiple post IDs in a single run

Input Parameters

Required Parameters

• Post IDs (postIds): List of Facebook post IDs to extract comments from
  • Format: Array of strings containing Facebook post IDs
  • Example: ["691609893500456", "691609893500123"]
  • How to get post ID: From Facebook post URLs or API responses

Optional Parameters

• Maximum Comments Per Post (maxCommentsPerPost): Maximum number of top-level comments to extract per post
  • Default: 25
  • Range: 1-2000
  • Important Note: The actual output may contain more items than this number because the API also returns replies to comments. This parameter only controls when to stop fetching new top-level comments.

Usage Examples

Basic Usage

{
  "postIds": ["691609893500487"],
  "maxCommentsPerPost": 25
}

Multiple Posts

{
  "postIds": [
    "691609893500487",
    "1234567890123456",
    "9876543210987654"
  ],
  "maxCommentsPerPost": 50
}

Output sample

[
  {
    "id": "123456789_987654321",
    "message": "Hello",
    "created_time": "2025-06-22T06:02:35+0000",
    "like_count": 18,
    "comment_count": 3,
    "from": {
        "id": "100002001234567",
        "name": "Alex",
        "picture": {
        "data": {
            "height": 50,
            "is_silhouette": false,
            "url": "https://scontent.fsgn5-12.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.6435-1/example.jpg",
            "width": 50
        }
        }
    },
    "parent": {
        "id": "123456789_1199911111"
    },
    "is_reply": true,
    "post_id": "987654321"
  }
]

Note about output size: If you set maxCommentsPerPost to 25, you may actually receive 50+ items in the output because the API includes both top-level comments AND their replies. The parameter only controls when to stop fetching new top-level comments.

How It Works

1. Post ID Processing: Each Facebook post ID is processed separately
2. Comments Retrieval: Using the post ID, the actor fetches comments from the Facebook API
3. Pagination: Automatically handles pagination to retrieve all requested comments
4. Data Processing: Formats and structures the data consistently
5. Data Storage: Saves results to Apify Dataset for easy export

Common Use Cases

1. Sentiment Analysis: Analyze public reaction and sentiment in post comments
2. Social Media Monitoring: Track engagement and responses to specific posts
3. Market Research: Study customer feedback and opinions
4. Content Analysis: Analyze conversation patterns and user engagement
5. Brand Monitoring: Monitor comments on brand-related posts
6. Community Management: Track discussions and user interactions

Getting Comments from Different Sources

From Facebook Post URLs

• URL format: https://www.facebook.com/page/posts/POST_ID
• Extract the POST_ID from the URL

From Facebook API Responses

• Post IDs are typically included in API responses from other Facebook endpoints

From Browser Developer Tools

• Right-click on Facebook post → "Inspect Element"
• Look for post ID in data attributes or API calls

Technical Details

• Runtime: Python 3.13
• Dependencies: apify, httpx
• Memory Usage: Optimized for large datasets
• Concurrent Processing: Handles multiple posts efficiently
• API Authentication: Uses X-API-Key header for secure access
• Data Storage: Uses Apify Dataset for automatic format support

Rate Limiting & Performance

• The actor implements intelligent rate limiting with exponential backoff
• Automatic retry logic for failed requests
• Pagination is handled automatically
• Small delays between requests to respect API limits

Error Handling

The actor includes comprehensive error handling:

• API request failures with retry logic
• Network timeout handling
• Data parsing error recovery
• Graceful handling of posts with no comments

Note: This actor respects Facebook's terms of service and implements appropriate rate limiting. Always ensure you have permission to scrape the data you're accessing.