What you can build
Scrape Website
Extract content from any single URL in Markdown, HTML, JSON, or Text
Batch Scrape URLs
Process large lists of URLs in parallel with structured outputs
Create Crawl
Discover and scrape linked pages to build complete datasets
Create Map
Extract all URLs from a website (sitemap-like discovery)
AI-powered Answers
Ask questions and get structured JSON answers with sources
Quick start
1) Install Apify CLI
2) Get your Olostep API key
From the Olostep Dashboard → API Keys.3) Run the Olostep Actor locally
olostep-tools/integrations/apify/storage/key_value_stores/default/INPUT.json
Example input:
4) Deploy to Apify (cloud)
Run in Apify Console (step by step)
- Open your Actor in Apify Console → Source → Input.
- In the Manual tab you’ll see a visible “Olostep API Key” field. Paste your key from the Olostep Dashboard.
- Choose an operation (defaults to “scrape”).
- Fill the relevant fields (for “scrape”, set “URL to Scrape”).
- Click Save → Start.
- When the run finishes, open the Dataset tab to download results (JSON/CSV/Excel).
- For “URL to Scrape”, you can paste with or without scheme. If missing, the actor automatically prepends
https://. - If a site is heavy in JavaScript and you see a timeout, set “Wait Before Scraping” to 2000–5000 ms and run again.
Available operations
Scrape Website
Extract content from a single URL. Great for page‑level automation.Must be “scrape”
Your Olostep API key (Bearer)
The URL to scrape (must include http:// or https://)
One of: Markdown, HTML, JSON, Text
Optional country code (e.g., “US”, “GB”, “CA”)
Optional wait time in ms for JavaScript rendering (0–10000)
Optional parser ID (e.g., “@olostep/amazon-product”)
- id, url, status, formats
- markdown_content / html_content / json_content / text_content
- hosted URLs (if available), page metadata
Batch Scrape URLs
Process many URLs at once with consistent formatting and structure.Must be “batch”
Your Olostep API key
JSON array of objects with
Example:
url and optional custom_idExample:
[{"url":"https://example.com","custom_id":"site1"}]One of: Markdown, HTML, JSON, Text
Optional country code
Optional wait time in ms for JS sites
Optional parser ID
- batch_id, status, total_urls, created_at, formats, country, parser, urls[]
Create Crawl
Follow links and scrape multiple pages from a start URL.Must be “crawl”
Your Olostep API key
Starting URL for the crawl
Max pages to crawl
Follow on‑page links
One of: Markdown, HTML, JSON, Text
Optional country code
Optional parser ID
- crawl_id, object, status, start_url, max_pages, follow_links, created, formats
Create Map
Discover all URLs on a website and prepare for later batch scraping.Must be “map”
Your Olostep API key
The website to map
Optional query filter
Limit number of URLs
Include glob(s), e.g. “/products/**”
Exclude glob(s), e.g. “/admin/**”
- map_id, object, website_url, total_urls, urls[], search_query, top_n
Copy‑paste JSON examples (Console → Input → JSON)
Scrape
Batch
Crawl
Map
Answers
Example workflows
Discover and Scrape Products
Discover and Scrape Products
- Create Map → include “/products/**”
- Parse URLs → build batch array
- Batch Scrape URLs → formats: JSON
- Send to Google Sheets / Airtable
Daily Content Monitoring
Daily Content Monitoring
- Schedule actor (daily)
- Scrape Website → formats: Markdown
- Summarize with LLM
- Notify on Slack
Competitor Knowledge Base
Competitor Knowledge Base
- Create Crawl (blog/docs)
- Store outputs in Notion
- Refresh weekly with Schedule
Specialized parsers
Olostep supports parsers to structure data for popular sites.Amazon Product
@olostep/amazon-product → title, price, rating, reviews, images, variantsGoogle Search
@olostep/google-search → results, titles, snippets, URLsGoogle Maps
@olostep/google-maps → business info, reviews, ratings, locationMore Parsers
Explore email extractors, social handle finders, calendar link extractors, and more
Best practices
Prefer batch for 3+ URLs
Prefer batch for 3+ URLs
Faster, cheaper, easier to monitor and respect rate limits.
Use appropriate wait times
Use appropriate wait times
JS‑heavy sites: increase
wait_before_scraping (e.g., 2000–5000ms).Filter before scraping
Filter before scraping
Avoid unnecessary tasks — check changes first, keep deduplication state.
Store large content via hosted URLs
Store large content via hosted URLs
Use hosted outputs to bypass payload size limits in Apify flows.
Treat async operations as long‑running
Treat async operations as long‑running
Batch/Crawl/Map return IDs; retrieve later or chain with a delay.
Handle transient timeouts cleanly
Handle transient timeouts cleanly
If you see a 504 or transient timeout, the actor automatically retries once with a short wait time.
You can also set “Wait Before Scraping” to 2000–5000 ms for JS‑heavy pages.
You can also set “Wait Before Scraping” to 2000–5000 ms for JS‑heavy pages.
Troubleshooting
Authentication failed
Authentication failed
- Check API key from dashboard
- Remove trailing spaces
- Re‑enter in Apify input form
Empty content
Empty content
- Increase wait time
- Verify URL is public / not login‑gated
- Try different output format
Rate limit exceeded
Rate limit exceeded
- Space runs via schedule
- Prefer batch for many URLs
- Upgrade Olostep plan if needed
Blocked or dynamic sites
Blocked or dynamic sites
- Try country parameter
- Adjust wait and parser
- Contact support for guidance
Pricing
Olostep charges by API usage (independent of Apify):- Scrapes → per scrape
- Batches → per URL
- Crawls → per page
- Maps → per operation
https://olostep.com/pricing.
Security
- Your API key is sent as Bearer token at runtime.
- Do not commit keys to version control; Apify stores inputs in Key‑Value Store.
- In local development, keep keys in
storage/key_value_stores/default/INPUT.json(gitignored).
Related resources
Scrapes API
Extract LLM‑friendly Markdown, HTML, text or structured JSON from any URL.
Batches API
Process up to 10k URLs concurrently and retrieve results later.
Crawls API
Recursively discover and scrape a site’s content.
Maps API
Get all URLs on a website to prepare batch scrapes.