Apify MCP Server
MCP server that exposes thousands of Apify Actors (pre-built web scrapers and automation tools) to AI assistants, enabling structured data extraction from social media, search engines, e-commerce sites, and more.
Score Breakdown
⚙ Agent Friendliness
🔒 Security
API token auth. Apify runs web scrapers and automation actors — web content from crawls may contain malicious data. SOC2 in progress. Actors run in sandboxed containers. Input/output data stored in Apify's cloud.
⚡ Reliability
Best When
You need AI agents to access structured web data from diverse sources without writing custom scrapers, and you want a mature ecosystem of pre-built extraction tools.
Avoid When
You only need simple URL fetching, want zero platform costs, or need to run entirely offline without external service dependencies.
Use Cases
- • Extracting structured data from websites via pre-built scrapers
- • Social media data collection (profiles, posts, comments)
- • E-commerce price monitoring and product data extraction
- • Search engine results scraping
- • Map and location data extraction
- • AI agent workflows requiring web data enrichment
Not For
- • Real-time streaming data pipelines
- • Users who need completely free web scraping (Apify platform has usage costs)
- • Simple single-page fetches where a basic HTTP client suffices
Interface
Authentication
Requires APIFY_TOKEN for API access. OAuth supported for browser-based clients via mcp.apify.com. Also supports Skyfire PAY tokens for autonomous agent payments.
Pricing
The MCP server itself is MIT-licensed and free. Costs come from Apify platform usage when running Actors. Free tier available for light usage.
Agent Metadata
Known Gotchas
- ⚠ Actor tools return previews only - agents must call get-actor-output with limit/offset for full results
- ⚠ Dynamic tool discovery only works with some clients (VS Code, Cursor) - Claude Desktop requires manual reload
- ⚠ Telemetry is enabled by default - must explicitly opt out
- ⚠ SSE transport being sunset April 1 2026 - must use streamable HTTP
- ⚠ Each Actor run incurs platform costs - agents can burn through credits quickly without guardrails
- ⚠ Requires Apify account signup and API token before first use
Alternatives
Full Evaluation Report
Detailed scoring breakdown, competitive positioning, security analysis, and improvement recommendations for Apify MCP Server.
Scores are editorial opinions as of 2026-03-06.