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Overview

The Apify API client for Python is the official library to access the Apify REST API from your Python applications. It provides useful features like automatic retries and convenience functions that improve the experience of using the Apify API.

The client simplifies interaction with the Apify platform by providing:

  • Intuitive methods for working with Actors, datasets, key-value stores, and other Apify resources
  • Both synchronous and asynchronous interfaces for flexible integration
  • Built-in retries with exponential backoff for failed requests
  • Comprehensive API coverage with JSON encoding (UTF-8) for all requests and responses

Prerequisites

apify-client requires Python 3.11 or higher. Python is available for download on the official website. Check your current Python version by running:

python --version

Installation

The Apify client is available as the apify-client package on PyPI.

pip install apify-client

Quick example

Here's an example showing how to run an Actor and retrieve its results:

from apify_client import ApifyClientAsync

# You can find your API token at https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations.
TOKEN = 'MY-APIFY-TOKEN'


async def main() -> None:
apify_client = ApifyClientAsync(TOKEN)

# Start an Actor and wait for it to finish.
actor_client = apify_client.actor('john-doe/my-cool-actor')
call_result = await actor_client.call()

if call_result is None:
print('Actor run failed.')
return

# Fetch results from the Actor run's default dataset.
dataset_client = apify_client.dataset(call_result.default_dataset_id)
list_items_result = await dataset_client.list_items()
print(f'Dataset: {list_items_result}')

You can find your API token in the Integrations section of Apify Console. See the Quick start guide for more details on authentication.