How to scrape Medium: settings that work today

What you can get

Detail pages contain social media postings with images, URLs, publication dates, headlines, descriptions, and author information. Public pages include collection pages with names, descriptions, URLs, and details about content creators and modification dates.

Public pages Intermittent

Page types we check: Public pages, Detail pages.

Structured data on detail pages (keys from our probe page, values removed):

{
    "@type": "SocialMediaPosting",
    "image": "...",
    "url": "...",
    "dateCreated": "...",
    "datePublished": "...",
    "dateModified": "...",
    "headline": "...",
    "name": "...",
    "description": "..."
}

Structured data on public pages (keys from our probe page, values removed):

{
    "@type": "CollectionPage",
    "name": "...",
    "description": "...",
    "url": "...",
    "mainEntity": {
        "author": "...",
        "creator": "...",
        "dateCreated": "...",
        "dateModified": "..."
    }
}

Code

Complete scripts: set the UJEEBU_API_KEY environment variable and run them as they are. Each one sends the settings on this page, prints the start of the page, and prints the credits the request cost (the Ujb-Credits response header) on stderr. A non-200 answer stops the script with the API's error message.

No extraction recipe for these pages yet: the script fetches the page with the working settings. Add extract rules to get JSON.

medium_page_sdk.py pip install ujeebu-python==0.1.5

# Fetch a Medium page with the Ujeebu Scrape API.
# Settings from our health checks (Ujeebu site guide). Prints the start of the page HTML.
# Uses the official SDK ujeebu-python 0.1.5: pip install ujeebu-python==0.1.5
# Run: UJEEBU_API_KEY=your_key python3 medium_page_sdk.py

import json
import os
import sys
import time

import requests
from ujeebu_python import UjeebuClient

API_KEY = os.environ.get("UJEEBU_API_KEY")
URLS = [
    "https://medium.com/tag/programming",
]
SETTINGS = {
    "js": True,
    "wait_for": 8000,
}


def scrape(client, url):
    try:
        response = client.scrape(url, params=SETTINGS)
    except requests.RequestException as error:
        sys.exit(f"Request failed for {url}: {error}")
    if response.status_code != 200:
        try:
            message = response.json().get("message", response.text)
        except ValueError:
            message = response.text
        sys.exit(f"HTTP {response.status_code} for {url}: {str(message)[:300]}")
    print(f"Ujb-Credits: {response.headers.get('Ujb-Credits')}", file=sys.stderr)
    return response.text


if not API_KEY:
    sys.exit("Set the UJEEBU_API_KEY environment variable.")

client = UjeebuClient(api_key=API_KEY)

for i, url in enumerate(URLS):
    if i:
        time.sleep(2)  # be polite: one page at a time
    html = scrape(client, url)
    print(len(html), "bytes")
    print(html[:500])

medium_page_sdk.mjs npm install @ujeebu-org/ujeebu-sdk@0.1.2

// Fetch a Medium page with the Ujeebu Scrape API.
// Settings from our health checks (Ujeebu site guide). Prints the start of the page HTML.
// Uses the official SDK @ujeebu-org/ujeebu-sdk 0.1.2: npm install @ujeebu-org/ujeebu-sdk@0.1.2
// Run: UJEEBU_API_KEY=your_key node medium_page_sdk.mjs

import { UjeebuClient } from '@ujeebu-org/ujeebu-sdk';

const API_KEY = process.env.UJEEBU_API_KEY;
const URLS = [
  "https://medium.com/tag/programming",
];
const SETTINGS = {
  js: true,
  wait_for: 8000,
};

async function scrape(client, url) {
  let res;
  try {
    res = await client.scrape(url, SETTINGS);
  } catch (err) {
    const status = err.response?.status ?? 'error';
    const message = err.response?.data?.message ?? err.message;
    console.error(`HTTP ${status} for ${url}: ${String(message).slice(0, 300)}`);
    process.exit(1);
  }
  console.error(`Ujb-Credits: ${res.headers['ujb-credits']}`);
  return String(res.data);
}

if (!API_KEY) {
  console.error('Set the UJEEBU_API_KEY environment variable.');
  process.exit(1);
}

const client = new UjeebuClient(API_KEY);
const pause = (ms) => new Promise((resolve) => setTimeout(resolve, ms));

for (const [i, url] of URLS.entries()) {
  if (i) await pause(2000); // be polite: one page at a time
  const html = await scrape(client, url);
  console.log(html.length, 'bytes');
  console.log(html.slice(0, 500));
}

medium_page.py pip install requests

# Fetch a Medium page with the Ujeebu Scrape API.
# Settings from our health checks (Ujeebu site guide). Prints the start of the page HTML.
# Run: UJEEBU_API_KEY=your_key python3 medium_page.py   (pip install requests)

import json
import os
import sys
import time

import requests

API_URL = "https://api.ujeebu.com/scrape"
API_KEY = os.environ.get("UJEEBU_API_KEY")
URLS = [
    "https://medium.com/tag/programming",
]
SETTINGS = {
    "js": True,
    "wait_for": 8000,
}


def scrape(url):
    response = requests.post(
        API_URL,
        headers={"ApiKey": API_KEY},
        json={"url": url, **SETTINGS},
        timeout=180,
    )
    if response.status_code != 200:
        try:
            message = response.json().get("message", response.text)
        except ValueError:
            message = response.text
        sys.exit(f"HTTP {response.status_code} for {url}: {str(message)[:300]}")
    print(f"Ujb-Credits: {response.headers.get('Ujb-Credits')}", file=sys.stderr)
    return response.text


if not API_KEY:
    sys.exit("Set the UJEEBU_API_KEY environment variable.")

for i, url in enumerate(URLS):
    if i:
        time.sleep(2)  # be polite: one page at a time
    html = scrape(url)
    print(len(html), "bytes")
    print(html[:500])

medium_page.mjs

// Fetch a Medium page with the Ujeebu Scrape API.
// Settings from our health checks (Ujeebu site guide). Prints the start of the page HTML.
// Run: UJEEBU_API_KEY=your_key node medium_page.mjs   (Node.js 18 or later)

const API_URL = 'https://api.ujeebu.com/scrape';
const API_KEY = process.env.UJEEBU_API_KEY;
const URLS = [
  "https://medium.com/tag/programming",
];
const SETTINGS = {
  js: true,
  wait_for: 8000,
};

async function scrape(url) {
  const res = await fetch(API_URL, {
    method: 'POST',
    headers: { ApiKey: API_KEY, 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
    body: JSON.stringify({ url, ...SETTINGS }),
    signal: AbortSignal.timeout(180000),
  });
  const text = await res.text();
  if (res.status !== 200) {
    let message = text;
    try {
      message = JSON.parse(text).message ?? text;
    } catch {}
    console.error(`HTTP ${res.status} for ${url}: ${String(message).slice(0, 300)}`);
    process.exit(1);
  }
  console.error(`Ujb-Credits: ${res.headers.get('ujb-credits')}`);
  return text;
}

if (!API_KEY) {
  console.error('Set the UJEEBU_API_KEY environment variable.');
  process.exit(1);
}

const pause = (ms) => new Promise((resolve) => setTimeout(resolve, ms));

for (const [i, url] of URLS.entries()) {
  if (i) await pause(2000); // be polite: one page at a time
  const html = await scrape(url);
  console.log(html.length, 'bytes');
  console.log(html.slice(0, 500));
}

medium_page.sh

#!/usr/bin/env bash
# Fetch a Medium page with the Ujeebu Scrape API.
# Settings from our health checks (Ujeebu site guide). Prints the start of the page HTML.
# Run: UJEEBU_API_KEY=your_key bash medium_page.sh   (curl 7.76 or later)
set -euo pipefail

curl -sS --fail-with-body --max-time 180 -D headers.txt \
  -X POST 'https://api.ujeebu.com/scrape' \
  -H "ApiKey: ${UJEEBU_API_KEY:?Set the UJEEBU_API_KEY environment variable.}" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -o page.html --data-binary @- <<'JSON'
{
  "url": "https://medium.com/tag/programming",
  "js": true,
  "wait_for": 8000
}
JSON
head -c 500 page.html
echo
grep -i '^ujb-credits' headers.txt >&2

medium_page.php

<?php
// Fetch a Medium page with the Ujeebu Scrape API.
// Settings from our health checks (Ujeebu site guide). Prints the start of the page HTML.
// Run: UJEEBU_API_KEY=your_key php medium_page.php   (PHP 7.4 or later with curl)

$apiKey = getenv('UJEEBU_API_KEY') ?: exit("Set the UJEEBU_API_KEY environment variable.\n");
$urls = [
    'https://medium.com/tag/programming',
];
$settings = [
    'js' => true,
    'wait_for' => 8000,
];

function scrape(string $url, string $apiKey, array $settings)
{
    $ch = curl_init('https://api.ujeebu.com/scrape');
    $headers = [];
    curl_setopt_array($ch, [
        CURLOPT_POST => true,
        CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
        CURLOPT_TIMEOUT => 180,
        CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => ['ApiKey: ' . $apiKey, 'Content-Type: application/json'],
        CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => json_encode(['url' => $url] + $settings),
        CURLOPT_HEADERFUNCTION => function ($ch, $line) use (&$headers) {
            if (strpos($line, ':') !== false) {
                [$k, $v] = explode(':', $line, 2);
                $headers[strtolower(trim($k))] = trim($v);
            }
            return strlen($line);
        },
    ]);
    $body = curl_exec($ch);
    if ($body === false) {
        fwrite(STDERR, 'Request failed: ' . curl_error($ch) . "\n");
        exit(1);
    }
    $status = curl_getinfo($ch, CURLINFO_RESPONSE_CODE);
    if ($status !== 200) {
        $message = json_decode($body, true)['message'] ?? $body;
        fwrite(STDERR, "HTTP $status for $url: " . substr((string) $message, 0, 300) . "\n");
        exit(1);
    }
    fwrite(STDERR, 'Ujb-Credits: ' . ($headers['ujb-credits'] ?? '?') . "\n");
    return $body;
}

foreach ($urls as $i => $url) {
    if ($i > 0) {
        sleep(2); // be polite: one page at a time
    }
    $html = scrape($url, $apiKey, $settings);
    echo strlen($html), " bytes\n", substr($html, 0, 500), "\n";
}

medium_page.go go mod init scraper && go get github.com/ujeebu/ujeebu-go@v0.1.8

// Fetch a Medium page with the Ujeebu Scrape API.
// Settings from our health checks (Ujeebu site guide). Prints the start of the page HTML.
// Uses the official SDK github.com/ujeebu/ujeebu-go v0.1.8: go mod init scraper && go get github.com/ujeebu/ujeebu-go@v0.1.8
// Run: UJEEBU_API_KEY=your_key go run medium_page.go

package main

import (
	"errors"
	"fmt"
	"os"
	"time"

	ujeebu "github.com/ujeebu/ujeebu-go"
)

var urls = []string{
	"https://medium.com/tag/programming",
}

func fail(format string, args ...any) {
	fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr, format+"\n", args...)
	os.Exit(1)
}

func short(s string) string {
	if len(s) > 300 {
		return s[:300]
	}
	return s
}

func params(target string) ujeebu.ScrapeParams {
	p := ujeebu.ScrapeParams{URL: target}
	p.JS = true
	p.WaitFor = "8000"
	return p
}

func scrape(client *ujeebu.Client, target string) string {
	// the int is the credits the request cost (the Ujb-Credits header), not an HTTP status
	resp, credits, err := client.Scrape(params(target))
	if err != nil {
		var apiErr *ujeebu.APIError
		if errors.As(err, &apiErr) {
			fail("HTTP %d for %s: %s", apiErr.StatusCode, target, short(apiErr.Message))
		}
		fail("Request failed for %s: %v", target, err)
	}
	fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr, "Ujb-Credits: %d\n", credits)
	return resp.HTML
}

func main() {
	apiKey := os.Getenv("UJEEBU_API_KEY")
	if apiKey == "" {
		fail("Set the UJEEBU_API_KEY environment variable.")
	}
	client, err := ujeebu.NewClient(apiKey, ujeebu.WithTimeout(180*time.Second))
	if err != nil {
		fail("%v", err)
	}

	for i, target := range urls {
		if i > 0 {
			time.Sleep(2 * time.Second) // be polite: one page at a time
		}
		html := scrape(client, target)
		fmt.Println(len(html), "bytes")
		fmt.Println(html[:min(len(html), 500)])
	}
}

SDK tabs use the official Ujeebu SDKs (ujeebu-python 0.1.5, @ujeebu-org/ujeebu-sdk 0.1.2, github.com/ujeebu/ujeebu-go v0.1.8); there is no PHP SDK, so the PHP tab calls the API with curl. For agents and scripts, the same status and settings are at /scrape/medium.json.

Try it yourself

Run this on Medium with your own key

Get a free API key, set UJEEBU_API_KEY and run any script above as it is. 5,000 free credits for 7 days, no card.

Get a free API key or try these settings in the Playground first →

Settings that work today

From our health checks over the last 7 days: the cheapest settings that return the real page most of the time.

Endpoint	`/scrape`
`js`	`true`
`wait_for`	`8000`
Cost	up to 5 credits a request (only HTTP 200 and 404 are billed; blocked, timed-out and failed requests are free)
Learned	js + wait 8000 (found by our retry layer)

Each public page is one request: change the path in the URL to fetch another one. Collect detail page URLs from listing pages first, then fetch each detail page. Our checks pass with JavaScript rendering on (js=true) and a wait of 8 seconds (wait_for=8000) before the snapshot: keep both.

Try it in the Playground

Troubleshooting

The failures our own checks of medium.com ran into over the last 7 days, and what got the page in the same check.

What happened	Times	What fixed it
The site blocked the request (HTTP 403 or a block page)	32	None of the settings we tried got past it in 7 days.
A different page than expected	3	None of the settings we tried got past it in 7 days.
The page did not load in time	1	Nothing we tried in the same check. Retry later, one request at a time.

What people build with Medium data

Media monitoringTrack the articles published on the topics and companies you follow.More on this use case

Limits and etiquette

Public pages only. Pages behind a login, and data shown only to signed-in users, are out of scope.
Keep the rate modest: fetch pages one after another or with low concurrency, and cache what you already have.
robots.txt of medium.com (read 2026-11-03): public pages allowed for generic crawlers; no crawl delay set.
Read Medium's terms of service before you collect data at scale, and do not collect personal data you have no basis to process. This guide is not legal advice.

Questions

Can you scrape Medium with Ujeebu?

Partly. 5 of 13 checks of public Medium pages passed in the last 7 days; most failures were the site blocked the request (HTTP 403 or a block page). Retry failed pages later, and use the settings on this page.

Which settings work for Medium?

Call /scrape with js=true, wait_for=8000. Our retry layer found that this site needs "js + wait 8000".

How many credits does a Medium request cost?

With these settings a request costs up to 5 credits. Only responses with HTTP 200 or 404 are billed: a blocked or timed-out request is free.

Is it allowed to scrape Medium?

Its robots.txt allows generic crawlers on the page types in this guide. Collect public pages only, read Medium's terms of service, keep your request rate modest and do not collect personal data you have no basis to process. This is not legal advice.

How fresh is this page?

The status and settings come from our own health checks of medium.com, which run around the clock. Last check: 2026-11-05 22:04:53 UTC; last pass: 2026-11-05 22:04:53 UTC.

Related site guides

All site guides