apify
Apify SDK for Python
Decision gist · record as of 2026-08-14
Yes. The SDK is actively maintained, has no known vulnerabilities, uses a permissive license, and requires only Python 3.11+. Install it if you plan to build Actors on the Apify platform or want a framework that bundles serverless lifecycle management, storage, and proxy handling. Skip it if you only need to consume the Apify API from existing code—use apify-client instead, which comes bundled with this SDK.AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying
Before you install
- Requires Python 3.11 or higher.
- Async context manager pattern is mandatory for Actor lifecycle management.
- Low install friction with a pure-wheel distribution.
License · maintenance · safety
Apache-2.0 (permissive) — Licensed under Apache-2.0 (permissive), allowing commercial and private use with minimal restrictions—suitable for both open-source and proprietary projects.
last release 2026-08-07 (7 days) · last repo commit 2026-08-14 · 175 stars
0 known vulnerabilities (OSV.dev, 2026-08-14) · 273,121 downloads/mo, #8,205 on PyPI
Alternatives
Verify before relying
pip install apify
from apify import Actor
async def main() -> None:
async with Actor:
actor_input = await Actor.get_input()
Actor.log.info('Actor input: %s', actor_input)
await Actor.set_value('OUTPUT', 'Hello, world!')- Whether the 11 runtime dependencies (apify-client, crawlee, pydantic, cryptography, websockets, etc.) are all required for basic usage or if some are optional.
- Performance characteristics and scaling limits when running locally versus on the Apify platform.
- Detailed compatibility matrix with popular scraping libraries (Scrapy, Crawlee, Playwright, Selenium) mentioned in the description.
What it is and what it does
Apify SDK is the official Python framework for building Actors—serverless programs that run on the Apify platform or locally. It wraps your code in an async context manager that handles initialization, teardown, error recovery, and platform lifecycle events automatically. The SDK provides built-in access to storage (datasets, key-value stores, request queues), proxy routing, platform events, and the full Apify API through a preconfigured client.
You write a simple async function inside `async with Actor:`, and the SDK handles everything else: reading validated input, writing results to storage, reacting to platform signals, and managing Actor execution state. It works with any Python library you already use—web scrapers like Crawlee or Scrapy, browser automation tools like Playwright, AI frameworks, or custom code. The SDK is designed to let you focus on your business logic while Apify handles deployment, scaling, monitoring, and pay-per-event billing.
Use it for
- Build and deploy web scrapers and crawlers that run on the Apify platform with automatic scaling and monitoring.
- Create browser automation workflows using Playwright or Selenium, packaged as serverless Actors for cloud execution.
- Host AI agents or LLM-powered applications as Actors, with templates for LangGraph, CrewAI, and PydanticAI.
- Run web servers or HTTP APIs inside Actors to expose scrapers or other services as live endpoints.
- Deploy MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers as Actors to make tools available to any MCP client.
- Automate repetitive tasks with scheduled Actor runs, webhooks, and inter-Actor communication.
Worth the install?
AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page. Verify before relying on it.
Yes.
The SDK is actively maintained, has no known vulnerabilities, uses a permissive license, and requires only Python 3.11+. Install it if you plan to build Actors on the Apify platform or want a framework that bundles serverless lifecycle management, storage, and proxy handling. Skip it if you only need to consume the Apify API from existing code—use apify-client instead, which comes bundled with this SDK.
Install
apify on PyPI
Before you install
Low install friction with a pure-wheel distribution. Actively maintained with a release 7 days ago and a commit history through 2026-08-14. Requires Python 3.11 or higher, which aligns with current language support.
Requires Python 3.11 or higher. Async context manager pattern is mandatory for Actor lifecycle management.
License in practice
Licensed under Apache-2.0 (permissive), allowing commercial and private use with minimal restrictions—suitable for both open-source and proprietary projects.
Quickstart
pip install apify
from apify import Actor
async def main() -> None:
async with Actor:
actor_input = await Actor.get_input()
Actor.log.info('Actor input: %s', actor_input)
await Actor.set_value('OUTPUT', 'Hello, world!')Verify before relying
- Whether the 11 runtime dependencies (apify-client, crawlee, pydantic, cryptography, websockets, etc.) are all required for basic usage or if some are optional.
- Performance characteristics and scaling limits when running locally versus on the Apify platform.
- Detailed compatibility matrix with popular scraping libraries (Scrapy, Crawlee, Playwright, Selenium) mentioned in the description.
Package facts
| License | Apache-2.0 permissive |
| Python support | Supports the current Python release >=3.11 |
| Install friction | Low. Pure-Python wheel |
| Runtime dependencies | 11 packagesapify-clientcrawleecachetoolscryptographyimpitlazy-object-proxymore-itertoolspydantictyping-extensionswebsocketsyarl |
| Maintenance | Actively maintained 7 days since the last release |
| Last repo commit | |
| First released | |
| Downloads | 273,121 / month, #8,205 on PyPI 30-day window, as of 2026-08-14 |
| Known vulnerabilities | None known OSV.dev, checked 2026-08-14 |
| Classifiers | Development Status :: 5 - Production/StableEnvironment :: ConsoleIntended Audience :: DevelopersOperating System :: OS IndependentProgramming Language :: Python :: 3.11Programming Language :: Python :: 3.12Programming Language :: Python :: 3.13Programming Language :: Python :: 3.14Topic :: Software Development :: LibrariesTyping :: Typed |
Evidence: apify-4.0.1-py3-none-any.whl
Tags
Let your AI agent find packages like this
Example. Real query, live index.
You found this page by searching. An agent finds it by wishing: SkillFed indexes 14,416 PyPI packages by what they can do, searchable in plain language.
wish › “apify actor sdk python”
- apifyApify SDK for Python is the official framework for building and…
- apify-sharedApify Shared Python is a deprecated package that formerly provided…
- apify-clientA Python client library for the Apify REST API that lets you run…
Give your agent the search over MCP, or paste the wish link into any chat.
More Libraries packages
urllib3 is an HTTP client library that provides thread-safe connection pooling, SSL/TLS verification, multipart file uploads, request retries, compression support, and proxy handling for Python applications.
Requests is a Python HTTP library that simplifies sending HTTP/1.1 requests with automatic handling of headers, authentication, cookies, and response parsing.
Pluggy provides a plugin system that lets you define hook specifications and register implementations to be called in sequence, enabling extensible Python applications without tight coupling.
Install it if you're building an extensible application or framework.
Provides parsing, arithmetic, and recurrence rule computation for dates and times, with timezone support and iCalendar RFC compliance.
Install it if you need to parse flexible date strings, compute relative dates, handle timezones, or work with recurrence rules—it's the de facto choice for these tasks.
Six provides utility functions to write Python code that runs on both Python 2.7 and Python 3.3+, smoothing over language differences between the two versions.
pytest is a testing framework that lets you write test functions using plain assert statements and automatically discovers and runs them, with detailed failure reporting.
See also apify-client · apify-shared · scrapfly-sdk · scrapingbee · dapr · pykka · scrapy-playwright · Spark · apify-fingerprint-datapoints · pytest-playwright-asyncio