Installation

The Apify SDK for Python requires Python 3.11 or higher. It is published on PyPI as the apify package and can be installed with pip:

pip install apify

or with uv:

uv add apify

To use the Scrapy integration, install the scrapy extra:

pip install 'apify[scrapy]'

What you can build

Almost any Python project can become an Actor, including projects for:

• Web scraping and crawling — The SDK is fully compatible with Crawlee, which makes Apify a natural place to deploy and scale your crawlers (see the Crawlee guide). It also works with other popular scraping libraries, such as Scrapy, Scrapling, or Crawl4AI.
• Browser automation — Drive a real browser with Playwright or Selenium, or with higher-level tools such as Browser Use.
• Web servers and APIs — Run a web server inside an Actor to serve HTTP requests, for example to expose your scraper as a live API.
• AI agents — Host agents built with your framework of choice. Ready-made Actor templates cover PydanticAI, CrewAI, LangGraph, LlamaIndex, and Smolagents.
• MCP servers — Deploy a Python MCP server as an Actor and make its tools available to any MCP client (see the MCP servers guide). Ready-made Actor templates cover the MCP server and MCP proxy.

Whatever you build, the Apify SDK doesn't lock you into a particular framework. Bring the libraries you already use, and let Apify run your project in the cloud.

Quick start

An Actor is a Python program that runs inside the async with Actor: context. The context initializes the Actor when it starts and tears it down when it finishes. Here's a minimal Actor that reads its input and stores a result:

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!')

The quickest way to scaffold a full Actor project, with the .actor configuration, input schema, and Dockerfile already in place, is the Apify CLI:

1. Install the CLI:

    npm install -g apify-cli
    

1. Create a new Actor from the Python "getting started" template:

    apify create my-actor --template python-start
    

1. Run it locally:

    cd my-actor
    apify run
    

To create, run, and deploy your first Actor step by step, see the Quick start guide.

Usage examples

The examples below show two common setups, but the same async with Actor: pattern works with any stack. For more, see the guides.