IMDb Search Scraper
Search IMDb for movies, shows, and people. Get the IMDb id, year, top cast, poster, and URL back as clean rows. Batch a whole watchlist at once.
How it works
- 1Open it on Apify
Hit Run on Apify — it opens the tool in the cloud, no install.
- 2Set the inputs
Adjust
query,queries,type(sensible defaults are pre-filled). - 3Click Run
The tool runs on Apify’s cloud and collects the data for you.
- 4Export the results
Download as JSON, CSV or Excel, or pipe straight into your app, Google Sheets, or an AI agent.
Pricing
$0.0025 per item = $2.5 per 1,000
| You are charged for | When | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Item returned | Charged per title/person returned. | $0.0025 |
Pay-per-event pricing: you are billed per result, not per subscription — a run that returns nothing costs nothing beyond the start fee. Billing is handled by Apify on your own account. These are the live Apify store prices, in effect since 2026-08-03, and they are what you are actually charged.
Inputs
| Field | What it does | Type |
|---|---|---|
query | A single thing to search IMDb for — a movie, TV show or person name, e.g. "breaking bad" or "tom hanks". For several searches at once, use the "queries" field below instead (or as well). | string |
queries | Run several searches in one go — one request per term, results merged and de-duplicated by IMDb id. Use this to get more than the ~8 results a single query returns (the suggestion API has no pagination). Example: ["inception", "the matrix"]. If both "query" and "queries" are set, all are searched. | array |
type | Which kinds of results to keep: "all" (titles + people + companies), "titles" (movies/shows only, IMDb ids starting tt), or "people" (cast/crew only, ids starting nm). | string |
maxItems | Maximum number of de-duplicated rows to return across all queries. NOTE: a single query returns a fixed ~8 results (the suggestion API has no pagination); to get more, add more terms to "queries". If maxItems exceeds what's available, the actor just returns what it found. | integer |
notionConnector | Optional. Write each item as a page into your Notion when the run finishes. Authorize a Notion connector once in Settings → API & Integrations → MCP connectors, then pick it here. Leave empty to skip (default) — results are always saved to the dataset regardless. | string |
notionParentId | Optional. The Notion data source ID of the database to write into (only used if a Notion connector is set). Leave empty to create the pages privately in your workspace instead. | string |
What you get
A structured dataset — each result includes fields like:
categoryidimagekindrankstarsOrKnownFortitleurlyearyearRangeExport every run as JSON, CSV or Excel, or send it to your app, a database, Google Sheets, or an AI agent.
3 ready-to-run use cases
IMDb ID, Year & Cast Lookup by Movie or TV Title
Type a movie or TV title and get the matching IMDb ID, release year, top cast, and poster URL. Title-to-ID search for catalog and metadata enrichment.
IMDb Actor & Director Search by Name to Person ID
Looking up people on IMDb? Search any actor, director, or writer by name to return their person ID (nm), known-for titles, and headshot image URL.
Bulk Title to IMDb ID Lookup: Resolve a List at Once
Feed a list of movie and show titles and get one merged, de-duplicated table of IMDb IDs and years. Batch title-to-ID matching for datasets and spreadsheets.
Related tools in Media & Entertainment Data
Other ready-to-run tools in the same category — all pay-per-use on the Apify cloud.
Media & Entertainment DataSteam Games Scraper
Scrape Steam games with no API key. Search by name, get store details, price, genres, Metacritic and SteamSpy stats, or pull recent player reviews as JSON.
Media & Entertainment DataBooks Scraper (Google Books + Open Library)
Search Google Books and Open Library and export clean book data: title, authors, ISBN-13, ratings, covers, and prices. No API key, no login.
Media & Entertainment DataTVMaze TV Show Scraper
Scrape TV data from TVMaze: search shows and people, get ratings, genres, network, IMDb IDs, images and full episode lists.
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Scrape MusicBrainz artists, releases, recordings, release-groups and labels. Structured rows with MBIDs, dates and tags from $0.20 per 1,000. No API key.
Where this tool sits
- Categories
- Media & Entertainment Data
- Platforms
- IMDb
IMDb Search Scraper
Search IMDb for movies, TV shows and people using IMDb's own public suggestion API — the same endpoint that powers the autocomplete in IMDb's search box. No API key, no login, no scraping HTML.
Give it a query like breaking bad or tom hanks and get back clean, structured rows: the IMDb id, title/name, type, year, the "stars / known for" line, the poster/headshot image, and the canonical imdb.com URL.
$2.50 per 1,000 results ($0.0025 each), with no run-start fee. Flat rate — no volume tiers, no plan gates — and you are charged only for result rows actually returned.
What you get per result
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
id | IMDb id, e.g. tt0903747 (title), nm0000158 (person), co... (company). |
kind | title, person, company, or other — derived from the id prefix. |
title | The title or person name. |
category | IMDb's type label, e.g. feature, TV series, video game, video. Null for people. |
year | Release year (titles). Null when not applicable. |
yearRange | Run span for series, e.g. 2008-2013. Null when not applicable. |
starsOrKnownFor | Main cast for a title, or the "known for" line for a person (e.g. Producer, Cast Away (2000)). |
rank | IMDb popularity rank (lower = more popular). |
image | Poster / headshot URL. Null when IMDb has no image. |
url | Canonical IMDb URL: imdb.com/title/{id}/ or imdb.com/name/{id}/. |
Input
| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
query | A single search term — a movie, show, or person name. |
queries | An array of terms searched in one run; results are merged and de-duplicated by id. Use this to get more than ~8 results. |
type | all (default), titles (ids starting tt), or people (ids starting nm). |
maxItems | Cap on the number of de-duplicated rows returned (default 50). |
Important: no pagination
The IMDb suggestion API returns a fixed ~8 results per query and has no pagination. If you set maxItems higher than that, the actor simply returns what's available (and logs it). To get more results, pass several related terms in queries — each is fetched separately and the rows are de-duplicated by IMDb id.
Output
One dataset row per de-duplicated result, flagged ok: true. Pricing is pay-per-result — you are only charged for genuine result rows. Nothing is charged for:
- empty/invalid input (a single
ok: falserow witherrorCode: "BAD_INPUT"), - no results for the query (
NO_RESULTS), - rate limits or network errors (
RATE_LIMITED/NETWORK).
Pricing
| Event | When | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Result returned | Each de-duplicated title, person or company row | $0.0025 ($2.50 / 1,000) |
No run-start fee. Because the suggestion API caps each query at roughly 8 results, a single-query run costs about $0.02, and a 20-term queries run tops out near $0.40. A run that returns only a diagnostic row costs nothing at all.
Proxy
The suggestion API is a public, no-auth endpoint with no anti-bot, so no proxy is required and the default runs without one (saving proxy credits). Only enable Apify Proxy if you hit IP rate limits at very high volume.
Troubleshooting
- Got a
NO_RESULTSrow withtypeset? The suggestion API may have returned only other kinds (e.g. all titles when you asked for people). Trytype: "all". - Want more than ~8 rows? That's the API's per-query cap — add more terms to
queries.
Examples
{ "query": "breaking bad", "maxItems": 10 }{ "query": "tom hanks", "type": "people" }{ "queries": ["inception", "the matrix"], "type": "titles" }