How to Scrape Mercado Libre in Node.js

A minimal Node.js example showing how to scrape Mercado Libre product listings using the Mercado Libre Listings Scraper Apify actor. This repo does not implement a scraper from scratch — it calls a ready-made Apify actor that handles search, pagination, proxies, and parsing for you.

What this example does

• Calls the piotrv1001/mercado-libre-listings-scraper Apify actor
• Passes a list of search queries and proxy configuration as input
• Waits for the run to finish
• Fetches results from the run's default dataset
• Prints each scraped listing to the console

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18 or newer
• An Apify account (free tier works)
• Your Apify API token — find it under Settings → Integrations

Installation

npm install

Environment setup

Copy the example env file and add your token:

cp .env.example .env

Then edit .env:

APIFY_TOKEN=your_apify_token_here

Usage

npm start

You'll see a link to your dataset in the Apify console plus each listing logged to stdout.

Code example

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';
import 'dotenv/config';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Set APIFY_TOKEN in your .env file (copy .env.example to get started)
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN,
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "searchQueries": [
        "iphone 15"
    ],
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": true,
        "apifyProxyGroups": [
            "RESIDENTIAL"
        ]
    }
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("piotrv1001/mercado-libre-listings-scraper").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

Example output

See sample-output.json for a full example response. Each listing item includes:

• id, siteId, title, permalink
• price, currency, originalPrice, discountPercent, installments
• condition, availableQuantity, soldQuantity
• thumbnailUrl, images
• location (city, state, country)
• seller (nickname, official store flag, reputation, power seller status)
• freeShipping, fullShipping
• ratingAverage, reviewCount
• attributes (brand, model, capacity, etc.)
• variations, scrapedAt

Use cases

• Price monitoring — track competitor prices and discounts across Mercado Libre marketplaces (MLA, MLM, MLB, and more)
• Market research — analyze product availability, seller reputation, and review counts in Latin American e-commerce
• Dropshipping — discover trending products by soldQuantity and import catalog data into your store
• Lead generation — extract official stores and top sellers for outreach
• Data enrichment — pull product attributes, images, and ratings to enrich your own catalog

Try the actor on Apify

Open the Mercado Libre Listings Scraper on Apify

Related resources

• Full guide: How to scrape Mercado Libre product listings

License

MIT