Home › Blog › Apify MCP server

Apify MCP server: run Actors from Claude Code and Cursor

Updated 2026-10-25

This page has affiliate links, each marked "Affiliate link, #ad". We may be paid if you sign up, at no extra cost to you. See our affiliate disclosure.

The Apify MCP server lets an AI agent find and run Actors, Apify's ready-made scrapers and automations, then read the results. Connect it with Apify's plugin in Claude Code or Cursor, or add https://mcp.apify.com to any MCP client. Agents can even pay with x402. Every step here comes from Apify's docs.

Related: what an MCP server is

What is the Apify MCP server?

It is Apify's official MCP server at mcp.apify.com. (Affiliate link, #ad: we may be paid if you sign up, at no extra cost to you.) It lets an AI agent find and run Actors from Apify Store, which are ready-made scrapers and automations, then read their results. Coding assistants can also search Apify's documentation through it. Apify hosts it, and the code is open source.

What is an Actor?

An Actor is a program that runs on Apify, usually a scraper or automation built for one site or job, such as a Google Search scraper or an Instagram scraper. Through the MCP server, your agent can search Apify Store for an Actor, read its details and input format, run it and fetch the output.

Related: best web scraping API for AI agents · Firecrawl MCP server

How do you connect the Apify MCP server to Claude Code or Cursor?

Apify recommends its plugin for coding agents, because one install sets up the MCP server and Apify's Agent Skills together. In Claude Code, add Apify's plugin marketplace, install the plugin, reload, then enable and authenticate it under /mcp. In Cursor, run /add-plugin apify in the agent chat.

1. Add Apify's marketplace. In Claude Code, run /plugin marketplace add apify/apify-claude-code-plugin
2. Install the plugin. Run the /plugin install command from the code block below to install the apify plugin, then run /reload-plugins.
3. Enable and sign in. Run /mcp, open plugin:apify:apify, select Enable, then Authenticate, and finish the Apify sign-in in your browser.
4. Ask for an Actor. Ask your agent to search Apify Store for an Actor that fits your job, check its input, run it and read the results.

Claude Code, from Apify's plugin docs:

/plugin marketplace add apify/apify-claude-code-plugin
/plugin install apify@apify
/reload-plugins

Cursor agent chat, from Apify's plugin docs:

/add-plugin apify

Can you add the server URL directly instead?

Yes. Add https://mcp.apify.com to any MCP client and sign in when your browser opens, or set an Authorization: Bearer header with your Apify token. Apify's MCP configurator at mcp.apify.com builds a client-specific config, and the Apify CLI can write it for you with apify mcp install cursor.

Related: best MCP servers for Cursor

Related: best MCP servers for Claude Code

What is the Apify MCP server URL and config?

The hosted URL is https://mcp.apify.com. Add it under mcpServers and your client opens Apify's sign-in on first connection. If your client can't use remote servers, run the server locally with npx and your Apify token in an environment variable. The local server needs Node.js 18 or higher.

Hosted server (OAuth), from Apify's docs:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apify": {
      "url": "https://mcp.apify.com"
    }
  }
}

Local server (placeholder token), from Apify's docs:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "actors-mcp-server": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@apify/actors-mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "APIFY_TOKEN": "YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN"
      }
    }
  }
}

How do you pick which tools the server loads?

Add a tools parameter to the URL, such as https://mcp.apify.com?tools=actors,docs,apify/rag-web-browser, or list specific Actors by name. Fewer tools means less context (see MCP context cheat sheet) spent on tool descriptions. Apify's docs also show a URL with only the Actor search and docs tools, which works without a token for browsing.

Which tools does the Apify MCP server give your agent?

By default: search-actors, fetch-actor-details and call-actor for finding and running Actors, the apify/rag-web-browser and apify/web-fetch Actors for reading the web, search-apify-docs and fetch-apify-docs for documentation, and report-problem. Running an Actor returns a run status and storage IDs.

Open Apify Store → Affiliate link, #ad: we may be paid if you sign up, at no extra cost to you.

How does your agent get an Actor's results?

call-actor starts the run and returns its status plus the IDs of the dataset or key-value store it wrote to. Your agent then reads the rows with get-dataset-items. Actors that need full permissions are left out of the MCP server, so pick a limited-permission Actor when you build an agent workflow.

Can an AI agent pay for Apify with x402?

Yes, as an experimental feature. Apify's AGI service sells a prepaid token: the agent pays once through x402, with stablecoins on Base or Solana, or through MPP, then uses the token as a Bearer token with the Apify API or MCP server. No Apify account is needed. Skyfire has its own flow.

What are the AGI steps?

List the supported protocols at agi.apify.com/protocols, then request a prepaid token. AGI answers with a one-time payment challenge. Your agent pays, repeats the request and receives the token. It then calls the API or MCP server with that Bearer token and can check what is left at agi.apify.com/prepaid-tokens/balance.

Related: AGI prepaid tokens listing · pay-per-call x402 APIs trend

Related: what x402 is · x402 APIs

See how we run our own agent crew in the playbook.

Building on Grok Bot? Start a crew from the DartzDabz Crew Builder template.

We may be paid by X based on how many people use our Crew Builder template.

See real agent setups you can copy, browse the agent tool directory, or submit a tool; listings are free.