Collectors · Knowledge & reference

Udemy Scraper API in Python

Search Udemy by keyword — rating, reviews, students, price, duration and level per course. One POST from Python with keyword, rows back as JSON with 38 fields, $0.001 per delivered course. No proxies or parsers to maintain.

Get an API key See the collector

A Python requests snippet that posts { — A Python requests call to the udemy_courses collector returns one dict per course, at $0.001 each.

First call

Install, call, read the rows.

pip install requests

The only dependency.

import os, requests

r = requests.post(
    "https://api.quanticdata.io/v1/scraper/collectors/udemy_courses/run",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['QD_API_KEY']}"},
    json={
        "keyword": "python",
        "max_results": 12,
    },
    timeout=120,
)
r.raise_for_status()
run = r.json()["payload"]
print(run["count"], "rows,", run["cost"]["usd"], "USD")
for row in run["results"]:
    print(row.get("course_id"), row.get("title"), row.get("url"), row.get("headline"))

Python: one Udemy course search run (Corsi Python), printing course_id, title, url, headline

The key comes from an environment variable, never from the code. The run answers in the same request when it finishes in time; payload.results holds the rows and payload.cost what they cost.

Request parameters

What the collector takes.

Input of the Udemy course search collector
Parameter	Type	Required	Meaning
`keyword`	string	yes	What to search Udemy for — a topic, technology or skill.
`country`	string	no	ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code for the proxy exit — sets the pricing currency (default us).
`max_results`	integer	no (default 12)	How many courses to deliver at most (1–36). You pay only for delivered courses.

Response fields

38 fields per course.

Fields of each row (course)
Field	Type	What it holds
`rank`	integer	1-based position in the delivered set.
`course_id`	integer, nullable	Udemy's numeric course id — the stable de-duplication key.
`title`	string, nullable	Course title.
`url`	string, nullable	Course page URL.
`headline`	string, nullable	Udemy's one-line course subtitle.
`instructor`	string, nullable	First listed instructor.
`instructors`	string[]	Every visible instructor, in Udemy's order.
`rating`	number, nullable	Average rating out of 5, to 2 decimals.
`reviews`	integer, nullable	Number of ratings the average is based on.
`students`	integer, nullable	Enrolled students (num_subscribers).
`price`	number, nullable	What a buyer pays right now — the campaign price while a Udemy deal is running, otherwise the list price. 0 for a free course.
`list_price`	number, nullable	Undiscounted sticker price.
`currency`	string, nullable	ISO currency of price/list_price (null on free courses, which state none).
`is_free`	boolean	True when the course is free to enrol.
`discount_percent`	integer, nullable	Percent off while a campaign is live; null when there is no discount.
`duration`	string, nullable	Total content length as Udemy words it, e.g. "57 total hours".
`video_hours`	number, nullable	Video runtime in hours. Measured from seconds of video, so it can read lower than duration, which also counts articles and resources.
`lectures`	integer, nullable	Number of published lectures.
`level`	string, nullable	Instructional level, e.g. "All Levels", "Beginner Level".
`language`	string, nullable	Course language, e.g. "English".
`category`	string, nullable	Primary Udemy category, e.g. "Development".
`subcategory`	string, nullable	Primary Udemy subcategory, e.g. "Programming Languages".
`published_at`	string, nullable	ISO 8601 timestamp of first publication.
`image`	string, nullable	Course thumbnail URL (240x135).
`matched_phrase`	string	The query that surfaced this course — your keyword, or one of Udemy's related search phrases when the result set was widened.
`image_large`	string, nullable	480×270 course image.
`updated_at`	string, nullable	Last update date of the course (YYYY-MM-DD).
`created_at`	string, nullable	When the course was created (ISO 8601).
`has_certificate`	boolean, nullable	Certificate of completion offered.
`caption_languages`	string[]	Caption languages.
`objectives`	string[]	"What you'll learn" points.
`rating_distribution`	object, nullable	Review counts keyed by stars (1 to 5).
`quizzes`	integer, nullable	Number of quizzes.
`coding_exercises`	integer, nullable	Number of coding exercises.
`practice_tests`	integer, nullable	Number of practice tests.
`articles`	integer, nullable	Number of articles.
`downloadable_resources`	integer, nullable	Number of downloadable resources.
`badge`	string, nullable	Bestseller / Highest Rated / New badge.

Add ?format=csv to the runs endpoint to get the same rows as CSV.

Long runs

Run in the background, then poll.

A run that needs more time can go to the background: send "async": true, get 202 with the run id, and poll the runs endpoint until the status is done. Reading a run is free.

import os, time, requests

H = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['QD_API_KEY']}"}
r = requests.post("https://api.quanticdata.io/v1/scraper/collectors/udemy_courses/run", headers=H,
                  json={**{"keyword":"python","max_results":12}, "async": True}, timeout=30)
run_id = r.json()["payload"]["run_id"]
while True:
    run = requests.get(f"https://api.quanticdata.io/v1/scraper/collectors/runs/{run_id}", headers=H, timeout=30).json()["payload"]
    if run["status"] in ("done", "failed"):
        break
    time.sleep(5)
print(run["status"], run["count"])

Python: background run and polling

Errors

What can come back, and what is billed.

Collector run errors
Status	Meaning	Billed
`400`	The input does not match the collector (`payload.errors`)	No
`401`	Missing or wrong API key	No
`402`	Balance and free credit do not cover the run: top up	No
`422`	The input can never resolve; retrying the same input cannot help	No
`424`	The run failed at the source (blocked, timed out, layout changed); safe to retry	No
`429`	Rate limit or a per-account brake; wait for `Retry-After`	No

Only delivered rows are billed: a run that delivers nothing costs nothing.

Price

$0.001 per delivered course.

What Udemy course search rows cost at list price
Rows	Cost
1	$0.001
1,000	$1.00
10,000	$10.00

Up to 36 courses per run; split larger jobs into several runs. The $2 free credit every month covers about 2,000 courses. No subscription; paid tiers lower the unit price. All collector prices: collector pricing.

Before you run it

Questions developers ask

Is there a free Udemy course search API?

Every account gets $2 of free usage each month, about 2,000 courses of this collector at $0.001 each, with no card.

Do I have to handle proxies, retries or blocks?

No. The collector runs on our network and handles them; a run blocked at the source returns 424 and is not billed.

How many rows can one run return?

Up to 36 courses per run (the max_results input, where the collector has one).

Can an AI agent run it?

Yes: the MCP server exposes it as the run_collector tool, with the same input and price. See the MCP server.

Run it on the free credit.

Create an API key, export it as QD_API_KEY and run the example. $0.001 per delivered course, no subscription.

Get an API key Udemy Scraper API