Substack Top Posts

Every Substack publication has a "Top" section that displays posts ranked by audience engagement rather than chronological order. This performance-ranked view surfaces the newsletter's greatest hits - the posts that generated the most likes (hearts), comments, and shares over the publication's lifetime. Each top post listing shows the post position, title, description, publication date, author name, comment count, and like count.

What it extracts

• Position — Ranking number of the post by engagement performance.
• Title — Newsletter post headline.
• Description — Brief excerpt or summary of the post content.
• Date — When the post was originally published.
• Author — Name of the post author or publication account.
• Likes — Hearts/likes from readers.
• Comments Count — Number of subscriber comments.
• Post URL — Direct link to the full post.
• Author Profile URL — Link to the author's Substack profile.
• Post Image URL — URL of the post's featured image or thumbnail.

What you can do with it

• Proven content formula: Top posts represent a newsletter's best content. Extract these to reverse-engineer which topics, formats, and angles drive the highest engagement.
• Evergreen content identification: Posts that continue generating engagement long after publication are evergreen. Extract top posts to identify timeless themes in any newsletter's catalog.
• Engagement benchmarks: Extract like and comment counts from top posts to understand what "high performance" looks like for a specific publication. Set realistic engagement targets.
• Free vs. paid content performance: Compare engagement between free and paid top posts. Extract labels to see whether a newsletter's best-performing content is locked behind the paywall or open.

How it works

Just run the flow. It loads the source, extracts the fields listed above, and saves them as a CSV in your home folder.

Frequently asked questions

How does Substack determine top posts?

Substack ranks posts by total engagement - a combination of likes, comments, and shares. The most-engaged posts rise to the top regardless of publication date.

Is the top posts list different from the archive?

Yes. The archive shows posts chronologically. Top posts ranks them by engagement performance, surfacing the publication's highest-performing content.

Can I compare top posts across newsletters?

Yes. Extract top posts from multiple publications and compare engagement numbers. This shows which newsletters generate the strongest audience response.

What metadata does the robot extract with each post?

The robot extracts position ranking, title, description, publication date, author name, like count, comment count, post URL, author profile URL, and post image URL for complete content analysis.

Is this Substack top posts scraper free?

Browse AI's free plan includes credits to run this robot. No credit card required.