---
title: "List a Substack category's bestseller leaderboard"
method: GET
path: "/substack/leaderboard"
tags: ["Substack"]
---

# List a Substack category's bestseller leaderboard

`GET /substack/leaderboard`

## Request

- Base URL: `https://api.crawlora.net/api/v1`
- URL: `https://api.crawlora.net/api/v1/substack/leaderboard`
- Auth: API key in header `x-api-key`

Returns one page of a category's bestseller leaderboard, pairing each ranked publication with its author. This is a different surface from /substack/category: it exposes the trending ranking (the site's "Rising" tab), validates its ranking values rather than silently defaulting, accepts the extra cross-category id `bestseller`, and returns the author alongside the publication. Use a category_id from /substack/categories whose in_leaderboard is true. Upstream serves 25 rows per page and accepts pages 0-25.

## Query parameters

- `category_id` string, required
- `type` 'trending' | 'paid' | 'all'
- `page` integer

## Headers

- `x-api-key` string, required

## Response `200`

OK

- SubstackLeaderboardResponseDoc
  - `code` integer
  - `data` SubstackLeaderboardResult
    - `category_id` string
    - `entries` SubstackLeaderboardEntry[]
      - `author` SubstackUser
        - `bestseller_tier` integer
        - `bio` string
        - `handle` string
        - `id` integer
        - `name` string
        - `photo_url` string
        - `profile_set_up_at` string
        - `publications` SubstackUserPublication[]
          - `custom_domain` string
          - `id` integer
          - `is_primary` boolean
          - `name` string
          - `role` string
          - `subdomain` string
          - `url` string
        - `slug` string
        - `subscribers` SubstackSubscriberCounts
          - `follower_count` integer
          - `paid_rough` string: PaidRough and PaidRoughInt are the only paid-subscriber figures Substack publishes, and both are buckets rather than counts. PaidRoughInt is the finer of the two and is always present; PaidTier is the coarser threshold behind the public bestseller badge.
          - `paid_rough_int` integer
          - `paid_tier` integer
          - `total` integer
          - `total_display` string
          - `total_hidden` boolean
          - `total_rough` string
        - `subscriptions` SubstackUserSubscription[]
          - `is_founding` boolean
          - `membership_state` string
          - `publication_id` integer
          - `publication_name` string
          - `subdomain` string
        - `url` string
      - `publication` SubstackPublicationListItem
        - `author_handle` string
        - `author_id` integer
        - `author_name` string
        - `custom_domain` string
        - `explicit` boolean
        - `hero_text` string
        - `id` integer
        - `language` string
        - `logo_url` string
        - `name` string
        - `payments_enabled` boolean
        - `subdomain` string
        - `subscribers` SubstackSubscriberCounts
          - `follower_count` integer
          - `paid_rough` string: PaidRough and PaidRoughInt are the only paid-subscriber figures Substack publishes, and both are buckets rather than counts. PaidRoughInt is the finer of the two and is always present; PaidTier is the coarser threshold behind the public bestseller badge.
          - `paid_rough_int` integer
          - `paid_tier` integer
          - `total` integer
          - `total_display` string
          - `total_hidden` boolean
          - `total_rough` string
        - `subscription` SubstackSubscription
          - `annual_disabled` boolean
          - `app_store_plans` SubstackAppStorePlan[]
            - `active` boolean
            - `amount_cents` integer
            - `currency` string
            - `display_name` string
            - `display_price` string
            - `is_founding` boolean
            - `period` string
            - `sku` string
          - `founding_benefits` string[]
          - `founding_plan_name` string
          - `free_benefits` string[]
          - `free_trial_enabled` boolean
          - `group_discount_percent` number
          - `monthly_disabled` boolean
          - `paid_benefits` string[]
          - `payments_state` string
          - `plans` SubstackSubscriptionPlan[]
            - `active` boolean
            - `amount_cents` integer
            - `currencies` SubstackPlanCurrency[]
              - …
            - `currency` string
            - `id` string
            - `interval` string
            - `interval_count` integer
            - `kind` string
            - `nickname` string
            - `trial_period_days` integer
          - `pledges_enabled` boolean
        - `url` string
      - `rank` integer
    - `has_more` boolean
    - `page` integer
    - `title` string
    - `type` string
  - `msg` string

## Other responses

- `400`: Bad Request
- `429`: Too Many Requests
- `503`: Service Unavailable

---

[API](https://skmtc.dev/crawlora/apis/crawlora-api.md) · [All operations](https://skmtc.dev/crawlora/apis/crawlora-api/llms.txt) · [OpenAPI document](https://skmtc.dev/crawlora/apis/crawlora-api/revisions/028417aa35bb?raw)