Facebook Group Search API. Groups matching your search.

Groups by topic, place or name. We handle the proxies, blocks and platform changes.

Returns the Facebook groups a web search finds for a topic, place or name, with each group's link, vanity name, title and description. Its privacy is included when the search index shows it. Add fill=true for each group's full, live record in the same response: ID, exact member count, privacy, rules, admins and activity. Page through the results with the cursor.

GET /v1/facebook/search_groups

Read the API reference

1 credit per page, +1 per result filled in, up to 51 credits, $0.75–$1.97 per 1,000 pages
16 typed fields null when unknown
50 groups per page, the search engine's ranking (most relevant first)
query is all it needs, e.g. gardening

Send one request. Get up to 50 groups back.

Copy the request in your language, or hand it to your agent. Sign up for an API key and your first 100 credits are free.

$ npm install socialtap

query = gardening

Open in playground

GET /v1/facebook/search_groupsTry in

const params = new URLSearchParams({
  query: "gardening",
});
const res = await fetch(`https://socialtap.dev/v1/facebook/search_groups?${params}`, {
  headers: { "x-api-key": process.env.SOCIALTAP_API_KEY ?? "" },
});
const body = await res.json();
if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`${body.error.code}: ${body.error.message}`);
const { data, page, meta } = body;
console.log(data, meta.credits_charged);

import os

import requests

res = requests.get(
    "https://socialtap.dev/v1/facebook/search_groups",
    params={"query": "gardening"},
    headers={"x-api-key": os.environ["SOCIALTAP_API_KEY"]},
)
body = res.json()
if not res.ok:
    raise RuntimeError(f"{body['error']['code']}: {body['error']['message']}")
data, page, meta = body["data"], body["page"], body["meta"]
print(data, meta["credits_charged"])

require "json"
require "net/http"

uri = URI("https://socialtap.dev/v1/facebook/search_groups")
uri.query = URI.encode_www_form('query' => 'gardening')
req = Net::HTTP::Get.new(uri)
req["x-api-key"] = ENV.fetch("SOCIALTAP_API_KEY")
res = Net::HTTP.start(uri.host, uri.port, use_ssl: uri.scheme == "https") { |http| http.request(req) }
body = JSON.parse(res.body)
raise "#{body["error"]["code"]}: #{body["error"]["message"]}" unless res.is_a?(Net::HTTPSuccess)
pp body["data"]
puts body["meta"]["credits_charged"]

<?php

$query = http_build_query([
    'query' => 'gardening',
]);
$ch = curl_init('https://socialtap.dev/v1/facebook/search_groups?' . $query);
curl_setopt_array($ch, [
    CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
    CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => ['x-api-key: ' . getenv('SOCIALTAP_API_KEY')],
]);
$body = json_decode(curl_exec($ch), true);
if (curl_getinfo($ch, CURLINFO_RESPONSE_CODE) >= 400) {
    throw new RuntimeException($body['error']['code'] . ': ' . $body['error']['message']);
}
print_r($body['data']);
echo $body['meta']['credits_charged'], PHP_EOL;

package main

import (
	"encoding/json"
	"fmt"
	"log"
	"net/http"
	"net/url"
	"os"
)

func main() {
	q := url.Values{}
	q.Set("query", "gardening")
	req, err := http.NewRequest("GET", "https://socialtap.dev/v1/facebook/search_groups?"+q.Encode(), nil)
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}
	req.Header.Set("x-api-key", os.Getenv("SOCIALTAP_API_KEY"))
	res, err := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}
	defer res.Body.Close()
	var body struct {
		Data  json.RawMessage `json:"data"`
		Page  json.RawMessage `json:"page"`
		Meta  map[string]any  `json:"meta"`
		Error *struct {
			Code    string `json:"code"`
			Message string `json:"message"`
		} `json:"error"`
	}
	if err := json.NewDecoder(res.Body).Decode(&body); err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}
	if body.Error != nil {
		log.Fatalf("%s: %s", body.Error.Code, body.Error.Message)
	}
	fmt.Println(string(body.Data), body.Meta["credits_charged"])
}

curl 'https://socialtap.dev/v1/facebook/search_groups?query=gardening' \
  -H "x-api-key: $SOCIALTAP_API_KEY"

{
  "data": [
    {
      "approximate_fields": [
        "community.title",
        "community.description"
      ],
      "community": {
        "avatar_url": null,
        "description": "Visit harvestsavvy.com to learn Everything Gardening! This online community is for all plant lovers, gardening and farming enthusiasts focused on sharing...",
        "id": null,
        "metrics": {
          "member_count": null
        },
        "name": "youreverythinggardening",
        "privacy": null,
        "title": "Everything Gardening",
        "url": "https://www.facebook.com/groups/youreverythinggardening/"
      },
      "details": null,
      "hashtag": null,
      "matched_url": "https://www.facebook.com/groups/youreverythinggardening/",
      "place": null,
      "platform": "facebook",
      "platform_specific": {
        "facebook": {
          "account_type": null,
          "like_count": null,
          "place": null,
          "talking_about_count": null,
          "were_here_count": null
        }
      },
      "position": 0,
      "post": null,
      "profile": null,
      "snippet": "Visit harvestsavvy.com to learn Everything Gardening! This online community is for all plant lovers, gardening and farming enthusiasts focused on sharing...",
      "sound": null,
      "title": "Everything Gardening - Facebook",
      "type": "community",
      "unknown_fields": [],
      "url": "https://www.facebook.com/groups/youreverythinggardening/"
    },
    {
      "approximate_fields": [
        "community.title",
        "community.description"
      ],
      "community": {
        "avatar_url": null,
        "description": "We provide some information about plant guides, lawn cares, and gardening tools to better help your organic garden grow 🌻 Note: Please keep in mind that this is a Facebook page for a group of people interested in gardening and landscaping.",
        "id": null,
        "metrics": {
          "member_count": null
        },
        "name": null,
        "privacy": null,
        "title": "Gardening",
        "url": "https://www.facebook.com/groups/2541811060/"
      },
      "details": null,
      "hashtag": null,
      "matched_url": "https://www.facebook.com/groups/2541811060/",
      "place": null,
      "platform": "facebook",
      "platform_specific": {
        "facebook": {
          "account_type": null,
          "like_count": null,
          "place": null,
          "talking_about_count": null,
          "were_here_count": null
        }
      },
      "position": 1,
      "post": null,
      "profile": null,
      "snippet": "We provide some information about plant guides, lawn cares, and gardening tools to better help your organic garden grow 🌻 Note: Please keep in mind that this is a Facebook page for a group of people interested in gardening and landscaping.",
      "sound": null,
      "title": "Gardening - Facebook",
      "type": "community",
      "unknown_fields": [],
      "url": "https://www.facebook.com/groups/2541811060/"
    },
    {
      "approximate_fields": [
        "community.title",
        "community.description"
      ],
      "community": {
        "avatar_url": null,
        "description": "With the gardening season upon us now, we are looking to take on more garden maintenance customers for this season There are only very limited slots available, with that being said we are also looking to take on one off jobs throughout the season. This can be from full garden tid…",
        "id": null,
        "metrics": {
          "member_count": null
        },
        "name": null,
        "privacy": null,
        "title": "SM GARDENING",
        "url": "https://www.facebook.com/groups/543243157060853/"
      },
      "details": null,
      "hashtag": null,
      "matched_url": "https://business.facebook.com/groups/543243157060853/",
      "place": null,
      "platform": "facebook",
      "platform_specific": {
        "facebook": {
          "account_type": null,
          "like_count": null,
          "place": null,
          "talking_about_count": null,
          "were_here_count": null
        }
      },
      "position": 2,
      "post": null,
      "profile": null,
      "snippet": "With the gardening season upon us now, we are looking to take on more garden maintenance customers for this season There are only very limited slots available, with that being said we are also looking to take on one off jobs throughout the season. This can be from full garden tid…",
      "sound": null,
      "title": "SM GARDENING | Facebook",
      "type": "community",
      "unknown_fields": [],
      "url": "https://www.facebook.com/groups/543243157060853/"
    }
  ],
  "page": {
    "has_more": true,
    "next_cursor": "c1.EXAMPLE_CURSOR",
    "next_cursor_expires_at": "2026-10-26T12:00:00Z",
    "end_reason": null
  },
  "meta": {
    "request_id": "req_3f9c2a7d1e8b4c6a9f0e2d4b6a8c0e1f",
    "platform": "facebook",
    "source": "web_search",
    "is_cached": false,
    "credits_charged": 1,
    "latency_ms": 1127,
    "fetched_at": "2026-10-25T12:00:00Z",
    "input": null,
    "credits_remaining": 9999,
    "client_request_id": null,
    "warnings": []
  }
}

import { SocialTap } from "socialtap";

const client = new SocialTap(); // apiKey defaults to process.env.SOCIALTAP_API_KEY

const res = await client.facebook.searchGroups.list({ query: "gardening" });
console.log(res.data);
console.log(res.credits.charged, res.meta.request_id);

import java.net.URI;
import java.net.URLEncoder;
import java.net.http.HttpClient;
import java.net.http.HttpRequest;
import java.net.http.HttpResponse;
import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;

public class Main {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        String query = "query=" + encode("gardening");
        HttpRequest request = HttpRequest.newBuilder()
            .uri(URI.create("https://socialtap.dev/v1/facebook/search_groups?" + query))
            .header("x-api-key", System.getenv("SOCIALTAP_API_KEY"))
            .GET()
            .build();
        HttpResponse<String> response = HttpClient.newHttpClient()
            .send(request, HttpResponse.BodyHandlers.ofString());
        // An error is {"error": {"code", "message", ...}}; success is {data, meta}, meta.credits_charged its price.
        if (response.statusCode() >= 400) throw new RuntimeException(response.body());
        System.out.println(response.body());
    }

    static String encode(String value) {
        return URLEncoder.encode(value, StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
    }
}

using System.Text.Json;

using var http = new HttpClient();
http.DefaultRequestHeaders.Add("x-api-key", Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("SOCIALTAP_API_KEY"));

var query = string.Join("&",
    "query=" + Uri.EscapeDataString("gardening"));
var res = await http.GetAsync("https://socialtap.dev/v1/facebook/search_groups?" + query);
using var body = JsonDocument.Parse(await res.Content.ReadAsStringAsync());
if (!res.IsSuccessStatusCode)
{
    var error = body.RootElement.GetProperty("error");
    throw new Exception($"{error.GetProperty("code")}: {error.GetProperty("message")}");
}
Console.WriteLine(body.RootElement.GetProperty("data"));
Console.WriteLine(body.RootElement.GetProperty("meta").GetProperty("credits_charged"));

// Cargo.toml: reqwest = { version = "0.12", features = ["blocking", "json"] }, serde_json = "1"
use std::env;

fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
    let res = reqwest::blocking::Client::new()
        .get("https://socialtap.dev/v1/facebook/search_groups")
        .query(&[("query", "gardening")])
        .header("x-api-key", env::var("SOCIALTAP_API_KEY")?)
        .send()?;
    let ok = res.status().is_success();
    let body: serde_json::Value = res.json()?;
    if !ok {
        return Err(format!("{}: {}", body["error"]["code"], body["error"]["message"]).into());
    }
    println!("{} {}", body["data"], body["meta"]["credits_charged"]);
    Ok(())
}

200 OK · GET https://socialtap.dev/v1/facebook/search_groupsLong arrays and strings are shortened here. Real responses are complete.Docs

One schema on 6 platforms.

The response reference lists every field, its type and when it is null. See the full schema.

Null means unknown
A field Facebook doesn't show is null, never zero or an empty string, so a real zero always means zero.
What it accepts
Words to find Facebook groups by, as a web search reads them: a topic, a place, a group's name (gardening, buy and sell houston, "addicted to gardening").
Write one parser
Facebook, TikTok, Instagram and 3 more platforms answer in these fields, so the code that reads one reads them all.

platformstring: Platform the item is on.
typestring: The kind of item the result names, as the resource that describes it: profile (an account), post, hashtag, sound, place or community. The item's summary is the field of that name, and a filled result's record is details.<type>. A search that finds several kinds (a platform's top search) mixes them in one list. New values may be added as more kinds are searchable; treat unknown values as other.
positioninteger: Zero-based rank of the result in the list, across pages: the search engine's order, counting only the results kept.
urlstring: The item's canonical link on the platform (the account's page for a profile, the post's for a post).
matched_urlstring: The page the index listed: the item's own page, or one of its pages that names it (a video of an account, for a profile found through it).
titlestring: The page's title as the index shows it: often the item's name, but not the item's own field. Null when the index shows none.
snippetstring: The index's excerpt of the page: often the item's description and counts as the page stated them when it was indexed, days or weeks ago. Null when the index shows none.
profileobject: The account the result names (type profile): what its link and the index's text say of it, completed from details when the result is filled. Null for every other type.

What teams build with the Facebook Group Search API.

Map the groups around a hobby or city
Find where a product's buyers gather
Look up a group's link from its name
Build a watchlist of groups to vet

Good to know before you build.

Facebook has no logged-out group search, so results come from a public web search engine's index of Facebook's group pages, in its ranking: a group the index hasn't crawled isn't found.
A group can be found through one of its posts, which matched_url then names: its description is null there, because that page's text is the post's.
Without fill, a group's id, avatar_url and member count are null, name is null when its link names it by number, and privacy is null unless the index's title says it.
Without fill, title and description are the index's copy of the page, listed in approximate_fields, and a description can be a recent post of the group when nothing marks it as one. The result's snippet always holds what the index showed.
A result the group lookup can't fetch (a hidden or removed group) stays unfilled and costs nothing extra; meta.warnings says how many.
The index goes only so deep: a search usually ends within a few pages, and its last page can be empty (page.end_reason end).
Case doesn't matter. site: operators in the query are removed, and intitle:, inurl:, intext:, url: and the like count as plain words.

From 1 credit per page. Failed requests are free.

Buy credits once and spend them on any endpoint, on any platform.

Plans and packs How this endpoint is priced How credits work

Source	Price per successful page	Per 1,000 pages
Any source	1 credit + 1 per result filled in up to 51 credits (50 results filled in)	$0.75–$1.97 + $0.75–$1.97 per result filled in

Cache hits are free.
Credits from packs and top-ups never expire.
A monthly plan's credits are spent first, and what is left of them ends at each renewal.
Prices exclude tax: sales tax is added at checkout where it applies.
Outside the US, plans and packs are sold to businesses: checkout asks for your VAT, GST or other business tax ID.

Questions about the Facebook Group Search API.

Try it with your own search.

Type it in the playground, or copy the request into your code.

free credits

No credit card
Failed requests are free
Works on all 218 endpoints

Start for free Read the docs

Facebook Group Search API. Groups matching your search.

Facebook Group Search API at a glance

Send one request. Get up to 50 groups back.

One schema on 6 platforms.

Null means unknown

What it accepts

Write one parser

What teams build with the Facebook Group Search API.

Map the groups around a hobby or city

Find where a product's buyers gather

Look up a group's link from its name

Build a watchlist of groups to vet

Good to know before you build.

From 1 credit per page. Failed requests are free.

Questions about the Facebook Group Search API.

Web results on 5 more platforms.

Facebook API. 14 endpoints, one key.

Try it with your own search.