Google Maps Business Scraper

Extract business data from Google Maps at scale. Get names, addresses, phone numbers, websites, ratings, reviews, opening hours, popular times, photos, and 40+ data points per listing.

What Data Can You Extract?

Business Information

• Business name, category, subcategories
• Full address with street, city, state, postal code, country
• Phone number and website URL
• Google Place ID and Maps URL

Ratings & Reviews

• Average rating (1-5 stars)
• Total review count
• Individual reviews with text, rating, date, author
• Owner responses to reviews

Location Data

• Latitude and longitude coordinates
• Plus Code (Google's location code)
• "Located in" parent location (e.g., mall, airport)

Operational Details

• Opening hours (daily schedule)
• Popular times (hourly occupancy by day)
• Temporarily/permanently closed status
• Price level ($, $$, $$$, $$$$)

Rich Content

• Photo URLs (configurable limit)
• Menu URL
• Order/delivery links (DoorDash, UberEats, etc.)
• "People also search" related businesses

Search Context

• Search query that found the business
• Rank in search results
• Sponsored/advertisement indicator

Quick Start

Basic Search

{
  "searchStringsArray": ["restaurants"],
  "location": "New York, NY",
  "maxResultsPerSearch": 100
}

Search by Coordinates

{
  "searchStringsArray": ["coffee shops"],
  "lat": 40.7128,
  "lng": -74.0060,
  "zoom": 15,
  "maxResultsPerSearch": 50
}

Large Area with Grid Search

{
  "searchStringsArray": ["hotels"],
  "customGeolocation": {
    "type": "Polygon",
    "coordinates": [[[-122.5, 37.7], [-122.3, 37.7], [-122.3, 37.85], [-122.5, 37.85], [-122.5, 37.7]]]
  },
  "zoom": 16,
  "maxResultsPerSearch": 200
}

With Reviews

{
  "searchStringsArray": ["dentists"],
  "location": "Chicago, IL",
  "maxResultsPerSearch": 50,
  "maxReviews": 20,
  "reviewsSort": "newest"
}

Direct Place ID Lookup

{
  "searchStringsArray": ["place_id:ChIJN1t_tDeuEmsRUsoyG83frY4"]
}

Input Parameters

Search Options

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
searchStringsArray	string[]	["restaurants"]	Search queries or Place IDs (place_id:ChIJ...)
startUrls	object[]	[]	Direct Google Maps URLs to scrape
location	string	"New York, NY"	Location text appended to search

Geographic Targeting

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
lat	number	-	Latitude for coordinate search (-90 to 90)
lng	number	-	Longitude for coordinate search (-180 to 180)
customGeolocation	object	-	GeoJSON Polygon/MultiPolygon for grid search
zoom	integer	14	Map zoom level (1-21). Higher = smaller grid cells
country	string	-	Country filter
state	string	-	State/region filter
city	string	-	City filter
postalCode	string	-	Postal/ZIP code filter

Extraction Limits

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
maxResultsPerSearch	integer	5	Max results per search query (up to 10,000)
maxReviews	integer	0	Max reviews per business (0 = skip reviews)
maxImages	integer	10	Max photo URLs per business

Output Options

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
reviewsSort	string	"relevant"	Sort reviews: relevant, newest, highest, lowest
skipClosedPlaces	boolean	false	Skip closed businesses
oneReviewPerRow	boolean	false	Output one row per review (for CSV)
language	string	"en"	Language code for results

Performance

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
maxConcurrency	integer	5	Parallel browser pages (1-20)
proxyConfiguration	object	-	Apify proxy settings

Resume Options

Parameter	Type	Description
resumeRunId	string	Run ID to resume from (loads previously scraped Place IDs)

Output Schema

Each business is saved with the following structure:

{
  "placeId": "ChIJ49sQuK-AhYARM6U646SA12Y",
  "title": "Blue Bottle Coffee",
  "url": "https://www.google.com/maps/place/...",
  "categoryName": "Coffee shop",
  "address": "315 Linden St, San Francisco, CA 94102",
  "street": "315 Linden St",
  "city": "San Francisco",
  "state": "CA",
  "postalCode": "94102",
  "countryCode": "US",
  "phone": "+1 510-653-3394",
  "website": "https://bluebottlecoffee.com",
  "totalScore": 4.5,
  "reviewsCount": 1842,
  "priceLevel": "$$",
  "location": {
    "lat": 37.7763,
    "lng": -122.4158
  },
  "plusCode": "QHFJ+8R Hayes Valley, San Francisco, CA",
  "openingHours": [
    { "day": "Monday", "hours": "7 AM - 6 PM" },
    { "day": "Tuesday", "hours": "7 AM - 6 PM" }
  ],
  "popularTimes": [
    {
      "day": "Monday",
      "hours": [
        { "hour": 7, "occupancyPercent": 20 },
        { "hour": 8, "occupancyPercent": 45 },
        { "hour": 9, "occupancyPercent": 65 }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "imageUrls": ["https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/..."],
  "peopleAlsoSearch": [
    { "title": "Sightglass Coffee", "placeId": "ChIJ...", "url": "..." }
  ],
  "menuUrl": "https://bluebottlecoffee.com/menu",
  "orderLinks": [
    { "platform": "DoorDash", "url": "https://..." }
  ],
  "temporarilyClosed": false,
  "permanentlyClosed": false,
  "searchString": "coffee shops",
  "rank": 3,
  "isAdvertisement": false,
  "scrapedAt": "2025-12-06T10:30:00.000Z",
  "reviews": [
    {
      "name": "John D.",
      "text": "Great coffee and atmosphere!",
      "rating": 5,
      "date": "2 weeks ago",
      "responseFromOwner": "Thanks for visiting!"
    }
  ]
}

Scaling to Millions of Records

Google Maps limits search results to ~120-400 per query. To scrape millions of businesses:

Strategy 1: Grid Search (Recommended)

Use customGeolocation to define a polygon. The scraper auto-generates grid points based on zoom level:

Zoom	Grid Cell Size	Example: California
14	~6 km	~2,500 cells
15	~3 km	~10,000 cells
16	~1.5 km	~40,000 cells

Each cell runs a separate search, so:

• 10,000 cells × 200 results/cell = 2 million potential results

{
  "searchStringsArray": ["restaurants"],
  "customGeolocation": {
    "type": "Polygon",
    "coordinates": [[[...california boundary...]]]
  },
  "zoom": 15,
  "maxResultsPerSearch": 200
}

Strategy 2: Multiple Search Terms

Different queries return different businesses:

{
  "searchStringsArray": [
    "restaurants", "cafes", "bars", "hotels",
    "gyms", "dentists", "plumbers", "lawyers"
  ],
  "location": "Los Angeles, CA"
}

Strategy 3: Neighborhood Batching

Run separate Actor calls per area:

# Run 1: Downtown
{"searchStringsArray": ["restaurants"], "location": "Downtown, Los Angeles"}

# Run 2: Hollywood
{"searchStringsArray": ["restaurants"], "location": "Hollywood, Los Angeles"}

Resume & Recovery

Automatic Protection

• Deduplication: Place IDs saved to persistent storage
• Incremental saves: Results pushed immediately (never lost)
• Migration handling: State saved when Apify migrates servers

Manual Resume

If a run crashes, start a new run with resumeRunId:

{
  "searchStringsArray": ["restaurants"],
  "location": "San Francisco, CA",
  "resumeRunId": "abc123xyz"
}

The scraper loads Place IDs from the previous run and skips already-scraped businesses.

Anti-Detection Features

Built-in protections for reliable scraping:

• Browser fingerprint rotation
• Webdriver detection masking
• Human-like scrolling with random delays
• Rate limiting (30 requests/minute)
• CAPTCHA detection with exponential backoff
• Automatic retry with session rotation

Tip: For high-volume scraping, use residential proxies via proxyConfiguration.

Performance

Metric	Typical Value
Speed	800-1,200 listings/hour
Memory	< 1 GB
Concurrency	1-20 parallel pages
Retry attempts	3 per failed request

Export Formats

Download from Apify Dataset:

• JSON - Full nested structure
• CSV - Flattened for spreadsheets
• Excel - .xlsx format
• XML - For integrations

Use Cases

• Lead Generation: Build prospect lists with contact info
• Market Research: Analyze competitors, pricing, ratings
• Local SEO: Track rankings and reviews
• Real Estate: Map amenities near properties
• Investment: Assess retail density and competition
• Data Enrichment: Add location data to existing records