# Google News Scraper — Headlines by Keyword & Topic (`accountable_eel/google-news-lookup`) Actor

Google news scraper for brand and topic monitoring: give it keyword searches (or site:domain.com queries) and get one row per article: title, source, publish date, link, snippet, read straight from Google News' own RSS search feed. No API key. Charged only per article returned.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/accountable\_eel/google-news-lookup.md
- **Developed by:** [Adrian Voss](https://apify.com/accountable_eel) (community)
- **Categories:** News, Marketing
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 1 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $0.50 / 1,000 article returneds

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## Google News Lookup: google news scraper from $1/1k

You give this actor a list of search queries, keywords or `site:domain.com`, and for each one it
returns the matching articles from Google News: title, source, publish date, a link to the
article, and a snippet where one exists. Every result is read straight from Google News' own
public RSS search feed at request time, no API key, no login, and no third-party news database
sits between you and the answer.

### Who it's for

Anyone monitoring brand mentions, competitor coverage, or a topic across the news without
babysitting Google News in a browser tab: PR and comms teams tracking press coverage of their own
company, marketers watching what's being written about a competitor, and analysts feeding a news
feed into a Clay/n8n workflow or a dashboard instead of a manual search. Pricing is pay-per-event
and per-article: a fraction of a cent for each article actually returned, and nothing for a search
that comes back empty, so a broad watchlist of search terms costs you only for what it finds. No
seat license, no monthly minimum, no credit system to decode.

### Why this one

- **Reads Google's own live search results, not a stale news database.** Every run queries Google
  News' RSS search feed fresh, so a story published minutes ago shows up the next time you run it.
- **`site:domain.com` works as a query, not just keywords.** Search one publisher's own coverage of
  a topic the same way you would in a Google News search box.
- **Never charged for a search that comes back empty.** A query with no matching articles still
  gets a row explaining why, and costs nothing. See "Price" below for the per-article rate.
- **One row per article by default.** Turn off "One row per article" in the Input tab to get one
  grouped row per search instead, with every article nested in an `articles` list; you're charged
  the same per-article rate either way.
- **No proxies to configure, no headless browser needed.** This is a plain HTTP fetch against
  Google's public RSS endpoint; no JavaScript execution is required to read it.

### What you get

Every row starts with the same five fields, then the article fields.

| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| `query` | text | The search you submitted, echoed back |
| `found` | boolean | `true` if at least one article matched this search |
| `status` | text | `OK` on a match; `NOT_FOUND`, `BAD_FORMAT`, `BLOCKED`, or `REQUEST_FAILED` on a miss |
| `message` | text | Plain-English reason for a miss, only present when `found` is `false` |
| `scrapedAt` | ISO 8601 datetime | When the search was run |
| `articleCount` | number | How many articles matched this search (capped by "Max articles per search") |
| `articles` | array | Every matching article, as `{"title", "sourceName", "publishedAt", "url", "snippet"}` objects (default one-row-per-search output) |
| `title` | text | One article's headline, with Google's " - Source" suffix removed (one-row-per-article output) |
| `sourceName` | text | That article's publisher, as Google News names it |
| `publishedAt` | ISO 8601 datetime | When the article was published |
| `url` | link | The article's `news.google.com` link (Google's own redirect wrapper) — fully valid and clickable, opens the same article a search result would |
| `snippet` | text | A short excerpt, when Google's feed includes one for this article (often `null` — see "Tips") |
| `articleId` | text | Google News' own stable ID for the article, used to decide what is new |
| `isNew` | boolean | `true` if no earlier run of this watchlist returned the article; `null` when monitoring is off |
| `firstSeenAt` | ISO 8601 datetime | The run that first returned the article; `null` when monitoring is off |

Deselect any article field in the Input tab's column picker to drop it from every row: `query`,
`found`, `status`, `message`, and `scrapedAt` always stay.

### Price

- **Article returned**: $1 per 1,000 articles

Plus a $0.00005 start fee per run. Each event above is billed independently, only when it actually returns data — misses (`found:false`) are never charged.

1,000 articles through this actor: **~$1** at the FREE tier, less on a paid Apify plan. A search
that returns nothing is never billed; you only pay for the articles a search actually returned.

### How to use

1. **In the Apify Console.** Open the actor page and click **Start** — the `queries` field is already pre-filled with a working example. Results land in the run's dataset as soon as each item is found.
2. **Via the API.** Call it directly with a POST request — no Console needed once you have an API token:
   ```bash
   curl "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/accountable_eel~google-news-lookup/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=<YOUR_TOKEN>" \
     -X POST \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{"queries":["apify"]}'
   ```
3. **On a schedule.** Save this actor as an Apify **Task** with the input you want, then add a **Schedule** (hourly, daily, weekly) so it runs on its own — no server of your own required.

1) Open the Input tab and paste your search terms into "Search queries to run": one per line, as a
   keyword phrase or a `site:domain.com` query.
2) Leave "Try it first" on for your first run; it caps the run at 5 searches so you can see the
   output shape before spending on the full list.
3) Set "Language (hl)" / "Country (gl)" if you want results in a specific locale; they default to
   `en-US` / `US`.
4) Set "Max articles per search" to control both how many results you get and how much a broad
   query can cost; it defaults to 20.
5) Turn "Try it first" off and press Start to run the full list.

Typical uses: a daily scheduled run watching your own company's press coverage, a competitor's
product launches, or a topic your content team is publishing into.

### Input

```json
{
  "queries": [
    "apify"
  ]
}
```

One search per line: a keyword phrase, or "site:domain.com" to search one publisher. Accepted formats: apify, site:techcrunch.com, "artificial intelligence".

### Sample output

By default you get **one row per article** (turn off "One row per article" in the Input tab to get
one grouped row per search instead, with every article nested in `articles`):

| query | found | status | articleCount | articles | articleId | title | sourceName | publishedAt | url | snippet | isNew | firstSeenAt | scrapedAt |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| apify | true | OK | 20 | \<all articles (full list)> | CBMiTEFVX3lxTE9WeDJxNHdtTEF3TjBWTXl0QXk3cUQ5RzVSd1M2dWNSVlVwWHlqQmR6dW84aUdQcDdmd0xiQjVKanV0S2M2MlZUUjlvbkk | Apify Revenue 2024: $13.3M Est. ARR, $3.5M Raised | GetLatka | 2026-09-02T07:00:00.000Z | https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiTEFVX3lxTE9WeDJxNHdtTEF3TjBWTXl0QXk3cUQ5RzVSd1M2dWNSVlVwWHlqQmR6dW84aUdQcDdmd0xiQjVKanV0S2M2MlZUUjlvbkk?oc=5 |  |  |  | 2026-09-11T07:00:34.764Z |

A search with no matching articles gets a row with `found: false` and a `status`/`message`
explaining why, and is never charged.

### Monitoring: only new articles

Turn on **Only return articles that are new since the last run** and this actor becomes a news alert for your brand, competitors or topics. Every article in a search's feed is checked against the article IDs your previous run already delivered, and anything you have seen is dropped before you are billed. A quiet day returns one `articleCount: 0` row per search and costs only the run fee. Each run logs a count like `4 new of 40 fetched`.

The first run has nothing to compare against, so it returns up to your cap and remembers the whole feed. From the second run on you get only what Google News added since. If more new articles arrive than **Max articles per search** allows, the rest come on the next run.

To turn that into an alert:

1. Save your searches as a task with the checkbox on.
2. Add a **Schedule** to that task, hourly or daily.
3. Add a webhook on **Run succeeded**, pointing at Slack, n8n, Make or Zapier.

Memory lives in a named key-value store, `google-news-lookup-delta`, one record per search, holding the last 5,000 article IDs per watchlist.

### Use it from Clay, n8n, Make, or an AI agent

This actor runs synchronously over plain HTTP — call it directly from a script, a workflow tool, or an AI agent, no Apify Console needed once you have an API token.

```bash
curl "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/accountable_eel~google-news-lookup/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=<YOUR_TOKEN>" \
  -X POST \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"queries":["apify"]}'
```

**n8n.** Add an HTTP Request node: Method `POST`, URL `https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/accountable_eel~google-news-lookup/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=<YOUR_TOKEN>`, Body Content Type `JSON`, JSON Body `{"queries":["apify"]}` (swap in an expression from an earlier node for a real value).

**Clay.** Add an "HTTP API" column: Method `POST`, URL `https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/accountable_eel~google-news-lookup/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=<YOUR_TOKEN>`, Body `{"queries":["{{search}}"]}`, mapping the row's search into the `queries` array.

**MCP.** In Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client with the Apify MCP server, ask for "Google News Scraper | Apify" — the agent will find and run this actor.

### Tips

- `snippet` is often `null`: Google's RSS feed usually carries only the headline and source for
  each article, not a summary paragraph. Use `title` and `sourceName` as the primary signal.
- `url` is Google's own `news.google.com` redirect link, not the publisher's raw URL. It's fully
  valid and opens the same article in a browser; this actor doesn't follow it further, since
  Google puts a cookie-consent interstitial in front of that redirect from most server IPs
  (verified live, not resolvable without a real browser session).
- A `site:domain.com` query searches that one publisher's coverage of whatever else you add to the
  query, e.g. `site:techcrunch.com apify`.
- Set "Max articles per search" low (5-10) for a broad watchlist of many search terms, and higher
  for a small number of searches you want deep coverage on; you pay per article either way.
- Run this on a schedule (see "How to use") to build a running feed of new coverage instead of a
  one-off snapshot.

### vs. alternatives

| | What it costs | What you get | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|---|
| **This actor** (`google-news-lookup`) | $1 per 1,000 found articles (FREE tier, less on paid tiers), nothing for an empty search | One row per article: title, source, publish date, link, and snippet where available, read live from Google News' own search feed | No full article text, only what Google's feed itself carries (headline, source, date, and an occasional snippet). |
| **data\_xplorer/google-news-scraper-fast** | $4 per 1,000 results | Similar article-level coverage from Google News | This actor reads the same underlying public feed at a quarter of the per-article price. |
| Doing it yourself | Your time plus parsing Google's RSS feed, decoding its redirect links, and handling the locale/region parameters | The same data | This actor's feed parsing, redirect resolution, and per-article billing are the maintenance burden it absorbs. |

Prices for third-party tools are their published figures as of September 2026 and are not tracked
here; check the vendor before relying on the comparison.

### FAQ

**Why is a row empty, or why does `found` say `false`?**
Either the search matched no articles (`status: NOT_FOUND`), Google didn't return a valid feed for
the query (`status: BAD_FORMAT`), or the request failed after retries (`status: REQUEST_FAILED`).
Check the `message` column for the specific reason. None of these are billed.

**Am I charged for a search that returns nothing?**
No. `Actor.charge()` only fires per article actually returned. A search with zero matches produces
a row (unless you turn on "Hide rows with no result") and costs nothing.

**Is this a live check or a stored database?**
Live. Every run queries Google News' current search results; there's no cached snapshot behind it.
Run it on a schedule if you want an ongoing feed instead of a one-off pull.

**Why does `url` point to news.google.com instead of the actual publisher?**
Google wraps every article link in its own redirect, and following that redirect from a server
lands on a cookie-consent page instead of the article (verified live). The `news.google.com` link
is still a fully valid, clickable link straight to the same article.

**Do I need to configure proxies?**
No. The actor uses Apify's default proxy configuration out of the box; there's nothing to set up
unless you want to supply your own proxy group.

**Is this GDPR-relevant?**
No personal data is involved. This reads published news articles and their public metadata
(headline, source, date), not information about any individual.

**Can I search for one publisher's own coverage?**
Yes. Use a `site:domain.com` query, optionally combined with keywords, e.g.
`site:techcrunch.com apify`.

**Can I schedule this to build an ongoing news feed?**
Yes. Set up an Apify Task with a schedule (hourly, daily, whatever cadence fits) and point it at
this actor with a saved input. Each run is a fresh search, so a scheduled task is how you'd catch
new coverage as it's published.

**Can an AI agent call this directly?**
Yes. It's registered on the Apify MCP server; an agent in Claude, Cursor, or another MCP client can
find and run it by name ("Google News Scraper | Apify"), or you can call the REST endpoint shown
above from any script or workflow tool.

### Related actors

- [Feed Discovery Lookup](https://apify.com/accountable_eel/feed-discovery-lookup): find a
  website's own RSS/Atom feed directly, for sites you want to monitor at the source instead of
  through a search.
- [YouTube Channel Lookup](https://apify.com/accountable_eel/youtube-channel-lookup): once you know
  who's covering a topic, check whether they're also covering it on YouTube.
- [TikTok Profile Lookup](https://apify.com/accountable_eel/tiktok-profile-lookup): extend the same
  brand-monitoring workflow to TikTok creator accounts.

# Actor input Schema

## `queries` (type: `array`):

One search per line: a keyword phrase, or "site:domain.com" to search one publisher. Accepted formats: apify, site:techcrunch.com, "artificial intelligence". You're only charged for the ones we actually find — a miss costs nothing.

## `testRun` (type: `boolean`):

Turn this on to test your input on a small sample before running the full list. Turn it off to process everything.

## `onlyFound` (type: `boolean`):

Only keep rows where something was actually found. Misses are always free, whether or not you show them here.

## `includeKeywords` (type: `array`):

Optional. Only keep results that mention at least one of these words (e.g. a job title, a city, a product name). Leave empty to keep everything.

## `excludeKeywords` (type: `array`):

Optional. Drop any result that mentions one of these words. Leave empty to skip nothing.

## `maxResults` (type: `integer`):

Optional. Stop the run once this many results have been found — useful for a quick, cheap sample. Leave blank for no limit.

## `language` (type: `string`):

Google's hl parameter, e.g. en-US, de, fr.

## `country` (type: `string`):

Google's gl parameter, e.g. US, DE, GB. Also sets the ceid edition code.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Google News returns up to 100 articles per search; this caps how many you pay for per search line.

## `deltaMode` (type: `boolean`):

Turns this actor into a news alert. An article counts as new when its Google News article ID has not been returned for that search by a previous run of the same watchlist. Already-seen articles are dropped before you are billed, so a run with nothing new costs only the run fee. 'Max articles per search' then caps the new articles, and any overflow is delivered on the next run instead of being lost. The first run has nothing to compare against, so it returns up to your cap and remembers the whole feed.

## `deltaName` (type: `string`):

Leave empty and we derive one from your language and country, with a separate memory per search line, so adding a search never re-bills the others. Type your own name to keep two schedules of the same search apart, or to keep one memory across an edition change. Naming a watchlist with the checkbox above off returns every article but still stamps each one with 'Is this article new?' and 'First seen', so you can filter them yourself in Sheets, n8n or Make.

## `columns` (type: `array`):

Choose which pieces of information to include in each result row. All are included by default.

## `expandRows` (type: `boolean`):

When on, each article found gets its own row instead of being grouped under its search. You're still only charged once per search, no matter how many rows it produces.

## `maxConcurrency` (type: `integer`):

Parallel requests. Keep conservative — this target has no browser fallback, so getting blocked costs more than slow-and-steady.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Apify Proxy config. Residential recommended for anti-bot-sensitive targets.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "queries": [
    "apify"
  ],
  "testRun": false,
  "onlyFound": false,
  "includeKeywords": [],
  "excludeKeywords": [],
  "language": "en-US",
  "country": "US",
  "maxItems": 20,
  "deltaMode": false,
  "deltaName": "",
  "columns": [
    "articleCount",
    "articles",
    "articleId",
    "title",
    "sourceName",
    "publishedAt",
    "url",
    "snippet",
    "isNew",
    "firstSeenAt"
  ],
  "expandRows": true,
  "maxConcurrency": 5,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "queries": [
        "apify"
    ],
    "includeKeywords": [],
    "excludeKeywords": []
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("accountable_eel/google-news-lookup").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "queries": ["apify"],
    "includeKeywords": [],
    "excludeKeywords": [],
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("accountable_eel/google-news-lookup").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "queries": [
    "apify"
  ],
  "includeKeywords": [],
  "excludeKeywords": []
}' |
apify call accountable_eel/google-news-lookup --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,accountable_eel/google-news-lookup"
        }
    }
}

```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/MwssrjGWVD8sw3kTf/builds/WbYTiiJF95HLKkWlB/openapi.json