# Coles Scraper & Price Tracker - Specials, Barcodes & Stock (AU) (`aussie-grocery-data/coles-scraper`) Actor

Coles Australia (coles.com.au) scraper and price tracker: prices, half-price, multibuy and online-only specials, unit prices, stock by store or postcode. Find products by barcode (EAN) or product ID. Track price drops and ended specials between runs. Nutrition, allergens, full catalogue.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/aussie-grocery-data/coles-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Chris Evernden](https://apify.com/aussie-grocery-data) (community)
- **Categories:** E-commerce, Automation, Developer tools
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $0.99 / 1,000 product rows

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

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

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
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.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## 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.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## Coles Scraper — prices, specials, stock and nutrition (Australia)

Get product data from [Coles](https://www.coles.com.au) as a clean table: current price, was-price, specials and multibuys, unit price, stock at a chosen store, and (optionally) barcode, ingredients, allergens and nutrition.

Use it for price monitoring, weekly specials lists, grocery comparison apps, nutrition databases or market research.

### What you can scrape

| You want | Fill in |
|---|---|
| Products for a few search words ("milk", "tim tam") | **Search terms** |
| A list of products you already know | **Coles product numbers** (e.g. `8150288`) or **Barcodes** (e.g. `9300601186945`) |
| A category, a product page, a search page | **Coles links** (paste any `coles.com.au/browse/…`, `/product/…`, `/search…` or `/on-special` link) |
| Everything on special this week (about 8,000 products) | tick **Every product on special** |
| Only half price, multibuy or online-only specials | tick **Every product on special** and pick **Kind of special** |
| One department's specials | **Coles links**: `coles.com.au/on-special/bakery` (any department) |
| The rest of a run that stopped at its cost limit | **Continue from earlier results**: pick that run's dataset |
| What changed since last week: price drops, new and ended specials, stock | tick **Track changes** (and **Only changes**), then schedule the run |
| The whole Coles range (about 25,000 products) | tick **Full catalogue** |
| Prices and stock at your local store | **Store IDs** or **Postcodes** |
| Coles store addresses, phone numbers and trading hours | tick **Store directory** |

### Track changes (price monitoring)

Tick **Track changes** and every row says what changed since the previous run with the same **Tracking name**:

| `change` | Meaning |
|---|---|
| `new` | Not in the previous run (for a specials run: newly on special) |
| `priceDown` / `priceUp` | Price moved; `previousPrice` and `priceChange` say by how much |
| `specialStarted` / `specialEnded` | Went on or came off special |
| `backInStock` / `outOfStock` | Availability at that store changed |
| `removed` | Coles no longer has the product |
| `notSoldAtStore` | Coles has the product but no price for it at that store |
| `unchanged` | Nothing changed (left out with **Only changes**, and not charged) |

`changes` lists all of them when more than one applies (e.g. `["specialEnded", "priceUp"]`).

**No guessing.** Coles' listings shift while they are being read, so a product missing from this week's listing is not reported as gone from its absence alone. The scraper asks Coles for that product's price now and reports what it finds, e.g. `specialEnded` with the new price, and `inListing: false`. If Coles cannot be asked, the product is kept and checked on the next run instead.

The first run saves the baseline (every row `new`). Schedule the same task weekly, e.g. every Wednesday for the new specials, and each run compares with the last. The saved state lives in your own Apify storage, as a key-value store called `coles-tracking-<name>`. The **Changes** view in the dataset shows the change columns first.

Test on 2026-10-20, 282 online-only specials: the baseline run, then a run with two changes planted in the saved state. It returned exactly those two (a $1 price drop, and a product whose special had ended, confirmed with Coles at its real price of $4.95), and left out the 281 unchanged without charging for them. A third run returned none.

### Barcodes

Coles' website cannot search by barcode, so this scraper carries an index of about 22,800 Coles barcodes, built from Coles' own product data and refreshed monthly. The index only says which product to fetch: the scraper then checks that Coles still gives that product the same barcode, and outputs it only if it does. Barcodes that are not found are listed in `RUN_SUMMARY` → `lookups` with the reason, and are not charged.

About 9% of Coles products (mostly fresh produce, and some imported and loose items) have no barcode in Coles' data, so they can only be found by product number. A product added after the last index refresh is not found by barcode until the next one.

### Why this one

- **It tells you when something went wrong.** Every run saves a `RUN_SUMMARY` with pages fetched, blocked, retried and failed, and how many products each search or category returned compared with what Coles said it had. A run that cannot get the data fails with a reason. It does not return an empty table and call it a success.
- **It gets whole listings.** Coles' website shows at most 4,992 products for any one listing. Larger ones, such as the weekly specials or the Pantry department, are read twice, sorted by price low-to-high and high-to-low, and joined. In our test this got 7,960 of the 7,962 specials Coles listed.
- **Prices for a specific store.** Coles prices differ by store. In our test the same Tim Tam pack cost $6.00 online, $6.30 in Alice Springs and $6.42 in Karratha. Give a store number, or a postcode and the nearest store is used.
- **Allergens split for you:** `allergensContains`, `allergensMayContain`, `allergensFreeFrom`.
- **Pay once per product.** **Continue from earlier results** skips everything already in the datasets you pick, without charging for it. A run cut short by its cost limit can be finished later, and a weekly run can fetch only what is new.
- **Multibuys worked out:** "Pick any 3 for $7.95" gives `multiBuyQuantity: 3`, `multiBuyTotal: 7.95`, `multiBuyPricePerItem: 2.65`.

### Input

| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| Search terms | Words as you would type them in the Coles search box. |
| Coles links | Category, product, search or specials links. |
| Coles product numbers | The number at the end of a product link. Fetched 24 per request, so a list of thousands is quick. These rows have no `stockQuantity` (Coles does not give it this way); everything else is the same. A product Coles does not sell at the chosen store comes back with an empty `price` and `isAvailable: false`. |
| Barcodes | EAN/UPC barcodes. Each row has `matchedBarcode`. See "Barcodes" below. |
| Every product on special | All products on special or multibuy this week. |
| Kind of special | With the box above: all specials, or only half price, multibuy or online only. Coles does the filtering, so the run reads and charges only those (on 2026-10-20: about 1,950 half price, 1,940 multibuy, 280 online only). |
| Full catalogue | Every department. Tobacco is excluded. Large run. |
| Only products on special | Keep only rows on special or multibuy. You are not charged for the rows skipped. |
| Store IDs | Coles store numbers, e.g. `313` from `coles.com.au/find-stores/coles/wa/karratha-313`. Each store returns its own rows. Empty = Coles' online prices. |
| Postcodes | Each postcode adds its nearest Coles store. **Stores per postcode** (1-10) adds more. |
| Store directory | Adds one row per store: address, phone, location, trading hours. All 877 stores, or only the stores picked above. |
| Include barcode, ingredients, allergens and nutrition | Opens each product's page. Slower, and charged as an extra event. |
| Max products per search term / link | Default 100. Does not apply to specials or the full catalogue, which return everything your run's cost limit allows. |
| Max products in total | Stops the run after this many rows. 0 = no limit. |
| Continue from earlier results | One or more datasets from earlier runs. Products and stores already in them are skipped and not charged. |
| Track changes | Compare with the previous run of the same tracking name. See above. Not together with Continue from earlier results. |
| Tracking name | One per kind of run, e.g. `weekly-specials`. Letters, digits and dashes. |
| Only changes | With Track changes: leave out unchanged products, which are not charged. |

Example input — this week's specials at the Coles nearest to Carlton, VIC:

```json
{
  "specials": true,
  "postcodes": ["3053"]
}
```

### Output

One row per product per store. A real row from a test run on 2026-10-17:

```json
{
  "productId": 2976853,
  "name": "Sea Salt Snack Crackers",
  "brand": "Sunbites",
  "size": "105g",
  "description": "SUNBITES SEA SALT SNACK CRACKERS WITH QUINOA SHARE PACK:.:105 GRAM",
  "price": 1.65,
  "wasPrice": 3.3,
  "isOnSpecial": true,
  "promotionType": "SPECIAL",
  "specialType": "PERCENT_OFF",
  "priceDescription": "1/2 Price",
  "saveAmount": 1.65,
  "savePercent": 50,
  "multiBuyOffer": null,
  "multiBuyQuantity": null,
  "multiBuyTotal": null,
  "multiBuyPricePerItem": null,
  "unitPrice": 1.57,
  "unitMeasure": "100g",
  "comparablePrice": "$1.57/ 100g",
  "isAvailable": true,
  "stockQuantity": 505,
  "availabilityType": "InStoreAndOnline",
  "isSponsored": true,
  "category": "Chips, Chocolates & Snacks",
  "subCategory": "Crackers & Rice Cakes",
  "aisle": "Flavoured Snacks",
  "retailLimit": 20,
  "url": "https://www.coles.com.au/product/sunbites-sea-salt-snack-crackers-105g-2976853",
  "imageUrl": "https://cdn.productimages.coles.com.au/productimages/2/2976853.jpg",
  "recordType": "product",
  "hasDetails": false,
  "storeId": null,
  "source": "search: biscuits",
  "position": 8,
  "scrapedAt": "2026-10-17T21:53:32+00:00"
}
```

With **Include barcode, ingredients, allergens and nutrition** the same row also has:

```json
{
  "barcode": "9310015247262",
  "ingredients": "Wholegrain Cereals (74%) (Corn 45%, Wheat 28%, Oats 1%), Sunflower Oil and/or Canola Oil, Quinoa (3.5%), Sugar, Rice (1.5%), Salt, Antioxidants (Tocopherols, Ascorbic Acid, Rosemary Extract, Citric Acid).",
  "allergens": "Contains Gluten, Milk, Soy, Wheat",
  "allergensContains": [
    "Gluten",
    "Milk",
    "Soy",
    "Wheat"
  ],
  "allergensMayContain": [],
  "allergensFreeFrom": [],
  "dimensions": "133.00 x 170.00 x 49.00 mm",
  "longDescription": "A Wholesome Adventure Companion Embark on a flavourful journey with Sunbites Sea Salt Crackers for your next adventure. Whether you're conquering the great o...",
  "countryOfOrigin": "Packaged in Australia from 100% Australian ingredients",
  "servingsPerPackage": "4.20",
  "servingSize": "25g",
  "nutrition": {
    "Per Serving": {
      "Energy": "498 kJ",
      "Energy (Cal)": "119 Cal",
      "Protein": "1.9 g",
      "Fat - Total": "5.5 g",
      "Fat - Saturated": "0.5 g",
      "Fat - Transfat": "0.0 g",
      "Fat - Polyunsaturated": "1.0 g",
      "Fat - Monounsaturated": "3.9 g",
      "Carbohydrate": "15.5 g",
      "Sugars - Total": "0.8 g",
      "Dietary Fibre": "1.8 g",
      "Sodium": "109 mg",
      "Potassium": "63 mg"
    },
    "Per 100g/ml": {
      "Energy": "1990 kJ",
      "Energy (Cal)": "476 Cal",
      "Protein": "7.6 g",
      "Fat - Total": "21.8 g",
      "Fat - Saturated": "1.7 g",
      "Fat - Transfat": "0.2 g",
      "Fat - Polyunsaturated": "7.3 g",
      "Fat - Monounsaturated": "12.2 g",
      "Carbohydrate": "61.8 g",
      "Sugars - Total": "3.1 g",
      "Dietary Fibre": "7.4 g",
      "Sodium": "434 mg",
      "Potassium": "252 mg"
    }
  },
  "hasDetails": true
}
```

Download as JSON, CSV, Excel or HTML, or read it through the Apify API.

### Pricing

You pay per row, plus Apify's small start fee per run.

| Event | Price |
|---|---|
| Product row | $0.99 per 1,000 |
| Product details (barcode, ingredients, allergens, nutrition) | $0.50 per 1,000, on top of the product row |
| Store row (store directory) | $0.99 per 1,000 |

Examples: this week's specials (about 8,000 rows) costs about $7.90. The full catalogue (about 25,000 rows) costs about $25. 500 products with details cost about $0.75.
Set **Maximum cost per run** in the run options to cap what any one run can charge.

**On Apify's free plan:** the free plan gives US$5 of credit a month, and Apify caps every run at the credit you have left. A full specials run (about $7.90) is more than that, so it stops after roughly the first 5,000 products. The run still shows as Succeeded; its status message says it stopped early. To get every special anyway: pick one **Kind of special** (half price alone is about $1.95), or give one department's specials link (`coles.com.au/on-special/bakery`), When you have more credit, start another run with **Continue from earlier results** set to the first run's dataset: it skips the products you already have and charges only for the rest. (Coles changes its specials every Wednesday, so finish within the same week.)

### How long it takes

Measured on test runs:

| Run | Rows | Time |
|---|---|---|
| This week's specials | 7,960 | about 3 minutes |
| Full catalogue | 25,035 | about 11 minutes |
| 200 search results with details | 200 | under 1 minute |

### Limits — read before you rely on it

- Coles changes its website without notice. When it does, runs will fail loudly instead of returning wrong data, and the scraper will be fixed. Please report a failed run in the Issues tab.
- Stock (`isAvailable`, `stockQuantity`) is what Coles shows online for that store, not a shelf count.
- The store directory and postcode lookup are built in and refreshed monthly. A brand-new store may be missing until the next refresh. You can still use it by its store number.
- Australian residential proxies are needed. Coles blocks most other addresses. This is the default setting, and its cost is included in the price.

### Is it legal?

This scraper reads only publicly shown product and price information. It does not log in or collect personal data. You are responsible for how you use the data and for checking it suits your use and local law. If you're unsure, ask a lawyer.

### Credits

Postcode locations: [GeoNames](https://www.geonames.org/) postal code data, licensed under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
This scraper is not affiliated with or endorsed by Coles Group.

# Actor input Schema

## `searchTerms` (type: `array`):

Words you would type in the Coles search box, one per line, e.g. "milk", "tim tam".

## `startUrls` (type: `array`):

Coles category links (coles.com.au/browse/...), product links (/product/...), search links, the specials page (/on-special) or one department's specials (/on-special/bakery). A filter_Special=halfprice, multibuy or onlineonly in a specials link is kept.

## `productIds` (type: `array`):

The number at the end of a Coles product link, e.g. 8150288 from coles.com.au/product/coles-full-cream-milk-3l-8150288. Fetched 24 at a time, so long lists are fast and cheap. Rows have no stock count (Coles does not give one this way).

## `barcodes` (type: `array`):

EAN/UPC barcodes (the digits under the bars), e.g. 9300601186945. Coles cannot search by barcode, so they are looked up in an index of ~22,800 Coles barcodes and every match is confirmed with Coles. Barcodes not found are listed in RUN_SUMMARY with the reason.

## `specials` (type: `boolean`):

All products on special this week (about 8,000 rows, about US$7.90). On Apify's free plan (US$5 credit) the run stops after roughly 5,000: pick one kind of special below, or get the rest later with Continue from earlier results.

## `specialsType` (type: `string`):

With Every product on special: all of them, or only one kind, filtered by Coles itself. On 2026-10-20 Coles had about 1,950 half price, 1,940 multibuy and 280 online-only specials.

## `fullCatalog` (type: `boolean`):

Every department (about 25,000 different products; tobacco excluded). Large run.

## `onlySpecials` (type: `boolean`):

Keep only rows that are on special or multibuy. You are not charged for skipped products.

## `storeIds` (type: `array`):

Coles store numbers for local prices and stock, e.g. 313 from coles.com.au/find-stores/coles/wa/karratha-313. Each store returns its own rows. Empty = Coles' default online store.

## `postcodes` (type: `array`):

Australian postcodes. Each one adds its nearest Coles store (or several, see below) to the stores scraped. Works offline from a directory of 877 Coles supermarkets.

## `storesPerPostcode` (type: `integer`):

How many of the nearest stores to use for each postcode.

## `storeDirectory` (type: `boolean`):

Add a row for each store: address, phone, location, trading hours. All 877 stores, or only the stores picked by Store IDs / Postcodes. Can be run on its own.

## `includeDetails` (type: `boolean`):

Opens each product page. Slower, and charged as an extra event per product.

## `maxItemsPerSource` (type: `integer`):

Limits each search term and link. 0 = no limit. Does not apply to "Every product on special" or "Full catalogue", which always return everything (use "Max products in total" to limit those).

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

Stops the run after this many rows. 0 = no limit.

## `continueFrom` (type: `array`):

Pick the dataset of one or more earlier runs (e.g. one that stopped at its cost limit). Products and stores already in them are skipped and not charged, so you only pay for what is new.

## `trackChanges` (type: `boolean`):

Compare with the previous run of the same tracking name: each row gets change (new, priceDown, priceUp, specialStarted, specialEnded, backInStock, outOfStock, removed, notSoldAtStore or unchanged), previousPrice and priceChange. Products that left the listing are checked with Coles for their price now, never assumed gone. The first run saves the baseline. Made for scheduled runs.

## `trackingName` (type: `string`):

Use one name per kind of run (e.g. weekly-specials, my-store-dairy), so each compares with its own last run. Letters, digits and dashes. Saved in your Apify storage as coles-tracking-<name>.

## `onlyChanges` (type: `boolean`):

With Track changes: leave out unchanged products. You are not charged for them.

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

Pages fetched at the same time (1-16).

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

Coles blocks most non-Australian and datacenter addresses. Australian residential is the default and recommended.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "searchTerms": [
    "milk"
  ],
  "specials": false,
  "specialsType": "all",
  "fullCatalog": false,
  "onlySpecials": false,
  "storesPerPostcode": 1,
  "storeDirectory": false,
  "includeDetails": false,
  "maxItemsPerSource": 100,
  "maxItems": 0,
  "trackChanges": false,
  "trackingName": "default",
  "onlyChanges": false,
  "maxConcurrency": 4,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": [
      "RESIDENTIAL"
    ],
    "apifyProxyCountry": "AU"
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

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

One row per product per store; store directory rows have recordType 'store'.

## `runSummary` (type: `string`):

Pages fetched, blocked, retried and failed, and rows per source compared with what Coles listed.

# 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 = {
    "searchTerms": [
        "milk"
    ],
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": true,
        "apifyProxyGroups": [
            "RESIDENTIAL"
        ],
        "apifyProxyCountry": "AU"
    }
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("aussie-grocery-data/coles-scraper").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 = {
    "searchTerms": ["milk"],
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": True,
        "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"],
        "apifyProxyCountry": "AU",
    },
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("aussie-grocery-data/coles-scraper").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 '{
  "searchTerms": [
    "milk"
  ],
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": [
      "RESIDENTIAL"
    ],
    "apifyProxyCountry": "AU"
  }
}' |
apify call aussie-grocery-data/coles-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,aussie-grocery-data/coles-scraper"
        }
    }
}
```

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/Eg3LrWnF0tEjug0Sg/builds/WlvIIYYKkbLlbToBG/openapi.json