# Apple App Store Search – iTunes API Metadata (`chris_elder/itunes-app-store-search`) Actor

Search and look up Apple App Store apps via the official iTunes Search and Lookup APIs. Titles, ratings, prices, genres, screenshots, bundle IDs. No review scraping. $1 per 1,000 apps; failed queries free.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/chris_elder/itunes-app-store-search.md
- **Developed by:** [Chris Elder](https://apify.com/chris_elder) (community)
- **Categories:** Developer tools, Marketing, AI
- **Stats:** 3 total users, 2 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $0.60 / 1,000 app results

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?

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

## Apple App Store Search – iTunes API Metadata & Keywords

**iTunes App Store Search** looks up iOS, iPad and Mac apps through **Apple’s official iTunes Search and Lookup APIs**. Get titles, ratings, prices, genres, bundle IDs, screenshots and store URLs for keyword research, ASO and competitor watchlists.

✅ Pay per result: **$1 per 1,000 apps** · 🆓 Failed queries are never charged · 🔑 No API key · 🚫 **No review scraping**

[▶ Try it with one click](#how-to-use-it) · [📄 Real example output](#output-example-from-a-real-public-run) · [💲 Pricing](#how-much-does-it-cost) · [🔌 API & integrations](#integrations-api-ai-agents-make-zapier) · [❓ FAQ](#faq) · [🛟 Support](#support-reliability-and-feature-requests)

### What does it do?

- 🔍 **Keyword search** across App Store storefronts (155+ countries via `country`)
- 🆔 **Lookup by track ID or bundle ID**
- 📊 **Metadata** – rating, rating count, price, genre, version, release dates, file size
- 🖼️ Screenshot and artwork URLs from the API
- 🔁 Dedupes by `trackId` across terms
- 🚫 **Does not scrape user reviews** – only fields Apple exposes on Search/Lookup

### Use cases

- **ASO / marketers** – rank-watch keywords and competitor metadata
- **Analysts** – bulk enrich a sheet of bundle IDs
- **Agents** – “search App Store for X in US/UK” as one tool call

### How to use it

1. Click **Try for free** – searches `weather` and `notes`, and looks up `com.apple.weather`.
2. Set `country` (e.g. `gb`) and `limitPerTerm` as needed.
3. Download the dataset.

#### Input example

```json
{
  "terms": ["weather", "notes"],
  "bundleIds": ["com.apple.weather"],
  "country": "us",
  "limitPerTerm": 3,
  "maxApps": 10
}
```

#### Output example (from a real public run)

```json
{
  "source": "search",
  "trackId": 1069514657,
  "bundleId": "com.apple.weather",
  "trackName": "Weather",
  "artistName": "Apple",
  "averageUserRating": 3.7,
  "userRatingCount": 120000,
  "price": 0,
  "primaryGenreName": "Weather",
  "query": "weather"
}
```

### How much does it cost?

| Event | Free / Bronze | Silver | Gold+ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Actor start | $0.0005 | $0.0005 | $0.0005 |
| App result | $0.001 | $0.0008 | $0.0006 |

**Failed Search/Lookup calls are free.**

| Job | Approx. cost |
|---|---|
| Prefill (~5–10 apps) | ≈ $0.005–0.01 + $0.0005 start |
| 1,000 apps | $1.00 |

### Integrations (API, AI agents, Make, Zapier)

Call via Apify API or connect to Make/Zapier/n8n. Official Apple endpoints only — no browser, no proxies.

### FAQ

**Do I need an Apple API key?** No. iTunes Search and Lookup are public HTTP APIs.

**Reviews?** This Actor does **not** scrape or paginate user reviews. Rating aggregates come from the official Lookup/Search payload only.

**Mac / iPad?** Set `entity` to `macSoftware` or `iPadSoftware`.

### Support, reliability and feature requests

Open an Issue on the Actor page. Built by Chris Elder with AI-assisted development; every release is reviewed and tested.

### Need the data done for you?

If you'd rather not set up runs yourself, the UK company behind these tools (GPT Shop Ltd) offers a fixed-price done-for-you scrape. Tell us the website and the fields you need, and you get a clean CSV or Google Sheet within 48 hours of the confirmed brief, up to 5,000 rows, for £149 or $179. If we can't get the data, you're refunded in full. [See the done-for-you scraper service](https://sme-free-tools.pages.dev/done-for-you-scraper/?utm_source=apify\&utm_medium=readme\&utm_campaign=itunes-app-store-search)

# Actor input Schema

## `terms` (type: `array`):

Keywords to search on the App Store (official iTunes Search API). One query per term.

## `trackIds` (type: `array`):

Numeric App Store IDs for Lookup (e.g. 284882215 for Facebook).

## `bundleIds` (type: `array`):

iOS bundle IDs for Lookup (e.g. com.apple.mobilenotes).

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

ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 storefront (us, gb, de, …).

## `entity` (type: `string`):

iPhone apps, iPad apps, or Mac apps.

## `limitPerTerm` (type: `integer`):

Max results returned per search keyword (Apple caps at 200).

## `maxApps` (type: `integer`):

Hard cap on apps written this run.

## `includeDescription` (type: `boolean`):

Include the long App Store description text in each row.

## `dedupe` (type: `boolean`):

Skip duplicate trackIds across searches and lookups.

## `requestDelayMs` (type: `integer`):

Pause between iTunes API calls.

## `timeoutSecs` (type: `integer`):

HTTP timeout per Search/Lookup request.

## `lang` (type: `string`):

e.g. en_us — passed to iTunes Search when set.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "terms": [
    "weather",
    "notes"
  ],
  "bundleIds": [
    "com.apple.weather"
  ],
  "country": "us",
  "entity": "software",
  "limitPerTerm": 3,
  "maxApps": 10,
  "includeDescription": true,
  "dedupe": true,
  "requestDelayMs": 200,
  "timeoutSecs": 30
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `overview` (type: `string`):

No description

## `summary` (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 = {
    "terms": [
        "weather",
        "notes"
    ],
    "bundleIds": [
        "com.apple.weather"
    ],
    "limitPerTerm": 3,
    "maxApps": 10
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("chris_elder/itunes-app-store-search").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 = {
    "terms": [
        "weather",
        "notes",
    ],
    "bundleIds": ["com.apple.weather"],
    "limitPerTerm": 3,
    "maxApps": 10,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("chris_elder/itunes-app-store-search").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 '{
  "terms": [
    "weather",
    "notes"
  ],
  "bundleIds": [
    "com.apple.weather"
  ],
  "limitPerTerm": 3,
  "maxApps": 10
}' |
apify call chris_elder/itunes-app-store-search --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,chris_elder/itunes-app-store-search"
        }
    }
}
```

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/2G55MoAigeoeC2BKn/builds/eckPpnYpJOgoX1B9V/openapi.json