Google News Scraper - Real Article URLs, No Login

Google News Scraper searches Google News by keyword, topic or Top stories and returns one row per article: title, publisher, publish date and the real article URL on the publisher's site, not the Google News redirect. It reads the public Google News RSS feeds, so you need no Google login and no API key. A run with the default input (apify, 20 articles) usually takes 5–20 seconds and costs about $0.075.

Use it for PR and media monitoring, brand mentions, competitor news and news context for AI agents. The smallest run is one keyword in the Search queries field.

Table of contents

• What it does
• Quick start
• Use cases
• Input
• Output
• Pricing and limits
• API, export and integrations
• Troubleshooting
• FAQ
• Related Actors
• Support

What it does

1. You add keywords, topics or both, and choose a language and a country (a Google News "edition").
2. The Actor reads the matching Google News RSS feeds: search, topic sections or the Top stories front page.
3. For each article it decodes the Google News link (news.google.com/rss/articles/…) into the original publisher URL.
4. It saves one Dataset row per article. Topic and Top stories rows also list other outlets that cover the same story (relatedArticles).
5. Google returns at most 100 articles per feed. When you ask for more, the Actor searches one day at a time (Google's after: and before: operators) and removes duplicates.

Good fit

• Daily or hourly news monitoring for brands, people, companies or topics.
• Media lists for PR: who wrote about a subject, when, and the link to the story.
• News in many languages: de for Germany, pt-BR for Brazil, ja for Japan, zh-TW for Taiwan.
• A clean news list for an AI agent, a spreadsheet or a BI tool.

Not a fit / limits

• No full article text, images or summaries. Google News RSS gives only the title and publisher. For article text, send articleUrl to an article extractor.
• Up to 1,000 articles per query, and up to 20 queries and topics per run. Our largest test run saved 5,000 articles (5 queries × 1,000) in about 34 minutes. A run stops after about 50 minutes and keeps what it saved (RUN_SUMMARY.status: "CAPPED"), so split bigger jobs into several runs. Topics and Top stories read one feed each, so they return only what Google shows in that section (at most about 100 articles).
• Google decides which articles it shows. Two runs a few minutes apart can return a slightly different set or order.
• Google News RSS is for personal, non-commercial use under Google's terms. You are responsible for how you use the data.

Quick start

1. Open the Input tab.
2. In Search queries (queries), keep apify or add your own keyword, for example electric cars.
3. Keep Language en, Country US and Max articles per query or topic 20, or change them.
4. Click Start.
5. Open the Output tab. The Articles table shows title, sourceName, publishedAt and articleUrl.

Expected result: 20 news articles about your keyword in Google's order, each with the publisher link in articleUrl.

Use cases

Buyer job	Input path	Output entity	Key fields	Next integration
Brand and competitor monitoring	queries + since: "24h" on a schedule	Article	query, title, sourceName, articleUrl, publishedAt	Slack, email or Google Sheets through Apify integrations
PR media list	queries like "your company" + since: "30d"	Article	sourceName, sourceUrl, articleUrl	CSV or Excel export
Country news overview	topics: ["BUSINESS"], country: "DE", language: "de"	Article with related coverage	title, sourceName, relatedArticles	Dashboard or newsletter
News context for an AI agent	queries + small maxArticles	Article	title, articleUrl, publishedAt	Apify MCP server

Input

Input fields

Field	Plain name	Type	Required	Default / prefill	Allowed values	Effect	Example	Recommendation
queries	Search queries	array of strings	One of queries or topics	prefill ["apify"]	Up to 500 characters each. Google News operators work: "exact phrase", OR, -exclude, site:, intitle:	One search feed per query	["OpenAI", "\"electric cars\""]	Use exact phrases in quotes for brand names
topics	Topics	array of enum	One of queries or topics	none	TOP_STORIES, WORLD, NATION, BUSINESS, TECHNOLOGY, ENTERTAINMENT, SPORTS, SCIENCE, HEALTH	One section feed per topic for the chosen edition	["TOP_STORIES", "BUSINESS"]	Use for "what is in the news" in a country
language	Language	string	no	en	Two- or three-letter code (en, de, fr, ja, zh) or a locale (zh-TW, pt-BR, en-GB)	Edition language. A locale also sets the country	de	Use the language people read in that country
country	Country	string	no	US	Two-letter code	Edition country: which outlets and stories Google shows	DE	Ignored when language is a locale such as pt-BR
maxArticles	Max articles per query or topic	integer	no	20	1–1,000	Stops each query or topic at this number	200	Above 100, the Actor searches day by day
since	Published since	string	no	empty (no date filter)	A date 2026-10-01, an ISO time, or a period 1h, 24h, 7d, 2w, 3m, 1y	Keeps only articles published after this point. Not in the future, not before 2000	"7d"	Use 24h or 7d for monitoring
resolveSourceUrl	Decode real article URLs	boolean	no	true	true / false	false skips decoding: articleUrl is null, the run is faster	true	Keep on; it is included in the price
proxyConfiguration	Proxy	object	no	{"useApifyProxy": true}	Apify Proxy settings or your own proxy URLs	Apify datacenter proxy by default; after repeated blocks the Actor moves to Apify residential proxy by itself	default	Change only if you know you need another proxy

Empty input: if both queries and topics are empty, the run fails at once with INVALID_INPUT and makes no requests. Duplicate queries (case-insensitive, for example Apify and apify) run only once.

Interacting settings

When	Input A	Input B	Effective behavior	Example	Cost/result effect
More than 100 articles	maxArticles	since	Day-by-day search goes back to since, or 30 days when since is empty	maxArticles: 400, since: "30d"	More requests and time; you pay only for saved articles
Locale in language	language	country	zh-TW or pt-BR sets both; country is ignored	language: "pt-BR"	none
Date filter on a search	since	queries	Google's after: operator is added to the query, and older articles are dropped	since: "24h"	Fewer articles, same start cost
Date filter on a topic	since	topics	Older topic articles are dropped after reading the feed	topics: ["WORLD"], since: "1h"	Can return not_found
Decoding off	resolveSourceUrl: false	—	articleUrl is null, rows stay complete	—	Faster run, same price per article

Input examples

Monitor a brand every day

{
  "queries": ["\"OpenAI\""],
  "language": "en",
  "country": "US",
  "maxArticles": 150,
  "since": "7d"
}

Expected behavior: the Actor reads the search feed, then searches day by day to reach 150 articles from the last 7 days. Expected output: 150 article rows with title, sourceName, articleUrl and publishedAt. Limit or cost note: in our test this took about 1 minute.

Business news in Germany

{
  "topics": ["BUSINESS"],
  "language": "de",
  "country": "DE",
  "maxArticles": 20
}

Expected behavior: the Actor reads the German Business section. Expected output: 20 article rows; most rows have relatedArticles from other German outlets.

Output

The Actor saves one row per article in the default Dataset. A query or topic without articles gets one free not_found row, and a query that failed gets one free error row, so you always see what happened to each input.

Output fields

Field	Meaning	Type	Can be empty?	Example / enum	Source / notes
status	Row result	string	no	complete, partial, not_found, error	partial = article without a decoded URL
statusReason	Why the row is not complete	string	yes, null on complete rows	Google News has no articles for query "Apify"…	Plain-English explanation
errorCode	Machine code for error rows	string	yes	SOURCE_BLOCKED, SOURCE_UNAVAILABLE	null on other rows
feedType	Feed kind	string	no	search, topic, top_stories
query	Your search query	string	yes, null on topic rows	apify	As you typed it
topic	Your topic	string	yes, null on search rows	BUSINESS
position	Order inside this query or topic	integer	yes, null on not_found/error rows	1	Google's order
title	Article title	string	yes, null on not_found/error rows	AI Agents Gain Financial Independence…	Without the " - Publisher" suffix that Google adds
sourceName	Publisher name	string	yes	FF News	From the feed
sourceUrl	Publisher home page	string	yes	https://ffnews.com/	From the feed
articleUrl	Real article URL on the publisher's site	string	yes	https://ffnews.com/news/…	null when resolveSourceUrl is off (row stays complete) or decoding failed (row is partial)
googleNewsUrl	Google News link to the article	string	yes	https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMi…?oc=5	Always set on article rows
articleId	Google News article ID	string	yes	CBMisAFBVV95…	Stable key for de-duplication across runs
publishedAt	Publish time, UTC	string (ISO 8601)	yes	2026-07-02T07:00:00.000Z	From the feed
relatedArticles	Other outlets on the same story	array	yes	[{"title": "…", "sourceName": "WDR", "googleNewsUrl": "…"}]	Usually filled on topic and Top stories rows, empty [] on search rows
language, country	Edition used	string	no	en, US
feedUrl	RSS feed that gave this row	string	yes	https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=apify&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen	Shows exactly where the row came from
fetchedAt	When the row was saved, UTC	string (ISO 8601)	no	2026-10-15T04:28:40.206Z

null means "no value"; it never means zero. A missing article is a not_found row, not an empty Dataset.

Output entities and surfaces

Situation	Dataset/API/KVS/live view	Result shape	User action
Normal item	Dataset, view Articles	status: "complete" article row	Use articleUrl and publishedAt
No articles for a query or topic	Dataset	one free not_found row with statusReason	Check the query, edition and since
Partial result	Dataset	status: "partial", articleUrl: null, googleNewsUrl set	Open googleNewsUrl, or run again later
Technical failure	Dataset + RUN_SUMMARY in the Key-value store	free error row with errorCode; run status PARTIAL or ERROR	Run again later; see Troubleshooting
Run overview	Key-value store record RUN_SUMMARY	status, per-query counts, decoded URLs, charged articles, requests	Check status and counts

Output example

{
  "status": "complete",
  "statusReason": null,
  "errorCode": null,
  "feedType": "topic",
  "query": null,
  "topic": "BUSINESS",
  "position": 1,
  "title": "Waren bei Galeria in Regensburg plötzlich hinter Absperrband – Ein Hersteller spricht Klartext",
  "sourceName": "Mittelbayerische Zeitung",
  "sourceUrl": "https://www.mittelbayerische.de/",
  "articleUrl": "https://www.mittelbayerische.de/lokales/stadt-regensburg/waren-bei-galeria-in-regensburg-ploetzlich-hinter-absperrband-ein-hersteller-spricht-klartext-22206179",
  "googleNewsUrl": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMi8AFBVV95cUxPWnVHaWd…?oc=5",
  "articleId": "CBMi8AFBVV95cUxPWnVHaWd…",
  "publishedAt": "2026-10-14T17:01:36.000Z",
  "relatedArticles": [
    {
      "title": "Flatterband im Kaufhaus: Was hinter den gesperrten Galeria-Regalen steckt",
      "sourceName": "WDR",
      "googleNewsUrl": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMifkFVX3lx…?oc=5"
    }
  ],
  "language": "de",
  "country": "DE",
  "feedUrl": "https://news.google.com/rss/headlines/section/topic/BUSINESS?hl=de&gl=DE&ceid=DE%3Ade",
  "fetchedAt": "2026-10-15T04:22:36.577Z"
}

This is one row from the "Business news in Germany" example. Long Google IDs and the list of related articles are shortened here.

Pricing and limits

Pricing unit

This Actor uses pay-per-event pricing. You pay for:

Event	When it is charged	Price
Actor start (apify-actor-start)	Once per run (runs up to 1 GB memory)	$0.0025
Article (article)	Once per saved complete or partial article row	$0.0036 (Free plan), $0.0034 (Bronze), $0.0032 (Silver), $0.0009 (Gold and higher)

URL decoding is included in the article price. not_found and error rows are free. A valid run with no articles, or a since filter that removes all articles, costs only the start event. A run with invalid input fails at once and also costs only the start event. Apify platform usage (compute, proxy, storage) is included; you do not pay it separately.

If you set a maximum charge for the run, the Actor stops saving articles before it goes over it. The run then ends with RUN_SUMMARY.status: "CAPPED" and stopReason: "CHARGE_LIMIT".

Cost examples

Scenario	Input scope	Articles	Start	Articles (Free plan)	Total (Free plan)
Prefill	apify, 20 articles	20	$0.0025	$0.072	$0.0745
Brand watch	1 query, 150 articles	150	$0.0025	$0.54	$0.5425
Large pull	5 queries × 400 articles	2,000	$0.0025	$7.20	$7.2025
Nothing found	any input, 0 articles	0	$0.0025	$0	$0.0025

Measured run times at 512 MB memory: 20 articles usually in 5–20 seconds (about 1 minute when Google answers slowly), 150 articles in about 1 minute, 500 articles in about 2 minutes, 2,000 articles in about 7 minutes, 5,000 articles in about 34 minutes.

API, export and integrations

• API: start the Actor with the Apify API and read rows from the default Dataset (view articles).
• Export: download the Dataset as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML or HTML from the Output tab.
• Scheduling: create a schedule with since: "24h" for a daily news digest. Use articleId to skip articles you already have.
• Webhooks / no-code: send new rows to Slack, Google Sheets, Make, Zapier or n8n through Apify integrations.

Use with AI agents (MCP)

• MCP server with only this Actor: https://mcp.apify.com?tools=cliqtomedia/google-news-scraper.
• Smallest useful input:

{ "queries": ["apify"], "maxArticles": 20 }

• Key output fields: title (headline), sourceName (publisher), publishedAt (UTC time), articleUrl (real publisher link), status (complete, partial, not_found or error).
• A 20-article run usually takes 5–20 seconds and costs about $0.075 on the Free plan. Keep maxArticles small (10–50) for agent calls; 1,000 articles can take about 7 minutes.

Troubleshooting

The run failed at once

Symptom: run status FAILED in about 1 second, no rows. Likely reason: invalid input (INVALID_INPUT), for example no queries and no topics, a since date in the future, or a language code in the wrong format. Check: the run log and RUN_SUMMARY.message. Action: fix the input field named in the message and start again.

A query returned one not_found row

Symptom: one row with status: "not_found". Likely reason: Google News has no articles for this query in this edition and period. Check: statusReason and feedUrl; open feedUrl in a browser. Action: try another language or country, a wider since, or a simpler query.

Rows have status partial

Symptom: articleUrl is null and status is partial. Likely reason: Google did not decode this link at that moment. Or Google blocked the default proxy: then the Actor moves to residential proxy and stops decoding after about 3 MB of residential traffic, to keep proxy costs low (errorCode: "SOURCE_BLOCKED", a warning in RUN_SUMMARY.warnings). Check: statusReason; googleNewsUrl still opens the article. Action: run again later. Partial rows are charged because they still contain the article.

Error rows with SOURCE_BLOCKED

Symptom: free error rows with errorCode: "SOURCE_BLOCKED". Likely reason: Google blocked the requests even after the switch to residential proxy. Check: RUN_SUMMARY.http.blocked and proxyFallback. Action: run again later, with fewer queries. The Actor does not solve CAPTCHAs.

Fewer articles than maxArticles

Symptom: a query has fewer rows than you asked for. Likely reason: Google has no more articles in the period. Without since, day-by-day search goes back 30 days. Check: RUN_SUMMARY.warnings. Action: set an earlier since, for example 3m or 1y.

FAQ

Do I need a Google account or API key?

No. The Actor reads public Google News RSS feeds without login, cookies or keys.

Is this the official Google News API?

No. Google has no public Google News API. This Actor uses the public RSS feeds and is not made by or linked to Google.

Why are the titles shorter than in Google News?

Google adds " - Publisher" to each title in the feed. The Actor removes it and puts the publisher into sourceName.

Why is the order or set of articles different between runs?

Google decides which articles each feed shows, and this changes during the day. Rows keep Google's order in position. Use articleId to compare runs.

Can I get the article text or snippet?

No. Google News RSS has no snippet; its description only repeats the title and publisher. Send articleUrl to an article text extractor if you need the text.

Related Actors

• RSS & Atom Feed Reader / Monitor — follow the RSS feeds of the publishers you found.
• Substack Newsletter Scraper — add newsletter posts to your media monitoring.

Support

For bugs, questions or feature requests, open an issue on the Issues tab of this Actor. Include the run ID, your input and the error text. Never send tokens, cookies or private data.