PlugShare EV Charging Station Scraper

Scrape PlugShare — the largest crowd-sourced EV charging station locator, built on driver check-ins, reviews, and photos rather than a static directory. Search by location or coordinates, or pull full station detail, community reviews, or user photos by station ID. No login, no API key, no paid proxy required.

What this actor does

• Four modes: search (location + radius), byId (direct station lookup), reviews (flattened community check-ins/reviews), photos (flattened user photos)
• Location input: exact latitude/longitude, or a free-text place name (automatically geocoded)
• Community data, front and center: driver check-ins with a working/broken rating, free-text comments, reported problems, the vehicle used, operator replies, helpful-vote counts, a 0-10 "PlugScore" community confidence rating, and user-submitted photos
• Live-ish station detail: per-outlet status (available / charging / out of order) and the timestamp of the last community-reported update
• Filters: connector type, network/operator, min/max power, access type, free-charging only, currently-available only, minimum PlugScore, minimum review count, nearby amenities, point-of-interest type, parking attributes, and brand-restriction exclusions
• Empty fields are omitted — every record contains only the data PlugShare's community actually contributed for that station

How this differs from our Open Charge Map scraper

Our Open Charge Map scraper covers Open Charge Map's global static directory of charging stations — address, connectors, and operator-published metadata contributed once and rarely updated. This actor instead scrapes PlugShare, an EV-driver community app: its data is built from real driver check-ins, so every record here can carry a PlugScore confidence rating, dated driver reviews/ratings, reported outlet problems, operator replies to those reviews, community-submitted photos, and outlet-level availability status as last reported by an actual driver — none of which exist in a static-directory dataset.

Output per charging station (mode=search / byId)

• locationId, sourceUrl — PlugShare's station page
• name, address, latitude, longitude, distanceKm (mode=search)
• poiType — e.g. "Parking Garage/Lot", "Shopping Center"
• accessType — Public / Restricted / Private Home
• accessRestrictions[] — e.g. "Tesla Only", "Customers Only"
• status, comingSoon, underRepair, confidenceLevel
• stationCount, connectorTypes[], isFastCharger
• hasCost, costDescription, hasDynamicPricing
• parkingType, parkingAttributes[], amenities[]
• open247, regularHours, phone, overheadClearanceMeters
• plugscore — PlugShare's 0-10 community confidence rating
• totalReviews, totalPhotos
• networks[] — distinct charging-network operators on site
• stations[] — one entry per physical charging point: stationId, name, networkName, networkUrl, cpoName, availableCount, lastAvailabilityUpdate, kilowatts, costPerUnit, costDescription, outlets[] (connectorType, status, kilowatts, amps, volts, isDcFastCharge)
• reviews[] — community check-ins: reviewId, createdAt, rating, ratingLabel (Confirmed Working / Reported Problem / Comment), problemType, comment, connectorType, kilowatts, amps, volts, reportedWaiting, vehicleName, vehicleMake, reviewerDisplayName, operatorResponse (title/message/date), helpfulVotes, language
• photos[] — photoId, photoUrl, thumbnailUrl, thumbnailUrl2x, caption, createdAt, language
• createdAt, updatedAt
• recordType: "chargingStation", scrapedAt

Output per review (mode=reviews)

Same review fields as above, plus locationId, locationName, sourceUrl, stationId; recordType: "review".

Output per photo (mode=photos)

Same photo fields as above, plus locationId, locationName, sourceUrl; recordType: "photo".

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
mode	string	search	search / byId / reviews / photos
locationQuery	string	Los Angeles, CA	Place name to geocode (mode=search)
latitude / longitude	number	–	Exact search center; overrides locationQuery
radiusKm	integer	25	Search radius in km (mode=search)
stationIds	array	–	Numeric PlugShare location IDs, or full station URLs (mode=byId/reviews/photos)
connectorTypes	array (enum)	–	Filter by connector type(s)
networks	array (enum)	–	Filter by charging network(s) (curated common list)
minPowerKW / maxPowerKW	integer	–	Filter by fastest outlet's power
accessType	string (enum)	publicAndRestricted	Public / Public+Restricted / all (incl. private home)
freeOnly	boolean	false	Only stations with no published cost
availableNowOnly	boolean	false	Only stations with an outlet reported available now
minStationCount	integer	–	Minimum physical stations at the location
minPlugscore	integer	–	Minimum PlugScore (0-10)
minReviewCount	integer	–	Minimum community review count
amenities	array (enum)	–	Filter by nearby amenities
poiTypes	array (enum)	–	Filter by point-of-interest type
parkingAttributes	array (enum)	–	Filter by parking attributes
excludeAccessRestrictions	array (enum)	–	Exclude brand-restricted stations (e.g. Tesla-only)
includeReviews	boolean	true	Embed community reviews/check-ins in each station record
includePhotos	boolean	true	Embed user photos in each station record
maxReviewsPerStation	integer	10	Cap on embedded/emitted reviews per station
maxPhotosPerStation	integer	5	Cap on embedded/emitted photos per station
maxItems	integer	20	Hard cap on emitted records (1-500)

Example: fast chargers near a city, with community data

{
  "mode": "search",
  "locationQuery": "Austin, TX",
  "radiusKm": 20,
  "connectorTypes": ["ccs1", "nacsTesla"],
  "minPlugscore": 6,
  "maxItems": 30
}

Example: read the community reviews for specific stations

{
  "mode": "reviews",
  "stationIds": ["7057", "478737"],
  "maxItems": 50
}

Example: pull user-submitted photos for a station

{
  "mode": "photos",
  "stationIds": ["7057"]
}

Example: look up specific stations by ID

{
  "mode": "byId",
  "stationIds": ["7057", "478737"]
}

Use cases

• EV route planning tools — layer in real driver-confirmed availability, not just a static connector list
• Trust & reliability research — surface reported problems and operator responses per network or per location
• Fleet management — check current outlet status and recent check-ins before routing a vehicle to a charger
• Market research — compare community sentiment (PlugScore, review volume) across networks or regions
• Site selection — assess EV charging density and driver satisfaction around a property

Data source / limitations

This actor uses PlugShare's public v3 REST API (api.plugshare.com/v3) — the same backing API PlugShare's own web map at plugshare.com calls from every visitor's browser. It does not require a PlugShare account: the actor uses the same public client identity PlugShare's own web app ships to every anonymous visitor, so every user of this actor gets full public data access with zero configuration. Registering a PlugShare account only unlocks extra personal features (trip planning, saved vehicles); it is not required for any data this actor returns.

• Per-query cap: PlugShare's /locations/nearby endpoint returns at most 500 stations per search, which is why maxItems is capped at 500.
• Network filter is curated, not exhaustive. PlugShare tracks hundreds of distinct network records; the networks filter covers the most commonly searched ones. Every station's own networks output field is still returned regardless of whether it matches the filter.
• Geocoding: free-text locationQuery values are resolved to coordinates via the public OpenStreetMap Nominatim API (also keyless).
• Community data is only as complete as PlugShare's contributors. plugscore, totalReviews, reviews[], and photos[] are omitted for stations with no community activity yet — this reflects PlugShare's own data, not a scraping gap.
• Reviewer identity: only each reviewer's public PlugShare display name is included (the same name shown on plugshare.com itself); no private contact information is ever exposed by PlugShare's public API.

FAQ

Do I need a PlugShare account or API key? No. This actor works out of the box with no registration.

Can I search by coordinates instead of a place name? Yes — set latitude/longitude directly; they take priority over locationQuery.

Can I paste a PlugShare station URL instead of finding its numeric ID? Yes — stationIds accepts either the bare ID (7057) or the full URL (https://www.plugshare.com/location/7057).

What is PlugScore? PlugShare's own 0-10 community confidence rating for a station, derived from driver check-ins and reviews over time.

What does ratingLabel mean on a review? PlugShare unifies check-ins and reviews into one activity type: "Confirmed Working" (driver successfully charged), "Reported Problem" (driver could not charge, with a problemType), or "Comment" (a note with no charge attempt).

Why do some stations have no reviews or photos? PlugShare is crowd-sourced; not every station has received a community check-in, review, or photo yet. The fields are only included when they exist.

How fresh is the availability data? Each physical station's stations[].lastAvailabilityUpdate shows when the community last reported that station's outlet status.

Can I get just the reviews or just the photos without the full station record? Yes — use mode=reviews or mode=photos with stationIds.