# BBC News Articles Scraper (`daftvader/bbc-news-articles-scraper-ef92007a-743b-5ca8-a7f5-be4872406a04`) Actor

Collect complete, structured articles from current BBC News RSS inventory.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/daftvader/bbc-news-articles-scraper-ef92007a-743b-5ca8-a7f5-be4872406a04.md
- **Developed by:** [Sam Towers](https://apify.com/daftvader) (community)
- **Security:** Limited permissions
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$0.10 / 1,000 apify-default-dataset-items

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

## BBC News Articles Scraper

Collect current BBC News stories as complete, structured article records ready for monitoring, research, analysis, or downstream data workflows. Each saved result includes the article text together with its canonical URL and available publication metadata.

### What you can use it for

- Track current reporting across BBC News sections.
- Build a structured news dataset for research or text analysis.
- Feed article content and metadata into alerts, dashboards, or other Apify integrations.
- Collect a small, bounded set of recent stories on a schedule.

The Actor discovers stories from BBC RSS feeds, removes duplicate article URLs, fetches the linked BBC pages, and saves only complete validated articles. It covers the current inventory exposed by the selected feeds; it is not a historical archive or arbitrary BBC search tool.

### Input

For a quick run, set only `maxItems`. The default feeds cover BBC News, World, Business, Technology, Science and Environment, and Entertainment and Arts.

```json
{
  "maxItems": 5,
  "maxBillableResults": 5,
  "requestTimeoutSecs": 15,
  "maxRetries": 2,
  "maxTransferBytes": 5242880
}
```

| Field | Meaning | Limits |
|---|---|---|
| `feedUrls` | Optional BBC RSS feeds; built-in feeds are used when omitted | 1–20 HTTPS URLs on `feeds.bbci.co.uk` |
| `maxItems` | Maximum complete unique articles saved | 1–1,000; default 100 |
| `maxBillableResults` | Optional additional saved-result and charge cap | 1–1,000 |
| `requestTimeoutSecs` | Timeout for each request | 1–30; default 15 |
| `maxRetries` | Retries after a failed request | 0–3; default 2 |
| `maxTransferBytes` | Overall compressed download budget | 1–50 MiB; default 25 MiB |

The Actor also respects the run's Apify spending limit. The effective result limit is the lowest of `maxItems`, `maxBillableResults` when supplied, and the number of results allowed by that spending limit.

### Output

Results are written to the run's default dataset, one record per complete unique article:

```json
{
  "url": "https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/example",
  "title": "Example BBC headline",
  "description": "Article summary",
  "publishedAt": "2026-08-27T12:00:00Z",
  "modifiedAt": "2026-08-27T13:00:00Z",
  "authors": ["BBC News"],
  "section": "World",
  "content": "The complete extracted article text...",
  "language": "en-GB",
  "imageUrl": "https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/example.jpg"
}
```

Unavailable optional metadata is returned as an empty value or `null`. Pages missing the required URL, title, publication time, or sufficiently complete article text are omitted.

### Pricing and result limits

The Actor uses Pay Per Event pricing at **USD 0.0018 per successfully saved article** (USD 1.80 per 1,000 results). A result is charged only when a complete, validated, non-duplicate article has been successfully written to the default dataset. Failed requests or writes, duplicates, skipped pages, and partial or invalid articles are not charged.

Use `maxItems`, `maxBillableResults`, and the Apify run spending limit to bound the number of paid results. Runtime platform usage is not passed through as a separate customer charge.

### Data and operational notes

- The Actor uses public BBC RSS feeds and linked BBC article pages.
- BBC feed inventory and page markup can change, so available counts and optional metadata vary by run.
- Requests run sequentially to keep resource usage bounded.
- URL allowlists, retry limits, timeouts, and transfer limits are enforced for every run.

# Actor input Schema

## `feedUrls` (type: `array`):

One to 20 public HTTPS RSS feeds hosted on feeds.bbci.co.uk. Leave empty to use the built-in News, World, Business, Technology, Science, and Entertainment feeds.

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

Maximum number of complete unique article records to save.

## `maxBillableResults` (type: `integer`):

Optional additional cap on successfully saved article results. The run spending limit can reduce this further.

## `requestTimeoutSecs` (type: `integer`):

Timeout for each BBC feed or article request.

## `maxRetries` (type: `integer`):

Retry attempts after a failed request.

## `maxTransferBytes` (type: `integer`):

Overall compressed download limit for the run.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "maxItems": 5,
  "maxBillableResults": 5,
  "requestTimeoutSecs": 15,
  "maxRetries": 2,
  "maxTransferBytes": 5242880
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `articles` (type: `string`):

URL of the run's default dataset containing structured BBC News articles.

# 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 = {
    "maxItems": 5,
    "maxBillableResults": 5,
    "requestTimeoutSecs": 15,
    "maxRetries": 2,
    "maxTransferBytes": 5242880
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("daftvader/bbc-news-articles-scraper-ef92007a-743b-5ca8-a7f5-be4872406a04").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 = {
    "maxItems": 5,
    "maxBillableResults": 5,
    "requestTimeoutSecs": 15,
    "maxRetries": 2,
    "maxTransferBytes": 5242880,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("daftvader/bbc-news-articles-scraper-ef92007a-743b-5ca8-a7f5-be4872406a04").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 '{
  "maxItems": 5,
  "maxBillableResults": 5,
  "requestTimeoutSecs": 15,
  "maxRetries": 2,
  "maxTransferBytes": 5242880
}' |
apify call daftvader/bbc-news-articles-scraper-ef92007a-743b-5ca8-a7f5-be4872406a04 --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,daftvader/bbc-news-articles-scraper-ef92007a-743b-5ca8-a7f5-be4872406a04"
        }
    }
}
```

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/qF70NwitqQlNuD9Jo/builds/DtQ57wz30bUtSTNkF/openapi.json