# RSS Feed Reader API — Parse RSS, Atom & JSON Feeds (`fetchbase/rss-feed-reader`) Actor

Parse any RSS, Atom or JSON feed into clean, normalized items with one schema — title, link, author, date, categories, media enclosures, and content as HTML, Markdown or text. Auto-detects format. Incremental polling via sinceDate. Charged per feed — no startup fee.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/fetchbase/rss-feed-reader.md
- **Developed by:** [Fetchbase](https://apify.com/fetchbase) (community)
- **Categories:** Automation, Developer tools, AI
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 0 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $3.00 / 1,000 feed parseds

This Actor is paid per event and usage. You are charged both the fixed price for specific events and for Apify platform usage.

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

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are a software tools running on the Apify platform, for all kinds of web data extraction and automation use cases.
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.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## 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.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

In JavaScript/TypeScript projects, use official [JavaScript/TypeScript client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md):

```bash
npm install apify-client
```

In Python projects, use official [Python client library](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md):

```bash
pip install apify-client
```

In shell scripts, use [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md):

````bash
# MacOS / Linux
curl -fsSL https://apify.com/install-cli.sh | bash
# Windows
irm https://apify.com/install-cli.ps1 | iex
```bash

In AI frameworks, you might use the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md).

If your project is in a different language, use the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).


# README

## RSS, Atom & JSON Feed Reader — Normalized Feed Parser

Turn any **RSS, Atom, RDF, or JSON feed** into clean, **normalized JSON items**
— one consistent schema no matter the feed format. Content comes back as
**Markdown, HTML, or plain text**, your choice.

**Charged per feed.** All the items in a feed are included. No startup fee;
failed feeds cost $0.

### Quick start

```json
{
  "feedUrls": ["https://news.ycombinator.com/rss", "https://www.theverge.com/rss/index.xml"]
}
````

→ one row per item, same shape for every feed:

```json
{
  "feedTitle": "The Verge",
  "title": "…",
  "link": "https://www.theverge.com/…",
  "author": "…",
  "publishedAt": "2026-07-11T14:03:00.000Z",
  "summary": "Short plain-text summary…",
  "categories": ["Tech", "AI"],
  "guid": "…",
  "media": { "url": "https://…/image.jpg", "type": "image/jpeg" },
  "content": "## Full article content as clean Markdown…"
}
```

### Features

| | |
|---|---|
| **Any format** | RSS 2.0, RSS 1.0 (RDF), Atom, and JSON Feed — auto-detected |
| **One schema** | Same normalized fields across every feed you pass |
| **Content your way** | `markdown` (LLM-ready), `html` (as published), `text`, or `none` (summary only) |
| **Incremental polling** | `sinceDate` returns only items published on/after a date — perfect for schedules |
| **Media** | Enclosures / attachments (podcast audio, images) surfaced as `media` |
| **Bulk** | Pass many feeds in one run |

### Use cases

- **News & content monitoring:** watch dozens of sources; poll on a **Schedule**
  with `sinceDate` to get only what's new.
- **Aggregators & newsletters:** one normalized stream from many feeds.
- **AI agents & RAG:** Markdown content ready to summarize or embed.
- **Podcast tooling:** episode lists with audio enclosures.

```bash
curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/fetchbase~rss-feed-reader/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"feedUrls": ["https://hnrss.org/frontpage"], "contentFormat": "markdown"}'
```

### Pricing

A small fixed price **per feed processed** (all its items included), plus minimal
Apify platform usage — no browser, so it's fast and cheap. Failed feeds aren't
billed.

### FAQ

**Is this responsible to run?** Yes — feeds are published specifically so readers
and aggregators consume them. This is the intended use; no scraping, no personal
data.

**Item content is empty for some feeds?** Many feeds only publish a summary, not
full content. Set `contentFormat` accordingly, or the `summary` field always has
the short version.

***

Need OPML import, deduplication across feeds, or full-text fetching of
summary-only items? **Open an issue.** A ⭐ review helps others find it.

### More tools by Fetchbase

Part of a suite of fast, no-nonsense web utilities — all pay-per-result, charged only on success, no startup fee:

- [Website Screenshot API](https://apify.com/fetchbase/web-screenshot-pro) — full-page PNG / JPEG / WebP / PDF
- [Website to Markdown](https://apify.com/fetchbase/website-to-markdown) — clean Markdown for LLMs & RAG
- [PDF & DOCX to Markdown](https://apify.com/fetchbase/document-to-markdown) — documents → Markdown for RAG
- [SEO Audit + Core Web Vitals](https://apify.com/fetchbase/website-seo-audit) — scored on-page audit with fixes
- [Website Performance Audit](https://apify.com/fetchbase/website-performance-audit) — bulk Core Web Vitals & page speed
- [Tech Stack Detector](https://apify.com/fetchbase/tech-stack-detector) — CMS, frameworks, analytics, hosting
- [Domain, DNS & WHOIS Lookup](https://apify.com/fetchbase/domain-dns-intelligence) — records, registration, SSL
- [RSS Feed Reader](https://apify.com/fetchbase/rss-feed-reader) — RSS / Atom / JSON → normalized JSON
- [Job Postings API](https://apify.com/fetchbase/job-postings-scraper) — Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby & more

### Use with AI agents (MCP)

This Actor is callable by AI agents through the [Apify MCP server](https://mcp.apify.com/). Agents in Claude, Cursor, Windsurf, LangGraph, CrewAI and others can discover it via `search-actors` and run it as a tool — its inputs and outputs are fully described in the schema for reliable agent use.

# Actor input Schema

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

URLs of RSS, Atom or JSON feeds. Each feed is one billable event; its items become dataset rows.

## `maxItemsPerFeed` (type: `integer`):

Cap the number of items returned per feed (most recent first as published by the feed).

## `contentFormat` (type: `string`):

How to return each item's full content: markdown (clean, for LLMs), html (as published), or text (stripped). Set to 'none' to omit full content and keep only the short summary.

## `sinceDate` (type: `string`):

Optional. Only return items published on or after this date, e.g. 2026-01-01. Great for incremental polling on a schedule.

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

Max time to download each feed.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "feedUrls": [
    "https://news.ycombinator.com/rss",
    "https://www.theverge.com/rss/index.xml"
  ],
  "maxItemsPerFeed": 100,
  "contentFormat": "markdown",
  "timeoutSecs": 30
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (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 = {
    "feedUrls": [
        "https://hnrss.org/frontpage"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("fetchbase/rss-feed-reader").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 = { "feedUrls": ["https://hnrss.org/frontpage"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("fetchbase/rss-feed-reader").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"])
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "feedUrls": [
    "https://hnrss.org/frontpage"
  ]
}' |
apify call fetchbase/rss-feed-reader --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetchbase/rss-feed-reader",
                "--header",
                "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

```

## OpenAPI specification

```json
{
    "openapi": "3.0.1",
    "info": {
        "title": "RSS Feed Reader API — Parse RSS, Atom & JSON Feeds",
        "description": "Parse any RSS, Atom or JSON feed into clean, normalized items with one schema — title, link, author, date, categories, media enclosures, and content as HTML, Markdown or text. Auto-detects format. Incremental polling via sinceDate. Charged per feed — no startup fee.",
        "version": "0.1",
        "x-build-id": "EmPYXJOSCjjGDW7oR"
    },
    "servers": [
        {
            "url": "https://api.apify.com/v2"
        }
    ],
    "paths": {
        "/acts/fetchbase~rss-feed-reader/run-sync-get-dataset-items": {
            "post": {
                "operationId": "run-sync-get-dataset-items-fetchbase-rss-feed-reader",
                "x-openai-isConsequential": false,
                "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for its completion, and returns Actor's dataset items in response.",
                "tags": [
                    "Run Actor"
                ],
                "requestBody": {
                    "required": true,
                    "content": {
                        "application/json": {
                            "schema": {
                                "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                },
                "parameters": [
                    {
                        "name": "token",
                        "in": "query",
                        "required": true,
                        "schema": {
                            "type": "string"
                        },
                        "description": "Enter your Apify token here"
                    }
                ],
                "responses": {
                    "200": {
                        "description": "OK"
                    }
                }
            }
        },
        "/acts/fetchbase~rss-feed-reader/runs": {
            "post": {
                "operationId": "runs-sync-fetchbase-rss-feed-reader",
                "x-openai-isConsequential": false,
                "summary": "Executes an Actor and returns information about the initiated run in response.",
                "tags": [
                    "Run Actor"
                ],
                "requestBody": {
                    "required": true,
                    "content": {
                        "application/json": {
                            "schema": {
                                "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                },
                "parameters": [
                    {
                        "name": "token",
                        "in": "query",
                        "required": true,
                        "schema": {
                            "type": "string"
                        },
                        "description": "Enter your Apify token here"
                    }
                ],
                "responses": {
                    "200": {
                        "description": "OK",
                        "content": {
                            "application/json": {
                                "schema": {
                                    "$ref": "#/components/schemas/runsResponseSchema"
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        },
        "/acts/fetchbase~rss-feed-reader/run-sync": {
            "post": {
                "operationId": "run-sync-fetchbase-rss-feed-reader",
                "x-openai-isConsequential": false,
                "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for completion, and returns the OUTPUT from Key-value store in response.",
                "tags": [
                    "Run Actor"
                ],
                "requestBody": {
                    "required": true,
                    "content": {
                        "application/json": {
                            "schema": {
                                "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                },
                "parameters": [
                    {
                        "name": "token",
                        "in": "query",
                        "required": true,
                        "schema": {
                            "type": "string"
                        },
                        "description": "Enter your Apify token here"
                    }
                ],
                "responses": {
                    "200": {
                        "description": "OK"
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    },
    "components": {
        "schemas": {
            "inputSchema": {
                "type": "object",
                "required": [
                    "feedUrls"
                ],
                "properties": {
                    "feedUrls": {
                        "title": "Feed URLs",
                        "type": "array",
                        "description": "URLs of RSS, Atom or JSON feeds. Each feed is one billable event; its items become dataset rows.",
                        "items": {
                            "type": "string"
                        }
                    },
                    "maxItemsPerFeed": {
                        "title": "Max items per feed",
                        "minimum": 1,
                        "maximum": 1000,
                        "type": "integer",
                        "description": "Cap the number of items returned per feed (most recent first as published by the feed).",
                        "default": 100
                    },
                    "contentFormat": {
                        "title": "Content format",
                        "enum": [
                            "markdown",
                            "html",
                            "text",
                            "none"
                        ],
                        "type": "string",
                        "description": "How to return each item's full content: markdown (clean, for LLMs), html (as published), or text (stripped). Set to 'none' to omit full content and keep only the short summary.",
                        "default": "markdown"
                    },
                    "sinceDate": {
                        "title": "Only items published since (ISO date)",
                        "type": "string",
                        "description": "Optional. Only return items published on or after this date, e.g. 2026-01-01. Great for incremental polling on a schedule."
                    },
                    "timeoutSecs": {
                        "title": "Timeout per feed (seconds)",
                        "minimum": 5,
                        "maximum": 120,
                        "type": "integer",
                        "description": "Max time to download each feed.",
                        "default": 30
                    }
                }
            },
            "runsResponseSchema": {
                "type": "object",
                "properties": {
                    "data": {
                        "type": "object",
                        "properties": {
                            "id": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "actId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "userId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "startedAt": {
                                "type": "string",
                                "format": "date-time",
                                "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z"
                            },
                            "finishedAt": {
                                "type": "string",
                                "format": "date-time",
                                "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z"
                            },
                            "status": {
                                "type": "string",
                                "example": "READY"
                            },
                            "meta": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "origin": {
                                        "type": "string",
                                        "example": "API"
                                    },
                                    "userAgent": {
                                        "type": "string"
                                    }
                                }
                            },
                            "stats": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "inputBodyLen": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 2000
                                    },
                                    "rebootCount": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "restartCount": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "resurrectCount": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "computeUnits": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    }
                                }
                            },
                            "options": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "build": {
                                        "type": "string",
                                        "example": "latest"
                                    },
                                    "timeoutSecs": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 300
                                    },
                                    "memoryMbytes": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 1024
                                    },
                                    "diskMbytes": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 2048
                                    }
                                }
                            },
                            "buildId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "defaultKeyValueStoreId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "defaultDatasetId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "defaultRequestQueueId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "buildNumber": {
                                "type": "string",
                                "example": "1.0.0"
                            },
                            "containerUrl": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "usage": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATASET_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATASET_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 1
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "PROXY_SERPS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    }
                                }
                            },
                            "usageTotalUsd": {
                                "type": "number",
                                "example": 0.00005
                            },
                            "usageUsd": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATASET_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATASET_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "number",
                                        "example": 0.00005
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "PROXY_SERPS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    }
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
}
```