# Local Business & POI Scraper — Map Places by Category (`hipersoft/overpass-poi-scraper`) Actor

Extract local businesses and places of interest by category and area: restaurants, shops, hotels, cafes, clinics and more. Get name, category, full address, phone, website, email, opening hours and GPS. Search a city/region by name or a bounding box. One row per place as JSON, CSV or Excel.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/hipersoft/overpass-poi-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [hiper soft](https://apify.com/hipersoft) (community)
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $0.0005 / place scraped

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

## Local Business & POI Scraper — Map Places by Category

Extract **local businesses and points of interest** anywhere in the world with the **Local Business & POI Scraper**. Pull **restaurants, shops, hotels, cafes, clinics, gyms, offices and dozens of other place types** by category and area, and export clean rows with **name, full address, phone, website, email, opening hours and GPS coordinates** as **JSON, CSV or Excel**.

Perfect for **lead generation, local market research, store-location planning, competitor mapping, sales prospecting and building business directories**, this scraper turns open map data into ready-to-use contact lists.

### What it does

- 📍 **Find places by category** — restaurants, cafes, bars, pharmacies, hospitals, dentists, banks, hotels, supermarkets, gyms, law offices, plumbers and many more.
- 🗺️ **Search any area** — enter a city, town or region by name (e.g. `Palo Alto`, `Manhattan`, `Berlin`), or give a precise bounding box.
- ☎️ **Contact details** — capture phone, website and email where available, plus full street address and postcode.
- 🕑 **Extra attributes** — opening hours, brand, cuisine and GPS latitude/longitude.
- 🧩 **Custom tags (advanced)** — target any map category with your own `key=value` tags (e.g. `shop=butcher`, `cuisine=pizza`).
- 📤 **Export anywhere** — JSON, CSV or Excel, or straight into Google Sheets, a CRM or your database.

### Example output

```json
{
  "osmId": "node/123456789",
  "name": "Rara",
  "category": "amenity=restaurant",
  "cuisine": "nepalese",
  "address": "201 South California Avenue, Palo Alto, 94306",
  "phone": "+1 650 485 1055",
  "website": "https://example-restaurant.com",
  "email": null,
  "openingHours": "Mo-Su 11:30-21:30",
  "latitude": 37.4282105,
  "longitude": -122.1442
}
```

### How to use it

1. Choose a **category** — e.g. **Restaurants**, **Hotels** or **Dentists** — or add a **custom tag** for anything else.
2. Enter an **area name** (a city or region) or a **bounding box** for a precise area.
3. Set **Max places** and run. Download the results as **JSON, CSV or Excel**.

**Tip:** use a recognised administrative area name (city, borough or region). For very large cities, a bounding box gives you tighter control over the area covered.

### Input fields

| Field | Description |
|-------|-------------|
| **Category** | A common place type (restaurants, shops, hotels, clinics…), or blank to use a custom tag. |
| **Custom OSM tags** | Advanced — your own `key=value` map tags, ANDed with the category. |
| **Area name** | City, town or region — e.g. `Palo Alto`, `Berlin`. |
| **Bounding box** | Optional precise area as `south,west,north,east`; overrides the area name. |
| **Max places** | Maximum number of places to collect. |

### Output fields

`osmId`, `osmType`, `name`, `category`, `cuisine`, `brand`, `address`, `street`, `houseNumber`, `city`, `postcode`, `country`, `phone`, `website`, `email`, `openingHours`, `latitude`, `longitude`.

### Popular use cases

- **Lead generation** — build targeted lists of businesses by type and city with phone and website.
- **Sales prospecting** — find every dentist, gym or law office in a territory.
- **Local market research** — map how many competitors of a type operate in an area.
- **Store-location & expansion planning** — analyse the density of a category across neighbourhoods.
- **Directory building** — assemble a categorised business directory for a city.
- **Data enrichment** — add addresses, phones and coordinates to an existing list.

### FAQ

**Do I need an account or key?**
No. Choose a category and area and run — everything needed is built in.

**Which places and countries are covered?**
Places worldwide across dozens of categories — anywhere covered by open map data, which is very broad in cities and towns globally.

**Why do some places have no phone or website?**
Contact details come from open map data and are not filled in for every place. Every result still includes its name, category and location, with phone, website and email included wherever they exist.

**How do I target a category that isn't in the list?**
Use the Custom OSM tags field with a `key=value` pair — for example `shop=butcher` or `office=insurance`.

**Can I export to Excel or Google Sheets?**
Yes — results download as JSON, CSV or Excel and integrate with Sheets, CRMs and databases.

***

Structured **local business and POI data** — by category and area, with address, phone, website and GPS — exported clean and ready for outreach.

# Actor input Schema

## `category` (type: `string`):

Type of place to find. Pick a common category, or leave blank and use a custom tag below.

## `customTags` (type: `array`):

Advanced: add your own map tags as key=value (e.g. 'shop=butcher', 'cuisine=pizza') or just a key ('healthcare'). Combined with the category as an AND filter.

## `areaName` (type: `string`):

City, town or region to search — e.g. 'Palo Alto', 'Manhattan', 'Berlin'. Use an official administrative area name. Leave blank if using a bounding box.

## `boundingBox` (type: `string`):

Optional precise area as south,west,north,east latitude/longitude — e.g. '37.40,-122.17,37.46,-122.10'. Overrides the area name when set.

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

Maximum number of places to collect.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "category": "amenity=restaurant",
  "customTags": [],
  "areaName": "Palo Alto",
  "maxItems": 1000
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

The results as dataset items.

# 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 = {
    "customTags": [],
    "areaName": "Palo Alto"
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("hipersoft/overpass-poi-scraper").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 = {
    "customTags": [],
    "areaName": "Palo Alto",
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("hipersoft/overpass-poi-scraper").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 '{
  "customTags": [],
  "areaName": "Palo Alto"
}' |
apify call hipersoft/overpass-poi-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,hipersoft/overpass-poi-scraper"
        }
    }
}
```

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/Zsm9qJueMAOMEOeG4/builds/TwnP0MZQbyKi8crmb/openapi.json