Google Play API

The Google Play API turns the Android app store into clean, structured JSON. Search apps by keyword, pull the full listing for any app including version, permissions and data safety disclosures, and read user reviews.

Built for app store optimisation, competitor tracking, market research and AI agents that need Play Store data on demand. If you came looking for a Google Play scraper, this is that, with a documented schema and pay-per-result billing instead of a brittle script.

The cross-platform story

Most app intelligence stops at one platform, which is exactly where it stops being useful. Pair this with the Apple App Store Actors and you can answer the questions that need both halves: is a competitor shipping faster on iOS than Android, is a rating gap platform specific or product wide, does the same app carry different permissions in each store.

Use cases

• Release cadence tracking. Store version and updatedOn on a schedule and you can see how fast a competitor ships, and spot an abandoned app by a stale update date.
• Monetisation research. Detail rows expose containsAds, hasInAppPurchases and the in-app purchase price range, which is how an app actually makes money.
• Privacy and compliance auditing. dataSafety returns the developer's own declared data collection and sharing practices, useful for vetting apps before recommending them.
• App store optimisation. Search returns ranked results with position, so you can track where an app sits for a keyword over time.
• Review mining. Pull user reviews with helpful-vote counts for sentiment and theme analysis.
• Cross-platform comparison. Run this against the Apple App Store Actors to compare the same app on both stores, which is the question neither half answers alone.

Input parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
search_mode	string	yes	search	search finds apps by keyword, product returns one listing in full, reviews returns user reviews.
query	string	in search mode	fitness	Keyword to search the Google Play store for. Ignored in the other modes.
product_id	string	in product and reviews modes	none	Android package name, such as com.spotify.music. Every search row returns it, or read it off a store URL after id=.
max_results	integer	no	100	Rows to return, 1 to 2000. Search and reviews return 20 per request and page automatically. Product mode always returns exactly one row.
country	string	no	us	Two letter country code. Availability, pricing and rankings genuinely differ by country.
language	string	no	en	Two letter language code, controlling description and review language.

Example output

A detail row, which carries the fields that make the mode worth its higher price:

{
  "resultType": "appDetail",
  "productId": "homeworkout.homeworkouts.noequipment",
  "title": "Home Workout - No Equipment",
  "developer": "Leap Fitness Group",
  "rating": 4.9,
  "downloads": "100,000,000+",
  "contentRating": "Everyone",
  "price": "Install",
  "containsAds": true,
  "hasInAppPurchases": true,
  "version": "1.3.7",
  "requiresAndroid": "7.0 and up",
  "releasedOn": "Nov 8, 2017",
  "updatedOn": "Jul 16, 2026",
  "inAppPurchases": "$0.99 - $59.99 per item",
  "dataSafety": ["No data shared with third parties"],
  "developerWebsite": "https://www.example.com"
}

Search rows carry position, the rank in the returned order, which is what ASO position tracking needs. Failures arrive as one resultType: "error" row rather than a crash.

Three modes, one Actor

Mode	What it returns	What it needs
Search	Apps matching a keyword, with each package name	a query
Product	Full listing detail for one app	the package name
Reviews	User reviews for one app	the package name

Every search result row hands you the productId (the Android package name), so the chain to detail or reviews is self contained. You can also read it straight off any Play Store URL, after the id= parameter.

What the Google Play scraper returns

Apps

Field	Description
title	App name
developer	Publisher, useful for pulling a whole portfolio
category	Store category
rating	Average stars out of 5
downloads	Install band as the store reports it
position	Search rank, starting at 1
productId	Android package name

App detail adds the fields that matter for real competitive work:

Field	Why it matters
version	Track release cadence over time
updatedOn	A stale date is a strong abandonment signal
releasedOn	How long the app has been in market
requiresAndroid	Minimum supported Android version
inAppPurchases	Monetisation range
containsAds	Whether the listing declares advertising
hasInAppPurchases	Whether the listing declares in-app purchases
dataSafety	Declared data collection and sharing practices
ratingBreakdown	Star-by-star distribution, not just the average
developerWebsite, developerEmail, developerPrivacyPolicy	Publisher contact block

Reviews

Field	Description
title / snippet	Review headline and full text
rating	Reviewer's stars out of 5
likes	How many users found it helpful
reviewDate	When it was posted
reviewId	Stable id for deduplicating scheduled runs

How to get started

1. Run search mode with a keyword. Every row gives you the productId.
2. Switch to product mode for the full listing, or reviews mode for user feedback.
3. Paste the package name into the App package name field and run.

View on Apify Store

Prefer to start from working code? The example repo has a Python quick start plus MCP install walkthroughs for Claude, Cursor and ChatGPT.

Pricing

Pay per result. Search and reviews are priced low because one upstream request returns 20 rows. Detail lookups cost more because each one is a single request returning a single, much richer row.

Event	When it is charged
App returned	Once per app row in search mode
App detail returned	Once per detail lookup
Review returned	Once per user review

Current per-unit prices are on the Actor's Store card and in the Console before you run.

🔌 Use this API from Claude (MCP)

Add this Actor as a tool in Claude Code (free trial), Claude Cowork (free trial), or any other MCP client, via the hosted Apify MCP server. Use this Actor-specific URL:

https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=actors,docs,johnvc/google-play-api

Setup walkthrough:

Apify MCP integration docs: https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/mcp

💸 Pay per run with crypto (x402)

The Google Play API supports agentic payments via the x402 protocol. AI agents and MCP clients can pay for runs in USDC (on Base) with no Apify account or API token needed: point your agent at the Apify MCP server and it can discover, pay for, and run this Actor autonomously. Read the Apify x402 announcement for details.

🔌 Integrations: track app changes on a schedule

Tasks and Schedules first. Save a product lookup as a Task and attach a Schedule. A weekly check on a competitor's version and updatedOn turns this from a snapshot into a release timeline, and it needs no code.

n8n, Make and Zapier. Trigger the Actor and route rows onward: a competitor version bump into Slack, a rating drop into a dashboard, or new reviews into a sentiment step.

Storage. Write into Supabase, Postgres or Google Sheets through the Apify integrations tab so version and rating history accumulates.

MCP. Point an AI assistant at the Actor and let it pull live app data mid-conversation. Server URL is in the MCP section above.

Webhooks. Fire an HTTP callback when a run finishes so your service can collect the dataset without polling.

🔗 Related Tools

Run these alongside for the full cross-platform picture:

• Apple App Store Search is the iOS half of the same question
• Apple App Store Product for iOS listing detail
• Apple App Store Reviews for iOS user reviews
• Google Autocomplete API for keyword discovery before you search

Alternatives such as scrapesage/google-play-scraper exist, but it sits at around 7 users with no published rating. This API returns the version, update date, monetisation flags and data-safety declarations that make release and privacy tracking possible, rather than listing fields alone.

FAQ

Where do I find an app's package name?

Two ways. Run search mode and copy the productId from any row, or open the app's Play Store page and take everything after id= in the URL. For example https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.spotify.music gives you com.spotify.music.

Can I track an app's release cadence?

Yes, and it is one of the better uses for this. Run product mode on a schedule and store version and updatedOn. The gap between updates tells you how actively a competitor is shipping, and a long-stale updatedOn usually means the app has been abandoned.

Why is the download count a range instead of a number?

Because that is all the Play Store publishes. Google reports install bands like "100,000,000+" rather than exact figures. Any tool claiming an exact Play Store install count is estimating.

Can I compare an app across Android and iOS?

That is the point of pairing this with the Apple App Store Actors listed above. Pull the same app from both, then compare ratings, version cadence, and declared data practices side by side.

What is the data safety field?

Google requires developers to declare what data their app collects and shares. Those declarations come back in dataSafety on detail rows, which is useful for privacy audits and for vetting apps before recommending them.

Is this a Google Play API or a web scraper?

You use it as an API: structured JSON in, structured JSON out, with a documented schema and pay-per-result billing. It reads public Google Play listing pages, so it is not an official product and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Google.

Can I use this Google Play scraper for bulk review exports?

Yes. Reviews return 20 per request and the Actor pages automatically to your max_results. Billing is per result, so an export costs in proportion to what you receive. For recurring pulls, pair a Task with a Schedule as described in the Integrations section.

How do I call this from an AI agent using MCP?

Point any Model Context Protocol client at the server URL in the MCP section above. The agent reads the input schema itself and can look up an app during a conversation.

How do I run this on a schedule?

Save the configuration as a Task and attach a Schedule. The Integrations section above covers the downstream options.

What other tools work well alongside this one?

See Related Tools above. The Apple App Store Actors are the natural pairing: same question, other platform, and comparing the two is where most of the value sits.

Does it work outside the United States?

Yes. Set the country and language codes in the input. The Play Store genuinely varies by country: availability, pricing and rankings all differ, so set the country to the market you actually care about.

Agent Skills

Ready-made skills for Claude Code (free trial) and other agents that drive this Actor. Install with npx skills add johnisanerd/<name>.

• claude-skill-google-play-scraper: apps, listings and reviews as structured JSON
• claude-skill-play-store-rankings: ASO keyword rank tracking per storefront

Featured Tasks

Ready-to-run examples on the Apify Store.

• App Version History on Google Play, Tracked
• Google Play Reviews Exporter to CSV and JSON
• Scrape Google Play Reviews and App Data
• Audit Google Play Data Safety Declarations
• Google Play App Data in Claude via MCP

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🌐 About Alpha OSINT

This Actor is part of Alpha OSINT, toolset of financial and operations data sources and APIs. For support or requests for this actor, please start a ticket directly on our support page.

Last Updated: 2026.08.06