# Google Play App Monitor & Scraper - Ratings, Installs & Updates (`lukehunter/google-play-scraper`) Actor

Scrape Google Play app details or monitor known app IDs for rating, ratings-count, install-band, update, price and developer-contact changes. Stateful scheduled runs emit only changes plus a free run summary.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/lukehunter/google-play-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Luke Hunter](https://apify.com/lukehunter) (community)
- **Categories:** Developer tools, Marketing
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$1.00 / 1,000 apps

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

## Google Play App Monitor & Scraper — Ratings, Installs & Updates

**For ASO teams, competitor-monitoring and app-market researchers who need a current app snapshot or compact change alerts.** Normal mode returns one rich row per known app ID. Turn on `onlyChangesSinceLastRun` to persist a baseline across scheduled runs and emit only rating, ratings-count, install-band, update, price and developer-contact changes.

Pay-per-result: **$0.001 per app — 1,000 apps = $1.**
Try it free with Apify's monthly platform credit.

### Quick start (2 minutes)

1. Find an app on Google Play and copy its package id from the URL (e.g. `com.spotify.music` from
   `https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.spotify.music`), or just paste the whole URL.
2. Open the **Input** tab and use this prefill (swap in your own apps):

```json
{
  "appIds": ["com.spotify.music"],
  "maxItems": 5
}
```

3. Click **Start**. Export the resulting dataset to CSV/Excel/JSON, or pull it through the API
   shown below.

### Use cases

- **ASO teams** tracking rating, install bucket and content rating for competitor apps over time.
- **Competitor and market researchers** building a comparison sheet across many apps in a category.
- **Business-development teams** collecting a developer's public contact info (email/website/
  address, when Google publishes it) for outreach or partnership research.
- **Pricing researchers** tracking free/paid status, price and in-app purchase price ranges across
  a set of apps.

### Monitor changes on a schedule + webhook

Monitor mode turns repeated snapshots into a compact event stream. The first run for each app/language/country watch saves a baseline and emits no billable changes. Later runs emit:

- `rating_changed` when the absolute score delta reaches `ratingChangeThreshold` (default `0.05`)
- `ratings_count_changed`
- `installs_band_changed`
- `updated` when Google's published `updated` date or `recentChanges` text changes
- `price_changed`
- `developer_contact_changed`

Every monitor run also writes one free `run_summary` row.

Example scheduled input:

```json
{
  "appIds": ["com.spotify.music", "com.whatsapp"],
  "language": "en",
  "country": "US",
  "onlyChangesSinceLastRun": true,
  "ratingChangeThreshold": 0.05,
  "stateStoreName": "competitor-app-watch",
  "maxItems": 100
}
```

A concrete recipe:

1. Run that input once to establish baselines.
2. In **Apify Console → Schedules**, run it daily at 09:00 (or your preferred cadence) with the same `stateStoreName`.
3. In **Integrations → Webhooks**, add an **Actor run succeeded** webhook to your endpoint or automation tool.
4. Have the receiver read the run's default dataset and route rows where `eventType != "run_summary"` to Slack/email/a database. Those are the change rows; the summary is diagnostic and free.

Example change row:

```json
{
  "eventType": "rating_changed",
  "appId": "com.spotify.music",
  "title": "Spotify: Music and Podcasts",
  "previousScore": 4.28,
  "currentScore": 4.35,
  "scoreDelta": 0.07,
  "ratingChangeThreshold": 0.05,
  "observedAt": "2026-09-28T09:00:00.000Z"
}
```

### Input

```json
{
  "appIds": ["com.spotify.music"],
  "maxItems": 50,
  "language": "en",
  "country": "US"
}
```

| Field | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---:|---|
| `appIds` | string\[] | required | 1–500 Android package ids or Play Store details URLs |
| `maxItems` | integer | 50 | 1–5000. Hard cap on apps delivered across the whole run |
| `language` | string | `en` | Play Store UI language code (`hl`), e.g. `de`, `es` |
| `country` | string | `US` | 2-letter Play Store country code (`gl`), affects price/currency |
| `onlyChangesSinceLastRun` | boolean | `false` | Opt-in stateful monitoring. First run saves a baseline; later runs emit only change events. |
| `stateStoreName` | string | `google-play-scraper-state` | Named cross-run state store used only in monitor mode. Reuse it for the same watch. |
| `ratingChangeThreshold` | number | `0.05` | Monitor mode: minimum absolute score delta for `rating_changed`. |

For most users, the only setting that matters is **App ids**.

#### Why there's no keyword search

`https://play.google.com/robots.txt` disallows `/store/search` outright — verified against the
live file, with no wildcard exception for a query string. This Actor honours robots.txt on every
request, so it does not perform Play Store keyword search at all: `searchTerms` is accepted in the
input schema for forward compatibility but any non-empty value fails the run with an explanation.
Find the package id for the app you want in your own browser (it's the `id=` value in the details
URL) and pass that instead.

### Google Play app data fields

| Category | Fields |
|---|---|
| Identity | `appId`, `url`, `title` |
| Developer | `developer`, `developerId`, `developerEmail`, `developerWebsite`, `developerAddress` |
| Classification | `category`, `genreId`, `contentRating` |
| Pricing | `price`, `currency`, `free`, `containsAds`, `offersIAP`, `iapPriceRange` |
| Popularity | `installsText`, `minInstalls`, `realInstalls` |
| Ratings | `score`, `ratingsCount`, `reviewsCount`, `histogram` |
| Dates | `released`, `updated` |
| Content | `summary`, `descriptionText`, `recentChanges` |
| Media | `icon`, `screenshots`, `video` |
| Compatibility | `version`, `androidVersion` (usually null — see Limitations) |
| Freshness | `scrapedAt`, `language`, `country` |

Missing values are returned as `null`. The Actor does not invent missing app data.

### Google Play output example

Real output for `com.spotify.music` (trimmed — `descriptionText` runs to ~3000 characters and
`screenshots` holds up to 5 URLs in the full row):

```json
{
  "appId": "com.spotify.music",
  "url": "https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.spotify.music&hl=en&gl=US",
  "title": "Spotify: Music and Podcasts",
  "developer": "Spotify AB",
  "developerId": "6523013212965523194",
  "developerEmail": "support@spotify.com",
  "developerWebsite": "https://www.spotify.com",
  "developerAddress": "Regeringsgatan 19\n111 53 Stockholm\nSweden",
  "category": "Music & Audio",
  "genreId": "MUSIC_AND_AUDIO",
  "price": 0,
  "currency": "USD",
  "free": true,
  "containsAds": true,
  "offersIAP": true,
  "iapPriceRange": "$4.99 - $203.88 per item",
  "installsText": "1,000,000,000+",
  "minInstalls": 1000000000,
  "realInstalls": 3135692442,
  "score": 4.347309,
  "ratingsCount": 36380579,
  "reviewsCount": 1853986,
  "histogram": { "1": 3704002, "2": 1068685, "3": 1311103, "4": 3100952, "5": 27195814 },
  "contentRating": "Teen",
  "updated": "2026-09-25T08:00:14.000Z",
  "released": "2014-05-27T13:12:17.000Z",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-09-27T00:00:00.000Z",
  "language": "en",
  "country": "US"
}
```

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| `developer` / `developerEmail` | `Spotify AB` / `support@spotify.com` |
| `score` / `ratingsCount` | `4.35` / `36,380,579` |
| `installsText` / `realInstalls` | `1,000,000,000+` / `3,135,692,442` |
| `free` / `containsAds` / `offersIAP` | `true` / `true` / `true` |
| `contentRating` | `Teen` |

### Use it as a Google Play API

The Actor can be called from your own application through the Apify API. No Google account or
Play Store login is required.

#### Python

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN")

run = client.actor("lukehunter/google-play-scraper").call(
    run_input={
        "appIds": ["com.spotify.music"],
        "maxItems": 50,
    }
)

for app in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(app["title"], app["score"], app["installsText"])
```

Use Apify schedules for recurring app snapshots, and webhooks or integrations to send completed
datasets into the rest of your workflow.

### Pricing and cost control

This Actor uses **pay per delivered app** pricing.

**Current configured rate: $0.001 per app delivered.** Check the Apify **Pricing** tab for the
latest published rate.

| Apps delivered | Cost at $0.001/app |
|---:|---:|
| 100 | $0.10 |
| 1,000 | $1.00 |
| 5,000 | $5.00 |

There is no charge for merely starting a run, and a not-found app id (HTTP 404) is never charged. In monitor mode, only change rows use the existing `app` charge; the single `run_summary` row is free. `maxItems` caps billable rows (app rows in normal mode, change events in monitor mode).

### Reliability and data quality

The Actor is designed to make data problems visible instead of hiding them.

- Two independent data sources are read on every page — Google's own embedded page data and the
  page's JSON-LD structured data — and cross-checked against each other for `title`, `developer`,
  `score`, `ratingsCount`, `price`, `currency` and `free`.
- If neither source can be parsed at all, the run fails loudly for that app instead of returning an
  empty-looking row.
- A not-found app id (HTTP 404) is reported per-app and never charged.
- Missing values are returned as `null` rather than guessed.
- Every outgoing request is checked against `robots.txt` in code before it is made; the Actor
  refuses to request a disallowed path.

### Important limitations

- **App ids only — no keyword search.** See "Why there's no keyword search" above:
  `play.google.com/robots.txt` disallows `/store/search`.
- **No individual reviews.** Verified against real captured pages: Google
  Play's details page does not embed individual review text server-side — only the aggregate
  rating and star histogram. The individual reviews shown in a browser are filled in by a
  client-side request this Actor does not make (it would require the `/_` batchexecute endpoint,
  which robots.txt disallows and this Actor refuses to call). This Actor does **not** implement
  full paginated review scraping.
- **`version` and `androidVersion` are usually `null`.** Most current Play Store listings no longer
  publish a static version/minimum-OS field (Google's redesigned page delivers per-device instead).
- **`video` is rarely populated.** Not every app publishes a promo video, and this field has not
  been observed populated against any real page used to build this Actor.
- **`developerEmail`/`developerWebsite`/`developerAddress`** are returned only when Google publishes
  them on the page as the developer's public business contact info; many apps do not show all three.
- Ratings, installs and pricing can change after the run. `scrapedAt` records the observation time.
- The Actor does not use CAPTCHA bypass, proxy rotation, credential capture, or impersonation. It
  identifies itself honestly and respects a 1-request-per-2-seconds pace.
- Public catalogue data only; no personal data beyond a developer's own published business contact
  info is collected.
- This is an independent tool and is **not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Google
  LLC.** Google Play is a trademark of its owner. You are responsible for using the data in
  accordance with applicable terms and laws.

### FAQ

#### Can I search Google Play by keyword?

No. `play.google.com/robots.txt` disallows `/store/search`, and this Actor honours robots.txt for
every request. Pass the app's package id or details URL instead — see "Why there's no keyword
search".

#### Is it legal to scrape Google Play app data?

This Actor only collects public app data already shown on Google Play's own details pages: names,
ratings, prices, and similar catalogue fields, plus a developer's own publicly published business
contact info. It does not bypass any login, CAPTCHA, or paywall, and it honours robots.txt. It is
an independent tool, not affiliated with or endorsed by Google LLC, and you are responsible for
using the collected data in accordance with Google's terms of service and the laws that apply to
you.

#### Does it return individual reviews?

No. Google Play's details page does not embed individual review text in the initial
page load — only the aggregate rating and histogram are present server-side. See "Important
limitations" above.

#### How do I find an app's package id?

Open the app on play.google.com. For a URL such as
`https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.spotify.music`, the package id is
`com.spotify.music` — you can paste the whole URL or just that id.

#### Does it work for apps in other countries/languages?

Yes — set `language` (`hl`) and `country` (`gl`) to affect the page's display language and
price/currency. The app itself is the same regardless of these settings.

### Related Actors

Other data tools from the same developer, built to the same standard: official or public sources, hard cost caps, and honest documentation of limits.

- **[Apple App Store Reviews Scraper](https://apify.com/lukehunter/app-store-reviews-scraper)**: Apple App Store reviews for any iOS app, across countries, with rating, version and date.
- **[Spotify Scraper](https://apify.com/lukehunter/spotify-scraper)**: play counts, monthly listeners and playlist track lists for any public Spotify artist, playlist, album or track.
- **[Walmart Category Scraper](https://apify.com/lukehunter/walmart-category-scraper)**: product names, prices, was-prices and ratings from Walmart category pages.
- **[Shopify Product Monitor & Scraper](https://apify.com/lukehunter/shopify-store-products-scraper)**: full product catalogues from any Shopify store, with prices, sale prices, variants and stock.
- **[Vinted Scraper](https://apify.com/lukehunter/vinted-scraper)**: Vinted search results with prices, brands, sizes and favourites, across any Vinted country.
- **[AliExpress Search Scraper](https://apify.com/lukehunter/aliexpress-scraper)**: AliExpress search results with prices, discounts, ratings and sold counts, by keyword.
- **[Hospital Price Transparency Enforcement Leads](https://apify.com/lukehunter/hospital-price-transparency-enforcement-leads)**: hospitals with recent CMS price transparency warning notices, CAP requests and CMP notices.
- **[Hospital Ownership Change Radar](https://apify.com/lukehunter/hospital-chow-radar)**: hospitals that just changed owner, with buyer, seller and effective date from CMS filings.

# Actor input Schema

## `appIds` (type: `array`):

Android package ids (e.g. "com.spotify.music") or full Play Store details URLs (e.g. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.spotify.music). Keyword search is not supported — see "searchTerms" below for why. Maximum 500 app ids per run.

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

Hard cap on delivered rows, 1-5000, default 50. In normal mode these are app rows; in monitor mode these are billable change-event rows (the free run\_summary does not count).

## `language` (type: `string`):

Google Play UI language code, e.g. "en", "de", "es". Affects display text (contentRating, category name, descriptions) but not which app is returned. Default "en".

## `country` (type: `string`):

2-letter Play Store country code, e.g. "US", "DE", "GB". Affects price/currency and availability shown. Default "US".

## `onlyChangesSinceLastRun` (type: `boolean`):

Off by default. Turn on for scheduled known-app monitoring: the first run saves a baseline and emits only a free run\_summary row; later runs emit only change events and charge only those event rows. Normal one-off scraping remains unchanged.

## `stateStoreName` (type: `string`):

Only used when change monitoring is on. Named Apify key-value store that persists per-app snapshots across scheduled runs. Keep the same name for the same watch; change it to start a fresh baseline. Letters, numbers and hyphens only.

## `ratingChangeThreshold` (type: `number`):

Monitor mode only. Emit rating\_changed when the absolute score delta is at least this amount. Default 0.05 rating points; set 0 to report every numeric rating change.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "appIds": [
    "com.spotify.music"
  ],
  "maxItems": 5,
  "language": "en",
  "country": "US",
  "onlyChangesSinceLastRun": false,
  "stateStoreName": "google-play-scraper-state",
  "ratingChangeThreshold": 0.05
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `apps` (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 = {
    "appIds": [
        "com.spotify.music"
    ],
    "maxItems": 5,
    "language": "en",
    "country": "US",
    "onlyChangesSinceLastRun": false
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("lukehunter/google-play-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 = {
    "appIds": ["com.spotify.music"],
    "maxItems": 5,
    "language": "en",
    "country": "US",
    "onlyChangesSinceLastRun": False,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("lukehunter/google-play-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 '{
  "appIds": [
    "com.spotify.music"
  ],
  "maxItems": 5,
  "language": "en",
  "country": "US",
  "onlyChangesSinceLastRun": false
}' |
apify call lukehunter/google-play-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,lukehunter/google-play-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/BJElrylZa9jgj06jR/builds/6QIxKFEylVTvGDPfk/openapi.json