Gelbe Seiten Scraper — German Business Leads

Scrape German business leads from Gelbe Seiten (gelbeseiten.de), the German Yellow Pages directory. Extract business names, phone numbers, emails, websites, addresses, ratings, opening hours, payment methods, and GPS coordinates for B2B lead generation, sales prospecting, and market research in Germany.

Export scraped data, run the scraper via API, schedule and monitor runs, or integrate with other tools.

Why this actor

• 3+ million German businesses listed across all branches and cities
• Decoded emails — the only Gelbe Seiten scraper that decodes Cloudflare-protected email addresses
• Structured opening hours — get a clean {monday: "07:30–16:30", ...} object, not raw text
• GPS coordinates — extract latitude/longitude for mapping and geo-analysis
• Detail-page enrichment — full descriptions, payment methods, and secondary phone numbers
• Dual input modes — search by branch + city, or paste direct gelbeseiten.de URLs
• Automatic pagination — handles the site's /ajaxsuche endpoint to walk through thousands of results
• MCP-ready — semantic field names, structured output, and a tool description optimized for AI agents (Claude, GPT, Cursor)

Use cases

• B2B lead generation — build targeted contact lists of German lawyers, doctors, contractors, restaurants, etc.
• Sales prospecting — enrich CRM records with phone, email, and website data
• Market research — analyze business density, ratings, and categories by region
• Local SEO — audit competitor presence across German cities
• Geo-analytics — map business locations for territory planning

Input parameters

Field	Type	Required	Default	Description
searchQuery	string	No*	Rechtsanwalt	What to search for — a German branch, profession, or business type (e.g. Maler, Restaurant, Kfz-Werkstatt).
location	string	No*	Berlin	Where to search — a German city, postal code, or region (e.g. München, 10115, Nordrhein-Westfalen).
startUrls	array	No	[]	Direct gelbeseiten.de URLs to scrape instead of search. Accepts search-result and business detail URLs.
maxResults	integer	No	50 (prefill 3)	Maximum business records to collect. Pagination handled automatically.
scrapeDetailPages	boolean	No	true	Visit each business detail page to extract email, full opening hours, description, payment methods, and GPS.
proxyUrl	string	No	""	Optional custom proxy URL (e.g. http://user:pass@host:port). Leave empty to use Apify proxies.

*Either startUrls OR both searchQuery + location are required.

Output fields

Each record in the dataset contains:

Field	Type	Description
businessName	string	Business or professional name
category	string|null	Branch / category (e.g. "Rechtsanwälte: Fachanwälte für Steuerrecht")
street	string|null	Street address
postalCode	string|null	5-digit German postal code
city	string|null	City name
district	string|null	City district (e.g. "Charlottenburg")
phone	string|null	Primary phone number
phoneSecondary	string|null	Secondary phone (from detail page)
email	string|null	Email address (decoded from Cloudflare protection on detail page)
website	string|null	Business website URL
rating	number|null	Star rating (0–5)
reviewCount	number|null	Total review count
openingHours	object|null	{ monday: "...", tuesday: "...", ... sunday: "..." }
openStatus	string|null	Current open/closed status text
description	string|null	Business description ("Über das Unternehmen")
paymentMethods	array|null	Accepted payment methods (e.g. ["Rechnung","Bar"])
partnerStatus	string|null	Gelbe Seiten partner badge (e.g. "Silber Partner")
detailUrl	string	Full gelbeseiten.de detail page URL
latitude	number|null	GPS latitude
longitude	number|null	GPS longitude
scrapedAt	string	ISO 8601 timestamp
sourceUrl	string	Source page URL

Pricing

This actor uses Pay-Per-Event pricing — you only pay for what you get:

Event	Price	When charged
Actor Start	$0.00005	Once per run
Search result	$0.002	Per business listing extracted from search results
Detail enriched	$0.005	Per business enriched from its detail page (only when scrapeDetailPages=true)

Cost examples

• 100 leads (search only): ~$0.20
• 100 leads (with detail enrichment): ~$0.70
• 1,000 leads (with enrichment): ~$7.00
• 10,000 leads (with enrichment): ~$70.00

Quick start

Via Apify Console

1. Go to the actor page in Apify Console
2. Set searchQuery = Rechtsanwalt, location = Berlin, maxResults = 10
3. Click Start and view results in the Dataset tab

Via API

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/muhammadafzal~gelbe-seiten-scraper/runs?token=YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"searchQuery":"Maler","location":"München","maxResults":50,"scrapeDetailPages":true}'

Via MCP (Claude, Cursor, GPT)

Ask your AI agent:

"Find 50 lawyers in Berlin with emails and phone numbers from Gelbe Seiten."

The actor is MCP-discoverable with semantic field names and a tool description optimized for agent selection.

How it works

1. Search URL construction — searchQuery + location are slugified and combined into gelbeseiten.de/branchen/{query}/{location}.
2. SERP extraction — the initial search page is parsed with Cheerio to extract all visible business listings.
3. Pagination — the site's /ajaxsuche POST endpoint is called repeatedly (50 results per page) until maxResults is reached.
4. Detail enrichment — when scrapeDetailPages=true, each business detail page (/gsbiz/{uuid}) is visited to extract the decoded email, full opening hours object, description, payment methods, and GPS coordinates.
5. Deduplication — business UUIDs are tracked in a seenIds set to prevent duplicate records across paginated results.

Limitations

• Some businesses do not list an email or website — these fields return null.
• Email addresses on Gelbe Seiten are protected by Cloudflare email obfuscation; this actor decodes them, but a few may still be null if the page uses a different protection method.
• GPS coordinates are only available on detail pages and may be null for some listings.
• Very broad searches (e.g. all businesses in Berlin) can return thousands of results — use maxResults to cap run cost.

Proxy & reliability

• Uses Apify's default datacenter proxies with automatic residential fallback.
• For aggressive use cases, provide your own residential proxy via proxyUrl (compatible with Decodo, Bright Data, IPRoyal).
• Session pool with maxUsageCount: 15 and random request delays prevent rate limiting.
• State is persisted to the KV store for migration recovery on Apify.

Support & feedback

If you encounter issues, have feature requests, or want a custom enrichment (e.g. website email scraping, CRM export formats), open an issue on the actor's Apify Console page. Reviews help the actor rank higher in the Apify Store — please leave one if it works for you!

What is Gelbe Seiten Scraper?

Gelbe Seiten Scraper turns the target data into structured, reusable results on Apify. Use it when you need repeatable collection for sales teams, agencies, recruiters, market researchers, and data-enrichment workflows without maintaining a custom scraper or one-off integration. Run it manually, schedule recurring jobs, call it through the Apify API, or connect it to an AI agent through the Apify MCP server.

The Actor stores results in an Apify dataset, where they can be previewed and exported as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, or RSS. Availability and completeness depend on the source, supplied inputs, public visibility, authentication requirements, and upstream rate limits.

Use cases for Gelbe Seiten Scraper

• Build structured datasets for research, reporting, enrichment, or monitoring.
• Automate repetitive collection with schedules, webhooks, and API calls.
• Feed clean records into spreadsheets, databases, CRMs, BI tools, AI agents, or RAG pipelines.
• Track changes over time by running the same validated input on a schedule.
• Replace fragile manual copy-and-paste work with a reproducible Apify workflow.

How to use Gelbe Seiten Scraper

1. Open the Actor input page and choose a focused, valid target.
2. Set a conservative result limit for the first run.
3. Start the Actor and inspect the dataset for coverage and field availability.
4. Export the results or connect the dataset to your downstream system.
5. Scale gradually and use scheduling, pagination, or proxies when supported.

Important input options

• searchQuery — What to search for on Gelbe Seiten — a branch, profession, or business type in German. Examples: 'Rechtsanwalt', 'Maler', 'Restaurant', 'Kfz-Werkstatt'. Use this when the user describes a ni
• location — Where to search — a German city, postal code, or region. Examples: 'Berlin', 'München', '10115', 'Nordrhein-Westfalen'. Pair with searchQuery. Use startUrls instead if the user provided a co
• startUrls — Direct gelbeseiten.de URLs to scrape instead of using searchQuery + location. Accepts search-result URLs (e.g. https://www.gelbeseiten.de/branchen/rechtsanwalt/berlin) and individual busines
• maxResults — Maximum number of business records to collect before stopping. The prefill of 3 is for a quick test — raise to 50–500 for production runs. Gelbe Seiten searches can return thousands of resul
• scrapeDetailPages — When enabled, the actor visits each business's detail page (/gsbiz/{uuid}) to extract the email (decoded from Cloudflare protection), full structured opening hours, description, payment meth
• proxyUrl — Optional HTTP/SOCKS proxy URL for using your own residential proxies instead of Apify's built-in proxies. Format: http://user:pass@host:port. Compatible with Decodo, Bright Data, IPRoyal, an

API and automation example

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN });
const run = await client.actor('muhammadafzal/gelbe-seiten-scraper').call({
  // Add the same input fields you use in the Apify Console.
});
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

Related Apify Actors

Use these dedicated tools when a neighboring data source or workflow is a better match:

• Leads Finder Pro - B2B Leads with Emails [Apollo Alternative]
• Yellow Pages US Scraper — Business Leads & Reviews
• Yellow Pages Australia Scraper — Business Leads & Reviews
• Email Validator — Syntax, MX & Risk Checks
• Texas State Licensed Contractor Scraper — TDLR License Data
• California CSLB Contractor License Scraper
• Instagram Followers & Following Scraper — With Cookies
• Facebook Ads Library Scraper — Meta Ad Intelligence Tool
• Justia Lawyer Directory Scraper — Attorney Leads
• OpenTable Restaurants, Ratings & Reviews Scraper

Frequently asked questions

How many results can I scrape with Gelbe Seiten Scraper?

The practical total depends on the source, input limits, pagination, available records, run timeout, and upstream restrictions. Start with a small run, verify the output, and increase the limit gradually.

Can I integrate Gelbe Seiten Scraper with other apps?

Yes. Use Apify integrations, webhooks, schedules, dataset exports, Make, Zapier, Google Sheets, cloud storage, or your own application.

Can I use Gelbe Seiten Scraper with the Apify API?

Yes. Start runs with the Apify REST API or an official Apify client, then retrieve records from the run's default dataset. Keep your API token in a secret or environment variable.

Can I use Gelbe Seiten Scraper through an MCP Server?

Yes. The Apify MCP server can expose the Actor to compatible AI clients and agents. Review the input and expected cost before allowing an autonomous workflow to run it at scale.

Do I need proxies?

It depends on the source and volume. Use the default configuration first. For larger or geographically sensitive jobs, select an appropriate proxy configuration only when the Actor supports it.

Is it legal to scrape this data?

Scraping rules vary by source, jurisdiction, data type, and intended use. Collect only data you are authorized to access, respect applicable terms and privacy laws, and avoid restricted or personal data misuse. This documentation is not legal advice.

Your feedback

If a field is missing, a source layout has changed, or you need a supported use case documented, open an issue on the Actor page with a reproducible input and run ID.