Multi-Carrier Package Tracking (USPS, UPS, FedEx)

Track public USPS, UPS, and FedEx shipments in one Apify Actor and receive a normalized dataset for ecommerce operations, support workflows, delivery monitoring, and AI agents.

The Actor accepts a mixed list of tracking numbers, detects unambiguous carrier formats, opens each carrier's public tracking flow in a consistent browser and residential-proxy session, and converts the available status into one stable JSON contract. It requires no carrier login or developer account. It does not solve CAPTCHAs or expose authenticated shipment documents.

What it extracts

Each active public shipment produces one dataset item. Missing carrier fields are returned as null; the Actor never guesses them.

Field	Meaning
trackingNumber	Normalized tracking number
carrier	USPS, UPS, or FedEx
status	Cross-carrier category such as in_transit, out_for_delivery, or delivered
statusText	Current carrier-provided status text
terminal	Whether the package is delivered or returned
delivered / delayed	Automation-friendly state flags
estimatedDelivery	Public delivery estimate when available
actualDelivery	Public delivery date or timestamp when available
service	Public carrier service name when available
origin / destination	Public location summaries when exposed
lastEvent	Latest scan or progress event
events	Public tracking history when requested and exposed
sourceUrl / scrapedAt	Carrier page and UTC extraction time

Invalid, ambiguous, inactive, challenged, or failed lookups are not inserted as fake shipment rows. Masked diagnostics are stored in the OUTPUT key-value-store record with an outcome of DATA, EMPTY, BLOCKED, REJECTED, or FAILED.

When to use it

Use this Actor for small, current batches of shipments you own, administer, or are authorized to monitor. Common workflows include checking fulfillment exceptions, enriching helpdesk tickets, monitoring orders on a schedule, feeding normalized status into Make, Zapier, or n8n, and giving an AI agent one contract across three US carriers.

Do not use it to create labels, calculate rates, change delivery instructions, submit claims, retrieve proof-of-delivery signatures, or run a high-volume carrier integration. Those workflows belong on the carriers' authenticated APIs. Public tracking records can expire, and carrier sites can suppress details based on shipment age, service, or destination.

Input

Field	Required	Default	Notes
trackingNumbers	Yes	Public inactive UPS sample	1–25 numbers; spaces, hyphens, and duplicates are removed
carrier	No	auto	Use an explicit carrier for ambiguous numeric formats
includeDetailedEvents	No	true	Return public event history where extractable
requestTimeoutSecs	No	45	20–90 seconds per lookup
proxyConfiguration	No	Apify Residential, US	Recommended because public carrier pages reject many datacenter sessions

Automatic detection is conservative. UPS numbers beginning with 1Z, common USPS domestic and international formats, and 12- or 15-digit FedEx numbers are recognized. Some all-numeric formats overlap between carriers; the Actor rejects those as ambiguous instead of querying the wrong company. Set carrier explicitly when a whole batch belongs to one carrier.

Mixed-carrier Console input

{
  "trackingNumbers": [
    "1Z999AA10123456784",
    "9400111899223856928499",
    "794644790138"
  ],
  "carrier": "auto",
  "includeDetailedEvents": true,
  "requestTimeoutSecs": 45,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"],
    "apifyProxyCountry": "US"
  }
}

Explicit-carrier input

{
  "trackingNumbers": ["YOUR_AMBIGUOUS_NUMERIC_TRACKING_NUMBER"],
  "carrier": "FedEx",
  "includeDetailedEvents": false
}

API call

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/YOUR_USERNAME~multi-carrier-package-tracking/runs" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"trackingNumbers":["YOUR_TRACKING_NUMBER"],"carrier":"auto"}'

Keep Apify tokens in authorization headers or secret stores. Tracking numbers and delivery details can be sensitive, so avoid placing them in public logs, issue reports, or URLs outside the intended carrier flow.

Output example

{
  "trackingNumber": "1Z999AA10123456784",
  "carrier": "UPS",
  "status": "delivered",
  "statusText": "Delivered",
  "terminal": true,
  "delivered": true,
  "delayed": false,
  "estimatedDelivery": null,
  "actualDelivery": null,
  "service": null,
  "origin": null,
  "destination": null,
  "lastEvent": {
    "timestamp": null,
    "status": "Delivered",
    "description": null,
    "location": "Austin, TX"
  },
  "events": [],
  "sourceUrl": "https://www.ups.com/track?loc=en_US&tracknum=1Z999AA10123456784",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-09-09T12:00:00.000Z"
}

Pay per event pricing

Event	Price	Trigger
Tracking run start	$0.005	Once when a run starts
Package tracking result	$0.020	Each schema-valid dataset item

An inactive, invalid, ambiguous, or blocked number produces no result-item charge. A run with one found shipment costs about $0.025 in events; ten found shipments cost about $0.205. The Actor checks the run's maximum charge before crawling additional potential results and never manually charges Apify's synthetic start or dataset-item events.

Reliability and failure behavior

USPS, UPS, and FedEx all restrict automated datacenter traffic on parts of their public tracking sites. The Actor therefore uses a real browser, one coherent user agent, cookie jar, US locale, timezone, and sticky proxy identity. Images, fonts, media, and common analytics are blocked to reduce bandwidth while retaining tracking scripts. Lookups run sequentially, and an access challenge gets one bounded retry with a fresh session.

The Actor does not bypass a CAPTCHA or authentication wall. A repeated carrier challenge becomes BLOCKED with zero fabricated rows and zero result-item events. An inactive or expired number becomes EMPTY; a malformed or ambiguous number becomes REJECTED; a rendering or upstream defect becomes FAILED. Valid results from other numbers are preserved when one lookup fails. Carrier markup and page-owned JSON can change, so business-critical or high-volume users should use official authenticated carrier APIs.

Privacy, legal use, and compliance

Run this Actor only for shipments you own, operate, support, or have permission to monitor. Keep runs and datasets private, apply short retention, and avoid publishing recipient names, precise delivery locations, or tracking numbers. The Actor masks tracking numbers in diagnostics and intentionally excludes proof-of-delivery images and signatures. You are responsible for applicable carrier terms, privacy law, contractual duties, and data-retention rules.

This Actor is unofficial and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the United States Postal Service, United Parcel Service, or FedEx. Carrier names and trademarks are used descriptively to identify public sources.

Support

When reporting a problem, share the Apify run ID, outcome, carrier, and timestamp. Do not post a complete tracking number or recipient data in a public issue; the first two and last four characters are sufficient for most diagnostics.