# Google Maps New Openings Monitor (`natural_lease/google-maps-new-openings-monitor`) Actor

Monitor cities or map areas for newly appeared Google Maps businesses — delta vs last run plus likely-new signals (low reviews). Ideal B2B leads for agencies selling to fresh local businesses.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/natural\_lease/google-maps-new-openings-monitor.md
- **Developed by:** [Nika mint3](https://apify.com/natural_lease) (community)
- **Categories:** Lead generation, Travel
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $20.00 / 1,000 new openings

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 Maps New Openings Monitor

Find **newly appeared** and **likely-new** local businesses on Google Maps for B2B outreach (agencies, SaaS, home services).

### How it works (honest)

Google Maps (via `compass/crawler-google-places`) **does not reliably expose an official opening date**. This Actor uses:

1. **Monitor / delta** — remembers Place IDs in a named Key-Value Store; later runs emit only businesses not seen before (`isNewSinceLastRun`).
2. **Likely-new heuristic** — low review count (`maxReviewsLikelyNew`) as a proxy for young listings (`likelyNew`).
3. **openingDate** — filled only when the nested scrape happens to include a related field or text (often `null`).

First run builds a baseline (`isFirstRunBaseline: true` if `includeBaselineInOutput` is on). **Schedule weekly** for true “new openings” alerts.

### Input

| Field | Description |
|-------|-------------|
| `cities` | List of cities / locations |
| `bbox` | Optional `{west,south,east,north}` instead of cities |
| `categories` | Search terms (cafe, dentist, …) |
| `maxResultsPerCity` | Cap per city × category (default **40** for denser scans) |
| `mode` | `monitor` | `likely_new` | `both` |
| `maxReviewsLikelyNew` | Review ceiling for likely-new |
| `monitorId` | Isolates baselines |
| `proxyConfiguration` | Apify Proxy (Store UX; nested Maps uses its own proxies) |

### Output

Name, address, phone, website, category, rating, reviews, coordinates, Maps URL, plus detection flags.

### Pricing (PPE)

- **Actor start** — small fixed event
- **New opening** — charged per dataset row (~$0.02)

Nested `compass/crawler-google-places` costs are billed to the **run owner** separately (~$0.004/place).

### Example

````json
{
  "cities": ["Austin, TX", "Moscow, Russia"],
  "categories": ["cafe"],
  "maxResultsPerCity": 5,
  "mode": "both",
  "maxReviewsLikelyNew": 40,
  "includeBaselineInOutput": true,
  "monitorId": "smoke-demo",
  "countryCode": "us",
  "scrapeContactFromWebsite": false
}



# Actor input Schema

## `cities` (type: `array`):

List of cities or free-text locations (e.g. "Moscow, Russia", "Austin, TX"). One nested Maps search per city × category.
## `categories` (type: `array`):

What to search on Maps (e.g. cafe, dentist, roofing). One search per category per city.
## `bbox` (type: `object`):

Optional map rectangle instead of cities. JSON object with west, south, east, north (numbers). Example: {"west":-97.9,"south":30.1,"east":-97.5,"north":30.5}. Overrides cities when all four fields are set.
## `maxResultsPerCity` (type: `integer`):

Passed to nested Google Maps scraper (default 40 for denser city scans). Keep small for cheap smoke tests.
## `mode` (type: `string`):

monitor = only places not seen in previous runs (KVS baseline). likely_new = filter by low review count. both = new-to-monitor AND likely-new heuristic.
## `maxReviewsLikelyNew` (type: `integer`):

Places with more reviews than this are treated as established (skipped in likely_new / both).
## `lookbackDays` (type: `integer`):

Reserved for review-age filtering. Nested scrape does not always expose openingDate; when reviews are fetched later this can tighten freshness. Currently used only as metadata on output.
## `includeBaselineInOutput` (type: `boolean`):

On the first monitor run there is no prior state. If true, emit all matching places flagged isFirstRunBaseline=true. If false, first run only seeds the store and returns 0 rows.
## `monitorId` (type: `string`):

Isolates baselines in named KVS. Use one ID per territory/niche you schedule.
## `countryCode` (type: `string`):

Hint for nested scraper (ISO-ish lowercase, e.g. us, ru, de).
## `language` (type: `string`):

Language
## `scrapeContactFromWebsite` (type: `boolean`):

Nested contacts enrichment (emails/social). Costs extra on compass — leave off for cheap monitoring.
## `skipClosedPlaces` (type: `boolean`):

Skip closed places
## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Apify Proxy (residential rotation recommended for Maps). Nested compass manages its own proxies; this is kept for Store UX / future direct crawls.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "cities": [
    "Austin, TX",
    "Moscow, Russia"
  ],
  "categories": [
    "cafe"
  ],
  "maxResultsPerCity": 10,
  "mode": "both",
  "maxReviewsLikelyNew": 25,
  "lookbackDays": 90,
  "includeBaselineInOutput": true,
  "monitorId": "default",
  "countryCode": "us",
  "language": "en",
  "scrapeContactFromWebsite": false,
  "skipClosedPlaces": true,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}
````

# Actor output Schema

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

Detected new or likely-new businesses

# 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 = {
    "cities": [
        "Austin, TX",
        "Moscow, Russia"
    ],
    "categories": [
        "cafe"
    ],
    "maxResultsPerCity": 10,
    "mode": "both",
    "maxReviewsLikelyNew": 25
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("natural_lease/google-maps-new-openings-monitor").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 = {
    "cities": [
        "Austin, TX",
        "Moscow, Russia",
    ],
    "categories": ["cafe"],
    "maxResultsPerCity": 10,
    "mode": "both",
    "maxReviewsLikelyNew": 25,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("natural_lease/google-maps-new-openings-monitor").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 '{
  "cities": [
    "Austin, TX",
    "Moscow, Russia"
  ],
  "categories": [
    "cafe"
  ],
  "maxResultsPerCity": 10,
  "mode": "both",
  "maxReviewsLikelyNew": 25
}' |
apify call natural_lease/google-maps-new-openings-monitor --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,natural_lease/google-maps-new-openings-monitor"
        }
    }
}
```

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/QQYs4adge64QdmEOp/builds/5y3NdftIePDH7yIIe/openapi.json