Google Sheets Sync: Append & Deduplicate

Send the results of any Apify Actor straight into a Google Sheet. New rows are added under your existing data. The sheet is never rewritten, so your formulas, notes and extra columns stay where they are.

Typical uses:

• Daily scraper → sheet. Add this Actor as an integration on your scraper. Every run appends only the new results.
• Price or job tracking. De-duplicate by url or id, so the same product or job never shows up twice, even across hundreds of runs.
• Hand-off to non-technical teammates. They get a plain spreadsheet that keeps filling itself.

Why this instead of a full export

	This Actor	Typical full export
Appending	Writes only the new rows	Often re-reads and rewrites the whole sheet
Re-runs and retries	De-duplicate by any field, so it's safe to run again	Duplicates or overwrites
Crashes and retries	Every write targets an exact range and is checked after a restart, so a crash or a retried request never duplicates rows or bills them twice	Can duplicate rows
New fields in your data	Added as new columns at the right end. Existing columns never move	Columns can shift
Errors	Tells you exactly what to fix (for example "share the sheet with bot@… as Editor")	Generic API error
Formula injection	Values are written as plain values, so a scraped =IMPORTXML(...) never runs	Depends

Setup (about 3 minutes, one time)

1. Open Google Cloud Console, then create a project, or pick an existing one.
2. Go to APIs & Services → Library, search for Google Sheets API and click Enable.
3. Go to IAM & Admin → Service accounts → Create service account. Any name works, and it needs no roles.
4. Open the service account, then Keys → Add key → Create new key → JSON. A .json file downloads.
5. Open your spreadsheet, click Share, and add the service account's email (it looks like name@project.iam.gserviceaccount.com) as an Editor.
6. Paste the whole content of the .json file into Google service account key in this Actor. Apify stores it encrypted.

Try it without setup

Run it with an empty input (or with only datasetId) to see a free preview of the rows exactly as they would be written: nested fields flattened, columns in order. Nothing is written and no rows are billed.

Input

Field	What it does
spreadsheet	Sheet URL or ID
sheetName	Tab name. It's created if missing. Default Sheet1
serviceAccountKey	JSON key from the setup above (secret)
datasetId	Dataset to sync. As an integration use {{resource.defaultDatasetId}}
mode	append (default) or replace (clears values but keeps formatting, then writes)
dedupeFields	For example ["url"]. Skips items already in the sheet
columns	Optional. Write only these fields, in this order
maxRows	Stop after this many rows (0 = no limit)

Nested objects are flattened to parent.child columns. Arrays are written as JSON text.

Use it as an integration

On your scraper (Actor or task), open Integrations → Add → Apify Actor and pick this Actor. Fill in the spreadsheet and key, and set Dataset ID to {{resource.defaultDatasetId}}. Each finished run is then synced automatically. Add dedupeFields (for example ["url"]) so repeated results are skipped.

Example input

{
  "spreadsheet": "https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1AbC.../edit",
  "sheetName": "Products",
  "serviceAccountKey": "{ \"type\": \"service_account\", ... }",
  "datasetId": "a1B2c3D4e5F6g7H8i",
  "mode": "append",
  "dedupeFields": ["url"]
}

Output

The run's dataset and OUTPUT record hold a summary:

{
  "rowsWritten": 1240,
  "duplicatesSkipped": 85,
  "itemsRead": 1325,
  "columns": 14,
  "stopReason": "done",
  "spreadsheetUrl": "https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/.../edit#gid=0"
}

Pricing

Pay per event: a small fee per run plus a fee per row actually written. Skipped duplicates are free. If a run reaches your maximum cost per run, it stops cleanly and tells you. In append mode with dedupeFields set, run it again to continue: rows already in the sheet are skipped.

Limits

• Google Sheets holds at most 10 million cells per spreadsheet. A cell holds at most 50,000 characters, so longer values are truncated and marked …[truncated].
• Google rate limits are handled automatically with retries and backoff.
• Don't write to the same tab from two runs at once.
• A run that would push the spreadsheet past 10 million cells stops before writing and tells you.

FAQ

"Permission denied". The sheet isn't shared with the service account email. The error message shows the exact email to add as Editor.

Can I keep formulas next to the data? Yes. In append mode existing cells are never touched. Only empty rows in the data columns are written, so formula columns to the right of the data stay as they are.

Does replace delete my formatting? No. It clears values only. It only clears once the run has something to write, so an empty or failed input never empties your sheet.

I added my own columns (formulas, notes). Are they safe? Yes. The Actor only writes the columns of the fields it syncs. New fields are added to the right of everything already in use, never on top of your columns.

Found a bug or need a feature? Open an issue on the Issues tab. We answer quickly.