# Toutiao News Tracker - China News Hot Board & Search (`nexgendata/toutiao-news-tracker`) Actor

Scrape Toutiao (今日头条), ByteDance's #1 China news app: the live hot board (热榜) plus keyword news search. Get rank, headline, hot value, source, abstract and article URL as JSON. For China news monitoring, media intelligence and sentiment research. No CN account.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/nexgendata/toutiao-news-tracker.md
- **Developed by:** [NexGenData](https://apify.com/nexgendata) (community)
- **Categories:** Social media, Marketing, News
- **Stats:** 20 total users, 8 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $25.00 / 1,000 articles

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

## 📰 Toutiao News Tracker — China News Hot Board + Search (今日头条)

**Optional delivery:** Send results straight to your own Notion database or Supabase table in the same run, via Apify's native [MCP connectors](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/mcp-connectors) — the Actor never sees your credentials. One-click connect: [Notion](https://console.apify.com/account/integrations/mcp-connectors/new?serverUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fmcp.notion.com%2Fmcp) or [Supabase](https://console.apify.com/account/integrations/mcp-connectors/new?serverUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fmcp.supabase.com%2Fmcp). Leave blank to get the dataset as usual.

Pull **Toutiao (今日头条)** — ByteDance's flagship news aggregator and one of China's most-read news products — as clean structured data. Toutiao is the China **news-trend** pulse that almost no Western scraper reaches: it is heavily personalized, anti-bot-defended and signed-URL-gated, and this actor clears it to return the live hot board (热榜) and keyword news search results with rank, headline, hot value, source, abstract, published time and direct article URLs as flat JSON / CSV / Excel. No login, no Chinese phone number, no Toutiao API key.

If you do China news monitoring, APAC media intelligence, public-opinion / sentiment tracking, or just want to know **what China is reading right now**, this is the feed — and it is genuinely hard to source anywhere else.

### 📊 Sample Output

Real headlines returned by this actor for **`mode: hot`** — every row below comes straight from a live run on the Chinese-language Toutiao hot board (今日头条热榜):

| # | Hot Headline (热榜) | Hot Value | Label |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 遇见小面创始人道歉 | 1,422万 | hot |
| 2 | 主持人：C罗正毁掉葡萄牙夺世界杯机会 | 1,287万 | new |
| 3 | 1至5月份国家铁路发送货物16.7亿吨 | 1,165万 | — |
| 4 | 美伊达成和平协议 | 1,054万 | hot |
| 5 | "哈尔滨制造"强势打破美国垄断 | 954万 | new |

> Each headline also carries a `cluster_id`, a topic `image`, and a direct `url` to the Toutiao article/topic page — ready for media-monitoring dashboards, sentiment pipelines, or Chinese-language RAG.

### What you can do with it

- **China news monitoring** — capture the live hot board on a schedule to track the national news cycle and breaking topics.
- **Brand / PR monitoring** — run `mode: "search"` on your brand or competitors to pull matching news articles with source, abstract and published time.
- **Public-opinion / sentiment research** — feed headline + abstract text into a sentiment or clustering pipeline for China-market analysis.
- **Chinese-language RAG / AI-training data** — clean, deduplicated news records with source attribution.

### What you get

Per article, you get a flat, typed record:

- **Ranking** — `rank`, `hot_value` (numeric heat score), `label` (e.g. `hot`, `new`)
- **Headline** — `title` (Chinese), `abstract` *where exposed*
- **Source** — `source`, `publisher`, `published_at` *where exposed (search mode / detail-backed items)*
- **Engagement** — `comment_count`, `read_count` *where exposed (search mode)*
- **Reference** — `url` (direct article/topic link), `cluster_id`, `image`, `item_id`, `keyword`, `mode`, `scraped_at`

> Note: hot-board mode pulls Toutiao's live `hot_board`, which exposes `rank`, `title`, `hot_value`, `label`, `image` and `url` for every topic. Per-article fields like `source`, `abstract`, `published_at`, `comment_count` and `read_count` are populated in `search` mode (which targets individual articles) or where the board surfaces them. We never fabricate fields the source doesn't return.

### Input

| Parameter | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| `mode` | string | `hot` | `hot` = live Toutiao hot board (今日头条热榜); `search` = keyword news search |
| `query` | string | `科技` | Keyword to search (Chinese or English). Required for `mode: "search"`, ignored for `hot` |
| `maxArticles` | integer | 50 | Hard cap on articles returned and charged (1–100) |
| `proxyConfiguration` | object | RESIDENTIAL | Apify proxy. RESIDENTIAL recommended for reliable access from outside China |
| `notionConnector` / `notionParentId` | string | — | Optional MCP delivery to your Notion workspace |
| `supabaseConnector` / `supabaseTable` / `supabaseProjectId` | string | — | Optional MCP delivery into your Supabase project |
| `deliveryDedup` | boolean | true | Skip records already delivered in a previous run (scheduled runs push only new items) |

### Sample inputs

**1. The live Toutiao hot board (what China is reading now)**

```json
{ "mode": "hot", "maxArticles": 20 }
```

**2. Search Toutiao news by keyword (with source + abstract)**

```json
{ "mode": "search", "query": "新能源汽车", "maxArticles": 40 }
```

### 📊 Sample Output (JSON)

One representative `mode: hot` record, straight from a live run:

```json
{
  "mode": "hot",
  "rank": 1,
  "title": "遇见小面创始人道歉",
  "url": "https://www.toutiao.com/trending/7650640367843180563/",
  "hot_value": "14224949",
  "label": "hot",
  "cluster_id": 7650640367843181000,
  "image": "https://p9-sign.toutiaoimg.com/top-static-files-outer/breaknews/...",
  "source": null,
  "abstract": null,
  "published_at": null,
  "scraped_at": "2026-06-15T04:15:24Z"
}
```

### How it works

Toutiao (今日头条) personalizes heavily and protects its feeds with **signed URLs and anti-bot defenses** that block datacenter IPs. This actor routes through **Apify residential proxy** and reads the official `hot_board` endpoint (`toutiao.com/hot-event/hot-board`) and, in `search` mode, the Toutiao search endpoint (`so.toutiao.com/search`) directly — no brittle DOM scraping, no heavy rendering. That keeps compute (and your bill) low while returning clean flat fields. The `maxArticles` cap is a hard ceiling. Optionally deliver results straight to Notion or Supabase via MCP connectors.

### 💰 Pricing example

This actor uses **Pay-Per-Event** pricing — you only pay for articles that actually land in your dataset:

- **Actor start:** $0.005
- **Per article:** $0.025

A **100-article pull = $0.005 + (100 × $0.025) = $2.505**. A quick 12-headline hot-board check = $0.005 + (12 × $0.025) = **$0.305**. No monthly minimum, no seats.

### ⚖️ Legal & ToS

This actor reads **only Toutiao's public, unauthenticated hot board and search results** — the same headlines any visitor sees without logging in. It does **not** access private accounts, personalized recommendation internals, or anything behind authentication. You are responsible for using the output in line with Toutiao's terms and your local regulations.

### ❓ FAQ

**Do I need a Toutiao account or a Chinese phone number?**
No. The actor works entirely off Toutiao's public hot board and search — no login, no registration, no Chinese SIM.

**Is this social media or news?**
Toutiao is a news aggregator, so this is a China **news-trend** feed — the news counterpart to social platforms like Weibo or Douyin. Pair them for the full picture.

**Why are `source`, `abstract` or `published_at` sometimes empty?**
The hot board surfaces `rank`, `title`, `hot_value`, `label` and `url` for every topic. Richer per-article fields appear in `search` mode, which targets individual articles. We never fabricate fields the source doesn't expose.

**How do I get full article metadata instead of just the hot board?**
Set `mode: "search"` with a `query`. That returns individual articles with source, abstract and published time populated.

**Can results go straight into Notion or Supabase?**
Yes — set `notionConnector` (and optionally `notionParentId`) or `supabaseConnector` and the actor writes each article into your destination in the same run, without ever seeing your credentials.

**Why did I get fewer articles than `maxArticles`?**
The hot board or search simply had fewer results. `maxArticles` is a ceiling, not a target.

### 🔗 Related actors — NexGenData China social-listening fleet

Pair Toutiao news-trend data with the rest of the NexGenData Chinese-social fleet for full cross-platform coverage:

- **[Weibo Hot Search Tracker](https://apify.com/nexgendata/weibo-hot-search-tracker)** — China's #1 social-trending barometer (微博热搜榜), the social counterpart to Toutiao's news board.
- **[RedNote (Xiaohongshu) Scraper](https://apify.com/nexgendata/rednote-scraper)** — trending posts, feeds and notes from Xiaohongshu (小红书 / RedNote) for consumer-intent signal.
- **[Douyin Trending Tracker](https://apify.com/nexgendata/douyin-trending-tracker)** — the live Douyin (抖音 / Chinese TikTok) hot list for short-video trends.
- **[Bilibili Video Search](https://apify.com/nexgendata/bilibili-video-search)** — keyword search across Bilibili (B站), China's long-form video / gaming hub.
- **[Zhihu Q\&A Tracker](https://apify.com/nexgendata/zhihu-qa-tracker)** — Zhihu (知乎) hot list and Q\&A mining, China's long-form knowledge community.
- **[Kuaishou Trending Tracker](https://apify.com/nexgendata/kuaishou-trending-tracker)** — trending short-video signal from Kuaishou (快手).
- **[Douban Tracker](https://apify.com/nexgendata/douban-tracker)** — China movie/TV ratings and hot lists from Douban (豆瓣).
- **[China Trends Tracker](https://apify.com/nexgendata/china-trends-tracker)** — cross-platform Chinese trend roll-up (Weibo / Baidu / Toutiao / Douyin).
- **[Chinese Social Signals MCP](https://apify.com/nexgendata/chinese-social-signals-mcp)** — MCP server that plugs the whole Chinese-social fleet into Claude, ChatGPT and Cursor.

# Actor input Schema

## `mode` (type: `string`):

What to fetch. 'hot' returns the live Toutiao hot board (今日头条热榜) of trending news topics. 'search' returns news articles matching a keyword query.

## `query` (type: `string`):

Keyword to search Toutiao news for (Chinese or English). Required when mode is 'search'; ignored for mode 'hot'. Example: 科技 (technology).

## `maxArticles` (type: `integer`):

Hard cap on the number of articles returned (and charged). The hot board exposes up to ~50 topics; search returns a page of results.

## `notionConnector` (type: `string`):

Optional. Connect your Notion workspace and the results are also written as a Notion page in the same run — the Actor never sees your Notion credentials. Authorize a Notion MCP connector in Apify Console -> Settings -> API & Integrations, then select it here.

## `notionParentId` (type: `string`):

Optional. The Notion page ID to create the page under. If blank, Notion creates a private page in your workspace.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Proxy settings. Residential proxy (default) is recommended for reliable access to Toutiao from outside China.

## `supabaseConnector` (type: `string`):

Optional. Connect your own Supabase project and the results are also inserted into a table in the same run — the Actor never sees your Supabase credentials. Authorize a write-scoped, project-scoped Supabase MCP connector in Apify Console (Settings -> Integrations), then select it here.

## `supabaseTable` (type: `string`):

Target table in the public schema (created if missing, with id, a jsonb data column, and a scraped_at timestamp). Default: nexgendata_leads.

## `supabaseProjectId` (type: `string`):

Your Supabase project reference (e.g. abcdefghijklmnop). Required unless your connector URL is already project-scoped. Find it in your project URL: supabase.com/dashboard/project/THIS_PART.

## `deliveryDedup` (type: `boolean`):

When on (default), records already delivered in a previous run are not delivered again to the same destination — so scheduled runs only push new items. Turn off to deliver every record on every run.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "mode": "hot",
  "query": "科技",
  "maxArticles": 20,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": [
      "RESIDENTIAL"
    ]
  },
  "supabaseTable": "nexgendata_leads",
  "deliveryDedup": true
}
```

# Actor output Schema

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

Default dataset of Toutiao News Tracker - China News Hot Board & Search records (14 fields per row: mode, rank, title, url, hot_value, label, cluster_id, image, source, publisher, published_at, abstract…).

# 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 = {
    "mode": "hot",
    "query": "科技",
    "maxArticles": 20,
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": true,
        "apifyProxyGroups": [
            "RESIDENTIAL"
        ]
    }
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("nexgendata/toutiao-news-tracker").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 = {
    "mode": "hot",
    "query": "科技",
    "maxArticles": 20,
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": True,
        "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"],
    },
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("nexgendata/toutiao-news-tracker").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 '{
  "mode": "hot",
  "query": "科技",
  "maxArticles": 20,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": [
      "RESIDENTIAL"
    ]
  }
}' |
apify call nexgendata/toutiao-news-tracker --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,nexgendata/toutiao-news-tracker"
        }
    }
}
```

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/5DOxjkKivycExiUvZ/builds/GQCRjmvMiJC09AXZP/openapi.json