🔔 Census Address Geography Check

A definitive check: does this business/property address resolve to an official U.S. Census geography, and which one? For each address you supply, the actor returns an official verdict — EXACT_MATCH (one official match, with the matched address, coordinates, and the state / county / tract geography) or NO_MATCH (the official geocoder returns zero matches, confirmed by a retry) — plus TIE (multiple ambiguous candidates), SERVICE_FAULT, and UNPARSEABLE for the cases that are not definitive.

Differentiation: this is a billing-honest validity check, not a bulk geocoder. A definitive official verdict — match or no-match — is what the buyer pays for; ambiguous ties, transient service faults, and unparseable inputs are surfaced and never billed. The known geocoder FAQ variance under load is handled by retrying a no-answer before it is declared, so a transient blip never becomes a false NO_MATCH or a charged fault.

Output is one address_geography_check row per result; billing is pay-per-event, the value event being one address geography check (a $0.02 start fee per run, then $0.05 per address geography check). Source: geocoding.geo.census.gov.

No login, no API key and no CAPTCHA solving are involved: the source is read logged-out with an identified contact User-Agent.

📊 Sample Output

Real rows from run MAbLIfhQt8JjblHA1 on build 0.1.4 (2026-09-18), the same input as the Quick start below — every value is as the source published it (emails masked, long text shortened):

input	query	verdict	matched_address	longitude	latitude
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20500	1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20500	EXACT_MATCH	1600 PENNSYLVANIA AVE NW, WASHINGTON, DC, 20500	-77.03518753691	38.89869893252

The run finished with the status message: NORMAL: 1 resolved (0 not-found, 0 ambiguous, 0 service-fault, 0 unparseable) of 1 | answers billable=1 | address_geography_check charged=1

✅ What you get

Each row is flat JSON with these fields (from the dataset schema and the sample run; a field the source does not publish for a given row is null):

• record_type (string/null) — e.g. address_geography_check
• input (string/null) — e.g. 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20500
• query (string/null) — e.g. 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20500
• source (string/null) — e.g. https://geocoding.geo.census.gov/geocoder/geographies/onelineaddress
• verdict (string/null) — e.g. EXACT_MATCH
• matched_address (string/null) — e.g. 1600 PENNSYLVANIA AVE NW, WASHINGTON, DC, 20500
• longitude (number/null) — e.g. -77.03518753691
• latitude (number/null) — e.g. 38.89869893252
• state_fips (string/null) — e.g. 11
• county_fips (string/null) — e.g. 001
• tract (string/null) — e.g. 980000
• block (string/null) — null in every sample row
• candidate_count (integer/null) — e.g. 1
• unbilled_reason (string/null) — null in every sample row

⚙️ Sample inputs

1. Quick start — the Store example (this is what the sample above came from)

{
  "addresses": [
    "1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20500"
  ]
}

The sample run charged exactly: 1 × $0.02 apify-actor-start + 1 × $0.05 address_geography_check = $0.07 on the Free tier — every delivered row was billed.

2. A smaller, narrowed run

{
  "addresses": [
    "1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20500"
  ]
}

A bounded run for checking the field shape before scheduling.

3. A full-size run

{
  "addresses": [
    "1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20500"
  ]
}

The same input run on a schedule; each run is billed only for what it delivers.

🧾 JSON sample record

One real record from run MAbLIfhQt8JjblHA1, exactly as it lands in the dataset (emails masked, long text shortened):

{
  "record_type": "address_geography_check",
  "input": "1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20500",
  "query": "1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20500",
  "source": "https://geocoding.geo.census.gov/geocoder/geographies/onelineaddress",
  "verdict": "EXACT_MATCH",
  "matched_address": "1600 PENNSYLVANIA AVE NW, WASHINGTON, DC, 20500",
  "longitude": -77.03518753691,
  "latitude": 38.89869893252,
  "state_fips": "11",
  "county_fips": "001",
  "tract": "980000",
  "block": null,
  "candidate_count": 1,
  "unbilled_reason": null
}

🔧 How it works

Transport. Plain HTTPS from the Apify platform, no proxy. Every request carries an identified contact User-Agent.

Charging. Each address geography check is charged at the moment it is pushed (address_geography_check); a row that fails to charge is not delivered, so the dataset count always equals the charged count.

Source

The official, keyless U.S. Census Bureau geocoder — https://geocoding.geo.census.gov/geocoder/geographies/onelineaddress (benchmark Public_AR_Current, vintage Current_Current). No API key, no scraping of any disallowed route.

Billing law (validity shape)

Pay-per-event. The address_geography_check event is charged once per definitive official verdict:

• EXACT_MATCH → billed (a definitive official match)
• NO_MATCH → billed (a definitive official no-match, confirmed by retry)
• TIE (ambiguous), SERVICE_FAULT / timeout, UNPARSEABLE → emitted, never billed
• a batch that resolves no definitive verdict fails loud and bills nothing

Event	Unit	Price (USD)
address_geography_check	per definitive official verdict (match or no-match)	$0.05
apify-actor-start	actor start (platform-reserved)	$0.02

Volume tiers apply a GOLD-floored −10 / −20 / −33% ladder on the check price.

What is not done. No login, no cookie or CAPTCHA bypass, no private or personal-account data, no browser automation.

💰 Pricing example

Event	Free	Bronze	Silver	Gold
Actor Start (apify-actor-start)	$0.02	$0.02	$0.02	$0.02
Address geography check (address_geography_check)	$0.05	$0.04	$0.04	$0.03

Worked at the live Free-tier price:

• 1 address geography checks: $0.02 start + 1 × $0.05 = $0.07
• 25 address geography checks: $0.02 start + 25 × $0.05 = $1.27
• 100 address geography checks: $0.02 start + 100 × $0.05 = $5.02

A run that delivers zero rows charges the $0.02 start fee only. A BLOCKED run (source refused) fails loud and charges no value event. The start fee is charged once per GB of run memory; the default run memory is 4096 MB.

Yield on the sample run: NORMAL: 1 resolved (0 not-found, 0 ambiguous, 0 service-fault, 0 unparseable) of 1 | answers billable=1 | address_geography_check charged=1.

⚖️ Legal & ToS

This actor reads public, logged-out pages and feeds published by geocoding.geo.census.gov. It collects only what the source publishes to any visitor, identifies itself with a contact User-Agent, and does not access accounts, private data or anything behind authentication. Use the output in line with the source's terms and your local law; the intended use is B2B research and monitoring.

❓ FAQ

Q: Do I need an API key or a login?
A: No. The source (geocoding.geo.census.gov) is read logged-out; the input schema has no key field and the actor carries no secrets.

Q: Why did my run return 0 rows?
A: Read the run's status message. GENUINE_EMPTY means the source was read and had nothing in scope for your input; BLOCKED means the source refused and the run failed without billing a value event — retry later or narrow the input. A zero-row run bills the start fee only.

Q: How fresh is the data?
A: Every run reads the source live at run time; nothing is cached between runs. Put it on a schedule for a continuous feed.

Q: What formats can I export?
A: The dataset downloads as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML or RSS from the run's Dataset tab or the Apify API, and any run can push to a webhook or integration.

Q: How is this different from the other NexGen Watch actors actors?
A: Same output shape and billing model; this one covers geocoding.geo.census.gov. The siblings under Related Actors cover the other sources or slices — run several on one schedule for a combined feed.

Q: Are there rate limits?
A: The actor paces itself against the source; there is no per-buyer limit beyond your Apify plan's concurrency.

🆘 Troubleshooting

• Run FAILED with BLOCKED → the source refused the request or changed its page shape → nothing was billed beyond the start fee; retry after a while, and if it persists open an Issue with the run id.
• Fewer rows than expected → the source had fewer items in scope → widen the input.
• Input validation error on start → a field is outside the schema's allowed values → start from the Quick start block and change one field at a time.
• Run TIMED-OUT → a very wide request on a slow day → raise the run timeout in Run options or narrow the input; what was delivered before the timeout is still in the dataset.

🔗 Related Actors

• Brazil PNCP Awarded Contracts — One structured registryrecord per record from the official public source, logged-out. Public, robots-honoured, keyless
• Brazil PNCP Price-Registration Minutes — One structured registryrecord per record from the official public source, logged-out. Public, robots-honoured, keyless
• Brazil PNCP Tender Notices — One structured registryrecord per record from the official public source, logged-out. Public, robots-honoured, keyless
• ChEMBL Biotherapeutic Sequence Master — same family, different source
• ChEMBL Clinical-Stage Indication Screen — same family, different source
• ChEMBL Source Document Index — same family, different source
• 🏢 About NexGenData — NexGen Watch is NexGenData's fleet of 256 public monitoring and lookup actors built on official sources, pay-per-result. Browse the catalog at apify.com/nexgenwatch.

⭐ Found this useful?

If this actor saved you a manual check, a quick review on the Apify Store helps other teams find it. Feature request or a source that changed? Open it from the Issues tab — every one is read.