# Google Flights Price Tracker — Fares by Route & Date (`northbell/google-flights-price-tracker`) Actor

Google Flights fares for any route and date: every flight with airlines, departure and arrival times, duration, stops and price, cheapest first, plus Google's low / typical / high price label. Run it again or on a schedule to get price changes and new flights since the last run. No login.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/northbell/google-flights-price-tracker.md
- **Developed by:** [Northbell](https://apify.com/northbell) (community)
- **Categories:** Travel, Automation
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $1.60 / 1,000 flights

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

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 Flights Price Tracker — Fares by Route & Date

Give it a list of routes — `JFK` to `LHR` on a date, one-way or round trip — and get one clean row per flight, cheapest first: **airlines, flight numbers, departure and arrival times, duration, stops and layovers, aircraft, CO₂ and the price**, plus one summary row per route with the cheapest fare and Google's own **low / typical / high** price label. **$2 per 1,000 flights**, no login, no API key.

Run it again — or put it on a daily schedule — and every flight also tells you **what changed since the last run**: its `previousPrice`, the `priceChange` (positive = more expensive) and whether the flight is new in the results, while the route summary shows how the cheapest fare moved. Google Flights only shows you today's price; this keeps yesterday's.

### What you get

One `flight` row per flight, and one free `summary` row per route (it comes first).

| Field | What it is |
|---|---|
| `route`, `from`, `to`, `date`, `returnDate`, `tripType` | the search you asked for (`tripType` is `one-way` or `round-trip`; `returnDate` is only set for round trips) |
| `airlines`, `flightNumbers` | every airline on the itinerary and its flight numbers, for example `["United","Air Canada"]` and `["UA2179","AC551","AC3"]` |
| `departureAirport`, `arrivalAirport` | the airports actually used (useful when you search a city code such as `NYC` that covers several) |
| `departureTime`, `arrivalTime` | local time at each airport, for example `2026-12-15T08:00` (no time zone). The arrival date shows when you land the next day |
| `durationMinutes` | total travel time, layovers included |
| `stops`, `stopAirports`, `layoverMinutes` | number of stops, the airports you change at, and the wait at each one in minutes |
| `price`, `currency` | the price Google Flights shows for this flight, in whole units of the currency Google used |
| `isCheapest`, `isBest` | `isCheapest`: the flight has the lowest price of the route. `isBest`: it is in Google's "Best" group, the first block of results |
| `aircraft`, `co2Kg`, `co2VsTypicalPercent` | aircraft type per leg; Google's CO₂ estimate in kg and how far it is above (+) or below (−) typical for the route, in percent |
| `previousPrice`, `priceChange`, `priceChangePercent`, `isNew` | the same flight at your previous run of this route and date: its old price, the difference (positive = dearer), the difference in percent, and `true` when the flight was not in the previous results (`null` on the first run) |
| `cheapestPrice`, `cheapestNonstopPrice` | summary: the lowest price among the flights read, and the lowest price among nonstop flights (`null` when there is no nonstop) |
| `priceLevel`, `typicalPriceLow`, `typicalPriceHigh` | summary: Google's own label for the cheapest fare today (`low`, `typical` or `high`) and the price range Google calls typical for this search |
| `previousCheapestPrice`, `cheapestPriceChange`, `hoursSinceLastRun` | summary: the change of the cheapest fare since your previous run (`null` on the first run) |
| `flightsRead`, `flightsReturned`, `flightsWithoutPrice` | summary: flights with a price that Google listed, how many are in your dataset (the cheapest `maxFlightsPerRoute`), and how many Google lists without any price |
| `currencyNote`, `searchUrl` | summary: a note when Google did not price in the currency you asked for, and a link that opens the same search on Google Flights |
| `type`, `observedAt` | on every row: `flight`, `summary` or `error`, and the time the run read the page |
| `errorKind`, `message` | error rows only (free): `past-date`, `no-flights`, `no-prices`, `not-found`, `blocked`, `network`, `rate-limited` or `skipped`, and a plain-English reason |

### Use it for

- **Fare watching for a trip** — schedule a daily run for your route and dates and look at `priceChange`, `cheapestPriceChange` and `priceLevel` to see when it is a good time to book
- **Route and airline research** — compare the cheapest nonstop with the cheapest connection, or how fares differ across dates, then export to Sheets or your BI tool
- **Travel sites, agencies and corporate travel** — keep a price history for the routes you care about, with a ready-made low / typical / high signal
- **Alerts** — send the dataset to Zapier, Make or a webhook and notify yourself when `priceChange` is negative or `priceLevel` turns `low`

### Input

```json
{
  "routes": [
    { "from": "JFK", "to": "LHR", "date": "2026-12-15" },
    { "from": "SFO", "to": "NRT", "date": "2026-12-15", "returnDate": "2026-12-29" }
  ],
  "currency": "USD",
  "maxFlightsPerRoute": 30
}
```

`from` and `to` are 3-letter airport codes (`JFK`) or city codes (`NYC`, `LON`). Add `returnDate` for a round trip. One adult, economy class. Routes are read one after another, about 3 seconds each.

The previous run is remembered per route, dates and currency in a named key-value store in your Apify account, so the second run of the same route already shows changes. Schedule it (Apify → Schedules) for a daily history.

### Pricing

**$2.00 per 1,000 flights**, plus $0.01 per run. Route summary rows and error rows (a date in the past, an unknown airport code, no flights, a blocked page) are free. The $0.01 run-start fee is the one charge every run pays, even one that returns nothing.

### Notes

- Public data only: what anyone sees on a Google Flights results page without signing in. No account, no passenger or booking data.
- **Round trips.** With a `returnDate` you get the outbound flights, and `price` is the round-trip fare Google shows next to each outbound flight (with the cheapest return). The return flights themselves are not listed.
- **Dates.** Google Flights has fares from today up to about 11 months ahead. A date in the past, or too far ahead, gives a free error row instead of fares.
- **Currency.** `price` is in the currency of the `currency` column. If Google Flights does not price in the currency you asked for, it answers in USD and the summary row says so in `currencyNote`. If you change the currency between runs, the comparison starts over (the change fields are `null`), because the old prices cannot be compared.
- **Prices are Google's.** The price is the one on the Google Flights result for that search, asked for the English / United States version of the site; the airline's checkout can still differ (bags, seats, a fare that sold out), and some airlines price differently by country of sale, which the Actor does not change. Each price is checked against the price token Google attaches to the same flight (flight numbers and amount), and a flight that does not pass is left out, so a row never carries another flight's price.
- **Flights without a price.** Google lists some flights as "Price unavailable" (we saw it most on Beijing to Shanghai, and on a few flights on other routes). They are not returned; `flightsWithoutPrice` on the summary tells you how many there were. If a route has flights but none with a price, you get a free error row saying so.
- **Google's list moves a little.** Between two requests a few flights can appear or disappear, mostly for round trips on busy city pairs, so `isNew` can flag a flight that was simply not shown last time. `priceChange` always compares the same flight (same flight numbers and departure time).
- Some fields are empty by design: `returnDate` unless the search is a round trip; `previousPrice`, `priceChange`, `priceChangePercent`, `isNew`, `previousCheapestPrice`, `cheapestPriceChange` and `hoursSinceLastRun` on the first run of a route (and a new date or currency); `cheapestNonstopPrice` when no nonstop flight has a price; `priceLevel`, `typicalPriceLow` and `typicalPriceHigh` when Google publishes no price insight for the search; `currencyNote` unless the currency was changed by Google.
- **Consent pages and CAPTCHAs.** If Google answers with a cookie-consent page or a CAPTCHA instead of fares (it can happen for servers in some regions, or after very many requests), the route becomes a free error row that says so. The Actor does not click through or solve them. After two such answers in a row the rest of the routes are skipped, and a run that could read nothing at all fails.
- Up to 200 routes per run.

To track places to stay for the same trip, see [Airbnb Listings Scraper](https://apify.com/northbell/airbnb-listings-tracker).

### For AI agents

`{"routes": [{"from": "JFK", "to": "LHR", "date": "2026-12-15"}], "maxFlightsPerRoute": 10}` returns one `summary` row (cheapest fare, Google's price level, typical range) and up to 10 `flight` rows with airlines, times, stops and price, cheapest first, plus the changes since the last run. Rows have `type`: `flight`, `summary` or `error`. For a round trip add `"returnDate": "2026-12-22"` to the route.

# Actor input Schema

## `routes` (type: `array`):

A list of searches. Each one is { "from": "JFK", "to": "LHR", "date": "2026-12-15" } with 3-letter airport codes (JFK) or city codes (NYC, LON). Add "returnDate": "2026-12-22" for a round trip: you then get the outbound flights, priced as the round-trip fare. Dates run from today to about 11 months ahead.

## `currency` (type: `string`):

3-letter currency code for the prices, for example USD, EUR, GBP, JPY, CAD, AUD. If Google Flights does not price in it, the prices come back in USD and the summary row says so.

## `maxFlightsPerRoute` (type: `integer`):

How many flights to return for each route, cheapest first. Google lists from a handful up to about 70 flights per search; the route summary always counts all of them. You are charged per flight returned.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "routes": [
    {
      "from": "JFK",
      "to": "LHR",
      "date": "2026-12-15"
    }
  ],
  "currency": "USD",
  "maxFlightsPerRoute": 30
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `fares` (type: `string`):

Flights with airlines, times, stops and price, route summaries, and the change since the last run.

# 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 = {
    "routes": [
        {
            "from": "JFK",
            "to": "LHR",
            "date": "2026-12-15"
        }
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("northbell/google-flights-price-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 = { "routes": [{
            "from": "JFK",
            "to": "LHR",
            "date": "2026-12-15",
        }] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("northbell/google-flights-price-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 '{
  "routes": [
    {
      "from": "JFK",
      "to": "LHR",
      "date": "2026-12-15"
    }
  ]
}' |
apify call northbell/google-flights-price-tracker --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,northbell/google-flights-price-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/dgBIF2WzS3pqAHTEh/builds/ryVrQ8KezRG22UzuK/openapi.json