Federal Register Scraper: US rules, proposed rules, notices and presidential documents

$1 per 1,000 documents. Platform usage included. No rental, no minimum.

The four most used Federal Register actors on Apify Store charge $1.80 to $4.00 per 1,000 results (Store prices checked 20 October 2026). This actor returns the same kind of data for $1.

Open it in Apify Console

New to Apify? [Create a free account](https://www.apify.com?fpr=ymnoit) (referral link). Runs from a free plan account return the first 10 results; any paid plan returns everything you ask for, up to your limit.

What it costs

Documents	This actor	Most used Federal Register actors on the Store
1,000	$1.00	$1.80 to $4.00
10,000	$10.00	$18 to $40
100,000	$100.00	$180 to $400

Plus $0.001 per run. A daily run that picks up the 40 or so new documents on one topic costs about $0.04 plus $0.001 a day, roughly $1.25 a month.

Why people switch

• One flat price. Compute is included, so the bill follows the number of documents and nothing else.
• The fields a rule watcher needs. Each row has the title, abstract, action, agencies, publication date, effective date, comment deadline, docket IDs, regulation ID numbers (RIN), CFR references, citation, and links to the page, PDF, plain text, XML and regulations.gov.
• Filters in plain words. Search term, document type, agencies by name or short name such as EPA, publication dates, docket, and CFR title and part.
• The official API, no key. The data comes from federalregister.gov's own API. The actor keeps to about one request a second and asks for up to 1,000 documents at a time.

Quick start

1. Open the actor, type a search term, press Start.
2. Or paste this input:

{ "searchTerm": "artificial intelligence", "documentTypes": ["PRORULE"], "publishedFrom": "2026-01-01", "maxItems": 100 }

3. Download the results as JSON, CSV or Excel, or read them through the API.

Use it from code

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/one_dollar_store~federal-register-documents/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"searchTerm": "artificial intelligence", "maxItems": 50}'

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("one_dollar_store/federal-register-documents").call(
    run_input={"searchTerm": "artificial intelligence", "maxItems": 50}
)
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item["publicationDate"], item["type"], item["title"])

Use it from an AI assistant

Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and other assistants can call this actor through Apify's MCP server. Add it with this server address:

https://mcp.apify.com?tools=one_dollar_store/federal-register-documents

Then ask, for example: "List the proposed rules the EPA published this year that are open for comment, with the comment deadline."

Switching from another Federal Register actor

Most Federal Register actors take a search term, a document type, an agency, dates and a result limit. Here they are searchTerm, documentTypes (a list of RULE, PRORULE, NOTICE, PRESDOCU), agencies (names, short names or slugs), publishedFrom, publishedTo and maxItems. The core fields are documentNumber, title, type, abstract, agencies, publicationDate and url.

Input

Field	Type	Default	What it does
searchTerm	text	none	Words or a "quoted phrase" to find in the full text.
documentTypes	list	all four	RULE final rules, PRORULE proposed rules, NOTICE notices, PRESDOCU presidential documents.
agencies	list of text	none	Agency names, short names or slugs, for example EPA, Food and Drug Administration or environmental-protection-agency.
publishedFrom, publishedTo	text	none	Publication dates, YYYY-MM-DD.
docketId	text	none	Only documents under this agency docket.
cfrTitle, cfrPart	number, text	none	Only documents that touch this title of the Code of Federal Regulations, and optionally one part or a range such as 52 or 50-60.
sortBy	text	default	default (best match with a search term, newest first without), newest, oldest or relevance.
maxItems	number	100	Total documents for the run, 10 to 10,000.

All filters combine with AND. Example:

{
  "searchTerm": "\"data center\"",
  "documentTypes": ["RULE", "PRORULE"],
  "agencies": ["EPA", "Energy Department"],
  "publishedFrom": "2025-01-01",
  "sortBy": "newest",
  "maxItems": 200
}

Output fields

Field	Meaning
documentNumber, citation, volume, startPage, endPage, pageLength	The Federal Register document number and where it sits in the printed volume.
type, subtype, title, abstract, action, dates	What the document is, its summary, the agency's action line and its dates paragraph.
publicationDate, effectiveOn, commentsCloseOn, signingDate	Dates, YYYY-MM-DD. Comment deadlines are filled for proposed rules and some notices.
agencies, agencySlugs	Issuing agencies by name and by slug.
docketIds, regulationIdNumbers, cfrReferences	Docket numbers, RINs and the CFR parts affected, such as 40 CFR 52.
significant, topics	The significant action flag when the Federal Register records it, and subject topics.
executiveOrderNumber	Number of the executive order, for executive orders only.
president	The president in office when the document was published, as the Federal Register records it.
url, pdfUrl, textUrl, xmlUrl, bodyHtmlUrl	Links to the page, PDF, plain text, XML and HTML body.
regulationsGovUrl, publicInspectionPdfUrl	Where to comment on regulations.gov when the document has a docket there, and the pre publication PDF when there is one.

Sample results

Real rows from test runs on 20 October 2026 (a proposed rule, a final rule and an executive order). Fields that are empty for a document are left out, and long abstracts are cut here to keep the page short. The full rows also carry the page count, topics, the plain text, XML and HTML links, and the dates paragraph.

[
  {"documentNumber": "2026-20721", "type": "Proposed Rule", "title": "Requirements for Additional Traceability Records for Certain Foods: Enforcement Policy for Certain Retail Food Establishments and Restaurants; Draft Guidance for Industry; Availability", "abstract": "The Food and Drug Administration (FDA, we, or the Agency) is announcing the availability of a draft guidance for industry title...", "action": "Notification of availability.", "publicationDate": "2026-10-09", "commentsCloseOn": "2026-11-23", "agencies": ["Health and Human Services Department", "Food and Drug Administration"], "docketIds": ["Docket No. FDA-2025-D-6952"], "citation": "91 FR 64629", "cfrReferences": ["21 CFR 1"], "president": "Donald Trump", "url": "https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/10/09/2026-20721/requirements-for-additional-traceability-records-for-certain-foods-enforcement-policy-for-certain", "pdfUrl": "https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2026-10-09/pdf/2026-20721.pdf", "regulationsGovUrl": "http://www.regulations.gov/commenton/FDA-2025-D-6952-0001"},
  {"documentNumber": "2026-21268", "type": "Rule", "title": "Approval and Promulgation of Implementation Plans; Arizona; Revisions to the Cleaner Burning Gasoline, Winter Oxygenated Fuel, and Gasoline Set-Aside Programs", "abstract": "The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is finalizing an approval of a revision to the Arizona State Implementation Plan...", "action": "Final rule.", "publicationDate": "2026-10-19", "effectiveOn": "2026-11-18", "agencies": ["Environmental Protection Agency"], "docketIds": ["EPA-R09-OAR-2023-0054", "FRL-12607-02-R9"], "citation": "91 FR 66003", "cfrReferences": ["40 CFR 52"], "president": "Donald Trump", "url": "https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/10/19/2026-21268/approval-and-promulgation-of-implementation-plans-arizona-revisions-to-the-cleaner-burning-gasoline", "pdfUrl": "https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2026-10-19/pdf/2026-21268.pdf"},
  {"documentNumber": "2026-11415", "type": "Presidential Document", "subtype": "Executive Order", "title": "Promoting Advanced Artificial Intelligence Innovation and Security", "publicationDate": "2026-06-05", "signingDate": "2026-06-02", "agencies": ["Executive Office of the President"], "citation": "91 FR 34565", "executiveOrderNumber": 14409, "president": "Donald Trump", "url": "https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/06/05/2026-11415/promoting-advanced-artificial-intelligence-innovation-and-security", "pdfUrl": "https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2026-06-05/pdf/2026-11415.pdf"}
]

Limits

• 10,000 documents per search. The Federal Register API serves at most 10,000 results for one search. When more match, the run log says so; narrow the dates (for example one year at a time) to reach the rest.
• Pace. The API publishes no numeric limit. The actor sends one request a second and asks for up to 1,000 documents in each, so a full 10,000 document pull takes about ten requests.
• Links, not full text. Each row has the title, abstract and metadata, plus links to the page, PDF, plain text, XML and HTML body. The full body of the document is not copied into the row.
• Not every field exists for every document. Comment deadlines belong to proposed rules and some notices, effective dates to rules, and executive order numbers to executive orders. Missing values are left out of the row.
• Search term. The term is matched against the full text of each document by the Federal Register's own search, so a common word returns many documents. Use quotes for a phrase.
• Agencies. Names and short names are matched against the API's agency list. A name that matches nothing is skipped with a warning in the log; one that matches several agencies uses up to three of them.
• Published documents only. The actor reads the published documents from 1994 on. Documents that are only on public inspection are not included; publicInspectionPdfUrl is filled when a published document had one.
• Official edition. The text on federalregister.gov is a rendition of the published document. The PDF in pdfUrl is the official edition. Nothing here is legal advice.
• Free plan. A run from a free Apify plan returns the first 10 results.

FAQ

What is the cheapest Federal Register scraper on Apify? This actor costs $1 per 1,000 documents with platform usage included. The four most used Federal Register actors on the Store charged $1.80 to $4.00 per 1,000 when we checked on 20 October 2026.

How much does it cost to scrape 10,000 Federal Register documents? $10, plus $0.001 for each run.

Do I pay for compute or proxy on top? No. Platform usage is included in the $1 per 1,000 price, and no proxy is needed.

Where does the data come from? From the official Federal Register API at federalregister.gov, which needs no key. The site itself points automated users to its developer API.

Is it legal? The actor reads public data only, with no login. The Federal Register is the US government's public record of rules and notices. How you use the data is up to you: follow the terms of federalregister.gov and the law where you live.

Is this an official Federal Register product? No. It is an independent tool and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Office of the Federal Register or the US government.

How do I see proposed rules that are open for comment? Set documentTypes to ["PRORULE"], set sortBy to newest, and read commentsCloseOn in the results. The actor has no filter on the deadline itself, so drop rows whose date has passed.

How do I follow new rules on a topic every day? Schedule a daily run with publishedFrom set to yesterday and your search term, and use documentNumber to drop documents you already have.

Can I find all documents of one agency? Yes. Put the agency in agencies (for example EPA) and add a date range. Add documentTypes to separate rules from notices.

Can I read the full text? Each row links to the plain text (textUrl), XML and HTML body of the document. Fetch those links when you need the full body.

Do I need an Apify account? Yes. Actors run from an Apify account, and a free account is enough to start: it includes $5 of platform usage every month. You can sign up here. This is a referral link and it costs you nothing.

Is there a limit on the free plan? Yes. A run started from a free plan account delivers the first 10 results, then ends with a message and a link to the plans. Any paid plan returns everything you ask for, up to your own limit. The price per result is the same on every plan.

More from The One Dollar Store

Every actor here costs $1 per 1,000 results, platform usage included. See the whole store: https://apify.com/one_dollar_store

Tenders and grants

• UK Contracts Finder Scraper: UK public tenders and awards.
• EU Tenders Scraper: EU public procurement notices from TED.
• USAspending Scraper: US federal contracts and awards.
• Grants.gov Scraper: US federal grant opportunities.
• UK Find a Tender: UK public contract notices above threshold.

Changelog

• October 2026: first release.