GDELT News Scraper

GDELT News Scraper

Scrape global news articles from GDELT by keyword, up to a million per run. Every article comes with its URL, domain, source country, language, and publish date. No API key or login. Export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.

GDELT monitors news in over 100 languages from every country, but its raw API is built for researchers, not for quick exports. This Actor searches the public GDELT 2.0 index for any keyword or phrase, sorts the results by date or tone, and returns each matching article as a flat row you can open in a spreadsheet.

Who uses it	What they scrape GDELT for
Market researchers	Track how a product or topic is covered across different countries and languages
Journalists	Find recent articles from around the world on a breaking story
PR agencies	Monitor global media mentions of a client or campaign
Data analysts	Build a dataset of news articles for trend analysis or NLP

What it does

This Actor collects global news articles from GDELT by keyword and returns each one as a flat row with its URL, domain, source country, language, and publish date.

• 🔎 Keyword search: Enter any term or phrase, including GDELT query operators, to find matching articles.
• 📅 Date sorting: Order results by newest first or oldest first to focus on recent coverage or historical context.
• 🎭 Tone sorting: Sort by most positive or most negative tone to find articles with strong sentiment.
• 📊 Flat output: Each article is returned as a single row, ready for CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML export.

Results export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML, or straight from the API.

What you can do with GDELT data

📈 Track topics and trends.

A market researcher runs the Actor daily with a product keyword, sorts by newest first, and exports the results to spot emerging themes in global coverage.

🌍 Monitor worldwide media mentions.

A PR agency searches for a client's name, collects articles from every country, and uses the source country and language fields to build a coverage report.

📰 Build a news dataset for analysis.

A data analyst scrapes thousands of articles on a topic, exports them as CSV, and feeds the text into a sentiment analysis or topic modeling pipeline.

🔍 Find articles with strong sentiment.

A journalist sorts results by most negative tone to quickly locate critical coverage of a policy or event.

Why choose this scraper

	What you get
No API key	Uses the public GDELT 2.0 index, so you can start scraping immediately without registration.
Global coverage	Searches news from over 100 languages and every country, all in one query.
Flexible sorting	Order results by date or tone to get the most relevant articles first.
Scalable	Collect up to 1,000,000 articles per run for large-scale analysis.

How it compares

This Actor focuses on a simple keyword search with flexible sorting, while other GDELT scrapers offer additional filters or output fields.

Feature	ParseForge	GDELT Global News Article Scraper	GDELT News Scraper - Articles, Timeline & Images	GDELT News Scraper - Worldwide Coverage, No API Key
Keyword search	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Sort by date	Yes	Not listed	Not listed	Not listed
Sort by tone	Yes	Not listed	Not listed	Not listed
Language filter	Not listed	Yes	Yes	Not listed
Country filter	Not listed	Yes	Yes	Not listed
Time window filter	Not listed	Yes	Not listed	Not listed
Returns images	Not listed	Not listed	Yes	Yes

Configure the run

Drive the Actor with a single search query, then set the sort order and the maximum number of articles to collect per run. The Input tab lists every parameter.

A first run with the defaults:

{
 "searchQuery": "artificial intelligence",
 "maxItems": 10
}

A larger pull:

{
 "searchQuery": "artificial intelligence",
 "maxItems": 200
}

Pricing

Pay-per-result: $0.0075 per result collected. You pay only for the results written to your dataset.

Results collected	Approximate cost
100 results	$0.75
1,000 results	$7.50
10,000 results	$75.00

New Apify accounts start with $5 in free credit.

Free users

Free-plan runs return up to 10 results as a preview. Upgrade your Apify plan to collect up to 1,000,000 results per run.

Run it

1. Create a free Apify account with $5 in credit.
2. Open the GDELT News Scraper.
3. Set your inputs and any filters, then click Start.
4. Export the results as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML from the Dataset tab.

Run it programmatically through the Apify API (run-sync-get-dataset-items) or the ApifyClient for JavaScript and Python.

Use with AI agents (MCP)

Give an AI agent live access to GDELT through the Model Context Protocol. Add the Actor to Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client:

$claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=parseforge/gdelt-news-scraper"

Then prompt it in plain language to run the scraper and read back the results.

Troubleshooting

Why am I getting no results?

Check your search query. GDELT may not have any articles matching that exact term in the selected time period. Try a broader keyword or remove any special operators.

Why are some articles missing the language or country?

GDELT does not always have complete metadata for every article. If the language or source country is not available in the index, the field will be empty.

The run is taking too long.

Lower the maximum articles input. The Actor stops as soon as it reaches that number, so a smaller limit will finish faster.

Can I get the full text of the articles?

This Actor only returns metadata. To get the full text, you can use the article URLs as input to a web scraper like Apify's Web Scraper.

Why did I get fewer articles than my maximum?

GDELT may not have more matching articles for your query. Try a broader search term or remove filters.

FAQ

Question	Answer
Do I need a GDELT API key?	No. This Actor uses the public GDELT 2.0 index, which does not require an API key or login.
What is the maximum number of articles I can get?	You can set the maximum articles input up to 1,000,000 per run. The Actor will stop once it reaches that number or runs out of matching articles.
Can I search for an exact phrase?	Yes. Put the phrase in double quotes, for example "electric vehicles", and GDELT will match the exact phrase.
What does the tone sort do?	GDELT assigns each article a tone score from -100 (very negative) to +100 (very positive). Sorting by tone lets you see the most positive or most negative articles first.
Which languages and countries are covered?	GDELT monitors news in over 100 languages from virtually every country. The Actor returns the language and source country for each article when available.
Can I use GDELT query operators?	Yes. The search query input supports GDELT's query syntax, so you can use operators like AND, OR, and parentheses to refine your search.
What format is the output?	The Actor returns a flat dataset that you can export as CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML from the Apify platform.
How much does it cost?	You pay only for the compute resources the Actor uses. There is no per-article fee, and empty runs cost almost nothing.
Can I schedule this Actor to run regularly?	Yes. You can set up a schedule in Apify to run the Actor daily, hourly, or at any interval, and it will collect new articles each time.
Does this Actor return the full article text?	No. It returns the article metadata: URL, domain, source country, language, and publish date. To get the full text, you would need to scrape the article URLs separately.

Related actors

Browse the full ParseForge collection for more scrapers.

🆘 Need help? Email parseforge@protonmail.com with your run ID, your input, and what you expected.

⚠️ Disclaimer. This Actor is unofficial and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by GDELT Project. It collects only publicly available data. You are responsible for using the collected data in compliance with the source's terms of service and applicable data-protection laws, including GDPR, CCPA, and PIPL. Do not use it to collect personal data unlawfully.