OpenAQ Air Quality Scraper

OpenAQ Air Quality Scraper

Scrape real-time air quality measurements from OpenAQ by coordinates or country, up to a million per run. Every row includes pollutant values, station location, and timestamp. No login required. Export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.

OpenAQ aggregates air quality data from thousands of monitoring stations worldwide, but querying it manually means paging through API responses and normalizing fields. This Actor reads the public OpenAQ API directly, filters by pollutant, and returns each measurement as a flat row. You can target a city with coordinates and a radius, or pull every station in a country.

Who uses it	What they scrape OpenAQ for
Environmental researchers	Comparing pollution levels across cities for a study
Health analysts	Tracking PM2.5 exposure near hospitals or schools
Urban planners	Identifying neighborhoods with poor air quality
Data journalists	Building air quality maps for a story
App developers	Feeding real-time AQI into a weather or health app

What it does

This Actor collects air quality measurements from OpenAQ by coordinates with a radius or by country code, and returns each measurement as a flat row.

• 📍 Coordinate search: give a latitude, longitude, and radius up to 25 km to get nearby stations.
• 🌍 Country-wide pull: use a two-letter ISO code to collect measurements from every station in that country.
• 🧪 Pollutant filter: restrict results to PM2.5, PM10, O3, NO2, SO2, CO, NO, NOx, or black carbon.
• 🔑 Bring your own key: a shared OpenAQ key is included, but you can supply your own for higher rate limits.

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

What you can do with OpenAQ data

📈 Track pollution trends.

A researcher pulls weekly PM2.5 measurements for 20 cities and plots the trend to see which areas are improving.

🏥 Map health risks.

A public health analyst collects NO2 values near schools and flags locations above the WHO guideline.

📰 Power a news story.

A journalist scrapes O3 levels across a metro area and builds an interactive map showing the worst neighborhoods.

📱 Feed a consumer app.

A developer runs the Actor hourly for a user's coordinates and shows the current AQI on the home screen.

Why choose this scraper

	What you get
No API setup	A shared OpenAQ key is preconfigured, so the first run works immediately.
Flat, clean rows	Every measurement comes back with pollutant, value, station, and timestamp in one schema.
Scale to a million rows	Set maxItems up to 1,000,000 and let the Actor page through the API for you.
Export anywhere	Download as CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML, or push to a dataset you already use.

How it compares

This Actor and the Openaq Air Quality Scraper both pull air quality data, but this one reads directly from OpenAQ while the competitor uses the World Air Quality Index API.

Feature	ParseForge	Openaq Air Quality Scraper
Data source	OpenAQ API	World Air Quality Index API
Pollutant filter	Yes	Not listed
Coordinate search with radius	Yes	Not listed
Country-wide pull	Yes	Not listed
Max measurements per run	1,000,000	Not listed
Free API key included	Yes	Yes

Configure the run

Drive the Actor from coordinates with a radius or a country code, and the pollutant filter runs as each measurement is read so only matching rows reach your dataset. The Input tab lists every parameter.

A first run with the defaults:

{
  "coordinates": "34.0522,-118.2437",
  "radiusKm": 12,
  "maxItems": 10
}

A larger pull:

{
  "coordinates": "34.0522,-118.2437",
  "radiusKm": 12,
  "maxItems": 200
}

Pricing

Pay-per-result: $0.001 per result collected. You pay only for the results written to your dataset.

Results collected	Approximate cost
100 results	$0.10
1,000 results	$1.00
10,000 results	$10.00

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 OpenAQ Air Quality 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 OpenAQ 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/openaq-air-quality-scraper"

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

Troubleshooting

Why am I getting no results?

Make sure the coordinates are in "latitude,longitude" order with a comma and no spaces. Increase the radius, or try a country code instead. Some regions have very few stations.

Why did the run stop before reaching maxItems?

The Actor stops when there are no more matching stations. If you filtered by pollutant, try removing the filter or choosing a more common pollutant like PM2.5.

I got an authentication error.

The shared key may be rate-limited. Get your own free OpenAQ key and paste it into the apiKey field, then rerun.

The coordinates field is ignored.

Coordinates take priority over country code. If both are set, the Actor uses coordinates. Clear the coordinates field to use the country code.

Can I get data for multiple cities in one run?

Not directly. Run the Actor once per city with different coordinates, or use a country code to get all stations in that country and filter the results afterward.

FAQ

Question	Answer
Do I need an OpenAQ API key?	No. A shared key is included by default. For heavy or commercial use, get your own free key at explore.openaq.org and paste it into the apiKey field.
How do I get measurements for a specific city?	Use the coordinates field with the city's latitude and longitude, and set a radius in kilometers. The Actor returns all stations within that radius.
Can I filter by pollutant?	Yes. Choose from PM2.5, PM10, O3, NO2, SO2, CO, NO, NOx, or black carbon in the parameter dropdown. Leave it on Any to get all pollutants.
What is the maximum number of measurements I can collect?	You can set maxItems up to 1,000,000 per run. The Actor pages through the OpenAQ API until it reaches that number or runs out of matching stations.
How fresh is the data?	The Actor queries the OpenAQ API in real time, so you get the latest measurements available from each station.
Can I get historical data?	This Actor returns current measurements. OpenAQ does offer historical data through its API, but this Actor is designed for real-time pulls.
What does a row look like?	Each row is a flat object with fields like pollutant, value, unit, station name, latitude, longitude, and timestamp. The exact fields are shown in the sample output.
Can I run this on a schedule?	Yes. Use Apify's scheduler to run the Actor hourly, daily, or weekly and keep a rolling dataset of air quality.
Is there a limit on the radius?	The radius can be set from 1 to 25 kilometers. For larger areas, use the country code to pull all stations in a country.
What if I get no results?	Check that your coordinates are in the correct "latitude,longitude" format and that the radius is at least 1 km. Some countries have sparse station coverage.

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 OpenAQ. 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.