# News Article Extractor: Clean Text, Author, Date & Images (`plotpointtech/news-article-extractor`) Actor

Extract any news or blog article from its URL: title, authors, publish and modified dates, clean text and Markdown, lead image and all images, language, tags, word count and summary. Feeds and sitemaps too. $0.90 per 1,000 articles.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/plotpointtech/news-article-extractor.md
- **Developed by:** [Plot Point Technologies](https://apify.com/plotpointtech) (community)
- **Categories:** News, AI, Automation
- **Security:** Limited permissions
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $0.56 / 1,000 articles

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

## News Article Extractor: Clean Text, Author, Date & Images from Any URL

**Paste links to news or blog articles and get one clean, structured record per article:** headline, authors, publish and modified dates, the main text as plain text and Markdown, the lead image and every image in the article, language, tags, section, word count, reading time, canonical URL, site name and a short summary. You can also give it an RSS/Atom feed, an XML (news) sitemap or a site's homepage and it extracts the newest articles. **$0.90 per 1,000 articles**, and pages it cannot extract are not charged.

### What can this article extractor do?

- **Metadata the way publishers declare it.** Fields come first from the page's JSON-LD (schema.org `NewsArticle`, `BlogPosting` and similar), then microdata and meta tags (Open Graph, `article:*`, Parse.ly, Dublin Core), then careful heuristics (`<time>` tags, dates in the URL, bylines). `publishedAtSource` and `authorSource` tell you where each value came from.
- **Clean main text.** Menus, ads, cookie banners, share buttons, comment prompts and "related stories" are removed. You get plain `text` and `markdown` with headings, lists, links, tables and images kept.
- **All images.** The lead image plus every image in the article body, with alt text, as absolute URLs.
- **Normalised dates.** ISO 8601 in UTC (`2026-11-04T18:00:02Z`), or a plain date when the page gives only a date.
- **Language, tags, word count, reading time** and an **extractive summary** made of the article's own key sentences (no AI, no extra cost).
- **Discovery from feeds and sitemaps.** RSS, Atom, JSON Feed, XML sitemaps, sitemap indexes and Google News sitemaps, newest first, with a per-source cap.
- **Polite and compliant.** robots.txt is always obeyed (including crawl-delay), and any `Content-Signal` the site declares (for example `ai-train=no`) is returned with each record.

### How is this different from our Website to Markdown Crawler?

The [Website to Markdown Crawler](https://apify.com/plotpointtech/website-to-markdown-crawler) crawls whole websites and returns every page as Markdown for LLM and RAG pipelines. **This tool works per article:** you give it article links (or a feed), it does not follow links, and it focuses on **article metadata**: multiple authors, publish and modified dates with their source, publisher, section, tags, lead image and all images, reading time, summary and paywall flag. Use the crawler for documentation and whole sites; use this extractor for news, blogs and press releases.

### Who uses it?

- **Media monitoring and PR teams** turning coverage links into a clean spreadsheet with author, outlet and date.
- **Researchers and data journalists** building article datasets with consistent fields across hundreds of publishers.
- **AI and RAG developers** feeding clean article text and Markdown with reliable dates and sources into their pipelines.
- **Content and SEO teams** auditing their own articles for missing authors, dates, images or tags.
- **Newsletter and aggregator builders** pulling the newest posts from feeds with full text and a summary.

### How to use it

1. Click **Try for free** (or **Start**).
2. Paste article links into **Article URLs**, and/or add feeds, sitemaps or homepages under **Discover articles from**.
3. Choose what to include: plain text, Markdown, all images, summary length.
4. Run it and export to JSON, CSV, Excel or HTML, or read the results through the API.
5. To follow a publication, schedule a daily run on its feed.

### Input example

```json
{
  "articleUrls": [
    "https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-announces-ka-band-satellite-relay-awards-for-space-communications/",
    "https://theconversation.com/why-do-galaxies-rotate-291508"
  ],
  "discoveryUrls": [
    "https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/feed/"
  ],
  "maxArticlesPerSource": 10,
  "summarySentences": 3
}
```

| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| `articleUrls` | Article links, one result each |
| `discoveryUrls` | RSS/Atom feeds, XML or news sitemaps, or homepages (their feed or sitemap is found automatically) |
| `maxArticlesPerSource` | Newest articles taken from each feed or sitemap (default 10) |
| `sameSiteOnly` | Ignore feed links pointing to other websites (default on) |
| `maxArticles` | Overall cap, 0 = none |
| `includeText`, `includeMarkdown`, `includeImages` | Choose the output fields |
| `summarySentences` | Sentences in the extractive summary, 0 = off (default 3) |
| `maxTextChars` | Trim long articles, 0 = full text |
| `minWordCount` | Pages with less text are skipped and not charged (default 50) |

### Output example

This is a real result from a default run (text and Markdown shortened here):

```json
{
  "url": "https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-announces-ka-band-satellite-relay-awards-for-space-communications/",
  "finalUrl": "https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-announces-ka-band-satellite-relay-awards-for-space-communications/",
  "canonicalUrl": "https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-announces-ka-band-satellite-relay-awards-for-space-communications/",
  "title": "NASA Announces Ka-Band Satellite Relay Awards for Space Communications",
  "authors": [
    "Jessica Taveau"
  ],
  "author": "Jessica Taveau",
  "publishedAt": "2026-11-04T18:00:02Z",
  "modifiedAt": "2026-11-04T18:00:04Z",
  "publishedAtSource": "meta",
  "siteName": "NASA",
  "publisher": "NASA",
  "section": "Space Communications & Navigation Program",
  "tags": [
    "Technology",
    "Communicating and Navigating with Missions",
    "Space Communications Technology",
    "Space Communications & Navigation Program"
  ],
  "language": "en",
  "description": "NASA selected three companies on Wednesday to perform work to develop Ka-band space relay capability concepts that are compatible with current missions in",
  "leadImage": "https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/nasa_meatball_large.jpg",
  "images": [
    {
      "url": "https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/nasa_meatball_large.jpg",
      "alt": "NASA insignia."
    }
  ],
  "imageCount": 1,
  "wordCount": 290,
  "readingTimeMinutes": 1,
  "summary": "NASA selected three companies on Wednesday to perform work to develop Ka-band space relay capability concepts that are compatible with current missions in space, ensuring service continuity for existing spacecraft without requiring modifications to their onboard systems. Through this work, NASA will...",
  "text": "NASA selected three companies on Wednesday to perform work to develop Ka-band space relay capability concepts that are compatible with current missions in space, ensuring service continuity for existing spacecraft without requiring modifications to their onboard systems.\n\nThrough this work, NASA wil...",
  "markdown": "![NASA insignia.](https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/nasa_meatball_large.jpg?w=1920)\n\nNASA selected three companies on Wednesday to perform work to develop Ka-band space relay capability concepts that are compatible with current missions in space, ensuring service continuity for existin...",
  "articleType": null,
  "paywalled": null,
  "authorSource": "meta",
  "robotsContentSignals": null,
  "source": "input",
  "sourceUrl": null,
  "httpStatus": 200,
  "fetchMs": 586,
  "extractedAt": "2026-11-04T23:01:28Z"
}
```

`articleType` is the schema.org type when the page declares one, `paywalled` is set when the publisher marks the article as paid, and `source` is `input` or `discovery`. Pages that were skipped (robots.txt, 403/404, not an article) are listed with the reason in the run's key-value store under `SUMMARY`.

### How much does it cost?

You pay **$0.90 per 1,000 articles** extracted, plus a $0.00005 start fee per run. Skipped pages are free.

- 100 coverage links: about $0.09.
- 50 articles a day from feeds for a month (1,500): about $1.35.
- 20,000 articles for a research dataset: about $18.

**Volume discounts on higher Apify plans.** The prices above are for the Apify Free plan. On paid plans the per-result price drops automatically: about 15% lower on Bronze, 25% lower on Silver and 38% lower on Gold and above.

### Use it via API, Make, Zapier, n8n or an AI agent

**Apify API.** Start a run and get the results back in one HTTP request (replace `YOUR_API_TOKEN` with the token from Apify Console > Settings > Integrations):

```bash
curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/plotpointtech~news-article-extractor/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"articleUrls": ["https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-announces-ka-band-satellite-relay-awards-for-space-communications/", "https://theconversation.com/why-do-galaxies-rotate-291508"], "discoveryUrls": ["https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/feed/"], "maxArticlesPerSource": 10, "summarySentences": 3}'
```

For longer jobs, start the run asynchronously and read the dataset when it finishes. Official `apify-client` libraries exist for Python and JavaScript; the **API** tab on this page has ready-made code.

**No-code automation.** Connect the tool to **Make, Zapier, n8n, Google Sheets, Slack, Airtable** or any webhook with Apify integrations, and use **Schedules** in Apify Console to run it hourly, daily or weekly.

**AI agents (MCP).** Give Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, VS Code or any MCP-compatible agent direct access to this tool through the hosted Apify MCP server. Add this server URL to your client:

```
https://mcp.apify.com?tools=plotpointtech/news-article-extractor
```

The agent can then call the tool with the same input fields shown above and read the results.

### FAQ

**Is it legal to extract news articles?**
The tool only reads public pages at the URLs you supply (or that a site lists in its own feeds and sitemaps), always obeys robots.txt and never bypasses paywalls, logins or bot protection. Article text and images are protected by copyright and by each publisher's terms; you are responsible for using them lawfully, for example for analysis, monitoring or with a license, and for linking rather than republishing. Check each site's terms and the `robotsContentSignals` field.

**What happens with paywalled articles?**
Nothing is bypassed. If the publisher marks the article as not free (`isAccessibleForFree: false`), the paywalled sections it declares are removed, `paywalled` is `true`, and you get only what the site shows to everyone. If the page has too little text, it is skipped and not charged.

**Why was a URL skipped?**
The site's robots.txt disallowed it, the server refused the request (often 401/403 bot protection, which we do not work around), the page was not found, or it had fewer words than `minWordCount` (index pages, consent walls). See `SUMMARY` in the key-value store.

**Does it render JavaScript?**
No. It reads the HTML the server sends, which works for almost all news sites and blogs and keeps it fast and cheap. Pages that build their text only in the browser may be skipped.

**Which languages are supported?**
Any. Language comes from the page markup or is detected from the text. Word counts treat Chinese, Japanese and Korean characters sensibly.

**Is the summary AI-generated?**
No. It selects the article's most representative sentences, so it never invents facts.

### Related tools from Plot Point Technologies

- [Website to Markdown Crawler for AI, LLM & RAG - $1/1K](https://apify.com/plotpointtech/website-to-markdown-crawler): any website as clean Markdown for LLMs and RAG.

- [Google News Scraper - Articles with Real Publisher URLs](https://apify.com/plotpointtech/google-news-scraper): Google News articles with decoded publisher URLs.

- [News Scraper - Worldwide News Search by Keyword, 65+ Languages](https://apify.com/plotpointtech/worldwide-news-search): news articles worldwide by keyword, country and language.

- [AI Web Scraper - Extract Any Website to JSON in Plain English](https://apify.com/plotpointtech/ai-page-extractor): describe the fields you want and get JSON from any web page.

- [RSS Feed Reader & Monitor](https://apify.com/plotpointtech/rss-feed-reader-monitor): any RSS, Atom or JSON feed to JSON, with only-new monitoring.

Plot Point Technologies is not affiliated with any of the publishers mentioned on this page.

***

If this tool saved you time, we would be grateful for a short review on this page; it helps other people find it. If something did not work as expected, please open an issue on the **Issues** tab and we will look into it quickly.

# Actor input Schema

## `articleUrls` (type: `array`):

Links to individual news or blog articles. Each URL becomes one result with title, authors, dates, clean text, Markdown, images and more. Only pages that the site's robots.txt allows are fetched; paywalls and logins are never bypassed.

## `discoveryUrls` (type: `array`):

Optional. RSS/Atom feed URLs, XML sitemap or news-sitemap URLs, or a site's homepage (its feed or sitemap is found automatically). The newest articles are extracted, up to the limit below per source.

## `maxArticlesPerSource` (type: `integer`):

How many of the newest article links to take from each discovery URL.

## `sameSiteOnly` (type: `boolean`):

Skip feed or sitemap links that point to a different website than the feed itself.

## `maxArticles` (type: `integer`):

Stop after this many articles across all inputs. 0 = no limit.

## `includeText` (type: `boolean`):

Return the clean main article text (no menus, ads, comments or related links).

## `includeMarkdown` (type: `boolean`):

Return the article body as Markdown with headings, lists, links, tables and images.

## `includeImages` (type: `boolean`):

Return every image in the article body (URL and alt text) and keep images in the Markdown. The lead image is always returned.

## `summarySentences` (type: `integer`):

Length of an extractive summary built from the article's own most representative sentences (no AI, no extra cost). 0 = no summary.

## `maxTextChars` (type: `integer`):

Trim text and Markdown to this length. 0 = full article.

## `minWordCount` (type: `integer`):

Pages with less article text than this are skipped and not charged (index pages, consent walls, paywalled stubs).

## `maxConcurrency` (type: `integer`):

Pages fetched at the same time (each website is still paced politely and robots.txt crawl-delay is honoured).

## `requestTimeoutSecs` (type: `integer`):

Give up on a page that does not answer within this time.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "articleUrls": [
    "https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-announces-ka-band-satellite-relay-awards-for-space-communications/",
    "https://theconversation.com/why-do-galaxies-rotate-291508",
    "https://globalvoices.org/2026/11/04/tracing-the-recruitment-trap-behind-russias-war/"
  ],
  "discoveryUrls": [],
  "maxArticlesPerSource": 10,
  "sameSiteOnly": true,
  "maxArticles": 0,
  "includeText": true,
  "includeMarkdown": true,
  "includeImages": true,
  "summarySentences": 3,
  "maxTextChars": 0,
  "minWordCount": 50,
  "maxConcurrency": 5,
  "requestTimeoutSecs": 30
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

# 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 = {
    "articleUrls": [
        "https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-announces-ka-band-satellite-relay-awards-for-space-communications/",
        "https://theconversation.com/why-do-galaxies-rotate-291508",
        "https://globalvoices.org/2026/11/04/tracing-the-recruitment-trap-behind-russias-war/"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("plotpointtech/news-article-extractor").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 = { "articleUrls": [
        "https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-announces-ka-band-satellite-relay-awards-for-space-communications/",
        "https://theconversation.com/why-do-galaxies-rotate-291508",
        "https://globalvoices.org/2026/11/04/tracing-the-recruitment-trap-behind-russias-war/",
    ] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("plotpointtech/news-article-extractor").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 '{
  "articleUrls": [
    "https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-announces-ka-band-satellite-relay-awards-for-space-communications/",
    "https://theconversation.com/why-do-galaxies-rotate-291508",
    "https://globalvoices.org/2026/11/04/tracing-the-recruitment-trap-behind-russias-war/"
  ]
}' |
apify call plotpointtech/news-article-extractor --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,plotpointtech/news-article-extractor"
        }
    }
}
```

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/HPltc7YfQWQlE2yTE/builds/q0ljIzZ1oV7nDZmAv/openapi.json