PubMed Search (with Abstracts)

Search PubMed and get analysis-ready rows: title, journal, date, authors, DOI, PMCID, publication types and full abstract. Date filters and NCBI API key support.

Why use it

• Literature tables for reviews and grant proposals
• Daily/weekly topic monitoring via Apify schedules
• Retrieval tool for AI agents (RAG) with real, citable PMIDs

No API keys, no scraping of HTML – the actor talks to the official public API, handles paging, rate limits and retries, and returns flat JSON you can export as CSV/Excel or call from code, Make, Zapier, n8n or AI agents (Apify MCP server).

Input

Field	Title	Description
query	PubMed query	Same syntax as pubmed.gov, e.g. 'GPR84[tiab] AND (structure OR cryo-EM)'.
maxResults	Max results	Maximum number of articles.
includeAbstracts	Include abstracts	Fetch full abstracts (structured abstracts keep their section labels).
sort	Sort	Result order.
minDate	From date	Optional publication date lower bound (YYYY or YYYY/MM/DD).
maxDate	To date	Optional publication date upper bound.
email	Contact e-mail (recommended by NCBI)	Sent to NCBI as the 'email' parameter.
ncbiApiKey	NCBI API key	Optional, raises NCBI rate limits.

Example input:

{
  "query": "GPR84 cryo-EM",
  "maxResults": 50,
  "includeAbstracts": true,
  "sort": "relevance"
}

Output (one dataset item per result)

{
  "pmid": "12345678",
  "title": "...",
  "journal": "Nature",
  "pubDate": "2025 Mar 3",
  "authors": [
    "Doe J",
    "Roe R"
  ],
  "doi": "10.1038/...",
  "abstract": "BACKGROUND: ...",
  "url": "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12345678/"
}

Use with AI agents (Apify MCP server)

Add the Apify MCP server (https://mcp.apify.com) to Claude, Cursor or any MCP client and enable this actor (researchdata/pubmed-search). The agent can then call it directly: describe what you need, the agent fills the input fields above, runs the actor and reads the dataset. Because results are flat JSON with explicit nulls, an agent can use them without extra parsing. Set a maximum cost per run to keep agent calls capped.

Pricing

Pay per event: $0.002 per result (article returned). You only pay for results you get; set a max cost per run to cap spending. Higher Apify plans get automatic volume discounts: Bronze −10 %, Silver −20 %, Gold −30 %.

Cost example

At $0.002 per result: 50 results ≈ $0.10, 1,000 results ≈ $2.00. Set a maximum cost per run in the run options to cap spending.

Limits

• Data comes from the provider's public API; fields the provider does not publish are returned empty (null), never guessed.
• Results reflect the provider's database at run time.
• Not affiliated with the data provider.
• The output contains abstracts and metadata only: no full texts and no assessment of the evidence.

FAQ

Which query syntax can I use?
The same as pubmed.gov, including field tags like [tiab].

Can I monitor a topic?
Yes: schedule the actor and use the date filters.

Do I need an NCBI key?
No. An optional key raises NCBI's rate limits.

Data source & terms

NCBI E-utilities (public). Please respect the data provider's terms and cite the original resource in publications. This actor is an independent tool and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the data provider.