# MSN News Search Scraper (`romy/msn-news-search-scraper`) Actor

Unofficial wrapper around MSN's own public content API. Fetches MSN news feed and category listings as structured JSON.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/romy/msn-news-search-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Romy](https://apify.com/romy) (community)
- **Categories:** News
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 0.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $0.62 / 1,000 news item returneds

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

## MSN News Search Scraper

Unofficial, reverse-engineered wrapper around MSN's own public content API. Browses the news feed, optionally filtered to one category, as structured JSON — one dataset row per news item.

### What

Pushes MSN's general/top-stories feed, or a feed filtered to one category, to the dataset — headline, summary, thumbnail, publish date, source, and a direct link. For full article text or comments, feed each item's `id` into `msn-news-detail-scraper` or `msn-news-comments-scraper`.

### Why

A quick way to pull a real-time stream of MSN headlines by market/category without maintaining your own scraper against MSN's web frontend.

### Input

| Field | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| `market` | string (select) | Yes | MSN locale/market code, e.g. `en-us`, `en-gb`, `id-id`, `de-de`, `ja-jp`. |
| `categoryId` | string | No | A topic's `id` (e.g. `Y_46b78bbb-...`) from `msn-news-topics-scraper`. Omit for the general feed. |
| `maxItems` | integer | No | Stop after this many items. Omit to fetch everything available. |

### Output

One dataset row per news item:

```json
{
    "id": "AA2edOWm",
    "type": "article",
    "title": "...",
    "abstract": "...",
    "url": "https://www.msn.com/...",
    "readTimeMin": 5,
    "publishedDateTime": "2026-10-14T13:33:48Z",
    "providerName": "Newsweek",
    "imageUrl": "https://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/...",
    "market": "en-us",
    "categoryId": null
}
```

### Pricing

Pay-per-event: `news-item` — one charge per item pushed.

### Known limitations

- This is a feed/listing scraper only — no full article body or comments. Use `msn-news-detail-scraper` and `msn-news-comments-scraper` for those.
- Feed pagination follows MSN's own feed depth; very old items may not be reachable.
- This is an unofficial, reverse-engineered integration, not affiliated with or endorsed by Microsoft Corporation. Behavior may change if MSN changes its API.

Found a bug or have a feature request? Use the Issues tab on this Actor's page.

# Actor input Schema

## `market` (type: `string`):

MSN locale/market code (language-COUNTRY). Use msn-news-topics-scraper to confirm which markets a category is available in.

## `categoryId` (type: `string`):

Optional. A topic's id field from msn-news-topics-scraper (e.g. Y_46b78bbb-...). Leave empty for the general/top-stories feed.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Stop once this many items have been pushed. Leave empty to fetch all pages until MSN stops returning new items.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "market": "en-us"
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `dataset` (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 = {
    "market": "en-us"
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("romy/msn-news-search-scraper").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 = { "market": "en-us" }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("romy/msn-news-search-scraper").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 '{
  "market": "en-us"
}' |
apify call romy/msn-news-search-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,romy/msn-news-search-scraper"
        }
    }
}
```

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/748544pgqoIahaxPh/builds/ujQgeXNHv3noXszzC/openapi.json