# Nbc News Search Scraper (`romy/nbc-news-search-scraper`) Actor

Get full-text search with real pagination from Nbc News. Talks directly to NBC News' own mobile app API, no login needed. Split from the mature, published nbc-news-all-in-one-api for a focused, single-purpose workflow.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/romy/nbc-news-search-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Romy](https://apify.com/romy) (community)
- **Categories:** News
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $1.60 / 1,000 search result chargeds

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

### What does NBC News Search Scraper do?

**NBC News Search Scraper** runs full-text search across [NBC News](https://www.nbcnews.com/) articles and videos and pushes every result to the dataset, with real, confirmed pagination that automatically pages through results until it runs out or hits your `maxPages`/`maxItems` limit.

It talks directly to the same internal API the official NBC News Android app uses (`mobileapi.nbcnews.com`), reverse-engineered by live MITM capture against a real device. No NBC News account, no API key, no scraping setup. This is the search slice of [NBC News All-in-One API](https://apify.com/romy/nbc-news-all-in-one-api), split out as its own focused Actor.

### Why use NBC News Search Scraper?

- **Real, working pagination** — confirmed live against the app's own "Load more" button: page 1 and page 2 return genuinely different results, backed by a real `pagination.totalItems` count from the server
- **No account needed** — every read request works fully anonymously (confirmed by inspecting real request headers — no Authorization header, no cookie)
- **Simple input** — just a search query, no filters to configure
- **Use cases:** news monitoring, media tracking, keyword/brand mention alerts, research and archiving pipelines

### How to use NBC News Search Scraper

1. Open the Actor and enter a search `query` (e.g. `"trump"`).
2. Optionally set `maxPages` and/or `maxItems` to bound how much it fetches.
3. Run the Actor. Each result is pushed to the dataset as it's found — no waiting for the whole run to finish before you can inspect data.

### Input

| Field      | Type    | Description                                                                                       |
| ---------- | ------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `query`    | string  | Search text, e.g. `trump`. Required.                                                              |
| `maxPages` | integer | Stop after this many result pages. Default `10`.                                                  |
| `maxItems` | integer | Stop once this many results have been pushed. Default: unbounded (bounded by `maxPages` instead). |

Example:

```json
{
    "query": "trump",
    "maxPages": 5
}
```

### Output

One dataset row per result, NBC News's own search item shape (real example, from `query=trump&page=1`):

```json
{
    "id": "mmvo268610117573",
    "type": "video",
    "headline": "'I am not running for president,' Attorney General Todd Blanche says",
    "url": "https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/video/...",
    "published": "2026-08-20T20:36:44Z",
    "duration": "00:05:24"
}
```

You can download the dataset in various formats such as JSON, HTML, CSV, or Excel.

### Known limitations

- **Article full-text isn't retrievable through this Actor.** Every item includes a `url` field pointing to the real nbcnews.com article/video page — this Actor only returns the app's own structured metadata (headline, image, published date, category, etc), not the full article body.
- **`sort` is deliberately not exposed as an input field.** The underlying endpoint accepts a `sort` query parameter, but it was confirmed live to have zero effect on result order regardless of value (always date-descending) — exposing a parameter that doesn't actually do anything would be misleading.
- This is an unofficial, reverse-engineered integration, not affiliated with or endorsed by NBC News or NBCUniversal. Behavior may change if NBC News changes its API.
- For other NBC News data — category feeds, video/live listings, audio/podcast stations — see [NBC News All-in-One API](https://apify.com/romy/nbc-news-all-in-one-api).

### Pricing

Pay per event. Charged `search-result` ($0.002 on the FREE plan) once per item pushed to the dataset. See the Actor's Pricing tab for current rates.

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

# Actor input Schema

## `query` (type: `string`):

Free-text search query, e.g. "trump".

## `maxPages` (type: `integer`):

Stop after this many result pages.

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

Stop once this many results have been pushed. Leave empty to only bound by maxPages.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "query": "news",
  "maxPages": 10
}
```

# 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 = {
    "query": "news"
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("romy/nbc-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 = { "query": "news" }

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

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,romy/nbc-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/VLgB7OFo5Saumya1Q/builds/mcjejRYzAPsCQgte7/openapi.json