Google News Live Query Actor

What does Google News Live Query Actor do?

This Actor searches the live public Google News RSS feed for a phrase and writes individual news items to an Apify dataset. The default technology query returns up to 10 articles. Each item contains the headline, source/publisher, publication time when supplied, Google News article URL, snippet, source feed URL, and a retrieval timestamp. It does not use sample articles, require a Google login, or solve access challenges.

Open Google News to compare the source with the output. The Actor uses the public RSS search endpoint, so a Google News redirect URL may lead to the publisher's site when opened.

Why use Google News Live Query Actor?

Use it for topic monitoring, research, publisher discovery, and news dashboards. Apify adds scheduled runs, datasets, API retrieval, integrations, and monitoring. Each record identifies its query and source feed so results from different searches can be combined without losing provenance.

How to use Google News Live Query Actor

1. Enter a topic, company, or phrase in Query; technology is the tested default.
2. Choose maxItems (up to 100) and minItems (the minimum number required for success).
3. Optionally select a language and country to request a regional feed.
4. Start the Actor and inspect the Output dataset. Download it as JSON, HTML, CSV, or Excel, or call the Actor through the Apify API.

Input

Field	Default	Purpose
query	technology	Search terms sent to Google News RSS.
maxItems	10	Maximum article records to save.
minItems	10	Minimum live article count required for a successful run.
hl	en	Feed language code.
gl	us	Two-letter country code for the feed.
requestTimeoutSecs	30	Timeout for each public RSS request.
proxyConfiguration	Disabled	Optional standard Apify proxy configuration for ordinary connectivity.

{"query":"technology","maxItems":10,"minItems":10,"hl":"en","gl":"us"}

Output

One dataset item represents one live RSS article. For example, a record can contain the following source-derived fields (headline and dates vary as news changes):

{
  "serviceName": "Google News",
  "query": "technology",
  "recordType": "newsArticle",
  "title": "Example headline - example.com",
  "description": "Article snippet from the RSS feed",
  "url": "https://news.google.com/rss/articles/...",
  "sourceType": "google-news-rss-live",
  "details": {
    "sourceName": "example.com",
    "sourcePublisherUrl": "https://example.com/",
    "publishedAt": "2026-09-24T22:46:00.000Z"
  }
}

The JSON above is a schema illustration, not an inserted result. Actual output is parsed from the feed at run time; absent optional fields are omitted.

Data table

Field	Meaning
title	RSS article title and publisher label.
description	Plain-text RSS description/snippet when available.
url	Google News article URL from the feed.
details.sourceName	Publisher shown in RSS.
details.sourcePublisherUrl	Publisher URL when supplied by Google News.
details.publishedAt	Parsed publication timestamp.
sourceUrl	Exact search-feed request URL.
scrapedAt	UTC retrieval time.

Pricing and cost estimation

The Actor charges $0.00199 per dataset result, plus the listed Actor Start event and platform usage costs. A default 10-item run has a result charge of $0.0199 before those additional costs. maxItems bounds the number of result charges in a successful run.

Tips and advanced options

For a niche query with fewer than 10 articles, reduce minItems; the Actor otherwise fails instead of filling the dataset with unrelated items. Choose hl and gl together for a consistent regional feed. Deduplication uses the article URL or title so repeated feed items are not pushed twice. The public RSS feed may change its formatting or availability; review run logs and source URLs if a query unexpectedly fails.

FAQ, disclaimers, and support

Why are there no results? A source request can fail, or the search can return fewer items than minItems. A failed run is not reported as a successful empty dataset. Does it extract full article text? No; it captures the public Google News RSS fields, not full publisher pages or paywalled content.

Use the feed and publisher information under the applicable terms and law. For source changes or questions, use this Actor's Issues tab. No private account data or access-control bypass is involved.