# Google Books Scraper (`searchapi/google-books-scraper`) Actor

Extracts books, authors, ISBNs, publishers, dates, descriptions, covers, categories, and preview links from Google Books search results.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/searchapi/google-books-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Search API](https://apify.com/searchapi) (community)
- **Categories:** Developer tools, Automation, Other
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 61.9% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $1.99 / 1,000 search results

This Actor is paid per event and usage. You are charged both the fixed price for specific events and for Apify platform usage.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
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.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## 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.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## Google Books Scraper

Extracts books, authors, ISBNs, publishers, dates, descriptions, covers, categories, and preview links from Google Books search results.

### What this Actor collects

The Actor converts Google Books results into one clean JSON record per book, including authors, identifiers, publisher and publication date, description, categories, cover images, preview links, availability, and search provenance when available.

- Uses the input limits and filters below to control the crawl.
- Stores source-backed fields defined by the 56-field dataset schema.
- Omits optional fields when the source does not expose a value instead of writing nulls or fabricated placeholders.

### Use cases

- Book and author discovery
- ISBN and publication-catalog enrichment
- Publisher, category, and availability research

### Input

Provide input in JSON. Fields marked required must be supplied. The Default / example column shows a schema default when one exists; otherwise it shows a documented prefill or fixture value.

| Field | Type | Required | Default / example | Description |
| --- | --- | :---: | --- | --- |
| `query` | string | Yes | `"machine learning"` | The search term for books (e.g. 'machine learning', 'fiction bestsellers') |
| `maxItems` | integer | No | `10` | Maximum number of book results to retrieve |
| `gl` | string | No | `"us"` | Two-letter country code (e.g. 'us', 'uk', 'in') |
| `hl` | string | No | `"en"` | Two-letter language code (e.g. 'en', 'es', 'de') |
| `maxRequestRetries` | integer | No | `3` | Retries for failed, blocked, or malformed feed requests. |
| `requestTimeoutSecs` | integer | No | `30` | Per-request timeout in seconds. |
| `apiKey` | string | No | — | Optional secret Google Books API key; never written to dataset URLs or logs. |
| `proxyConfiguration` | object | No | `{"useApifyProxy":false}` | Optional proxy settings used only by the browser fallback. |

#### Example input

```json
{
  "query": "machine learning",
  "maxItems": 10,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  },
  "gl": "us",
  "hl": "en",
  "maxRequestRetries": 3,
  "requestTimeoutSecs": 30
}
```

### Output

The default dataset contains one item per book result. The following are the most useful fields; identifiers, description, cover, preview, rating, and availability fields depend on the source record.

| Field | Type | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `position` | integer | Position |
| `title` | string | Book Title |
| `authors` | array | Authors |
| `publisher` | string | Publisher |
| `isbn13` | string | ISBN-13 |
| `publishedDate` | string | Published Date |
| `pageCount` | integer | Page Count |
| `language` | string | Book Language |
| `previewUrl` | string | Preview URL |
| `searchQuery` | string | Search Query |
| `scrapedAt` | string | Scraped At |
| `type` | string | Type |
| `description` | string | Description |
| `source` | string | Source |
| `sourcePage` | integer | Source Page |
| `sourceStartIndex` | integer | Source Start Index |

<details>
<summary>All 56 declared dataset fields</summary>

`position`, `sourcePage`, `sourceStartIndex`, `title`, `volumeId`, `authors`, `authorCount`, `publisher`, `isbn`, `isbn10`
`isbn13`, `identifiers`, `publishedDate`, `publishedYear`, `description`, `descriptionLength`, `thumbnailUrl`, `previewUrl`, `infoLink`, `buyUrl`
`canonicalVolumeLink`, `feedEntryUrl`, `language`, `printType`, `contentVersion`, `embeddability`, `isEmbeddable`, `openAccess`, `viewability`, `isPreviewAvailable`
`categories`, `categoryCount`, `pageCount`, `retailPrice`, `retailCurrency`, `suggestedRetailPrice`, `suggestedRetailCurrency`, `updatedAt`, `feedUpdatedAt`, `totalResults`
`searchQuery`, `country`, `interfaceLanguage`, `source`, `sourceDomain`, `type`, `resultType`, `searchUrl`, `scrapedAt`, `searchMetadata`

</details>

#### Example dataset item

This compact example is taken from local Actor storage. Long text and nested collections are shortened for documentation only.

```json
{
  "position": 1,
  "title": "An Introduction to Machine Learning",
  "authors": [
    "Gopinath Rebala",
    "Ajay Ravi"
  ],
  "publisher": "Springer",
  "isbn13": "9783030157296",
  "publishedDate": "2019-05-07",
  "pageCount": 275,
  "language": "en",
  "previewUrl": "http://books.google.com/books?id=u8OWDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=machine+learning&cd=1&source=gbs_gdata",
  "searchQuery": "machine learning",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-07-23T19:39:25.899Z",
  "type": "book"
}
```

### Related Actors

- [Google About This Result Scraper](https://apify.com/searchapi/google-about-this-result-scraper)
- [Google AI Overview Scraper](https://apify.com/searchapi/google-ai-overview-scraper)
- [Google Autocomplete Scraper](https://apify.com/searchapi/google-autocomplete-scraper)

# Actor input Schema

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

The search term for books (e.g. 'machine learning', 'fiction bestsellers')

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

Maximum number of book results to retrieve

## `gl` (type: `string`):

Two-letter country code (e.g. 'us', 'uk', 'in')

## `hl` (type: `string`):

Two-letter language code (e.g. 'en', 'es', 'de')

## `maxRequestRetries` (type: `integer`):

Retries for failed, blocked, or malformed feed requests.

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

Per-request timeout in seconds.

## `apiKey` (type: `string`):

Optional Google Books API key. The Actor never stores it in dataset URLs or logs.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Optional proxy settings used only by the browser fallback.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "query": "machine learning",
  "maxItems": 10,
  "gl": "us",
  "hl": "en",
  "maxRequestRetries": 3,
  "requestTimeoutSecs": 30,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

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

Source-backed Google Books records with bibliographic, availability, pricing, link, pagination, and provenance metadata.

# 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": "machine learning",
    "maxItems": 10,
    "gl": "us",
    "hl": "en"
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("searchapi/google-books-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": "machine learning",
    "maxItems": 10,
    "gl": "us",
    "hl": "en",
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("searchapi/google-books-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": "machine learning",
  "maxItems": 10,
  "gl": "us",
  "hl": "en"
}' |
apify call searchapi/google-books-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,searchapi/google-books-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/BjTRHJzT3i0mzVygp/builds/9JdwS2M6szHrkHCgx/openapi.json