# Presearch Search Scraper (`searchapi/presearch-search-scraper`) Actor

Scrapes normalized Presearch web results with snippets, source metadata, dates, links, safe search, API extraction, and DOM fallback.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/searchapi/presearch-search-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Search API](https://apify.com/searchapi) (community)
- **Categories:** Developer tools, Automation, SEO tools
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 0.0% 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

## Presearch Search Scraper

This Actor searches Presearch Web and publishes normalized public result records.

### Input

- `query` (required): web-search keywords.
- `maxItems`: maximum records across all requested pages, from 1 to 500.
- `maxPages`: number of Presearch result pages to request, from 1 to 50.
- `safeSearch`: enables Presearch's explicit-content filter; enabled by default.
- `maxRequestRetries`: bounded navigation retries, from 0 to 5 (default 2).
- `proxyConfiguration`: Apify Proxy or custom proxy configuration.

### Dataset records

Records include a stable ID, query, sequential position, title, canonical URL, displayed URL, domain, description/snippet, source/provider, source domain, favicon, breadcrumbs, sitelinks, author, ISO-8601 publication time plus the original source time, thumbnail, ad/sponsored flags, page number, and scrape timestamp. Optional values are omitted when unavailable. Canonical URLs are validated and deduplicated across pages.

The Actor captures the structured `/results` response before navigation, validates status and content type, maps only known public fields, and uses rendered result cards as a bounded fallback. Challenge pages, malformed payloads, and empty result sets fail instead of publishing placeholders.

### Local validation

```powershell
npm test
apify validate-schema
apify run --purge
```

Presearch currently applies Cloudflare access controls. Use an authorized Residential proxy for cloud validation where available. Challenge and error responses fail closed and are never stored as search results.

# Actor input Schema

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

The search term to use on Presearch

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

Maximum number of search results to retrieve

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

Maximum number of pages to scrape

## `safeSearch` (type: `boolean`):

Ask Presearch to filter explicit web results.

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

Maximum retries after failed or blocked navigation.

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

Proxy configuration for the scraper

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "query": "climate change",
  "maxItems": 25,
  "maxPages": 1,
  "safeSearch": true,
  "maxRequestRetries": 2,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}
```

# 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": "climate change",
    "maxItems": 25,
    "maxPages": 1,
    "safeSearch": true,
    "maxRequestRetries": 2
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("searchapi/presearch-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": "climate change",
    "maxItems": 25,
    "maxPages": 1,
    "safeSearch": True,
    "maxRequestRetries": 2,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("searchapi/presearch-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": "climate change",
  "maxItems": 25,
  "maxPages": 1,
  "safeSearch": true,
  "maxRequestRetries": 2
}' |
apify call searchapi/presearch-search-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,searchapi/presearch-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/9pUXFKXbQcvPXtWbx/builds/QgOuSHoY3eovLGwjf/openapi.json