# Google Maps Popular Times Scraper (`seemuapps/google-maps-popular-times-scraper`) Actor

Extract how busy any Google Maps business is by hour and day of the week — the full popular-times histogram plus live busyness right now.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/seemuapps/google-maps-popular-times-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Andrew](https://apify.com/seemuapps) (community)
- **Categories:** E-commerce, Travel, Automation
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$1.80 / 1,000 place results

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#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 Maps Popular Times Scraper

Extract the "how busy is this place" histogram Google Maps shows for any business — busyness percentage for every hour, every day of the week — plus a live "how busy right now" reading when the place is currently open. Search a query or paste place URLs and get one clean row per place.

### What you get

- **Full weekly histogram**: `weeklyPopularTimes` — one entry per day of the week (`day` + an `hours` array of `{ hour, busynessPct, label }`), covering every hour Google reports data for
- **Live busyness**: `currentBusynessPct` and `currentBusynessLabel` (e.g. "Not too busy") when the place is open right now; `null` when it's closed
- **Peak time at a glance**: `peakDay`, `peakHour`, `peakBusynessPct` — the single busiest hour of the week, precomputed for you
- **Place context**: `placeName`, `placeAddress`, `rating`, `reviewCount`, `placeUrl`, `isOpenNow`
- **Identifiers**: `placeId`, `googlePlaceId`, `searchQuery`
- Export to CSV, Excel, JSON, or Google Sheets

### Use cases

- **Best-time-to-visit apps** — tell users when a restaurant, gym, or store is quietest
- **Staffing & scheduling** — benchmark competitor foot-traffic patterns to plan your own staffing
- **Foot-traffic market research** — compare busyness patterns across a city, cuisine, or category
- **Delivery & logistics timing** — route drivers around a location's known peak-busy windows
- **Restaurant & retail site selection** — evaluate how busy nearby competitors get before choosing a location

### How to use

1. Enter **Search queries** such as `Starbucks Times Square New York` or `gyms in Austin TX` — or paste specific **Place URLs or IDs**.
2. Set **Max places per query** (default 20).
3. Run — one row per place with popular-times data streams into the **Dataset** tab.

Not every place on Google Maps has popular-times data available. Places without it are skipped automatically so every row in your dataset has real busyness data.

### Output format

```json
{
  "placeId": "0x89c258552071bcb3:0x5cc7129cc313de1a",
  "googlePlaceId": "ChIJs7xxIFVYwokRGt4Tw5wSx1w",
  "placeName": "Starbucks Coffee Company",
  "placeAddress": "1500 Broadway, New York, NY 10036",
  "rating": 4,
  "reviewCount": 2239,
  "placeUrl": "https://maps.google.com/?cid=6685332636351847962",
  "isOpenNow": true,
  "currentBusynessPct": 41,
  "currentBusynessLabel": "Not too busy",
  "weeklyPopularTimes": [
    {
      "day": "Sunday",
      "hours": [
        { "hour": 5, "busynessPct": 24, "label": "Usually not too busy" },
        { "hour": 6, "busynessPct": 24, "label": "Usually not too busy" },
        { "hour": 18, "busynessPct": 100, "label": "Usually as busy as it gets" }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "peakDay": "Sunday",
  "peakHour": 18,
  "peakBusynessPct": 100,
  "searchQuery": "Starbucks Times Square New York",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-08-18T03:17:34.688Z"
}
```

### Pricing

Pay per place saved to the dataset.

### FAQ

**Which places have popular times on Google Maps?** Most busy chains and popular independent businesses. Quiet or newly-listed places often have no data — these are skipped rather than saved with empty fields.

**Do I need a Google API key?** No.

# Actor input Schema

## `searchQueries` (type: `array`):

Businesses to search on Google Maps, one query per line — e.g. "Starbucks Times Square New York", "gyms in Austin TX".

## `placeUrls` (type: `array`):

Alternatively (or additionally) fetch popular times for specific places — Google Maps place URLs, maps.app.goo.gl short links, ?cid= links, Place IDs (ChIJ…) or hex IDs (0x…:0x…).

## `maxPlacesPerQuery` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of places to process per search query (Google Maps returns at most ~120 per query). 0 = everything Google returns.

## `language` (type: `string`):

Language code for results, e.g. en, de, fr, es, pt-BR.

## `country` (type: `string`):

Two-letter country code that biases search results, e.g. us, gb, de, au.

## `latitude` (type: `number`):

Optional latitude to bias search results toward a specific area.

## `longitude` (type: `number`):

Optional longitude to bias search results toward a specific area.

## `zoom` (type: `integer`):

Optional map zoom level (3-21) used together with latitude/longitude to bias search results. Higher = tighter radius.

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

Optional. By default the actor connects directly and automatically falls back to Apify datacenter → residential proxies only if Google starts blocking. Set a specific proxy here to force it for all requests.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "searchQueries": [
    "Starbucks Times Square New York"
  ],
  "placeUrls": [],
  "maxPlacesPerQuery": 20,
  "language": "en",
  "country": "us",
  "zoom": 13,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

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

One place per record: placeId, googlePlaceId, placeName, placeAddress, rating, reviewCount, placeUrl, isOpenNow, currentBusynessPct, currentBusynessLabel, weeklyPopularTimes (array of {day, hours: \[{hour, busynessPct, label}]} for each day of the week), peakDay, peakHour, peakBusynessPct, searchQuery, scrapedAt.

# 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 = {
    "searchQueries": [
        "Starbucks Times Square New York"
    ],
    "placeUrls": [],
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": false
    }
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("seemuapps/google-maps-popular-times-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 = {
    "searchQueries": ["Starbucks Times Square New York"],
    "placeUrls": [],
    "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": False },
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("seemuapps/google-maps-popular-times-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 '{
  "searchQueries": [
    "Starbucks Times Square New York"
  ],
  "placeUrls": [],
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}' |
apify call seemuapps/google-maps-popular-times-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,seemuapps/google-maps-popular-times-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/oqsjqqXhIpdkWdAdN/builds/cSchBxUm6tMLVoDMY/openapi.json