Open Data Portal Search (Any CKAN Portal: data.gov.uk, Canada, Australia...)

Search datasets on any CKAN-based open-data portal (national, city, university): title, publisher, description, license, tags, formats, resource download URLs, created/modified dates. Format filter.

Why this actor

• Works on hundreds of CKAN portals, not just one.
• Pay only for results: $0.50 per 1,000 datasets, no start fee, failed lookups are free.
• Robust: automatic retries with exponential backoff, respects Retry-After, per-item error rows instead of crashed runs.
• Clean, flat JSON/CSV/Excel output ready for Google Sheets, Make, Zapier, n8n, Clay, or the Apify API.

Use cases

• Find datasets for analysis or AI training
• Monitor new datasets from an agency
• Data journalism
• Gov-tech research

Input

Field	Type	Description
portals	array	Shortcuts: uk (data.gov.uk), canada, australia — or any CKAN base URL (cities, universities...).
query	string	Keywords (Solr syntax OK).
organization	string	Only datasets from this publisher.
formats	array	Only datasets with these resource formats: CSV, JSON, GEOJSON, API...
sort	string	Ordering.
maxPerPortal	integer	Cap.
maxItems	integer	0 = no limit. Caps cost.

Example input:

{
  "portals": [
    "uk",
    "canada",
    "australia"
  ],
  "query": "electric vehicle charging",
  "maxPerPortal": 10
}

Output

Each dataset item looks like this (real sample from a test run, long fields trimmed):

{
  "portal": "https://ckan.publishing.service.gov.uk",
  "id": "2f69b16b-0e2e-420f-b392-f7639058151b",
  "name": "electric-vehicle-charging-points20",
  "title": "Electric Vehicle Charging Points",
  "url": "https://ckan.publishing.service.gov.uk/dataset/electric-vehicle-charging-points20",
  "organization": "Leicester City Council",
  "notes": "<p>This dataset provides data surrounding t<span style=\"font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.875rem;\">he number of EV charging points that exist in Leicester City.</span></p><p><span style=\"font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.875rem;\">For a ma\u2026",
  "license": "",
  "tags": [
    "CO2",
    "NO2",
    "Transport",
    "\u2026"
  ],
  "formats": [
    "HTTPS://WWW.IANA.ORG/ASSIGNMENTS/MEDIA-TYPES/APPLICATION/JSON",
    "HTTPS://WWW.IANA.ORG/ASSIGNMENTS/MEDIA-TYPES/APPLICATION/LD+JSON",
    "HTTPS://WWW.IANA.ORG/ASSIGNMENTS/MEDIA-TYPES/APPLICATION/PARQUET",
    "\u2026"
  ],
  "resourcesCount": 9,
  "resources": [
    {
      "name": "ev-charge-points.csv",
      "format": "https://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/text/csv",
      "url": "https://data.leicester.gov.uk/api/explore/v2.1/catalog/datasets/ev-charge-points/exports/csv?use_labels=true"
    },
    {
      "name": "ev-charge-points.json",
      "format": "https://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/application/json",
      "url": "https://data.leicester.gov.uk/api/explore/v2.1/catalog/datasets/ev-charge-points/exports/json"
    },
    {
      "name": "ev-charge-points.jsonl",
      "format": "https://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/application/json",
      "url": "https://data.leicester.gov.uk/api/explore/v2.1/catalog/datasets/ev-charge-points/exports/jsonl"
    },
    "\u2026"
  ],
  "created": "2026-06-17T11:33:58.486664",
  "modified": "2026-06-17T11:33:58.486668",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-10-14T16:31:40+00:00"
}

Rows that could not be processed contain an error field and are not charged.

Pricing

Pay-per-event: $0.0005 per dataset (= $0.50 / 1,000). Use Max results to cap spend. Apify's free plan credit covers thousands of results per month.

Integrations & API

Run on a schedule in Apify Console, call via the Apify API / Python & JS clients, or connect to Make, Zapier, n8n, Google Sheets, Slack and webhooks. Works as a tool for AI agents via Apify MCP.

FAQ

Is this an official tool? No. It is an independent actor and is not affiliated with, sponsored or endorsed by the data source or any trademark owner named here.

Is it legal? The actor only reads publicly available data from public endpoints, without logins, and does not bypass paywalls or access controls. You are responsible for using the data in line with applicable laws (e.g. GDPR) and the source sites' terms.

Something broke? Open an issue in the Issues tab; we typically respond within 24 hours and ship fixes fast.