Diario da Republica Scraper - Portuguese Laws & Decrees

Scrape Portuguese legislation, decrees, regulations, and official government announcements from the Diario da Republica (dre.pt). Search by keyword, document type, date range, or series. Extract document titles, summaries, full text, and PDF links. No login or cookies required.

How to scrape Diario da Republica data

This actor searches Portugal's official gazette, the Diario da Republica Electronico (DRE), at diariodarepublica.pt and extracts structured data from legal documents. The DRE publishes all Portuguese legislation — laws, decree-laws, portarias, regulations, resolutions, and administrative orders — dating back to 1910.

Search by Keyword

Enter a Portuguese search term such as "imposto" (tax), "habitacao" (housing), "trabalho" (labor), or "saude" (health). The actor searches across document titles, summaries, and content to find matching legislation.

Filter by Document Type

Narrow your search to specific types of legal documents:

• Lei (Law) — Acts of Parliament
• Decreto-Lei (Decree-Law) — Government legislation with force of law
• Portaria (Administrative Order) — Ministerial orders
• Regulamento (Regulation) — Regulatory instruments
• Resolucao (Resolution) — Council of Ministers resolutions
• Aviso (Notice) — Official notices and international treaties
• Despacho (Order) — Administrative orders
• Declaracao (Declaration) — Official declarations

Filter by Date Range

Specify start and end dates to focus on legislation from a specific period.

Filter by Series

• Serie I — Primary legislation and judicial acts (laws, decrees, portarias)
• Serie II — Government and administrative announcements (tenders, appointments)

What data does Diario da Republica Scraper extract?

Field	Type	Description
title	String	Full title of the legal document
documentType	String	Type: Lei, Decreto-Lei, Portaria, Regulamento, etc.
documentNumber	String	Official document number (e.g., "61/2025")
date	String	Publication date (YYYY-MM-DD)
series	String	DR series (Serie I or Serie II)
issuingEntity	String	Government body that issued the document
summary	String	Official synopsis/summary of the document
fullText	String	Full text content (when includeFullText is enabled)
pdfUrl	String	URL to the official PDF version
url	String	Document detail page URL
eli	String	European Legislation Identifier (ELI)
drNumber	String	Diario da Republica issue number
pages	String	Page range in the official gazette
scrapedAt	String	ISO timestamp of data extraction

Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
Search Keywords	String	—	Portuguese search term (e.g., "lei", "imposto")
Document Type	Select	All	Filter by document type
Series	Select	All	Serie I (legislation) or Serie II (administrative)
Date From	String	—	Start date (YYYY-MM-DD)
Date To	String	—	End date (YYYY-MM-DD)
Include Full Text	Boolean	false	Extract complete document text
Max Results	Integer	100	Maximum documents to return
Proxy Configuration	Object	PT Residential	Proxy settings

Example output

{
    "title": "Decreto-Lei n.o 61/2025, de 2 de abril",
    "documentType": "Decreto Lei",
    "documentNumber": "61-2025",
    "date": "2025-04-02",
    "series": "Serie I",
    "issuingEntity": "Presidencia do Conselho de Ministros",
    "summary": "Altera o Decreto-Lei n.o 181/2012, de 6 de agosto, alterando o regime do acesso e exercicio das atividades de aluguer e partilha de veiculos.",
    "fullText": null,
    "pdfUrl": "https://files.diariodarepublica.pt/1s/2025/04/06500/0001200035.pdf",
    "url": "https://diariodarepublica.pt/dr/detalhe/decreto-lei/61-2025-913224267",
    "eli": null,
    "drNumber": "65",
    "pages": "12-35",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-05-23T10:30:00.000Z"
}

Tips for best results

• Use Portuguese keywords: Search in Portuguese for the best results. "imposto" (tax), "trabalho" (labor), "educacao" (education), "saude" (health), "ambiente" (environment).
• Date range searches: Combine date range with document type to find all laws passed in a specific period.
• Serie I for laws: If you only need primary legislation, filter by Serie I to skip administrative announcements.
• Full text extraction: Enable "Include Full Text" when you need the actual content of laws, not just metadata. This is slower but provides complete document text.
• Recent legislation: Use date filters to focus on recent changes — new laws and amendments from the current session.

How much does it cost?

Diario da Republica Scraper runs on the Apify platform. You pay only for compute resources used. This actor uses Playwright (headless browser), which uses more resources than HTTP-only scrapers.

Search size	Estimated time	Estimated cost
10 documents (metadata only)	~2 minutes	~$0.03
50 documents (metadata only)	~8 minutes	~$0.12
10 documents (with full text)	~5 minutes	~$0.06
100 documents (metadata only)	~15 minutes	~$0.20

Apify's free tier includes $5 of monthly compute — enough to extract hundreds of legal documents at no cost.

Can I integrate?

Yes. Send Portuguese legislation data directly to your existing tools:

• Google Sheets — Build a Portuguese legal database
• Notion — Create a searchable legal knowledge base
• Slack — Get notified about new legislation matching your criteria
• Webhooks — Push to any HTTP endpoint for custom workflows

Can I use it as an API?

Yes. Call Diario da Republica Scraper programmatically:

Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_API_TOKEN")

run = client.actor("studio-amba/diario-da-republica-scraper").call(run_input={
    "searchQuery": "imposto",
    "documentType": "decreto-lei",
    "maxResults": 20,
})

for doc in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(f"{doc['documentType']} {doc['documentNumber']} - {doc['title']}")

JavaScript

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: 'YOUR_API_TOKEN' });

const run = await client.actor('studio-amba/diario-da-republica-scraper').call({
    searchQuery: 'trabalho',
    series: '1',
    maxResults: 50,
});

const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach(doc => console.log(`${doc.documentType} ${doc.documentNumber} | ${doc.date}`));

FAQ

What is the Diario da Republica?

The Diario da Republica is Portugal's official gazette (journal). It publishes all legislation, government decrees, regulations, and official announcements. It has been published since 1820 and has been fully electronic since 2006. All content is free to access at dre.pt.

What is Serie I vs Serie II?

Serie I contains primary legislation and judicial acts — laws (leis), decree-laws (decretos-lei), government resolutions, and administrative orders (portarias). Serie II contains administrative announcements — public tenders, appointments, regulatory notices, and government decisions.

How far back does the data go?

The digital archive contains Serie I documents from 1910 and Serie II from 1980. Historical royal legislation from 1603-1910 is also available.

What is ELI?

ELI (European Legislation Identifier) is a standardized system for identifying and accessing legislation across EU member states. The DRE applies ELI to acts published since January 2, 1991, making it possible to cross-reference Portuguese legislation with EUR-Lex and other European databases.

Can I get the full text of laws?

Yes. Enable the "Include Full Text" option to extract the complete text content of each document. You can also access official PDFs via the pdfUrl field.

Limitations

• The site is a JavaScript SPA — this actor uses a headless browser (Playwright) for rendering, which is slower than HTTP-only scrapers
• Very large date ranges may return too many results; use specific keywords to narrow down
• Historical documents (pre-1991) may have limited structured metadata
• Full text extraction adds processing time per document
• Some documents may only be available as PDF without rendered text

Other European legal gazette scrapers

Working with European legal data? Combine with these tools:

• Belgian Official Gazette (Staatsblad) — Belgian Moniteur Belge legislation
• BOAMP Scraper — French public procurement notices
• BODACC Scraper — French commercial gazette
• German Company Register — Handelsregister company data

Your feedback

Found a bug or want a feature? Open an issue on the Issues tab. Your feedback helps improve this actor.