Federal Register API: New US Rules and Notices

What does Federal Register API do?

Federal Register API returns new documents from the official Federal Register, the daily journal of the US government: final rules, proposed rules, notices and presidential documents. Filter by agency, keyword and document type, and get each document's comment deadline, effective date, dockets, RINs and affected CFR parts. Schedule it daily with Only new results for a clean regulatory change feed.

It collects data from Federal Register (Office of the Federal Register, National Archives, and the US Government Publishing Office) and returns clean, structured results you can download or pull through the Apify API.

Why use Federal Register API?

• Compliance and regulatory affairs: see every new rule from the agencies that regulate you, the day it is published.
• Public comment tracking: proposed rules come with their comment deadline and Regulations.gov link, so you never miss a window.
• Law firms, consultants and trade associations: alert clients to rules that change their obligations, by keyword or CFR part.
• Policy research and journalism: follow agencies, executive orders and significant rules over time.
• AI agents: structured, official regulatory data with links to the published text and PDF.
• Runs on the Apify platform: schedule runs, call it through the API, connect it to integrations, and get notified when a run fails.

What data can Federal Register API extract?

Field	Type	Description
documentNumber	string	Federal Register document number, unique per document.
publicationDate	string	Date the document was published (YYYY-MM-DD).
type	string	Rule, Proposed Rule, Notice or Presidential Document.
subtype	string	For presidential documents: Executive Order, Proclamation, Memorandum and similar. Empty for other types.
title	string	Document title.
primaryAgency	string	The first agency listed on the document.
agencies	array	Every agency on the document, parent agencies included.
action	string	The document's action line, for example Proposed rule or Final rule; delay of effective date.
abstract	string	The document's summary.
commentsCloseOn	string	Last day to submit comments (YYYY-MM-DD), for documents open for comment.
commentUrl	string	Where to comment (usually Regulations.gov).
effectiveDate	string	Date the rule takes effect (YYYY-MM-DD), when given.
docketIds	array	Agency docket numbers.
regulationIdNumbers	array	Regulation Identifier Numbers (RINs) linking to the Unified Agenda.
cfrReferences	array	Code of Federal Regulations parts the document affects.
significant	boolean	Whether the document is significant under Executive Order 12866. Empty when not stated.
citation	string	Federal Register citation (volume FR page).
pages	integer	Length of the document in Federal Register pages.
topics	array	CFR index topics.
matchExcerpt	string	The passage that matched your search term, when you searched.
htmlUrl	string	The document on federalregister.gov.
pdfUrl	string	Official PDF from govinfo.gov.
sourceUrl	string	The document's record in the Federal Register API.
scrapedAt	string	When this result was collected (UTC, ISO 8601).

How to use Federal Register API

1. Open the actor and select Try for free.
2. Fill in Search terms, Agencies. The prefilled example works as a first test.
3. Set Maximum results to control how much data, and cost, a run produces.
4. Select Start and wait for the run to finish.
5. Download the results as JSON, CSV, Excel or HTML, or fetch them through the API.

How much does it cost to use Federal Register API?

You pay per result: $4.00 per 1,000 results ($0.004 each), plus Apify's small start fee of $0.0001 per run. For example, 1,000 results cost about $4.00. You can set a maximum cost per run in the run options, and the actor stops cleanly when it is reached.

Subscribers to Apify's paid plans pay less per result: 10% off on Bronze, 20% off on Silver and 30% off on Gold and higher plans.

Get only new results

Turn on Only new results and schedule the actor (for example daily) to use it as a monitor: each run skips what earlier runs already returned, so you get a feed of new records and pay only for those. The first run returns everything that matches. The memory lives in your own Apify account; give runs the same Monitor name to share it when you change other inputs.

Use it from AI agents

AI agents can find and run Federal Register API as a tool through Apify's MCP server (mcp.apify.com) or the Apify API, and get the same structured results, billed per result. Without code, Apify's Zapier, Make and n8n integrations can start it and send each new result to a sheet, CRM or chat.

Input

See the Input tab for every option. The main fields:

Field	Type	Default	Description
searchTerms	array	[]	Full-text search terms, one per line, for example PFAS or "artificial intelligence". A document matching any term is returned once. Leave empty for every document.
agencies	array	[]	Agency names or federalregister.gov slugs, for example Environmental Protection Agency, food-and-drug-administration or Department of the Treasury. Leave empty for all agencies.
documentTypes	array	["RULE", "PRORULE"]	Which kinds of documents to include.
significantOnly	boolean	false	Only documents marked significant under Executive Order 12866 (major economic or policy impact).
daysBack	integer	7	Documents published in this many days up to today. Ignored when a start date is set.
dateFrom	string	""	Only documents published on or after this date (YYYY-MM-DD). Leave empty to use Days back.
dateTo	string	""	Only documents published on or before this date (YYYY-MM-DD). Leave empty for today.
maxResults	integer	1000	Stop after this many results. Each result costs $0.004, so this also caps the cost of a run. Use 0 for no limit. Keep it low for a first test.
onlyNew	boolean	false	Monitoring mode: skip results this monitor returned in earlier runs, so a scheduled run returns, and bills, only what is new. The first run returns everything that matches.
monitorName	string	""	Runs with the same name share one memory of returned results, even if you change other inputs. Leave empty to keep a separate memory for each distinct input.

Example input:

{
  "daysBack": 14,
  "maxResults": 20
}

Output

You can download the dataset in various formats such as JSON, HTML, CSV, or Excel. Example items:

[
  {
    "documentNumber": "2026-22833",
    "publicationDate": "2026-11-09",
    "type": "Proposed Rule",
    "subtype": null,
    "title": "Television Broadcasting Services Odessa, Texas",
    "primaryAgency": "Federal Communications Commission",
    "agencies": [
      "Federal Communications Commission"
    ],
    "action": "Proposed rule.",
    "abstract": "This document proposes to amend the Table of TV Allotments (Table) of the Federal Communications Commission's (Commission) rules in response to a petition for rulemaking filed by Gray Television Licensee, LLC (Gray), the licensee of KOSA-TV (KOSA-TV), Odessa, Texas (Odessa). Gray held a construction permit to construct a facility on UHF channel 31 at Odessa, and now requests that the Bureau substitute VHF channel 7 for UHF channel 31 in the Table, with the technical parameters as set forth in KOSA-TV's current license. The Media Bureau previously granted a petition for rulemaking submitted by Gray to substitute UHF channel 31 for VHF channel 7 at Odessa. Gray states that it is unable to complete construction of its new channel within the time specified on the construction permit, and therefore requests amendment of the Table to allow it to continue to operate on VHF channel 7 at its currently licensed technical parameters to provide uninterrupted service to viewers. Given that the Licensee proposes to utilize its currently licensed parameters, we believe VHF channel 7 can be substituted for UHF channel 31 at Odessa as proposed, in compliance with the principal community coverage requirements of the Commission's rules. In addition, we find that this channel change meets the technical requirements set forth in the Commission's rules.",
    "commentsCloseOn": "2026-12-09",
    "commentUrl": null,
    "effectiveDate": null,
    "docketIds": [
      "MB Docket No. 26-302",
      "RM-12034",
      "DA 26-1169",
      "FR ID 375916"
    ],
    "regulationIdNumbers": [],
    "cfrReferences": [
      "47 CFR 73"
    ],
    "significant": null,
    "citation": "91 FR 70826",
    "pages": 2,
    "topics": [
      "Television"
    ],
    "matchExcerpt": "This document proposes to amend the Table of TV Allotments (Table) of the Federal Communications Commission's (Commission) rules in response to a petition for rulemaking filed by Gray Television Licensee, LLC (Gray), the licensee of KOSA-TV (KOSA-TV),...",
    "htmlUrl": "https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/11/09/2026-22833/television-broadcasting-services-odessa-texas",
    "pdfUrl": "https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2026-11-09/pdf/2026-22833.pdf",
    "sourceUrl": "https://www.federalregister.gov/api/v1/documents/2026-22833?publication_date=2026-11-09",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-11-10T04:23:42+00:00"
  },
  {
    "documentNumber": "2026-22831",
    "publicationDate": "2026-11-09",
    "type": "Rule",
    "subtype": null,
    "title": "Security Zones; Protection of Military Cargo, Captain of the Port Zone Puget Sound, WA",
    "primaryAgency": "Homeland Security Department",
    "agencies": [
      "Homeland Security Department",
      "Coast Guard"
    ],
    "action": "Notification of enforcement of regulation.",
    "abstract": "The Coast Guard will enforce security zones for the Protection of Military Cargo from November 8 through November 12, 2026, to provide for the security of life and vessels on navigable waterways during this event. Our regulation for Protection of Military Cargo within the Captain of the Port Zone Puget Sound, WA identifies the security zones for this event in the Blair Waterway and Sitcum Waterway in Commencement Bay, WA. During the enforcement periods, the operator of any vessel in the regulated area must comply with directions from the Captain of the Port or a designated representative.",
    "commentsCloseOn": null,
    "commentUrl": null,
    "effectiveDate": null,
    "docketIds": [
      "Docket No. USCG-2026-1405"
    ],
    "regulationIdNumbers": [],
    "cfrReferences": [
      "33 CFR 165"
    ],
    "significant": null,
    "citation": "91 FR 70795",
    "pages": 1,
    "topics": [],
    "matchExcerpt": "The Coast Guard will enforce security zones for the Protection of Military Cargo from November 8 through November 12, 2026, to provide for the security of life and vessels on navigable waterways during this event. Our regulation for Protection of...",
    "htmlUrl": "https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/11/09/2026-22831/security-zones-protection-of-military-cargo-captain-of-the-port-zone-puget-sound-wa",
    "pdfUrl": "https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2026-11-09/pdf/2026-22831.pdf",
    "sourceUrl": "https://www.federalregister.gov/api/v1/documents/2026-22831?publication_date=2026-11-09",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-11-10T04:23:42+00:00"
  }
]

Tips

• Schedule a daily run with Days back = 3 and Only new results on: overlapping days catch late additions without paying twice.
• Combine agencies with search terms to stay focused, for example Food and Drug Administration with "dietary supplement".
• Add Notices only when you need them: they are most of the volume (meetings, information collections, permits).
• Departments can be typed as they are usually written, for example Department of the Treasury or Department of Labor.
• Schedule the actor to keep a dataset fresh, and use the API or integrations to send new results where you need them.

FAQ, disclaimers, and support

Where does the data come from?

From Federal Register (Office of the Federal Register, National Archives, and the US Government Publishing Office) (www.federalregister.gov). Data is used under: Federal Register documents are works of the US Government and in the public domain (17 U.S.C. 105); the Federal Register API is offered for public use without a key. See the source's terms: https://www.federalregister.gov/developers/documentation/api/v1

Is it legal to use this data?

This actor only collects publicly available data from Federal Register (Office of the Federal Register, National Archives, and the US Government Publishing Office) and does not collect personal data about private individuals. Check that your use complies with the source's terms and the laws that apply to you. This actor is not affiliated with or endorsed by Federal Register (Office of the Federal Register, National Archives, and the US Government Publishing Office).

How fresh is the data?

The actor queries the Federal Register API on every run. Documents appear on their publication date, usually early in the morning US Eastern time on business days.

Does it return the full text?

It returns the summary, action, dates, dockets, CFR parts and links to the full text on federalregister.gov and the official PDF on govinfo.gov.

Can I search older documents?

Yes. Set Published from and Published until to any period since 1994; long periods are fetched week by week.

Is the data free to reuse?

Yes. Federal Register documents are works of the US Government and in the public domain.

Something is not working

Open an issue in the Issues tab with your run link and we will look at it. For programmatic access, see the API tab.