Google Maps Scraper

Google Maps Scraper: places from a search, reviews from a place link, no API key

Type the searches you would type into Google Maps, like coffee in Brooklyn, and get one row per place: name, category, address, star rating, coordinates and Google's own identifiers. Hand it place links instead and it reads the reviews on each one.

The awkward bit first, because it decides whether this is the right tool for you. A search reads the results card, and Google only prints a phone number or a website on that card for a handful of businesses. Measured across 334 place rows from 17 recent runs: phone came back on none of them and website on 9. If contact details are the whole point of your project, budget for opening each place rather than expecting them from the search.

🔍 What Google Maps Scraper does

Two jobs in one actor, and you can use either on its own.

Search. Give it searches with the location in the text and it scrolls the results feed, pulling one row per place until it reaches your limit or the feed stops producing new ones. Name, category, address, rating, review count, latitude, longitude and the place link come off that feed.

Reviews. Give it place links and it returns each place's newest reviews, up to your limit: who wrote it, the star rating, the text, Google's relative date, the owner's reply and any photos. Set includeReviews and a search does both, collecting reviews for every place it found.

📥 What you give it

{
  "searchQueries": ["coffee in Brooklyn", "bakeries in Williamsburg"],
  "maxItems": 60,
  "includeReviews": false,
  "language": "en"
}

searchQuery is only read when searchQueries is empty. The list arrives prefilled with coffee in Brooklyn, so typing into the single box and leaving the list as it is gets you coffee in Brooklyn. Clear the list, or put your search in it.

📤 What you get back

A real place row from a recent run, with the long link trimmed:

{
  "ok": true,
  "type": "place",
  "searchQuery": "coffee in Brooklyn",
  "name": "Qahwah House Coffee - Williamsburg Brooklyn",
  "category": "Coffee shop",
  "address": "162 Bedford Ave",
  "rating": 4.7,
  "reviewCount": 2317,
  "phone": null,
  "website": null,
  "lat": 40.7185755,
  "lng": -73.9571869,
  "placeId": "0x89c25953721fc19d:0x185b29b3e7559d6e",
  "cid": "1755042332447972718",
  "placeUrl": "https://www.google.com/maps/place/Qahwah+House+Coffee.../data=!4m7!3m6!1s0x89c2..."
}

🧾 Reading the output

Three kinds of row can land in your dataset.

Filter on ok being true and _sample being absent. An empty input writes the sample row and stops there, so you can see the shape before spending anything.

A diagnostic row never fails the run. Without city or county, one bad search never stops the others.

▶️ How to run it

1. Open Google Maps Scraper and click Try for free. 2. Put your searches into Search queries, with the location in the text. Delete the example first. 3. Set Max places per query. Start around 10 to see what the rows look like. 4. For reviews, paste place links into Google Maps place URLs for reviews, or tick Include reviews for search results, then click Start. 5. Download the dataset as JSON, CSV or Excel, or read it from the Apify API.

💰 How much does it cost?

$0.27 per 1,000 rows. Flat on every Apify plan, no volume tiers.

A review row counts the same as a place row, so one place with 100 reviews is 101 rows, not one. That adds up fast with Include reviews on: a 60-place search at the default of 50 reviews a place can come to 3,060 rows. Lower maxReviewsPerPlace if a few reviews a place is enough.

Sample rows, diagnostic rows, a search that finds nothing and a place with no reviews are all free.

💡 What people use it for

• Building a local lead list from a set of searches, then joining it to your own data on placeId.
• Mapping how many of a chain's branches sit in one city, with coordinates ready for a map.
• Pulling the newest reviews for a list of place links, on a schedule, to see what changed.
• Comparing ratings and review counts across a category in one area before picking a site.

🚧 What it does not do

• Contact details are rare on search rows. phone and website come off the results card and

Google prints them for very few businesses.

• placeId is not the ChIJ… form. It is Google's hex feature id. cid is there too if your

other tooling wants a number.

• Review dates are relative strings, like 2 weeks ago, not exact dates.
• Duplicates are removed inside one search, not across searches. A place matching two of your

searches comes back as two rows, and both count.

• Short links and cut links are looked up first. A maps.app.goo.gl link takes about a second. A

link cut before its data= part means opening Maps, up to half a minute each, and when its name matches several places near that spot the actor does not guess: that link gets a free NO_RESULTS row. Whole links from Google Maps skip the lookup.

• 500 per search is the ceiling, not a promise. Long feeds stop producing new places before

that on many searches. You pay for what arrives.

• A place Google Maps can't find is not charged. Google answers one with places from somewhere

else, or the whole state when only the town is wrong. If the actor checks that place (see BAD_INPUT), the search gets a free diagnostic row instead. The check is where Google searched, not each row.

• Rows are a snapshot. Ratings and review counts move, and a place can close.

🧭 Which Google scraper do you need?

❓ Questions people ask

Do I need a Google API key? No. Nothing to apply for and no quota to watch.

Why are phone and website empty? The search reads the results card, and Google prints them there for very few businesses. Collecting reviews does not add them.

Can I get reviews without running a search? Yes. Put place links in reviewUrls and leave the searches empty.

How many places will one search actually return? As many as the feed keeps producing, up to your maxItems. Google trims broad searches itself, so a wide one often stops short.

Can I schedule it? Yes. placeId and reviewId are stable, so deduping across runs is straightforward.

Is scraping Google Maps legal? These are public listings and public reviews. Reviews carry personal data, which GDPR and similar laws cover, so have a reason for collecting it. Apify's write-up on scraping and the law is a good starting point, and we are not lawyers.

🆘 If something breaks

Open the Issues tab on the actor page. Send the search or the place link and the run ID. The errorCode on the diagnostic row usually names the problem on its own.