Get Google search results as JSON, with real destination URLs

You want to know who ranks for a keyword, feed search results into an AI agent, or build a list of websites from a set of queries. Copying results out of a browser doesn't scale, Google's official Custom Search API only searches sites you configure, and running your own scraper means fighting CAPTCHAs and proxy bans. This guide shows how to send a list of queries and get back clean JSON rows of organic results, each with a real, clickable destination URL, for $5 per 1,000 results.

What you get

One row comes back per query per results page. Each row carries the request that produced it (query, page, countryCode, languageCode, device, searchUrl) and an organicResults array where every listing has position, title, url, displayedUrl, snippet, date and sitelinks. A real row from a recorded run, trimmed:

{
  "query": "apify alternatives",
  "page": 1,
  "countryCode": "us",
  "languageCode": "en",
  "device": "desktop",
  "searchUrl": "http://www.google.com/search?q=apify+alternatives&hl=en&gl=us&num=10&gbv=1",
  "totalResultsText": "About 123 results",
  "organicResults": [
    {
      "position": 1,
      "title": "apify free alterntive : r/n8n",
      "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/n8n/comments/1qu4fdg/apify_free_alterntive/",
      "displayedUrl": "20+ comments  ·  8 months ago",
      "snippet": "try Unipile or linkedapi.io. Another site similar to Apify is Rapid. Or you can use Python to write your own scraper.",
      "date": null,
      "sitelinks": []
    },
    {
      "position": 2,
      "title": "7 best Apify alternatives I'm using in 2026 (free + paid)",
      "url": "https://www.gumloop.com/blog/apify-alternatives",
      "displayedUrl": "https://www.gumloop.com › blog › apify-alternatives",
      "snippet": "7 best Apify alternatives and competitors in 2026 · 1. Gumloop · 2. Octoparse · 3. n8n · 4. Relay.app · 5. Thunderbit · 6. Browse AI · 7. Claude.Read more",
      "date": "Jan 16, 2026",
      "sitelinks": []
    },
    {
      "position": 3,
      "title": "The 12 Best Apify Alternatives for Web Scraping in 2026",
      "url": "https://www.scraperapi.com/blog/apify-alternatives/",
      "displayedUrl": "https://www.scraperapi.com › Blog",
      "snippet": "ScraperAPI is an all-in-one solution for web scraping, offering unmatched features and ease of use compared to Apify. Automated Data Pipelines:",
      "date": null,
      "sitelinks": []
    }
  ],
  "organicCount": 9,
  "peopleAlsoAsk": [
    {
      "question": "Which is better, Firecrawl or Apify?",
      "answerSnippet": null,
      "url": null
    },
    {
      "question": "Is it legal to use Apify?",
      "answerSnippet": null,
      "url": null
    },
    {
      "question": "Is there a free version of Apify?",
      "answerSnippet": null,
      "url": null
    }
  ],
  "relatedSearches": [],
  "featuredSnippet": null,
  "ads": [],
  "adCount": 0,
  "knowledgePanelTitle": null,
  "htmlLength": 755768,
  "scrapedAt": "2026-10-15T16:08:13.058Z",
  "error": null
}

Why "real URLs" matters

Google's modern results page wraps organic links in an opaque click tracker that most scrapers pass through unresolved — you get a link you can't crawl or deduplicate. This tool deliberately requests Google's lightweight "basic HTML" rendering, which still exposes the destination as a decodable redirect. In live verification runs roughly nine out of ten organic results came back with a fully decoded url; the rest get a best-effort URL built from the breadcrumb, or null with displayedUrl still filled.

What it does not return

That lighter rendering is a trade-off. People Also Ask, related searches, ads and featured snippets are usually absent from it, so those fields (peopleAlsoAsk, relatedSearches, ads, featuredSnippet) are almost always empty. They stay in the schema and are filled whenever Google includes them, but if your project is specifically about PAA questions or ad copy, this is not the right tool today.

Step-by-step

1. Open the tool and put your keywords in Search queries, one per line.
2. Set Country code (gl, e.g. us, gb, de) and Language code (hl, e.g. en, de) to see results the way a local searcher does.
3. Choose Max pages per query (1–10). Each page is one billed unit. Results per page requests up to 100 listings; Google decides how many it actually returns, so check organicCount.
4. Pick Device — desktop honours the basic-HTML mode most consistently.
5. Click Start and export JSON, CSV or Excel from the Output tab, or read the dataset through the API.

Run Google Search Results Scraper — SERP API on Apify →

Call it from code

import json
import os
from apify_client import ApifyClient
client = ApifyClient(os.environ["APIFY_TOKEN"])
run = client.actor("webdatatools/google-search-scraper").call(run_input=json.loads("{\n    "queries": [\n        "apify web scraping",\n        "best crm for startups"\n    ],\n    "countryCode": "us",\n    "languageCode": "en"\n}"))
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN });
const run = await client.actor('webdatatools/google-search-scraper').call({
    "queries": [
        "apify web scraping",
        "best crm for startups"
    ],
    "countryCode": "us",
    "languageCode": "en"
});
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/webdatatools~google-search-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items" 
-H "Authorization: Bearer $APIFY_TOKEN" 
-H "Content-Type: application/json" 
-d '{"queries":["apify web scraping","best crm for startups"],"countryCode":"us","languageCode":"en"}'

The organicResults array is nested; in CSV export use the ready-made view, or flatten it yourself — one line of pandas (pd.json_normalize(rows, "organicResults", ["query", "page"])) turns it into one row per ranking.

Recipes

Rank tracking for a keyword list

Schedule the run weekly with your 50–200 target keywords and your market's country code. Join the rows on query and find your domain in organicResults[].url — a free, exportable rank history with no seat-based SEO subscription.

Building a prospect list from search

Queries like "bookkeeping" "Austin" accountant return the websites of businesses that match. Because every url is real, you can chain the dataset straight into the Email & Contact Extractor or the Tech Stack Detector using their inputDatasetId option.

Giving an AI agent live search

The tool is callable through the Apify MCP server, so an assistant can run a query and read the organic results itself. For agents that also need each page's content as Markdown, the AI Web Search tool in the same catalog fetches the top results and returns them cleaned.

How much does it cost?

Primary event rates from a catalog snapshot; this is not the total price of a run. Additional charge events and Actor Start fees may apply; start fees can scale with memory. Check the Actor's Pricing tab on Apify for all events, conditions and current plan-specific rates, and set a maximum run budget before starting.

You pay per results page fetched, not per listing, and Google's SERP proxy traffic is included in that price — there is no separate proxy bill. A 100-keyword weekly rank check on page one is 100 units per run. If a page is blocked or unparseable, you get exactly one row with the reason in error (and the raw HTML saved for inspection), never a silent duplicate.

How it compares

FAQ

Do I need my own proxies or a Google API key?

No. Every request goes through Apify's Google SERP proxy group automatically, and that cost is already inside the per-page price. You only need an Apify account.

Why are People Also Ask and related searches empty?

They're not part of the lightweight results rendering this tool uses to get decodable URLs. The fields are parsed when Google does include them, but expect them to be empty on most runs.

Can I get 100 results in one page?

You can request up to 100 with Results per page, and the price per page stays the same, but Google decides how many listings it actually returns. Check organicCount on each row; use more pages if you need deeper results.

What happens when Google shows a CAPTCHA?

That page comes back as one row with error explaining the block, and the HTML is saved to the run's key-value store. Lower Max concurrency and retry later.

Can I search in other countries and languages?

Yes. countryCode maps to Google's gl parameter and languageCode to hl, so de + de returns German results as a searcher in Germany would see them.

Is it legal to scrape Google results?

The tool collects publicly visible search results and no personal account data. You remain responsible for complying with Google's terms and the laws that apply to your use case.