100 free credits. No credit card required.Start building
Logo
Universal Search logo
100 free credits. No credit card required

Universal Search News API

Returns one deduplicated list of news articles for a query from the Google News editions of the countries you pick, in each one's language, grouped into stories about the same event.

GET /v1/search/news

Last updated November 2026Maintained by the SocialCrawl team

When to use the Universal Search News API

Use it for news coverage across several countries at once; for one topic across social platforms use search/everywhere.

From the API reference

Plans your query into search angles, localizes each angle into the language of every requested country edition (one combined LLM call, fail-open), then fans out up to 12 parallel legs per engine and merges the articles into one deduplicated list. Two independent news indexes are available through engines: google (the default, 50 country editions) and bing (49 of those editions). They overlap very little in practice, so asking for both roughly doubles the distinct articles a query returns and is the way to get a text snippet on most rows: the google engine returns headline, publisher, link, image and an exact publish time but rarely a snippet, while the bing engine returns a description on effectively every row. Every article carries engine provenance and a published_at_precision of exact or approximate, because the two indexes do not report publish times with the same fidelity. Every leg reports truthful localization provenance: query_source says whether its keyword was translated, confirmed original, or a fallback_original after a localization failure. Supports streaming via Accept: text/event-stream (the plan_refined chunk always carries the expanded legs with per-leg provenance before any leg settles) and sync via Accept: application/json. Filters: publisher and from/to exact date windows (google engine only; they pin its legs to the primary source), time_range recency, depth per-leg article depth, sort result ordering, max_legs cost cap. Billing is metered and settles down to the work actually done; empty, skipped and failed legs bill 0.

Searching 69 platforms in parallel

·TikTok logoTikTok·Instagram logoInstagram·YouTube logoYouTube·Facebook logoFacebook·X logoX·LinkedIn logoLinkedIn·Reddit logoReddit·Threads logoThreads·Pinterest logoPinterest·Twitch logoTwitch·Truth Social logoTruth Social·Snapchat logoSnapchat·Kick logoKick·Bluesky logoBluesky·Kwai logoKwai·Rumble logoRumble·Spotify logoSpotify·Apple Music logoApple Music·TikTok Shop logoTikTok Shop·Amazon Shop logoAmazon Shop·Google Shopping logoGoogle Shopping·Trustpilot logoTrustpilot·TripAdvisor logoTripAdvisor·Yelp logoYelp·Linktree logoLinktree·Komi logoKomi·Pillar logoPillar·lnk.bio logolnk.bio·Facebook Ads logoFacebook Ads·Google Ads logoGoogle Ads·LinkedIn Ads logoLinkedIn Ads·Google Search logoGoogle Search·Google News logoGoogle News·Finance logoFinance·Polymarket logoPolymarket·Tavily logoTavily·Hacker News logoHacker News·GitHub logoGitHub·Perplexity logoPerplexity·Naver logoNaver·Utility logoUtility·Universal Search logoUniversal Search
·TikTok logoTikTok·Instagram logoInstagram·YouTube logoYouTube·Facebook logoFacebook·X logoX·LinkedIn logoLinkedIn·Reddit logoReddit·Threads logoThreads·Pinterest logoPinterest·Twitch logoTwitch·Truth Social logoTruth Social·Snapchat logoSnapchat·Kick logoKick·Bluesky logoBluesky·Kwai logoKwai·Rumble logoRumble·Spotify logoSpotify·Apple Music logoApple Music·TikTok Shop logoTikTok Shop·Amazon Shop logoAmazon Shop·Google Shopping logoGoogle Shopping·Trustpilot logoTrustpilot·TripAdvisor logoTripAdvisor·Yelp logoYelp·Linktree logoLinktree·Komi logoKomi·Pillar logoPillar·lnk.bio logolnk.bio·Facebook Ads logoFacebook Ads·Google Ads logoGoogle Ads·LinkedIn Ads logoLinkedIn Ads·Google Search logoGoogle Search·Google News logoGoogle News·Finance logoFinance·Polymarket logoPolymarket·Tavily logoTavily·Hacker News logoHacker News·GitHub logoGitHub·Perplexity logoPerplexity·Naver logoNaver·Utility logoUtility·Universal Search logoUniversal Search
·TikTok logoTikTok·Instagram logoInstagram·YouTube logoYouTube·Facebook logoFacebook·X logoX·LinkedIn logoLinkedIn·Reddit logoReddit·Threads logoThreads·Pinterest logoPinterest·Twitch logoTwitch·Truth Social logoTruth Social·Snapchat logoSnapchat·Kick logoKick·Bluesky logoBluesky·Kwai logoKwai·Rumble logoRumble·Spotify logoSpotify·Apple Music logoApple Music·TikTok Shop logoTikTok Shop·Amazon Shop logoAmazon Shop·Google Shopping logoGoogle Shopping·Trustpilot logoTrustpilot·TripAdvisor logoTripAdvisor·Yelp logoYelp·Linktree logoLinktree·Komi logoKomi·Pillar logoPillar·lnk.bio logolnk.bio·Facebook Ads logoFacebook Ads·Google Ads logoGoogle Ads·LinkedIn Ads logoLinkedIn Ads·Google Search logoGoogle Search·Google News logoGoogle News·Finance logoFinance·Polymarket logoPolymarket·Tavily logoTavily·Hacker News logoHacker News·GitHub logoGitHub·Perplexity logoPerplexity·Naver logoNaver·Utility logoUtility·Universal Search logoUniversal Search
·TikTok logoTikTok·Instagram logoInstagram·YouTube logoYouTube·Facebook logoFacebook·X logoX·LinkedIn logoLinkedIn·Reddit logoReddit·Threads logoThreads·Pinterest logoPinterest·Twitch logoTwitch·Truth Social logoTruth Social·Snapchat logoSnapchat·Kick logoKick·Bluesky logoBluesky·Kwai logoKwai·Rumble logoRumble·Spotify logoSpotify·Apple Music logoApple Music·TikTok Shop logoTikTok Shop·Amazon Shop logoAmazon Shop·Google Shopping logoGoogle Shopping·Trustpilot logoTrustpilot·TripAdvisor logoTripAdvisor·Yelp logoYelp·Linktree logoLinktree·Komi logoKomi·Pillar logoPillar·lnk.bio logolnk.bio·Facebook Ads logoFacebook Ads·Google Ads logoGoogle Ads·LinkedIn Ads logoLinkedIn Ads·Google Search logoGoogle Search·Google News logoGoogle News·Finance logoFinance·Polymarket logoPolymarket·Tavily logoTavily·Hacker News logoHacker News·GitHub logoGitHub·Perplexity logoPerplexity·Naver logoNaver·Utility logoUtility·Universal Search logoUniversal Search
Universal Search API

What can you do with the News API?

The News endpoint gives you structured Universal Search data with computed fields in a single request. No scraping infrastructure to build or maintain.

Example Request

# GET /v1/search/news: Metered: holds 14 credits per call up front and refunds what the call does not use. Cache hits are free and failed calls are refunded.
# Check the price first for 0 credits: add dry_run=1 to the query. Nothing is fetched or charged.
# --max-time 60: the API's own time limit for this endpoint.
# --retry 3: retries timeouts, 429 and 5xx, honoring Retry-After.
# -o response.json keeps only the final attempt's body.
# One Idempotency-Key per request, reused on every retry, so a retried call is never charged twice.
IDEMPOTENCY_KEY=$(od -An -N16 -tx1 /dev/urandom | tr -d ' \n')
curl -sS --max-time 60 --retry 3 -o response.json \
  -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: $IDEMPOTENCY_KEY" \
  "https://www.socialcrawl.dev/v1/search/news?query=samsung+galaxy+launch&countries=KR%2CUS%2CJP&engines=google%2Cbing&sort=date&time_range=week&from=2026-07-01&to=2026-07-31&publisher=bbc.com&depth=10&max_legs=4" && cat response.json
# GET /v1/search/news: Metered: holds 14 credits per call up front and refunds what the call does not use. Cache hits are free and failed calls are refunded.
# Check the price first for 0 credits: add dry_run=1 to the query. Nothing is fetched or charged.
import os
import random
import time
import uuid

import requests

API_KEY = os.environ.get("SOCIALCRAWL_API_KEY", "YOUR_API_KEY")
TIMEOUT_S = 60  # the API's own time limit for this endpoint.
MAX_RETRIES = 3
URL = "https://www.socialcrawl.dev/v1/search/news"


def backoff(attempt):
    # Exponential backoff with jitter: about 1 s, 2 s, then 4 s.
    return 2 ** attempt * (0.5 + random.random() / 2)


def socialcrawl(params):
    # One Idempotency-Key per request, reused on every retry, so a retried call is never charged twice.
    idempotency_key = str(uuid.uuid4())
    for attempt in range(MAX_RETRIES + 1):
        try:
            res = requests.get(
                URL,
                params=params,
                headers={"x-api-key": API_KEY, "Idempotency-Key": idempotency_key},
                timeout=TIMEOUT_S,
            )
            body = res.json()
        except (requests.RequestException, ValueError):
            # A timeout, a dropped connection or a non-JSON gateway page: retry with the same key.
            if attempt == MAX_RETRIES:
                raise
            time.sleep(backoff(attempt))
            continue
        if body["success"]:
            return body
        error = body["error"]
        # Branch on error["type"], never on the message text.
        if error["type"] == "RESOURCE_NOT_FOUND":
            return None  # refunded: nothing to read
        retry_after = res.headers.get("Retry-After")
        # SERVICE_UNAVAILABLE without Retry-After is a withdrawn endpoint: permanent.
        permanent = error["type"] == "SERVICE_UNAVAILABLE" and retry_after is None
        if not error.get("retryable") or permanent or attempt == MAX_RETRIES:
            raise RuntimeError(f"{error['type']}: {error['message']} (request_id {body['request_id']})")
        # Retry-After (seconds) wins; otherwise back off.
        time.sleep(float(retry_after) if retry_after else backoff(attempt))


params = {
    "query": "samsung galaxy launch",
    "countries": "KR,US,JP",
    "engines": "google,bing",
    "sort": "date",
    "time_range": "week",
    "from": "2026-07-01",
    "to": "2026-07-31",
    "publisher": "bbc.com",
    "depth": "10",
    "max_legs": "4",
}
body = socialcrawl(params)
if body is not None:
    print(body["data"])
// GET /v1/search/news: Metered: holds 14 credits per call up front and refunds what the call does not use. Cache hits are free and failed calls are refunded.
// Check the price first for 0 credits: add dry_run=1 to the query. Nothing is fetched or charged.
const API_KEY = process.env.SOCIALCRAWL_API_KEY ?? "YOUR_API_KEY";
const TIMEOUT_MS = 60_000; // the API's own time limit for this endpoint.
const MAX_RETRIES = 3;

type Page = { next_cursor: string | null; has_more: boolean };
type SocialCrawlResponse =
  | { success: true; data: any; pagination?: Page; credits_used: number; request_id: string }
  | { success: false; error: { type: string; message: string; retryable: boolean }; request_id: string };

const sleep = (ms: number) => new Promise((resolve) => setTimeout(resolve, ms));
// Exponential backoff with jitter: about 1 s, 2 s, then 4 s.
const backoffMs = (attempt: number) => 2 ** attempt * 1000 * (0.5 + Math.random() / 2);

async function socialcrawl(url: URL) {
  // One Idempotency-Key per request, reused on every retry, so a retried call is never charged twice.
  const idempotencyKey = crypto.randomUUID();
  for (let attempt = 0; ; attempt++) {
    let res: Response;
    let body: SocialCrawlResponse;
    try {
      res = await fetch(url, {
        headers: {
          "x-api-key": API_KEY,
          "Idempotency-Key": idempotencyKey,
        },
        signal: AbortSignal.timeout(TIMEOUT_MS),
      });
      body = (await res.json()) as SocialCrawlResponse;
    } catch (error) {
      // A timeout, a dropped connection or a non-JSON gateway page: retry with the same key.
      if (attempt >= MAX_RETRIES) throw error;
      await sleep(backoffMs(attempt));
      continue;
    }
    if (body.success) return body;
    // Branch on error.type, never on the message text.
    if (body.error.type === "RESOURCE_NOT_FOUND") return null; // refunded: nothing to read
    const retryAfter = res.headers.get("Retry-After");
    // SERVICE_UNAVAILABLE without Retry-After is a withdrawn endpoint: permanent.
    const permanent = body.error.type === "SERVICE_UNAVAILABLE" && retryAfter === null;
    if (!body.error.retryable || permanent || attempt >= MAX_RETRIES) {
      throw new Error(`${body.error.type}: ${body.error.message} (request_id ${body.request_id})`);
    }
    // Retry-After (seconds) wins; otherwise back off.
    await sleep(retryAfter ? Number(retryAfter) * 1000 : backoffMs(attempt));
  }
}

const url = new URL("https://www.socialcrawl.dev/v1/search/news");
url.searchParams.set("query", "samsung galaxy launch");
url.searchParams.set("countries", "KR,US,JP");
url.searchParams.set("engines", "google,bing");
url.searchParams.set("sort", "date");
url.searchParams.set("time_range", "week");
url.searchParams.set("from", "2026-07-01");
url.searchParams.set("to", "2026-07-31");
url.searchParams.set("publisher", "bbc.com");
url.searchParams.set("depth", "10");
url.searchParams.set("max_legs", "4");

const body = await socialcrawl(url);
if (body) console.log(body.data);

Parameters

ParameterRequiredDescription
queryYesNews topic or question (1-500 chars). Boolean AND/OR/NOT and quoted phrases are supported; Google advanced operators (site:, intitle:, before:) are rejected.
countriesNoCSV of ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country codes to search (1-12 of the 50 supported editions, default US). Each country searches its news edition in its default language; duplicates collapse.
enginesNoCSV of news indexes to search: google (default) and bing. Asking for both runs the same plan on each and merges the results, which roughly doubles distinct articles and adds a snippet to most rows. The bing engine serves 49 of the 50 editions (not CN) and is priced per article; `publisher` and `from`/`to` are google-only.
sortNoOrdering of the merged articles: relevance (default, each engine's own ranking) or date (newest first, undated articles last). (relevance | date)
time_rangeNoRecency window (day | week | month | year, default day). Ignored when from/to is present. (day | week | month | year)
fromNoLower publish-date bound, YYYY-MM-DD or Unix seconds. Pins every leg to the primary news source.
toNoUpper publish-date bound, YYYY-MM-DD or Unix seconds. Pins every leg to the primary news source.
publisherNoBare publisher domain filter (e.g. bbc.com; no scheme or path). Pins every leg to the primary news source.
depthNoArticles requested per leg (10-100 in steps of 10, default 10). The google engine is priced per call, so depth is free there; the bing engine is priced per article and caps its own legs at 20.
max_legsNoHard cap on billable legs (1-12, default 12). The upfront hold shrinks with it.
groupNoOptional. stories groups the articles that report the same event across editions, outlets and languages into data.stories[] ({ id, head_id, member_ids, size, outlets, outlet_count, countries, languages, first_seen, last_seen, judged }), where every id is an article's canonical_url (or url). items[] and its order are unchanged. data.story_grouping reports how many articles were judged and what it cost. An article that could not be judged is its own story with judged: false; if grouping is unavailable, stories is null and data._warnings says stories_unavailable. JSON responses only (ignored on the event stream). Grouping is on by default now (see judgments); group=stories asks for it explicitly with a longer time budget. Free. (stories)
judgmentsNoOptional. on (default) or off. On, JSON responses also carry data.stories and data.story_grouping (see group), grouped under a short time budget; when grouping does not finish in time, stories is null and data._warnings says stories_pending (stories_unavailable when it failed). items[], their order and the price are unchanged. off returns the response without them. (on | off)
Example Response

What does the Universal Search News API return?

This example shows the endpoint's response shape and fields. Values are illustrative; this is not a live capture.

Example response
{
  "success": true,
  "platform": "search",
  "endpoint": "/v1/search/news",
  "data": {
    "query": "samsung electronics",
    "search_status": "succeeded",
    "plan": {
      "topic": "samsung electronics",
      "source": "llm",
      "degraded": false,
      "subqueries": [
        {
          "id": "sq0",
          "label": "Samsung Electronics 재무 실적",
          "search_query": "Samsung Electronics quarterly results revenue profit guidance",
          "ranking_query": "Focus on earnings, revenue/profit trends, guidance, and investor updates reported by major outlets.",
          "weight": 1
        }
      ],
      "notes": [
        "llm-plan"
      ]
    },
    "legs": [
      {
        "leg_id": "sq0|KR",
        "country": "KR",
        "language": "ko",
        "angle_id": "sq0",
        "angle_label": "Samsung Electronics 재무 실적",
        "effective_query": "삼성전자 실적 매출 이익 전망",
        "query_source": "translated",
        "status": "succeeded",
        "article_count": 10,
        "quarantined_count": 0,
        "credits_used": 1,
        "latency_ms": 1452,
        "error": null
      },
      {
        "leg_id": "sq0|US",
        "country": "US",
        "language": "en",
        "angle_id": "sq0",
        "angle_label": "Samsung Electronics 재무 실적",
        "effective_query": "Samsung Electronics earnings revenue profit guidance",
        "query_source": "translated",
        "status": "succeeded",
        "article_count": 10,
        "quarantined_count": 0,
        "credits_used": 1,
        "latency_ms": 3177,
        "error": null
      }
    ],
    "items": [
      {
        "id": "gn_9599da30",
        "title": "키움증권 \"삼성전자 3분기 영업이익 120조 전망, 메모리 가격 20% 오를 것\"",
        "url": "https://www.businesspost.co.kr/BP?command=article_view&num=443626",
        "canonical_url": "https://www.businesspost.co.kr/BP?command=article_view&num=443626",
        "source_name": "비즈니스포스트",
        "domain": "www.businesspost.co.kr",
        "snippet": null,
        "image_url": "https://www.businesspost.co.kr/news/photo/202306/20230629221229_98416.jpg",
        "published_at": "2026-07-31T00:57:26.000Z",
        "rank": 1,
        "placement": "news_search",
        "country_code": "KR",
        "language_code": "ko",
        "angle_id": "sq0",
        "effective_query": "삼성전자 실적 매출 이익 전망",
        "query_source": "translated",
        "legs_returned": [
          "sq0|KR"
        ]
      },
      {
        "id": "gn_2c3f9190",
        "title": "Samsung Sees Chip Crunch Through 2028 as Profit Soars to Record",
        "url": "https://www.wsj.com/tech/samsungs-chip-earnings-push-net-profit-to-record-cf8711bc",
        "canonical_url": "https://www.wsj.com/tech/samsungs-chip-earnings-push-net-profit-to-record-cf8711bc",
        "source_name": "WSJ",
        "domain": "www.wsj.com",
        "snippet": null,
        "image_url": "https://images.wsj.net/im-46577202?width=700&height=466",
        "published_at": "2026-07-30T08:59:00.000Z",
        "rank": 1,
        "placement": "news_search",
        "country_code": "US",
        "language_code": "en",
        "angle_id": "sq0",
        "effective_query": "Samsung Electronics earnings revenue profit guidance",
        "query_source": "translated",
        "legs_returned": [
          "sq0|US"
        ]
      }
    ],
    "total_articles": 20,
    "countries_searched": [
      "KR",
      "US"
    ],
    "credits_charged": 4,
    "methodology_version": "search-news/1.0"
  },
  "credits_used": 4,
  "credits_remaining": 9999,
  "request_id": "req_example000000",
  "cached": false
}

Illustrative fixture for the documented response shape. Values are examples, not a production capture.

API Details

How does the Universal Search News API work?

Send a GET request with your API key and get back clean, structured JSON in our unified schema. Supported computed fields are populated when the source provides the required inputs.

Method

GET

Response

JSON

Why SocialCrawl

Why use SocialCrawl for Universal Search News data?

We handle the complexity of Universal Search data extraction so you can focus on building. Unified schema, AI enrichment, and zero platform logic in your code.

Developer First

How do you scrape social media data in seconds?

The fastest social media scraping API for developers. Scrape profiles, posts, comments, and analytics from 69 platforms covering 10B+ monthly active users.

One schema, every platform

Query 69 platforms with identical response structures. Write your integration once.

Computed fields, not just scraped

When an endpoint supports these metrics and the source provides the required inputs, the normalized record includes engagement_rate, estimated_reach, content_category, and language. Ready to use.

See your data before you code

Visual Data Explorer. Paste any URL, get rich result cards, sortable tables, CSV export.

import requests

response = requests.get(
    'https://www.socialcrawl.dev/v1/tiktok/profile',
    params={'handle': 'charlidamelio'},
    headers={'x-api-key': 'sc_YOUR_API_KEY'}
)
data = response.json()
[ .JSON ]
{
  "success": true,
  "platform": "tiktok",
  "data": {
    "author": {
      "username": "charlidamelio",
      "followers": 152400000
    },
    "engagement": {
      "likes": 12400000000,
      "engagement_rate": 0.087
    },
    "metadata": {
      "language": "en",
      "content_category": "lifestyle"
    }
  }
}
+ 69 platforms
FAQ

Have a question? We got answers

Find answers to frequently asked questions about SocialCrawl's API, pricing, and capabilities.

Contact us
What is the SocialCrawl news search API?
GET /v1/search/news takes one query, plans it into search angles with an LLM, localizes each angle into the target languages, and fans it out across Google News country editions in parallel. You get one deduplicated article list with per-country, per-language provenance on every item.
Which countries can I search news in?
50 country editions, from the United States and the United Kingdom to South Korea, Japan, Germany, and Brazil. Pass countries as a CSV of ISO codes (countries=KR,US,JP) and the lane searches up to 12 countries in one call, each in its edition's own language.
How much does a news search cost?
Each call starts at 2 credits and adds 1 credit per country leg that actually returns articles, so the total lands between 2 and 62 credits. A search that finds nothing bills the 2-credit base only, and if every leg fails outright the whole charge is refunded automatically.
How does the query localization work?
One combined LLM call plans the search angles and writes each one natively in the target languages, so the Korean edition is searched in Korean and the Japanese edition in Japanese. Every result row carries a query_source stamp (translated, original, or fallback_original) so you can always see exactly which query text a leg ran.
Can I stream news results as they arrive?
Yes. Send Accept: text/event-stream and you get typed SSE chunks: the refined plan with per-leg provenance first, then each country's articles as its leg settles, then a done summary with the exact credits used. The default Accept: application/json returns one synchronous envelope.

Ask AI about SocialCrawl

Ready to scrape Universal Search News data?

Get your API key and start pulling Universal Search data in under 60 seconds.

Start for free

🤖 AI agent or LLM? Read this page as markdown