Universal Search News API
Scrape Universal Search News data with one API call. 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.
Last updated September 2026Maintained by the SocialCrawl team
Returns one deduplicated list of news articles for a query, searched across the Google News editions of the countries you pick, in each one's language.
Use it for news coverage across several countries at once; for one topic across social platforms use search/everywhere.
Searching 65 platforms in parallel
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
curl -H "x-api-key: YOUR_API_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"import requests
response = requests.get(
"https://www.socialcrawl.dev/v1/search/news",
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',
},
headers={"x-api-key": "YOUR_API_KEY"},
)
data = response.json()const response = await fetch(
"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",
{
headers: { "x-api-key": "YOUR_API_KEY" },
},
);
const data = await response.json();Parameters
| Parameter | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
| query | Yes | News topic or question (1-500 chars). Boolean AND/OR/NOT and quoted phrases are supported; Google advanced operators (site:, intitle:, before:) are rejected. |
| countries | No | CSV 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. |
| engines | No | CSV 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. |
| sort | No | Ordering of the merged articles: relevance (default, each engine's own ranking) or date (newest first, undated articles last). (relevance | date) |
| time_range | No | Recency window (day | week | month | year, default day). Ignored when from/to is present. (day | week | month | year) |
| from | No | Lower publish-date bound, YYYY-MM-DD or Unix seconds. Pins every leg to the primary news source. |
| to | No | Upper publish-date bound, YYYY-MM-DD or Unix seconds. Pins every leg to the primary news source. |
| publisher | No | Bare publisher domain filter (e.g. bbc.com; no scheme or path). Pins every leg to the primary news source. |
| depth | No | Articles 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_legs | No | Hard cap on billable legs (1-12, default 12). The upfront hold shrinks with it. |
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.
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
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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(){
"success": true,
"platform": "tiktok",
"data": {
"author": {
"username": "charlidamelio",
"followers": 152400000
},
"engagement": {
"likes": 12400000000,
"engagement_rate": 0.087
},
"metadata": {
"language": "en",
"content_category": "lifestyle"
}
}
}Have a question? We got answers
Find answers to frequently asked questions about SocialCrawl's API, pricing, and capabilities.
Contact usWhat is the SocialCrawl news search API?
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How does the query localization work?
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