This repository is documentation only — no scraper source code. The Actor runs on the Apify platform, ready in one click.
Extract structured book metadata from Google Books at scale. Search by keyword, author, subject, or ISBN, browse popular titles, or look up specific volumes by their Google Books ID — with no API key and no login required. Every book comes back as a clean row with title, subtitle, authors, publisher, publication date, description, page count, categories, ratings, ISBN-10/13, cover thumbnail, saleability and list price. Use it as a keyless Google Books API alternative to build a book database, run an ISBN batch lookup, or power a book catalog / price-comparison dataset — exportable to JSON, CSV or Excel.
Each dataset row is one book volume. Real output fields:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
id |
Google Books volume ID (used for volumeDetail lookups). |
title |
Book title. |
subtitle |
Book subtitle, if any. |
authors |
Comma-separated list of authors. |
publisher |
Publisher name. |
publishedDate |
Publication date (year or full date). |
description |
Book description / synopsis. |
pageCount |
Number of pages. |
categories |
Comma-separated categories / subjects. |
averageRating |
Average reader rating (typically 1–5). |
ratingsCount |
Number of ratings the book has received. |
language |
Language code(s) of the book. |
isbn10 |
10-digit ISBN, when available. |
isbn13 |
13-digit ISBN, when available. |
previewLink |
Link to the book's preview / detail page. |
thumbnail |
Cover image URL. |
saleability |
Sale status (e.g. FOR_SALE, FREE, NOT_FOR_SALE). |
listPrice |
List price with currency, when for sale. |
source |
Data source tag for the record. |
Missing values come back as null rather than erroring — older, academic, or public-domain titles often lack ratings, price, or a thumbnail.
- Build a niche book database — collect every title for a subject (e.g.
subject:machine learning) and export to Google Sheets for editorial planning. - ISBN batch lookup — feed a list of volume IDs and get full metadata for existing catalog entries; ideal for inventory reconciliation.
- Track ratings over time — re-run a category search on a schedule to spot trending or declining titles.
- Enrich affiliate & review content — pull descriptions, covers, publishers and prices for hundreds of books to power automated review pages.
- Academic bibliography building — query
inauthor:Sutton subject:reinforcement learningfor a curated metadata corpus. - Price & catalog comparison — combine
listPrice,saleabilityandisbn13to compare editions across a bookstore. - ML / NLP datasets — assemble large labeled sets of books by genre, subject or language for recommenders and text models.
Four ways to run — all return the same structured dataset.
- Open apify.com/logiover/google-books-scraper.
- Click Try for free. Leave the input empty to browse popular books, or type a
query. - Click Start and export from the Dataset tab.
npm install -g apify-cli
apify login
apify call logiover/google-books-scraper \
--input '{ "mode": "search", "query": "artificial intelligence", "maxResults": 500 }'curl -X POST \
"https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/logiover~google-books-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"mode": "search",
"query": "subject:economics inauthor:Kahneman",
"orderBy": "newest",
"maxResults": 300
}'Full snippets in examples/javascript.md and examples/python.md. All four methods live in examples/.
Leave everything empty to browse popular books. Add a query (or switch to volumeDetail mode with ids) to narrow results.
| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
mode |
select | search (query by keyword/author/subject/ISBN) or volumeDetail (fetch specific volumes by ID). Default search. |
query |
string | Search query for search mode. Supports operators intitle:, inauthor:, subject:, isbn:. Empty = browse popular books. |
printType |
select | Restrict results by publication type: all, books, magazines. Default all. |
orderBy |
select | Sort by relevance or newest. Default relevance. |
language |
select | Restrict to a language (en, es, fr, de, it, ja, zh, tr, …) or any. |
ids |
array | Google Books volume IDs for volumeDetail mode (e.g. ["zyTCAlFPjgYC"]). |
maxResults |
integer | Max books to retrieve in search mode (1–5000; paginates in bulk). Default 200. |
proxy |
object | Apify Proxy settings. Automatic (rotating IPs) is recommended for large runs. |
mode, printType, orderBy and language are dropdowns in the Console.
| Operator | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
intitle: |
Match words in the title | intitle:deep learning |
inauthor: |
Match by author | inauthor:Goodfellow |
subject: |
Match a category/subject | subject:history |
isbn: |
Exact edition by ISBN | isbn:9780201616224 |
Operators combine freely: intitle:python inauthor:Lutz subject:programming.
A realistic sample record:
{
"id": "zyTCAlFPjgYC",
"title": "The Pragmatic Programmer",
"subtitle": "From Journeyman to Master",
"authors": "Andrew Hunt, David Thomas",
"publisher": "Addison-Wesley Professional",
"publishedDate": "1999-10-20",
"description": "Straight from the programming trenches, The Pragmatic Programmer cuts through the increasing specialization and technicalities of modern software development...",
"pageCount": "352",
"categories": "Computers",
"averageRating": "4.5",
"ratingsCount": "2183",
"language": "en",
"isbn10": "0201616224",
"isbn13": "9780201616224",
"previewLink": "http://books.google.com/books?id=zyTCAlFPjgYC&printsec=frontcover",
"thumbnail": "http://books.google.com/books/content?id=zyTCAlFPjgYC&printsec=frontcover&img=1&zoom=1",
"saleability": "FOR_SALE",
"listPrice": "49.99 USD",
"source": "google-books"
}- Schedules — run a query weekly/monthly to monitor new publications, rating changes and price updates.
- Webhooks — POST run results to your endpoint, or notify Slack when a run completes.
- Google Sheets / Airtable / Notion — pipe the dataset into a live editorial or catalog spreadsheet.
- Databases & BI — pull results via the Apify API into your warehouse for ongoing catalog analytics.
- Zapier · Make · n8n · Pipedream — wire the Actor into no-code automations.
- AI agents (MCP) — call the Actor as a tool so an LLM can fetch book metadata on demand.
Export the dataset as CSV, JSON, JSONL (JSON Lines), Excel (XLSX) or XML — one click in the Console or via the Apify API.
No. It runs fully keyless — no API key, no OAuth token and no login session. Just send a query and receive structured JSON.
Search mode paginates in bulk up to its result ceiling per query. For larger corpora, run several searches with different keywords and merge the datasets.
intitle:, inauthor:, subject:, and isbn:. Combine them freely in a single query for precision targeting.
Yes. Use isbn:9780201616224 (ISBN-10 or ISBN-13) in search mode to retrieve a specific edition, optionally combined with other operators.
Switch mode to volumeDetail and pass their Google Books volume IDs in ids — the Actor fetches each volume's fresh metadata individually.
Not every volume has complete metadata. Ratings, page counts, thumbnails and pricing are often absent for older or academic titles. The Actor always returns the field with a null value instead of erroring.
Run the Actor, then export the dataset as CSV, JSON, JSONL, Excel (XLSX) or XML from the Console, or pull it via the Apify API.
Yes. Each run fetches live data, so ratings, prices and publication metadata reflect the current state in Google Books at run time.
Yes. Google Books indexes dozens of languages; queries in other languages return results in those languages, and the language field shows the code. Use the language input to restrict results.
That usually means the query is too restrictive. Broaden it — remove operators or simplify to a single keyword. The Actor logs a warning and exits cleanly with no dataset items.
- App Store Data API — unofficial Apple App Store data API (apps, reviews, charts).
- Google Play Scraper — App Data, Reviews & ASO API — Android app details, reviews and top charts.
- IMDb Scraper — movies, shows and cast metadata.
👉 Browse all logiover scrapers on Apify Store.
📄 Documentation only — this repository contains no scraper source code. The Actor runs on the Apify platform.
Licensed under the MIT License · © 2026 logiover · Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Google LLC.