Google Scholar scraper API
Title, authors, citations, and the free PDF link, as JSON or CSV.
One request, real response
The same rows show as CSV, so they drop straight into Sheets or a reference manager:
Add gl and hl for country and language, and set page to walk through more results.
How do you scrape Google Scholar?
No code needed. From zero to a spreadsheet of papers in about two minutes:
- 1
Create a free account. Try it free, no card needed.
- 2
Type a topic in the playground. Something like machine learning. The papers land in a table.
- 3
Click export. Download the CSV and open it in Sheets or Excel. Developers: run the curl above instead.
What data do you get?
Every result comes complete, so you build a reading list or a dataset with no second call. The same record shows as CSV, ready for Sheets or a database:
Or the same record as JSON:
vs serper and serpapi
All three return Google Scholar as JSON. The difference is how you pay for it and what happens to the funds you add.
| Other Scholar APIs | CrustAPI Scholar | |
|---|---|---|
| Billing unit | Per search, even when it returns nothing | Per successful search; empty searches free |
| Citation count | Included | Included |
| Free PDF link | Included | Included |
| Free tier | Trial credits that expire | Free to try, no card |
| Paid funds / quota expiry | Expire monthly or in 6 months | Never expire |
| Storing the data | Varies by provider | No storage limits. Keep it, export it, build on it |
How much does Scholar scraping cost?
You pay the applicable price per successful search, however many results come back. A search that returns none costs nothing.
| Deposit | Google Search / 1,000 requests | Maps / 1,000 businesses | LinkedIn reads / 1,000 requests | People, Jobs, Refresh / 1,000 units |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $10+ | $1.00 | $1.96 | $6.00 | $1.96 |
| $149+ | $0.76 | $1.49 | $4.50 | $1.49 |
| $549+ | $0.56 | $1.10 | $3.30 | $1.10 |
| $1,999+ | $0.41 | $0.80 | $2.45 | $0.80 |
| $6,500+ | $0.33 | $0.65 | $1.95 | $0.65 |
| $27,500+ | $0.28 | $0.55 | $1.65 | $0.55 |
| $50,000+ | $0.26 | $0.50 | $1.50 | $0.50 |
| $100,000+ | $0.20 | $0.40 | $1.50 | $0.40 |
Every eligible account gets $6 of free usage monthly. Each deposit keeps its prices until spent; paid funds never expire. People and Jobs bill per successful search, Refresh per accessible profile. Full profiles in People use the read rate per full profile. See all billing details.
Larger deposits unlock lower endpoint prices. Each deposit keeps its prices until spent. See the full deposit table on the pricing page. Prices in USD, ex-tax.
Funds are prepaid and never expire. The full endpoint reference, with the citation-count detail and a Python quickstart, is on the Google Scholar API page.
Citation counts and free PDF links
Each result carries citedBy, the number of papers that cite it, plus a free full-text link when Google Scholar found one: pdfUrl for a PDF, htmlUrl for an HTML page.
Both keys come back null when there is no free copy. So you rank a reading list by influence or pull open-access papers straight from the response.
Related: Google Scholar API · Google Search API · Google News API · Google Maps scraper API · Docs
When a licensed metadata source is the better pick: you need a complete citation graph under a license, a guaranteed DOI on every record, or a contract that covers redistribution. Google Scholar gives you the title, authors, venue, year, snippet, citation count, and a PDF link when one is public, which is what most literature-review and citation-tracking work needs, but it is not a licensed bibliographic database.
Who uses this scraper?
- Researchers and grad students. Build a reading list for a literature review, ranked by citation count.
- AI and data teams. Feed paper titles, snippets, and citation counts into models or a RAG index.
- EdTech and SaaS builders. Power a paper-search feature in your product with one stable endpoint.
- Analysts and journalists. Track which papers lead a field and how fast it is publishing.
Common questions
Logged-out, public-only collection has repeatedly defeated computer-fraud and contract claims, while Google's Terms prohibit automated access that violates instructions like robots.txt. We handle the collection; what you get is the same public Scholar listing anyone sees on the results page.
Title, authors and venue, publish year, a snippet, the citation count, a link to the paper, a free full-text link when one is public (pdfUrl for a PDF copy, htmlUrl for an HTML copy), a stable result id, and the position on the page. Enough to build a reading list or a research dataset without a second call.
Yes. Every result carries citedBy, the number of papers that cite it, plus a free full-text link when Google Scholar found one: pdfUrl when the copy is a PDF, htmlUrl when it is an HTML page. Both keys are always present and return null when there is no free copy.
Page through results with the page parameter. You pay the applicable price per successful search, however many results come back, and a search that finds none costs nothing.
The response is plain JSON, and the one-click CSV view drops straight into Sheets, Clay, or a database with no transformation. There is no storage restriction, so you keep what you pull.
Google Search costs $1.00 per 1,000 successful requests at standard prices, down to $0.20 for the largest deposit. Empty and failed searches are free. Every eligible account gets $6 of free usage monthly. Paid funds never expire.
Clay
Try it on a field you follow
The free plan covers a real literature search. Run one query and look at the JSON that comes back.
Try for free