Google News Light API

Our Google News Light API allows you to scrape results from the Google News page with lightning-fast speeds. The Google News Light engine contains all the most critical data, but without the extra-rich results you usually find on a regular Google News page. This allows for faster response times compared to our regular Google News API.

The API is accessed through the following endpoint: /search?engine=google_news_light.

You can query: https://serpapi.com/search?engine=google_news_light&q=coffee utilizing a GET request. Head to the playground for a live and interactive demo.

Chart

API Parameters

Search Query

q

Required

Parameter defines the query you want to search. You can use anything that you would use in a regular Google search. e.g. inurl:, site:, intitle:. We also support advanced search query parameters such as as_dt and as_eq. See the full list of supported advanced search query parameters.

Geographic Location

location

Optional

Parameter defines from where you want the search to originate. If several locations match the location requested, we'll pick the most popular one. Head to the /locations.json API if you need more precise control. The location and uule parameters can't be used together. It is recommended to specify location at the city level in order to simulate a real user’s search. If location is omitted, the search may take on the location of the proxy.

uule

Optional

Parameter is the Google encoded location you want to use for the search. uule and location parameters can't be used together.

Localization

google_domain

Optional

Parameter defines the Google domain to use. It defaults to google.com. Head to the Google domains page for a full list of supported Google domains.

gl

Optional

Parameter defines the country to use for the Google search. It's a two-letter country code. (e.g., us for the United States, uk for United Kingdom, or fr for France). Head to the Google countries page for a full list of supported Google countries.

hl

Optional

Parameter defines the language to use for the Google search. It's a two-letter language code. (e.g., en for English, es for Spanish, or fr for French). Head to the Google languages page for a full list of supported Google languages.

lr

Optional

Parameter defines one or multiple languages to limit the search to. It uses lang_{two-letter language code} to specify languages and | as a delimiter. (e.g., lang_fr|lang_de will only search French and German pages). Head to the Google lr languages page for a full list of supported languages.

Advanced Filters

safe

Optional

Parameter defines the level of filtering for adult content. It can be set to active or off, by default Google will blur explicit content.

nfpr

Optional

Parameter defines the exclusion of results from an auto-corrected query when the original query is spelled wrong. It can be set to 1 to exclude these results, or 0 to include them (default). Note that this parameter may not prevent Google from returning results for an auto-corrected query if no other results are available.

filter

Optional

Parameter defines if the filters for 'Similar Results' and 'Omitted Results' are on or off. It can be set to 1 (default) to enable these filters, or 0 to disable these filters.

Pagination

start

Optional

Parameter defines the result offset. It skips the given number of results. It's used for pagination. (e.g., 0 (default) is the first page of results, 10 is the 2nd page of results, 20 is the 3rd page of results, etc.).

num

Optional

Parameter defines the maximum number of results to return. (e.g., 10 (default) returns 10 results, 40 returns 40 results, and 100 returns 100 results).

The use of num may introduce latency, and/or prevent the inclusion of specialized result types. It is better to omit this parameter unless it is strictly necessary to increase the number of results per page.

Serpapi Parameters

engine

Required

Set parameter to google_news_light to use the Google News Light API engine.

device

Optional

Parameter defines the device to use to get the results. It can be set to desktop (default) to use a regular browser, tablet to use a tablet browser (currently using iPads), or mobile to use a mobile browser (currently using iPhones).

no_cache

Optional

Parameter will force SerpApi to fetch the Google News Light results even if a cached version is already present. A cache is served only if the query and all parameters are exactly the same. Cache expires after 1h. Cached searches are free, and are not counted towards your searches per month. It can be set to false (default) to allow results from the cache, or true to disallow results from the cache. no_cache and async parameters should not be used together.

async

Optional

Parameter defines the way you want to submit your search to SerpApi. It can be set to false (default) to open an HTTP connection and keep it open until you got your search results, or true to just submit your search to SerpApi and retrieve them later. In this case, you'll need to use our Searches Archive API to retrieve your results. async and no_cache parameters should not be used together. async should not be used on accounts with Ludicrous Speed enabled.

zero_trace

Optional

Enterprise only. Parameter enables ZeroTrace mode. It can be set to false (default) or true. Enable this mode to skip storing search parameters, search files, and search metadata on our servers. This may make debugging more difficult.

api_key

Required

Parameter defines the SerpApi private key to use.

output

Optional

Parameter defines the final output you want. It can be set to json (default) to get a structured JSON of the results, or html to get the raw html retrieved.

API Results

JSON Results

JSON output includes structured data for News Results and Top Stories.

A search status is accessible through search_metadata.status. It flows this way: Processing -> Success || Error. If a search has failed, error will contain an error message. search_metadata.id is the search ID inside SerpApi.

HTML Results

HTML output is useful to debug JSON results or support features not supported yet by SerpApi. HTML output gives you the raw HTML results from Google News Light.

API Examples

Results for: Coffee

Results for: Coffee

JSON Example

{
  "search_metadata": {
    "id": "68306006ac29783e0920f33d",
    "status": "Success",
    "json_endpoint": "https://serpapi.com/searches/f50945285d31c18f/68306006ac29783e0920f33d.json",
    "created_at": "2025-05-23 11:46:14 UTC",
    "processed_at": "2025-05-23 11:46:14 UTC",
    "google_news_light_url": "https://www.google.com/search?q=Coffee&oq=Coffee&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&gbv=1&tbm=nws",
    "raw_html_file": "https://serpapi.com/searches/f50945285d31c18f/68306006ac29783e0920f33d.html",
    "total_time_taken": 0.72
  },
  "search_parameters": {
    "engine": "google_news_light",
    "q": "Coffee",
    "google_domain": "google.com",
    "device": "desktop"
  },
  "search_information": {
    "query_displayed": "Coffee",
    "news_results_state": "Results for exact spelling"
  },
  "news_results": [
    {
      "position": 1,
      "title": "I Got a Sneak Peek of the Ratio Eight Series 2 Coffee Maker. Lord, It’s Beautiful",
      "link": "https://www.wired.com/story/ratio-eight-series-two-preview/",
      "source": "WIRED",
      "thumbnail": "https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTUNGY6_aXSgAhnkxhIqpevyoFTonFJ3KHLw4AgRvGGLpf2ECCSZyy6kCOxuA&s",
      "snippet": "Ratio's new coffee maker is a luxury machine that avoids plastic and makes delicious coffee.",
      "date": "2 hours ago"
    },
    {
      "position": 2,
      "title": "The optimal time to drink coffee isn't when you normally have it",
      "link": "https://www.foxnews.com/food-drink/optimal-time-drink-coffee-isnt-when-you-normally-have",
      "source": "Fox News",
      "thumbnail": "https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTUZkkyCl2tISQh15_BcN7jbqhVCCHyIoOjve0och1ZFQICE7g0iMUIWsAQ9w&s",
      "snippet": "Experts suggest delaying your coffee intake in the morning to align with natural cortisol levels, enhancing alertness and reducing the...",
      "date": "1 day ago"
    },
    {
      "position": 3,
      "title": "Yeti Reinvented the French Press, and It’s a Game-Changer for Coffee Lovers",
      "link": "https://www.foodandwine.com/yeti-rambler-french-press-coffee-maker-review-11739511",
      "source": "Food & Wine",
      "thumbnail": "https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR7KSW7amernGekEAfKAr4U7GJejaJPLNmEcIf7oz8pI0udnutb2JAN64OYKg&s",
      "snippet": "The Yeti Rambler French Press is a highly insulated press that keeps coffee hot for hours without the bitterness from over-steeped grounds.",
      "date": "1 day ago"
    },
    ...
  ],
  "serpapi_pagination": {
    "current": 1,
    "next": "https://serpapi.com/search.json?device=desktop&engine=google_news_light&google_domain=google.com&q=Coffee&start=10location=Austin%2C+TX%2C+Texas%2C+United+States"
  }
}

JSON structure overview

{
  "news_results": [
    {
      "position": "Integer - Position of the news result on the search page",
      "title": "String - Title of the news result",
      "link": "String - Link of the news result",
      "source": "String - Source of the news result",
      "thumbnail": "String - URL of the news result thumbnail",
      "snippet": "String - Snippet of the news result",
      "date": "String - Date of the news result",
    },
    ...
  ],
  "serpapi_pagination": {
    "current": "Integer - Index of the current page",
    "next": "String - SerpApi link for paginating to the next page of results",
    "previous": "String - SerpApi link for paginating to the previous page of results"
  },
}