Guardian API endpoint
Use Crawlora's Guardian topic archive API to extract supported public Guardian data as structured JSON. This page includes request parameters, cURL examples, response schema, error behavior, credit cost, and a Playground link for testing before integration.
/guardian/topicReturns the stories on a public Guardian tag archive (20 per page, newest first, with total pages and results) or section front (a single curated page, is_front true). topic is a Guardian tag or section slug and page defaults to 1. resolved_topic reports the path actually served, which differs for edition-scoped fronts. Developers commonly use this endpoint for data enrichment, monitoring, research dashboards, internal automation, and agent-native workflows that need repeatable structured public web data. Authentication uses the documented Crawlora headers, and usage is metered with the credit cost shown on this page.
Request parameters are generated from the active endpoint catalog. Required values must be sent before Crawlora can call the upstream public web data source.
| Parameter | Type | Required | Default | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| topic | string | Yes | Guardian tag or section slug | world | |
| page | integer | No | 1 | 1-based archive page, 1 to 100, defaults to 1 Minimum: 1. Maximum: 100. | |
| x-api-key (header) | string | Yes | API key required |
curl -X GET "https://api.crawlora.net/api/v1/guardian/topic?topic=world&page=1" \ -H "x-api-key: $CRAWLORA_API_KEY"
Send your scraping API key in the x-api-key header. Use the console API Keys page to rotate or select the active key.
Endpoint usage is metered in credits. The plan prices, included credits, limits, and overage rates below match the active backend billing configuration.
| Plan | Price | Included credits | Daily cap | Rate limit | Overage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/mo | 2,000 | 500 daily credits | 5/min | No overage |
| Starter | $9/mo | 20,000 | 5,000 daily credits | 15/min | $0.75/1,000 overage credits when enabled |
| Growth | $29/mo | 100,000 | 25,000 daily credits | 45/min | $0.45/1,000 overage credits when enabled |
| Pro | $79/mo | 400,000 | No daily cap | 120/min | $0.30/1,000 overage credits |
| Business | $199/mo | 1,200,000 | No daily cap | 300/min | $0.20/1,000 overage credits |
| Enterprise | $499/mo | 5,000,000 | No daily cap | 1,000/min | $0.12/1,000 overage credits |
This endpoint is executed through Crawlora's managed scraping infrastructure.
- Tag archives (`is_front: false`) return 20 stories per page, newest first. `pagination.total_pages` and `pagination.total_results` report the archive size; `has_next`/`next_page` are set while another page exists within the `page` limit of `100`. - Section fronts (`is_front: true`, for example `world`) are a single curated page: `total_pages` is `1`, `has_next` is `false`, and `page` values above `1` return an empty `items` list. - `resolved_topic` is the path the Guardian actually served. It differs from `topic` for edition-scoped fronts (for example `technology` resolves to `uk/technology`). - A `page` beyond the end of a tag archive returns an empty `items` list with `has_next: false`. - `published_at` is an RFC 3339 UTC timestamp. `section` is the story's own Guardian section (the first URL segment), which can differ from the requested topic. - Items are always individual stories (articles, live blogs, video, audio); date-archive links are never returned.
Crawlora does not silently return bad data when the upstream page cannot be used.
| Status | Common failure case |
|---|---|
| 400 | Invalid input or missing required parameter |
| 429 | Plan or endpoint rate limit exceeded |
| 500 | Internal execution error |
| 502 | Upstream platform failed, returned unusable HTML, or served a challenge page that could not be resolved |
When possible, Crawlora returns structured error context so your integration can retry, back off, or inspect the request.
| Status | Description | Schema |
|---|---|---|
| 400 | Bad Request | #/definitions/app.Response |
| 404 | Not Found | #/definitions/app.Response |
| 429 | Too Many Requests | #/definitions/app.Response |
| 503 | Service Unavailable | #/definitions/app.Response |
{
"code": 200,
"msg": "OK",
"data": {
"topic": "world/ukraine",
"resolved_topic": "world/ukraine",
"is_front": false,
"items": [
{
"title": "Ukraine war briefing: Poland’s Tusk heads to Kyiv after warning of Russian strikes on Ukrainian allies",
"url": "https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/sep/18/ukraine-war-briefing-poland-warns-russian-strikes-kyiv-allies",
"summary": "Donald Tusk says Moscow will not enter peace talks without Ukraine’s ‘total capitulation’.",
"published_at": "2026-09-18T01:47:56Z",
"section": "world",
"kicker": "Russia-Ukraine war at a glance"
}
],
"pagination": {
"page": 1,
"has_next": true,
"next_page": 2,
"total_pages": 931,
"total_results": 18604
}
}
}Request schema
No body schema
Response schema
#/definitions/guardian.topicResponseDoc
| Field | Type | Required | Enum | Bounds | Example | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| code | integer | No | 200 | |||
| data | guardian.TopicResponse | No | ||||
| data.is_front | boolean | No | IsFront is true for a curated section front (no archive paging) and false for a paginated tag archive. | |||
| data.items | array | No | ||||
| data.items[].kicker | string | No | Kicker is the series or blog label Guardian shows above the headline. | |||
| data.items[].published_at | string | No | ||||
| data.items[].section | string | No | ||||
| data.items[].summary | string | No | ||||
| data.items[].title | string | No | ||||
| data.items[].url | string | No | ||||
| data.pagination | guardian.TopicPagination | No | ||||
| data.pagination.has_next | boolean | No | ||||
| data.pagination.next_page | integer | No | ||||
| data.pagination.page | integer | No | ||||
| data.pagination.total_pages | integer | No | TotalPages is the archive's last page (1 for a section front). | |||
| data.pagination.total_results | integer | No | TotalResults is Guardian's article count for a tag archive. | |||
| data.resolved_topic | string | No | ResolvedTopic is the path Guardian actually served, which differs from Topic for edition-scoped fronts (technology -> uk/technology). | |||
| data.topic | string | No | ||||
| msg | string | No | OK |
Use environment variables for secrets and keep Crawlora API keys server-side.
curl -X GET "https://api.crawlora.net/api/v1/guardian/topic?topic=world&page=1" \
-H "x-api-key: $CRAWLORA_API_KEY"Crawlora is designed for responsible structured public web data workflows. Customers are responsible for using Crawlora in compliance with applicable laws, third-party rights, target-platform rules, and Crawlora terms.
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