# Picnic Scraper — Grocery Delivery Products & Prices (`studio-amba/picnic-scraper`) Actor

Scrape product data from Picnic, the popular online grocery delivery service in the Netherlands and Germany. Extract product names, prices, categories, and availability. No login or cookies required.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/studio-amba/picnic-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Studio Amba](https://apify.com/studio-amba) (community)
- **Categories:** E-commerce
- **Features:** Limited permissions
- **Stats:** 1 total users, 0 monthly users, 0.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $1.20 / 1,000 result scrapeds

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## Picnic Scraper

Scrape grocery product data from Picnic, the popular online-only supermarket in the Netherlands and Germany. Extract product names, prices, categories, unit pricing, and availability.

### Why use this actor?

Track grocery prices, monitor product availability, or build price comparison tools for Picnic's online delivery service. Perfect for market researchers, price comparison platforms, and anyone monitoring the Dutch and German online grocery market. No login or cookies required.

### Input

| Field | Type | Required | Description |
|-------|------|----------|-------------|
| `searchQuery` | String | No | Search for products by name or keyword (e.g. "melk", "kaas", "Milch") |
| `country` | String | No | Country store to scrape: `NL` (Netherlands, default) or `DE` (Germany) |
| `categoryUrl` | String | No | Specific category URL or path to scrape (e.g. "zuivel-eieren") |
| `maxResults` | Integer | No | Maximum results to return (default: 100) |
| `proxyConfiguration` | Object | No | Proxy settings for large-scale scraping |

### Output

Each result contains:

| Field | Type | Example |
|-------|------|---------|
| `name` | String | `"Halfvolle melk"` |
| `brand` | String | `"Campina"` |
| `price` | Number | `1.29` |
| `currency` | String | `"EUR"` |
| `pricePerUnit` | String | `"€1.29/L"` |
| `category` | String | `"Zuivel & Eieren"` |
| `imageUrl` | String | Product image URL |
| `description` | String | `"1L pak"` |
| `inStock` | Boolean | `true` |
| `quantity` | String | `"1L"` |
| `unit` | String | `"L"` |
| `url` | String | Full product URL on Picnic |
| `scrapedAt` | String | ISO 8601 timestamp |

### Example output

```json
{
    "name": "Halfvolle melk",
    "brand": "Campina",
    "price": 1.29,
    "currency": "EUR",
    "pricePerUnit": "€1.29/L",
    "category": "Zuivel & Eieren",
    "imageUrl": "https://storefront.getpicnic.com/static/images/abc123/medium.png",
    "description": "Verse halfvolle melk, 1 liter pak",
    "inStock": true,
    "quantity": "1L",
    "unit": "L",
    "url": "https://picnic.app/nl/product/halfvolle-melk",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-04-07T10:30:00.000Z"
}
```

### How it works

The scraper uses a multi-strategy approach to extract product data from Picnic:

1. **API search** — Attempts Picnic's storefront API endpoints for fast, structured product data
2. **Web scraping** — Falls back to scraping picnic.app HTML pages, including embedded JSON data (Next.js/Nuxt hydration data) and structured data (JSON-LD)
3. **Category browsing** — Follows category links to discover more products

### Supported countries

- **Netherlands (NL)** — picnic.app/nl
- **Germany (DE)** — picnic.app/de

### Cost estimate

This actor charges $0.02 per run (start fee, based on its 4 GB memory allocation) plus $0.002 per result. A 1,000-product run costs about $2.02. A run's usage cost only settles after it reports SUCCEEDED.

### Use cases

- **Price monitoring** — Track grocery prices over time across Picnic's catalog
- **Price comparison** — Compare Picnic prices with other online supermarkets (Albert Heijn, Jumbo, REWE)
- **Market research** — Analyze product assortment, pricing strategies, and availability patterns
- **Competitor intelligence** — Monitor new product launches and promotional pricing
- **Data analysis** — Build datasets for grocery market analysis in NL and DE

### How to scrape Picnic data

1. Create an Apify account (free tier available)
2. Open the Picnic Scraper actor page
3. Enter a search query (e.g. "kaas") and select your target country (NL or DE)
4. Click "Start" to begin scraping
5. Download results as JSON, CSV, or Excel when the run finishes

You can also call the actor via the Apify API or schedule recurring runs for automated grocery price tracking.

### Integrations

Connect Picnic Scraper results to your existing tools:

- **Google Sheets** — Automatic export after every run
- **Slack / Email** — Get notified when product prices change
- **Webhooks** — Push data to your own API endpoint
- **Zapier / Make** — Connect to 5,000+ apps without code

### Limitations

- Picnic is primarily an app-based service; some product data may require authentication
- Product availability varies by delivery area
- The scraper attempts multiple strategies (API + web scraping) to maximize data extraction
- Data is scraped from public-facing pages and may change without notice

# Actor input Schema

## `searchQuery` (type: `string`):

Search for products by name or keyword (e.g. 'melk', 'kaas', 'Milch'). Leave empty to browse categories.

## `country` (type: `string`):

Which Picnic country store to scrape.

## `categoryUrl` (type: `string`):

Optional: a specific Picnic category URL or path to scrape (e.g. 'zuivel-eieren'). Overrides search query if provided.

## `maxResults` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of products to scrape.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Proxy settings. Datacenter proxies usually work fine for Picnic.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "searchQuery": "melk",
  "country": "NL",
  "maxResults": 100,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": [
      "RESIDENTIAL"
    ],
    "apifyProxyCountry": "NL"
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "searchQuery": "melk",
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": true,
        "apifyProxyGroups": [
            "RESIDENTIAL"
        ],
        "apifyProxyCountry": "NL"
    }
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("studio-amba/picnic-scraper").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "searchQuery": "melk",
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": True,
        "apifyProxyGroups": ["RESIDENTIAL"],
        "apifyProxyCountry": "NL",
    },
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("studio-amba/picnic-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "searchQuery": "melk",
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true,
    "apifyProxyGroups": [
      "RESIDENTIAL"
    ],
    "apifyProxyCountry": "NL"
  }
}' |
apify call studio-amba/picnic-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,studio-amba/picnic-scraper"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/O9cvo9yRQkDOnaABt/builds/SCefOYRPPgFuupDFm/openapi.json