How to Build a Local Market Map from Apple Maps with One API

I do a lot of local market research, and Apple Maps keeps coming up as a source nobody can get data out of. The listings are solid, the ratings pull from several review sites, and there is no export button anywhere. Copying 80 dentists across three metros by hand is a lost afternoon. So I wrapped it: the Apple Maps API turns a query plus a location into structured rows you can actually work with.

What market mapping with Apple Maps means

Market mapping is pulling every business in a category across an area, then sorting and counting it to read the competitive landscape. The Apple Maps API does exactly that. Send a query and a city name (or lat,lng coordinates), and it returns one JSON row per listing with the fields you need to size a market.

What it returns

Each listing comes back with:

• title, position, place_id, and gps_coordinates

• rating, reviews, and multi-source ratings from Apple, Yelp, Foursquare, and TripAdvisor, each with attribution

• address, phone, and website

• amenities, price_score, open_state, weekly_hours, and timezone

Four search modes share one schema: search for listings, place for one rich detail record, guide for Apple's curated collections, and refinement for the filter options Apple offers on a query.

Run it in three steps

Open the Apple Maps API and click Try for free. Set search_mode to search, then fill query and location. Run it and export the dataset as JSON, CSV, or Excel. That is the whole loop, no Apple developer account and no key plumbing.

Use it as a REST API

Every run is callable over REST, so you can trigger a market pull from a script or a scheduler:

POST /v2/acts/johnvc~apple-maps-api/runs
Authorization: Bearer YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN
Content-Type: application/json

{
 "search_mode": "search",
 "query": "coffee",
 "location": "Seattle, Washington, United States",
 "sort": "ratings",
 "max_results": 50
}

The full endpoint reference lives in the Apify API docs.

Wire it into Claude with MCP

The Actor is a tool on the Apify MCP server, so Claude, Claude Code, and Cursor can call it in plain language. Ask "map every ramen shop near Apple Park and rank them by rating" and the agent picks the right search mode and hands back clean rows. Setup lives in the task Search Apple Maps places from Claude via MCP.

What people build with it

The runnable examples on the Peerlist project cover the common jobs: Find coffee shop leads in Seattle for local lead generation, Compare restaurant ratings in Austin for reputation research, and Get curated Apple Maps guides for a city for travel content. Each opens its own setup so you can clone it in one click.

FAQ About Scraping Apple Maps

Where does the Apple Maps scraper get its data?

Every field is read from the public Apple Maps surface for your query: the business listings, the curated guides Apple attaches, and the filter options it offers. Nothing is blended in from a second map, so if a listing has no phone on Apple Maps, phone comes back empty rather than filled from elsewhere.

How much does the Apple Maps API cost per run?

Billing is per event: $0.02 to start, then $0.003 per business listing, $0.005 per place detail, $0.003 per guide, and $0.01 per refinement bundle. A 20-listing search lands near $0.10, and a run that fails validation is not charged.

Can I use the Apple Maps API from Claude over MCP?

Yes. Connect the Apify MCP server and the Actor becomes a tool Claude can call with a plain-language request, returning live listings straight into the conversation, no code required.

Can an AI agent pay for this scraper in USDC with x402?

Yes. The Apple Maps API supports agentic payments via the x402 protocol, so AI agents and MCP clients can pay for runs in USDC on Base with no Apify account or API token. Point your agent at the Apify MCP server and it can discover, pay for, and run the scraper autonomously; the Apify x402 announcement has the details.

If something looks off in the output, open an issue on the Actor page and I usually reply within a day.