PlugShare Scraper: EV Charging Station Data

Pull structured EV charging station data from PlugShare for any location, on demand or on a schedule. This Actor reads PlugShare's station data API directly by geographic search area and returns clean JSON: address, GPS coordinates, connector types, charging power (kW), network, PlugScore, availability, hours, cost, and reviews. Built for EV route-planning tools, fleet and logistics operations, and real-estate or site-selection analysts who need charging infrastructure data without babysitting the PlugShare app or hand-copying map pins. No browser, no manual export.

Why use this Actor

PlugShare is the most complete crowd-sourced charging station directory in the US, but there is no public self-serve data export. The handful of existing PlugShare scrapers on the Apify Store all currently carry zero reviews, and the leading one shows a real-world run-failure rate near 11% over 30 days, a pattern consistent with rate-limit responses being mistaken for valid (empty) results. This Actor was built to close that gap:

• Handles PlugShare's rate limiting on purpose. Requests back off exponentially and honor Retry-After when PlugShare throttles a run, instead of silently returning blank fields.
• Fails loudly, not quietly. If the upstream API stops authenticating requests, the run aborts with a clear error rather than finishing "successfully" with an empty dataset.
• Built for recurring jobs, not just one-off pulls. sinceDate and onlyNewOrChanged let you schedule this Actor and only pay attention to what changed: new stations, outages, or updated pricing and hours.

How it works

The Actor reads PlugShare's station data API directly by center point and radius (not the public map's HTML pages, which don't carry station data). Give it one or more search areas, and it returns every station PlugShare reports nearby, optionally enriched with full per-station detail: outlet-level connector and power breakdown, cost, hours, phone, description, and reviews.

Input

Field	What it does
searchAreas	One or more { latitude, longitude, radiusKm, label } center points. Use several smaller areas to cover a large region instead of one giant radius.
maxItemsPerArea	Cap on stations returned per search area.
connectorTypes	Keep only stations offering a matching connector type.
fastChargersOnly	Keep only DC fast-charging locations.
networkIncludes / networkExcludes	Allowlist or blocklist by network name (Tesla, EVgo, ChargePoint, etc).
includeDetails	Fetch each station's full detail record (hours, cost, phone, outlet breakdown). Off = fast overview pass.
includeReviews	Include user reviews. Off by default, since reviewer display names are personal data.
sinceDate	Only return stations updated since a given date. Built for scheduled monitoring runs.
onlyNewOrChanged	Persist per-station state across runs and only output what's new or changed. Pair with the Apify Scheduler.
requestDelayMs	Pacing between requests. Keep a sane default to avoid rate limiting.
proxyConfiguration	Apify Proxy configuration.

Output

Each dataset item is one charging station location:

Field	Description
id, name, address	Station identity and address
latitude, longitude	GPS coordinates
plugScore	PlugShare's own reliability/quality score
connectorTypes, isFastCharger, maxKilowatts	Connector and charging speed detail
networkNames	Charging network(s)
stationCount, availableStationCount, inUseStationCount	Live availability counts
outlets	Outlet-level connector/power/status breakdown (requires includeDetails)
cost, costDescription, hours, phone, description	Site details (requires includeDetails)
totalReviews, reviews	Review data (requires includeDetails + includeReviews)
updatedAt, createdAt, scrapedAt	Freshness timestamps
plugshareUrl	Link back to the PlugShare listing

Who uses this

• EV route-planning tool builders feeding live charging station coverage into a routing engine
• Fleet and logistics operations mapping charging infrastructure along delivery or transit corridors
• Real-estate and site-selection analysts evaluating EV charging density near a property or development
• EV data aggregators backfilling or cross-checking their own charging station datasets

Tips

• Cover a metro area with several 10-25 km search areas rather than one large radius; PlugShare's API returns the nearest N stations per request, not a full-region dump.
• Schedule the Actor with onlyNewOrChanged enabled to build a lightweight change feed instead of re-downloading the same stations every run.
• Turn includeDetails off for a fast first pass over a large area, then re-run with it on for just the stations you care about.

FAQ

Does this need a PlugShare account? No. It reads publicly available station data, the same data shown on plugshare.com and in the PlugShare app.

Can I search by city or state instead of coordinates? Provide the center latitude/longitude and a radius for the area you want. This gives more precise, controllable coverage than a city name.

Why did my run fail instead of returning an empty dataset? By design. If PlugShare's API stops authenticating requests, the run aborts with a clear error instead of finishing with silently empty output, which is the failure mode this Actor was specifically built to avoid.

How do I monitor a region for new or changed stations over time? Schedule this Actor to run on the same search areas with onlyNewOrChanged turned on. It only returns stations that are new or have changed since the last run.