Google News exposes free RSS feeds for every topic, region, keyword search, and trending section. The base URL is https://news.google.com/rss, and you customize what the feed returns by appending paths and parameters. No API key, no paid tool, no Google account.
Google doesn’t promote or document these feeds anywhere, but they’ve worked for years. This article covers the four feed types, the URL parameters that customize them, the search operators for building targeted queries, the post-2024 link encoding that confuses scrapers, and how to display Google News on your WordPress site using WP RSS Aggregator. If you’re new to RSS, our beginner’s guide to RSS feeds covers the basics.
How Do I Get a Google News RSS Feed?
You construct the URL yourself. Pick the feed type, append the path, and add region and language parameters. There’s no signup or generator step.
- Top stories:
https://news.google.com/rss?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en - Topic (e.g. Technology):
https://news.google.com/rss/headlines/section/topic/TECHNOLOGY?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en - Location:
https://news.google.com/rss/headlines/section/geo/New%20York?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en - Keyword search:
https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=YOUR+QUERY&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
Swap the hl, gl, and ceid parameters to target a different region or language. Paste any of these URLs into an RSS reader, an automation tool, or the WP RSS Aggregator source field. The detailed reference for each format is in the sections below.
What Is a Google News RSS Feed?
Google News aggregates articles from thousands of publishers worldwide. An RSS feed from Google News takes that same aggregated content and delivers it in a standardized XML format that any feed reader can parse.
Every Google News RSS feed follows a base URL pattern:
https://news.google.com/rss
From there, you append paths and parameters to narrow down what the feed returns. Top stories, specific topics, keyword searches, geographic regions, all accessible by tweaking the URL.
Here’s what a single item in a Google News RSS feed looks like:
Each entry gives you the headline, a publication date, a description that often includes links to related coverage from other outlets, the original source name with its URL, and a small thumbnail image (150×150) served through Google’s image proxy. One thing to note: the <link> in each item goes through a Google redirect URL, not directly to the publisher’s site.
Google News RSS Feed URL Formats
Google News offers four main types of RSS feeds. Each one covers a different use case, and you can customize all of them with language and region parameters.
Top Stories
The simplest feed. This returns the current top headlines, the same stories you’d see on the Google News homepage:
https://news.google.com/rss?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
This feed typically returns around 25 items.
Topic Feeds
Google News organizes content into predefined topic categories. You can get an RSS feed for any of them:
https://news.google.com/rss/headlines/section/topic/TOPIC?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
Replace TOPIC with one of these categories:
- WORLD
- NATION
- BUSINESS
- TECHNOLOGY
- ENTERTAINMENT
- SCIENCE
- SPORTS
- HEALTH
So the Technology feed looks like this:
https://news.google.com/rss/headlines/section/topic/TECHNOLOGY?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
Topic feeds return around 30 items each.
Google News also has sub-topics beyond these eight categories. You can find them by browsing Google News in your browser, clicking into a sub-topic, and grabbing the long hash ID from the URL. Those work as RSS feeds too, using the format https://news.google.com/rss/topics/HASH_ID?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en.
Location-Based Feeds
Want news from a specific city, state, or country? Use the geo feed:
https://news.google.com/rss/headlines/section/geo/LOCATION?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
Replace LOCATION with a place name. Google is flexible here. City names, state names, and country names all work:
.../geo/New%20Yorkreturns New York news (around 50 items).../geo/Californiareturns California-wide coverage.../geo/Londonreturns London news
Use %20 for spaces in the URL, or just replace spaces with +.
Search Feeds
This is the most powerful one. You can turn any Google News search into an RSS feed:
https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=YOUR+QUERY&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
Search feeds return up to 100 items, the largest of any feed type. A few examples:
?q=artificial+intelligencereturns AI news?q="WordPress+security"returns exact-match results?q=SpaceX+OR+Boeingreturns news about either company
We’ll dig into the advanced search operators in the next section.
How to Build Custom Google News RSS Feeds
The search feed accepts the same operators you’d use in a regular Google search, plus a few extras specific to Google News. This is where you go from generic feeds to targeted ones.
Common Parameters
Every Google News RSS feed URL accepts these parameters:
hl(language): Controls the language of results. Examples:en-US,fr-FR,de-DE,es-ES.gl(country): Sets the geographic perspective. Examples:US,GB,CA,AU.ceid(edition): Combines country and language, formatted asCOUNTRY:lang. Examples:US:en,GB:en,FR:fr.
These three parameters work together. If you want French-language news from Canada:
https://news.google.com/rss?hl=fr-CA&gl=CA&ceid=CA:fr
Search Operators
Inside the q= parameter of a search feed, you can use these operators:
- Exact match: Wrap phrases in quotes.
q="climate change" - OR: Match either term.
q=Tesla+OR+Rivian - Exclude: Remove results with a term.
q=Apple+-iPhone(Apple news, minus iPhone coverage) - intitle: Term must appear in the headline.
q=intitle:recession - allintitle: All terms must appear in the headline.
q=allintitle:earnings+report - site: Results from a specific publisher only.
q=site:reuters.com+inflation - inurl: Term must appear in the article URL.
q=inurl:review
You can combine these. A feed tracking electric vehicle news from Reuters and AP, excluding Tesla:
https://news.google.com/rss/search?q="electric+vehicle"+site:reuters.com+OR+site:apnews.com+-Tesla&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
Time Filters
Narrow results to a specific time window using these operators inside the q= parameter:
when:Relative time range.when:1hfor the last hourwhen:7dfor the last 7 dayswhen:3mfor the last 3 months
after:andbefore:for specific date ranges, using YYYY-MM-DD format.after:2026-01-01+before:2026-03-01returns results from January and February 2026
Combine a search with a time filter like this:
https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=WordPress+when:7d&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
That gives you all WordPress-related news from the past week.
Side note on Google Alerts: Google Alerts can also deliver results via RSS. When you create an alert at Google Alerts, choose “RSS feed” as the delivery method instead of email. The alert RSS feed covers all of Google’s index (not just Google News), so it picks up blog posts, forums, and other sources that Google News skips. Using both together gives you broader coverage.
| Operator | What It Does | Example |
|---|---|---|
"..." | Exact phrase match | q="climate change" |
OR | Match either term | q=Tesla+OR+Rivian |
- | Exclude a term | q=Apple+-iPhone |
intitle: | Term must be in headline | q=intitle:recession |
allintitle: | All terms in headline | q=allintitle:earnings+report |
site: | Results from one publisher | q=site:reuters.com+inflation |
inurl: | Term must be in article URL | q=inurl:review |
when: | Relative time range | q=WordPress+when:7d |
after: / before: | Specific date range | q=AI+after:2026-01-01+before:2026-03-01 |
Why Google News RSS Links Look Encoded (and How to Decode Them)
In late 2024, Google changed how article URLs appear in its RSS feeds. The clean publisher URL you used to see in the <link> tag is now wrapped in a Google-hosted redirect that looks like this:
https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMi[long+base64-encoded+string]?oc=5
Two ways to get back to the publisher URL, depending on how you’re consuming the feed:
- Follow the redirect. Issue an HTTP request to the encoded URL and read the final
Locationheader. Most RSS readers and scrapers do this automatically when a user clicks the link, so end readers rarely see the encoded URL. - Decode the payload inline. The base64-encoded portion contains the original publisher URL. NewsCatcher’s Missing Docs page and an n8n community workflow document both approaches with working code.
For WP RSS Aggregator users, this is invisible. The plugin stores both the encoded link and resolves the destination at click time, so visitors land on the publisher’s site without seeing the intermediate URL.
Limitations to Know About
Before building your feed setup, keep these in mind:
- 100-item cap on search feeds. No matter how broad your query, a single search feed returns a maximum of 100 articles. If you need more coverage, break your searches into narrower queries or use date ranges to paginate.
- Links redirect through Google. The URLs in the feed don’t point directly to publisher sites. They go through
news.google.com/rss/articles/..., which redirects to the original article. This works fine for reading, but if you’re displaying headlines on your site, keep in mind visitors will pass through Google’s redirect. - No official documentation. Google doesn’t publish documentation for these RSS feeds. The URL formats are well-established and have worked reliably for years, but they’re not part of any official API. Google could change them without notice.
- Copyright restrictions. The feed itself includes a copyright notice limiting use to “personal, non-commercial” reading. If you’re displaying Google News content on a commercial site, make sure you understand the legal considerations. Our guide on content curation and duplicate content covers the broader topic.
One more thing worth clarifying. In early 2025, Google stopped accepting RSS feeds submitted by publishers through Google News Publisher Center. That was about publishers submitting their content to Google News, not about consumers accessing feeds from Google News. The consumer-facing RSS feeds covered in this article still work as expected.
What You Can Do With a Google News Feed
Once you’ve got your feed URLs, here’s where things get practical:
- Build a news monitoring dashboard. Track industry coverage across multiple topics and regions from one place. Useful for PR teams, marketers, and anyone who needs to stay current without checking dozens of sites.
- Create a niche news section on your website. Pull in relevant headlines for your audience. A finance blog could display business news. A local community site could show city-specific coverage. A tech startup could curate AI and funding news. If you’re thinking bigger, our guide on how to start a news aggregator site covers the full setup.
- Monitor competitor mentions. Set up search feeds with competitor brand names to track their media coverage in real time.
- Feed into automation tools. Pipe Google News feeds into Zapier, Make, or n8n to trigger workflows when specific topics appear in the news. Send a Slack alert when your company gets mentioned, for example.
- Research and content discovery. Use search feeds to find fresh sources, trending angles, and story ideas for your own content curation strategy.
There are plenty more ways to use RSS feeds once you start thinking of them as content pipelines rather than just reading lists.
How to Display Google News Feeds on Your WordPress Site
This section walks through setting up a Google News feed display using WP RSS Aggregator. If you’ve never added an RSS feed to WordPress before, our guide on adding RSS feeds to WordPress covers the basics. You’ll need the core plugin (free) and a paid plan (Basic or higher) for display templates.
Step 1: Add the Google News Feed as a Source
- In your WordPress dashboard, go to Aggregator > Sources and click Add a new source.
- Give your source a descriptive name (something like “Google News – Technology” or “Google News – WordPress”).
- Paste your Google News RSS feed URL into the Source Link field. Use any of the URL formats from the previous sections.
- Set the Limit the amount of stored items to value. The default is 15, but Google News search feeds can return up to 100 items, so increase this if you want more coverage.
- Click Save, then click Import to pull in the feed items.
- Check the Hub page to confirm the articles imported correctly.
Step 2: Create a Display
- Go to Aggregator > Displays and click Create a new display.
- Click the pencil icon to rename the display (something like “Industry News” or “Latest Headlines”).
- In the Settings section, click the Sources field and select the Google News source you created. You can also select a Folder if you’ve grouped multiple news sources together.
- Choose your layout: List, Grid, or Excerpt & Thumbnail. For news headlines, the List layout works well. For a more visual presentation, go with Grid.
- Click Save.
Step 3: Customize the Display
Click the Customization tab to adjust what shows up in each feed item. You can toggle visibility and order for:
- Title, Excerpt, Source Name, Publish Date, Author, Image, Link, Audio Player, and Pagination
For a Google News display, you’ll probably want to show the Title, Source Name, Publish Date, and Excerpt. Google News feeds do include thumbnail images (150×150), so you can leave Image enabled. Just keep in mind they’re small, so the List layout tends to look cleaner than Grid for this type of feed.
Step 4: Filter the Feed (Optional)
If your Google News feed covers broad topics and you want to narrow what appears on your site, you have two options.
Option A: Refine the RSS feed URL. Go back to the source and add search operators to the Google News URL itself. This is the most efficient approach because it filters at the source level.
Option B: Use Aggregator’s Automations. In your source settings, click the Automations tab and add a new automation. You can filter by Title, Content, or both, using operators like “Contains” or “Does not contain.” For example, you could import a broad Technology feed but only display items containing “WordPress” or “CMS” in the title.
Both the display-level Filtering tab and source-level Automations work here. Display filtering hides items from the front end. Automations prevent items from being imported in the first place. For high-volume feeds like Google News, Automations is the better choice since it keeps your database cleaner. Our guide on filtering RSS feeds goes deeper on both approaches.
Step 5: Embed on Your Site
Click Save on the display, then click Embed. You’ll see four options:
- Create a Page or Create a Post to make a new page with the display already inserted.
- Block to add the display to an existing page using the WordPress block editor.
- Shortcode to embed it anywhere that accepts shortcodes.
Bonus: Import News as WordPress Posts
On any paid plan, you can import Google News articles as native WordPress posts using Aggregator’s Feed to Post feature. Each article becomes its own post in your WordPress content library, published in your theme’s layout with proper attribution to the original source.
This is useful for building a dedicated news aggregator site or adding a news section to an existing blog. You can assign imported articles to specific categories and post types, so they integrate cleanly with your existing content.
Aggregator is also developing AI Summaries, a feature that will automatically generate concise overviews of imported articles. For high-volume news feeds like Google News, that means you’ll be able to give readers a quick snapshot of each story without writing blurbs for every imported post manually.
Google News Feed URL Templates (Copy and Paste)
These are ready to use. Swap the language and region parameters if you’re targeting a non-US audience.
| Feed Type | URL |
|---|---|
| Top Stories | https://news.google.com/rss?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en |
| Technology | https://news.google.com/rss/headlines/section/topic/TECHNOLOGY?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en |
| Business | https://news.google.com/rss/headlines/section/topic/BUSINESS?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en |
| Local (New York) | https://news.google.com/rss/headlines/section/geo/New%20York?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en |
| Keyword Search | https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=WordPress&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en |
| Competitor Monitor | https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=Shopify+-stock+-shares&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en |
| Last 24 Hours Only | https://news.google.com/rss/search?q="content+marketing"+when:1d&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en |
Paste any of these directly into an RSS reader or into WP RSS Aggregator’s Source Link field.
Tips for Managing Google News Feeds
- Use Folders to organize multiple feeds. If you’re pulling in feeds for different topics or regions, Aggregator’s Folders feature lets you group sources by category. Then you can create displays that pull from entire folders instead of individual sources.
- Match fetch intervals to how fresh you need the content. Google News updates constantly, but that doesn’t mean you need to fetch every hour. For most sites, checking every 4-6 hours is plenty. Save server resources for when freshness actually matters.
- Layer Google News feeds with direct source feeds. Google News is great as a catch-all, but for your most important sources, subscribe to their RSS feeds directly too. This way you get faster updates from priority publishers and broader coverage from Google News as a safety net.
- Be specific with search feeds. A broad query like
q=technologyreturns a lot of noise. Narrow it down with exact phrases, exclusions, and source restrictions. Two or three targeted feeds beat one unfocused one. - Watch for redirect behavior. Remember that Google News feed links pass through a redirect. If you’re displaying these on your site and tracking clicks, the initial URL will be a
news.google.comdomain before redirecting to the publisher.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Google News still have RSS feeds?
Yes. As of March 2026, all the feed formats described in this article work. Google hasn’t officially promoted these feeds, but they’ve maintained them for years. The base URL is https://news.google.com/rss and you can extend it with topic, location, and search parameters.
How many articles does a Google News RSS feed return?
It depends on the feed type. Top stories feeds return around 25 items. Topic feeds return around 30. Location feeds can return up to 50. Search feeds return the most, capping out at 100 items per query.
Can I get a Google News RSS feed for a specific country or language?
Yes. Add the hl (language), gl (country), and ceid (edition) parameters to any feed URL. For example, ?hl=de-DE&gl=DE&ceid=DE:de gets you German-language news from Germany. Most major country/language combinations are supported.
Do Google News RSS feeds work with WP RSS Aggregator?
Yes. Paste any Google News RSS feed URL into the Source Link field when creating a source in Aggregator. The plugin handles the feed like any other RSS source. You can display the items using templates, import them as WordPress posts, or filter them with Automations.
Is using Google News RSS feeds free?
Accessing the feeds is free. No API key or Google account required. Reading them in an RSS reader costs nothing. If you want to display Google News feeds on a WordPress site with display templates, you’ll need WP RSS Aggregator’s Basic plan ($99/year) or higher.
What happened to Google News RSS feeds in Publisher Center?
In early 2025, Google removed the option for publishers to submit RSS feeds through Google News Publisher Center. That change affected publishers sending content to Google News. The consumer-facing RSS feeds for reading news from Google News were not affected and continue to work normally.
Wrapping Up
A Google News RSS feed is just a URL that returns a stream of articles in a format any RSS tool can work with. Pick your topics, set up your search queries, choose your region, and you’ve got a news feed tailored to what you actually care about.
For reading in an RSS app, you’re all set. If you want to display that news on your WordPress site, whether it’s an industry news section, a content aggregator, or a research dashboard, WP RSS Aggregator handles the import and display side of things.
For RSS feeds from other platforms, check out our guides on YouTube RSS feeds and podcast RSS feeds.
