TheNews

Aggregated headlines, top story and live news JSON API

TheNews API provides aggregated headlines, top stories, and article search from news sources worldwide. It offers endpoints for top stories, all news, and similar stories, with filtering by category, language, country, and domain. The API returns structured JSON with title, description, image, URL, and metadata. For OpenClaw agents, TheNews is a solid mid-tier news API — more generous than NewsAPI's free tier and simpler than building custom news scrapers. It's well-suited for daily digest skills, topic monitoring, and news-aware agent workflows where your agent needs to stay informed about current events.

Tags: data, news

Category: News

Use Cases

  • Build a morning news briefing skill with top stories by category
  • Monitor specific topics across multiple news sources for trend detection
  • Create a 'what happened today' summary command for your chat channels

Tips

  • If budget allows, the $15/mo Starter plan is great value — unlimited requests
  • Use category and locale filters together for highly targeted news feeds
  • Combine with GNews free tier for broader coverage — use TheNews for specific searches

Known Issues & Gotchas

  • Free tier is extremely limited at 3 requests/day — barely usable for testing
  • Source coverage may be smaller than GNews or NewsAPI for some regions
  • The 'similar stories' feature is only available on higher-tier plans

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the free tier useful for OpenClaw agents?

Barely. At 3 requests/day, you can do one morning briefing fetch. For any meaningful news automation, you need at least the Starter plan ($15/mo), which offers unlimited requests.

How does TheNews compare to GNews?

GNews has a much better free tier (100 req/day vs 3). TheNews is competitive on paid plans — $15/mo for unlimited requests vs GNews at €49.99/mo. If you need paid, TheNews is cheaper.

Does it support historical news search?

Yes. The 'all' endpoint supports searching historical articles. Archive depth varies by plan. Paid plans offer broader historical access.