GNews vs GDELT Project: full comparison for 2026
Quick verdict
GNews (4.3/5) edges ahead of GDELT Project (3.9/5) overall. GNews is the better choice for small commercial apps needing a cheap, simple news feed. GDELT Project is the stronger option for zero-budget data projects and research prototypes. The right pick depends on your budget, how much history you need and whether you need full text.
GNews vs GDELT Project: head-to-head summary
| Criterion | GNews | GDELT Project |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | Not disclosed | 2013 |
| HQ | Not publicly disclosed | Open research project (no commercial HQ) |
| Team size | Not publicly disclosed | Not publicly disclosed |
| Rating | 4.3 / 5 | 3.9 / 5 |
| Primary differentiator | Commercial rights and full article content for under €50 a month | No key, no fee and global coverage refreshed every 15 minutes |
| Pricing model | Monthly or yearly plans in euros | Free |
| Entry price | €49.99/mo | Free |
| Formats & SDKs | REST API, JSON | REST API, JSON, CSV |
| Typical uses | News & content apps, AI & LLM apps, Marketing & PR | Research & academia, Risk & compliance, Media monitoring |
GNews vs GDELT Project: overview
GNews
GNews keeps its surface small: one search endpoint, one top-headlines endpoint, and filters for country, language and category. That small surface is why developers like it, because the docs fit on one page and a working call takes a few minutes. The free tier allows 100 requests a day for non-commercial work with 30 days of history. Essential, at €49.99 a month, adds commercial rights, 1,000 requests a day and articles back to 2020, while Business and Enterprise raise the daily quota to 5,000 and 25,000. The weak spot is the company itself. The site credits a studio called Gigathink and gives only a contact email, so its size, founding year and support capacity are unknown.
GDELT Project
The GDELT Project, created by Kalev Leetaru, watches broadcast, print and web news in more than 65 languages and publishes fresh data every 15 minutes. The DOC 2.0 API needs no key and no signup, which makes it the fastest free start here, and it returns article lists and timelines for a query. Bulk event and knowledge-graph tables are also available in Google BigQuery for SQL users. Two things trip developers up. Responses contain metadata and links only, so you have to fetch and parse each article yourself, and the data formats were designed for researchers, with field names and conventions that take some reading to understand.
Features: GNews vs GDELT Project
| Capability | GNews | GDELT Project |
|---|---|---|
| Full article text | ✓ | ✗ |
| Historical archive | ✓ | ✓ |
| NLP enrichment | ✗ | ✓ |
| Story/event clustering | ✗ | ✗ |
| Official SDK | ✗ | ✗ |
| Streaming or webhooks | ✗ | ✗ |
| Free access | ✓ | ✓ |
Formats and SDKs: GNews vs GDELT Project
| Format / SDK | GNews | GDELT Project |
|---|---|---|
| REST API | ✓ | ✓ |
| Python SDK | N/A | N/A |
| Node.js SDK | N/A | N/A |
| Webhooks | N/A | N/A |
| WebSocket | N/A | N/A |
| MCP server | N/A | N/A |
| S3/bulk delivery | N/A | N/A |
| BigQuery | N/A | ✓ |
Pricing comparison: GNews vs GDELT Project
| Criterion | GNews | GDELT Project |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | €49.99/mo | Free |
| Pricing model | Monthly or yearly plans in euros | Free |
| Access models | Free tier, Monthly plans | Open data |
| Price transparency | Public price | Public price |
| Price tier | Budget | Free |
Who each API suits: GNews vs GDELT Project
| Dimension | GNews | GDELT Project |
|---|---|---|
| Buyer type | Individuals to enterprise | Individuals to enterprise |
| Typical uses | News & content apps, AI & LLM apps, Marketing & PR | Research & academia, Risk & compliance, Media monitoring |
| Example use cases | A news section in a small SaaS product. Headline widgets filtered by country. | A free signal source that tells you which articles to fetch. Geopolitical dashboards in BigQuery. |
| How you get access | Free tier | Open data |
GNews vs GDELT Project: pros and cons
| GNews | |
|---|---|
| + | The whole API can be learned in one sitting |
| + | One of the cheapest routes to commercial use, and yearly billing takes about 20% off |
| + | Paid plans return full article content |
| + | Up to 100 articles per request on the top tier |
| - | Nothing before 2020 |
| - | No entity, sentiment or clustering fields |
| - | An unnamed operator makes support and continuity hard to judge |
| GDELT Project | |
|---|---|
| + | You can call it right now with no account |
| + | BigQuery tables let you query years of events with SQL |
| + | Machine-translated coverage in 65+ languages |
| + | Event coding of who did what to whom suits geopolitical work |
| - | No article text, only links and derived fields |
| - | No SLA or support channel |
| - | Research-style schemas take time to learn |
Who should choose GNews?
A typical fit: a news section in a small SaaS product.
Commercial rights and full article content for under €50 a month. Paid access starts at €49.99/mo. Typical uses: News & content apps, AI & LLM apps, Marketing & PR.
Who should choose GDELT Project?
A typical fit: a free signal source that tells you which articles to fetch.
No key, no fee and global coverage refreshed every 15 minutes. Paid access starts at Free. Typical uses: Research & academia, Risk & compliance, Media monitoring.
Decision matrix: GNews vs GDELT Project
| Your situation | Recommended choice |
|---|---|
| You want to start free before paying | Both |
| Your budget is at the lower end | GDELT Project |
| You need full article text in the response | GNews |
| You need years of historical news | Both |
| You want an official SDK | Neither; both are plain REST |
| You are wiring news into an LLM agent | Both work through plain REST calls |
Use case fit: GNews vs GDELT Project
| Use case | GNews fit | GDELT Project fit | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| News & content apps | Strong | Limited | GNews |
| AI & LLM apps | Strong | Limited | GNews |
| Marketing & PR | Strong | Limited | GNews |
| Research & academia | Limited | Strong | GDELT Project |
| Risk & compliance | Limited | Strong | GDELT Project |
| Media monitoring | Limited | Strong | GDELT Project |
Verdict: GNews vs GDELT Project
GNews (4.3/5) is the stronger overall choice as a news data source. Commercial rights and full article content for under €50 a month.
GDELT Project (3.9/5) is worth a look if you need geopolitical dashboards in BigQuery. If your situation matches that, GDELT Project is a competitive option.
Related comparisons
GNews vs GDELT Project FAQ
Is GNews better than GDELT Project?
GNews (4.3/5) scores higher overall, but "better" depends on your use case. GNews's strongest advantage: the whole API can be learned in one sitting. GDELT Project's strongest advantage: you can call it right now with no account.
How do GNews and GDELT Project differ in pricing?
GNews: monthly or yearly plans in euros, with paid access from €49.99/mo. GDELT Project: free, with paid access from Free. Both offer some free access for testing.
Which is better for enterprise: GNews or GDELT Project?
Neither sells an enterprise contract. Neither carries licensed publisher content, so check copyright terms before republishing anything.
What are the main differences between GNews and GDELT Project?
What sets GNews apart: commercial rights and full article content for under €50 a month. What sets GDELT Project apart: no key, no fee and global coverage refreshed every 15 minutes. They also differ on entry price (€49.99/mo vs Free) and typical uses (News & content apps, AI & LLM apps vs Research & academia, Risk & compliance).
Verify all details directly with each API before making a decision.