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An unchanged SEC enforcement record carries no per-record event charge in the billing design described by the author of the write-up and in the hosted Actor’s listing on Apify. New releases are charged $0.05 each, and corrections to a release already delivered are charged $0.02. The word “zero” applies only to those per-record event charges. It does not mean the whole system runs for free.
What the zero-cost claim covers
The design separates every record a run emits into one of four classes, and each class has its own billing treatment. The table below lists them as stated by the author and the Apify listing.
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| Record class | What it means | Per-record event charge |
|---|---|---|
| Baseline snapshot | First time a release is seen, emitted to establish the starting state | $0.00 |
| New listing | A release that did not appear in earlier runs | $0.05 |
| Updated record | A previously delivered release whose content has changed (described in the author’s write-up as a correction) | $0.02 |
| Unchanged snapshot | A release whose current content matches the prior run | $0.00 |
The zero-charge result depends on the change-tracking step below. If every record were treated as new on every run, the same feed would cost $0.05 per release each time it was polled.
How change tracking works
The Actor does not diff against a stored copy of the whole feed by eye. It fingerprints the current content of each record and compares that fingerprint with the one saved from the previous run. The write-up frames this as the core idea; check the source repository it links to for the exact fields that go into each fingerprint.
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- First run (baseline). Every release currently in the feeds is fingerprinted and emitted as a baseline snapshot. Baseline snapshots are free under the listed conditions.
- Later runs (classification). Each current record is matched to the saved state from the previous run.
- New records. A release with no matching prior fingerprint is classified as a new listing and charged $0.05.
- Changed records. A release whose fingerprint differs from the saved one is classified as an updated record and charged $0.02.
- Unchanged records. A release whose fingerprint matches is emitted as an unchanged snapshot with no per-record charge.
What the feed reads and what each record contains
The Actor reads two SEC sources: the litigation-release RSS feed and the administrative-proceeding RSS feed. Each record is structured into fields that include respondents, cited statutes or rules, monetary sanctions, and an EDGAR CIK.
- Respondents. Taken from the release text.
- Cited statutes or rules. Extracted with patterns matched against the prose, so the field can miss citations written in unusual ways.
- Monetary sanctions. Extracted the same way, with the same pattern-based limitation.
- EDGAR CIK. Linked on a best-effort basis by name matching that carries a confidence score. When a match is missing or ambiguous, the field is left empty rather than guessed.
Two edge cases are disclosed in the listing. A scanned administrative order with no text layer can produce a metadata-only row, because there is no prose for the extraction patterns to read. And the listing says changes to SEC releases after publication are expected to be rare, so most runs will show few updated records.
Scope limits to check before you depend on it
- Recent window only. The RSS feeds expose only a recent window of releases. The Actor does not backfill history, so it cannot answer questions about enforcement actions from earlier years.
- Two sources. Coverage is limited to litigation releases and administrative proceedings. It is not a complete SEC enforcement database and does not cover other regulators.
- Not a compliance product. The listing describes it as a data tool, not a compliance service.
- No contractual uptime commitment. The listing states there is no SLA.
- Extraction can be incomplete. Sanction and statute fields, and CIK links, can be missing or wrong in individual records.
Running the Actor
The author’s example calls the Apify synchronous run endpoint, which starts a run and returns results in the same request. You can either run the open-source code yourself or call the hosted Actor. Hosting it yourself moves the compute and storage decisions to your own account, so the per-record figures above will not describe your full bill.
Do these 3 things before closing this tab:
1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsBefore relying on the zero-charge behavior, confirm the billing configuration on the Actor’s pricing page:
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- Confirm the $0.05 new-listing and $0.02 updated-record charges are the ones displayed for the Actor version you run.
- Confirm the unchanged and baseline snapshots are not priced.
- If you publish your own copy of the Actor, remove any auto-suggested default dataset-item pricing row. The listing warns that this row, if left in place, can bill free records.
Choosing between building, buying a hosted feed, or using SEC data directly
The right option depends on whether you need recent change detection, historical search, or broader coverage. The table compares the options on the axes that matter most. Where a value is not established in the documentation available for this comparison, the cell says so.
| Option | Best fit | Coverage and history | Access and limits | Pricing and terms |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hosted delta Actor (Apify) | Tracking new and changed releases from the two RSS feeds | Recent window of litigation releases and administrative proceedings; no historical backfill | Apify run; per-record structure with best-effort CIK | $0.05 new, $0.02 updated, $0.00 unchanged and baseline, as listed; verify on the Actor’s page |
| SEC EDGAR data APIs (data.sec.gov) | Direct first-party access to EDGAR data | Public EDGAR data; the documentation does not establish this two-feed normalized delta output as an SEC endpoint | Public API access per SEC documentation | Not established in this comparison |
| SEC-API enforcement-actions endpoint | Structured historical enforcement search | Actions since 1997 | API key required; responses capped at 50 records; HTTP 429 returned when requests are too frequent | Not established in this comparison; check the provider’s terms |
| SEC Filing Data enforcement-actions endpoint and bulk data | Historical search or bulk download across several action categories | History back to 1997; multiple action categories | Token authentication | Not established in this comparison; verify pricing and license terms directly |
Use the hosted Actor when you want a recent, change-tracked feed with a predictable per-event charge. Use a historical provider when you need to search or backfill past enforcement actions. Build your own pipeline when you need fields or sources the Actor does not provide, and accept the operating costs that come with it.
Whichever route you choose, the costs to budget for are not limited to per-record charges. Compute, storage, account, and support costs are separate and are not addressed by the zero-charge design.
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