Spicrawl vs Jina Reader: which URL-to-Markdown API fits your project?
Choose Spicrawl for big batches and logged-in pages. Choose Jina Reader for no-key use, web search, image and document reading or self-hosting.
Jina Reader and Spicrawl both turn a URL into clean Markdown for LLMs and AI agents. Jina Reader is the simplest to start with: put r.jina.ai/ in front of a URL and you get Markdown back, even without a key. It also searches the web, reads images and documents, and its code is open source. Spicrawl is built for scraping many pages and logged-in pages, with batches, sessions and browser actions. Here is a fair side-by-side, including where Jina Reader is the better choice.
Many URLs
Logged-in pages
Web search
Facts about Jina Reader were checked against its own website and docs on 1 October 2026. See sources.
Which one should you choose?
Choose Spicrawl if you
- scrape thousands of URLs in one batch call
- keep logins going with cookies and storage
- click, type and scroll before capture
- want a free beta, no credit card
Choose Jina Reader if you
- want to start with no sign-up or key
- need built-in web search
- read images, scanned PDFs or Office files
- want open-source code you can self-host
Spicrawl vs Jina Reader at a glance
marks the stronger option for that row. No mark means it is even, or it depends on your needs.
| Feature | Spicrawl | Jina Reader |
|---|---|---|
| Price today | SpicrawlFree during betaFree while in beta, with no credit card. Prices after the beta have not been announced. | Jina ReaderFree tier, then tokensFree without a key at 20 requests a minute. A new API key comes with 10 million free tokens, and you then buy more tokens. |
| How requests are billed | Spicrawl1, 3 or 8 creditsPer successful request, by the engine that ran: 1 credit for a plain request, 3 for browser rendering, 8 for full Chromium. | Jina ReaderTokens in the outputBy the number of tokens in the response, so a longer page costs more. A search costs a fixed amount, from 10,000 tokens, and its OCR model costs 40 times more tokens. |
| Failed and blocked requests | SpicrawlFree, incl. 403sErrors, bot challenges and timeouts cost 0. A page that answers with a status such as 403 also costs 0. | Jina ReaderFailed requests freeTokens are not deducted for failed requests. |
| Cached results | SpicrawlFreeFree. The cache is on by default and keeps results for up to 48 hours. | Jina ReaderCached, cost not statedRepeat requests for the same URL are served from a short-lived cache, which you can bypass. Whether a cache hit uses tokens is not stated. |
| Use without a key | SpicrawlFree account neededYou need a free account and an API key to make a request. | Jina ReaderStronger option: Yes, 20 per minuteYes. Reader works with no key at 20 requests a minute. A key raises that to 500, or 5,000 on a premium key. |
| JavaScript rendering | SpicrawlYes, autoYes. mode=auto tries a plain request first and uses a browser only when the page needs one. | Jina ReaderYes, by defaultYes. Pages are rendered in a headless browser by default, with a faster plain fetch as an option. |
| Output formats | SpicrawlMarkdown, HTML, JSON, PDFMarkdown, HTML, text, PDF, JSON and screenshots. | Jina ReaderMarkdown, HTML, text, JSONMarkdown, HTML, text, screenshots and a JSON wrapper, plus Markdown with YAML front matter. |
| PDFs, images and documents | SpicrawlPDFs to plain textA PDF is parsed to plain text at the normal price. Scanned, image-only PDFs are not read. | Jina ReaderStronger option: PDFs, Office, OCR, captionsReads PDFs, accepts uploaded Office documents, captions images with a vision model, and has an OCR model for scanned or image-heavy documents. |
| Structured data | SpicrawlSelectors + schema freePage metadata, CSS selector maps and JSON Schema at no extra cost. Extraction with a model prompt is coming soon. | Jina ReaderStronger option: Schema or instructionsJSON extraction with a schema or plain-language instructions, using its ReaderLM-v2 model. |
| Browser actions | SpicrawlUp to 50 stepsClick, type, select, scroll, wait and run JavaScript, up to 50 steps per request. | Jina ReaderCustom JavaScriptRun your own JavaScript on the page before extraction, and wait for a CSS selector to appear. |
| Staying logged in | SpicrawlStronger option: SessionsSessions keep cookies, browser storage and the same exit IP between requests, and browser actions can fill in a login form. | Jina ReaderForwarded cookiesYou forward cookies you already hold. Jina says it does not log in for you, and interactive logins and MFA are out of scope. |
| Many URLs | SpicrawlStronger option: Up to 10,000 URLsBatch API: up to 10,000 URLs per call, run in parallel, with results as JSON Lines kept for 72 hours. | Jina ReaderOne URL per requestThe Reader API takes one URL per request. Its MCP read tool accepts up to 5 URLs at once. |
| Web search | SpicrawlNoNo. | Jina ReaderStronger option: Yes (s.jina.ai)Yes. s.jina.ai searches the web and returns the top 5 results with their content. It needs an API key. |
| Proxies | SpicrawlBYO, no surchargeBring your own proxy with no surcharge. Managed proxies and country targeting are coming soon. | Jina ReaderStronger option: BYO + country proxyBring your own proxy, or use its hosted proxy with a country code (key required). Its FAQ says Reader does not actively bypass anti-bot systems. |
| AI agents | SpicrawlMCP, 25 tools + skillHosted MCP server with 25 tools, an agent skill, and one-command setup for Claude Code, Cursor and Codex. | Jina ReaderMCP serverHosted MCP server with tools to read URLs, take screenshots and search. Reading works without a key; search tools need one. |
| Open source | SpicrawlNoNo. Spicrawl is a hosted service. | Jina ReaderStronger option: Code yes (Apache-2.0)The Reader code is Apache-2.0 and ships as a Docker image you can run yourself. Its models are CC-BY-NC 4.0, so commercial use of them needs a licence from Elastic. |
Switching from Jina Reader
Jina Reader takes the target URL in the path and options as headers. Spicrawl takes a JSON body. Both return the page as Markdown in the response body, with navigation and footers stripped by default, so the switch is mostly the request shape.
curl "https://r.jina.ai/https://example.com/blog/post"# Response: a short Title / URL Source header, then the Markdowncurl -X POST https://api.spicrawl.com/v1/scrape \ -H "Authorization: Bearer spicrawl_live_…" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{ "url": "https://example.com/blog/post", "response_format": "markdown" }'# Response: the Markdown itselfSpicrawl vs Jina Reader: common questions
Is Spicrawl a good Jina Reader alternative?
It is if you scrape many URLs at once, need logged-in pages with sessions, or want to click and type on a page before it is captured. If you want to start with no key, search the web, read images and scanned documents, or self-host the code, Jina Reader is the better fit.
Is Spicrawl cheaper than Jina Reader?
Spicrawl is free while it is in beta, and its prices after the beta have not been announced, so a fair price comparison is not possible yet. The models differ: Spicrawl charges per request by the engine used, while Jina charges by the tokens in each response, so long pages cost more.
Can Spicrawl scrape many URLs at once?
Yes. The batch API takes up to 10,000 URLs per call and keeps the results for 72 hours. Spicrawl does not discover URLs by following links, so you send the pages you want. Jina’s Reader API takes one URL per request.
Does Spicrawl search the web like s.jina.ai?
No. Spicrawl fetches pages you already have URLs for. If your agent needs to search the web and read the top results in one step, Jina’s s.jina.ai does that.
How do I switch from Jina Reader to Spicrawl?
Send a POST to https://api.spicrawl.com/v1/scrape with your Spicrawl API key and the target URL in a JSON body, and set response_format to markdown. Spicrawl returns the Markdown as the response body, so code that reads the body keeps working.
Sources
Jina Reader details come from these pages, checked on 1 October 2026. Products change: if something here is out of date, email support@spicrawl.com and we will correct it.
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