Pricing

from $1.44 / 1,000 item extracteds

HTML Readability to Markdown Converter

Convert raw HTML or one anonymous public webpage into clean Markdown with headings, links, source metadata, and a content hash for RAG ingestion or archives.

Pricing

from $1.44 / 1,000 item extracteds

Rating

0.0

(0)

Developer

Stas Persiianenko

Actor stats

Bookmarked

Total users

Monthly active users

a day ago

Last modified

What does HTML Readability to Markdown Converter do?

The Actor accepts exactly one of two sources:

a public HTTP(S) page URL; or
a raw HTML string supplied directly in the run input.

It produces one typed dataset record containing:

clean Markdown;
document title and description;
ordered headings;
unique absolute links;
canonical URL and language when declared;
word and character counts;
a content hash for deduplication or change detection; and
source and conversion timestamps.

For URL input, the Actor follows a bounded number of public redirects, rejects private-network destinations, retries temporary failures, and accepts HTML responses only.

Who is this HTML to Markdown converter for?

RAG and AI engineers

Normalize public documentation or supplied HTML before chunking, embedding, retrieval, or model evaluation.

Documentation teams

Archive important web documents in a portable text format while retaining headings, links, title, and canonical source information.

Data engineers

Feed stable dataset records into Apify integrations, webhooks, Make, Zapier, cloud storage, or custom ETL jobs.

Content migration teams

Turn legacy HTML fragments into readable Markdown without copying navigation, forms, scripts, or styling markup.

Researchers and compliance teams

Capture public policies, standards, or reference pages with a content hash that helps identify later changes.

Why use this Actor?

A generic HTML downloader returns markup that is noisy for language models and archives.

A basic tag replacer often retains menus, cookie notices, sidebars, and repeated site chrome.

This Actor combines:

safe direct HTML retrieval for one public page;
Readability-based main-content extraction;
optional CSS-selector targeting for structured documentation;
normalized absolute links;
Markdown conversion with ATX headings and fenced code blocks; and
typed source metadata for downstream automation.

It is intentionally focused.

It does not crawl a site, execute JavaScript, bypass login walls, or take screenshots.

Input parameters

Field	Type	Required	Description
`url`	string	One source required	Anonymous public HTTP(S) page to fetch and convert.
`html`	string	One source required	Raw HTML to convert without fetching a page.
`baseUrl`	string	No	Public URL used to resolve relative links in raw HTML.
`contentSelector`	string	No	CSS selector such as `main` or `article`; overrides automatic Readability selection.
`requestTimeoutSecs`	integer	No	URL request timeout from 5 to 120 seconds. Default: 30.
`maxRequestRetries`	integer	No	Retries for temporary failures from 0 to 5. Default: 2.
`maxContentBytes`	integer	No	Maximum raw or fetched HTML size from 10,000 to 5,000,000 bytes.

Provide exactly one of url or html.

baseUrl is valid only with html.

Getting started

Open the Actor in Apify Console.
Enter a public page in Public page URL, or clear it and paste Raw HTML.
Optionally set contentSelector when you know the page's main-content selector.
Click Start.
Open the Dataset tab after the run succeeds.
Copy markdown, or download the record as JSON, JSONL, CSV, XML, Excel, or RSS through Apify's dataset tools.
Use contentHash to detect duplicate or changed converted content in recurring workflows.

The prefilled Wikipedia URL is a working small example.

URL input example

{
  "url": "https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML",
  "contentSelector": "main"
}

This fetches the public MDN page, selects its main element, converts relative links to absolute links, and emits one Markdown document.

Raw HTML input example

{
  "html": "<!doctype html><html><head><title>HTTP archive note</title></head><body><nav>Menu</nav><main><h1>HTTP Semantics</h1><p>Read the <a href='/rfc/rfc9110.html'>complete specification</a>.</p></main></body></html>",
  "baseUrl": "https://www.rfc-editor.org/"
}

For your own input, replace the sample host with the real public base URL represented by the supplied HTML.

Relative links such as /guide become absolute when baseUrl is present.

Output fields

Field	Meaning
`sourceType`	`url` or `raw_html`.
`sourceUrl`	Normalized requested URL or raw-HTML base URL; nullable.
`finalUrl`	Final fetched URL after redirects; null for raw HTML.
`statusCode`	HTTP status for URL input; null for raw HTML.
`title`	Readability title or HTML document title.
`description`	HTML meta description when present.
`canonicalUrl`	Absolute canonical URL when declared.
`language`	Language declared on the root HTML element.
`byline`	Readability byline when detected.
`excerpt`	Readability excerpt when detected.
`markdown`	Clean converted Markdown.
`headings`	Ordered objects with `level` and `text`.
`links`	Unique objects with visible `text` and absolute `url`.
`wordCount`	Approximate words in selected readable content.
`characterCount`	Characters in the Markdown output.
`contentHash`	SHA-256 hash of the Markdown.
`convertedAt`	UTC ISO timestamp of conversion.

Nullable metadata remains null rather than being invented.

Output example

The current implementation produces records shaped like this:

{
  "sourceType": "url",
  "sourceUrl": "https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML",
  "finalUrl": "https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML",
  "statusCode": 200,
  "title": "HTML: HyperText Markup Language | MDN",
  "description": "HTML is the most basic building block of the Web.",
  "canonicalUrl": "https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML",
  "language": "en-US",
  "byline": null,
  "excerpt": null,
  "markdown": "# HTML: HyperText Markup Language\n\n**HTML** defines the meaning and structure of web content...",
  "headings": [
    { "level": 1, "text": "HTML: HyperText Markup Language" },
    { "level": 2, "text": "Key resources" }
  ],
  "links": [
    { "text": "HTML element reference", "url": "https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Reference/Elements" }
  ],
  "wordCount": 1089,
  "characterCount": 13434,
  "contentHash": "9d20a7f6d837c05663c9e65cf6714d698d5a9da9ab3fe09284a0835736cefd4e",
  "convertedAt": "2026-08-29T14:05:00.000Z"
}

Page content and counts can change when the source changes.

How much does it cost to convert HTML to Markdown?

The Actor uses pay-per-event pricing:

$0.005 once when a run starts; and
the applicable tiered price for each converted Markdown document.

At the BRONZE tier, the current document price is $0.0024 per document.

Because this Actor returns one document per run, a successful BRONZE URL or raw-HTML conversion costs $0.0074 before any Apify subscription credits.

Higher subscription tiers receive lower per-document event prices.

Failed validation, failed retrieval, or empty conversion can still incur the one-time start event, but does not emit or charge a document event.

Always check the live pricing panel for the tier that applies to your account.

Readability and CSS selector behavior

When contentSelector is absent, Mozilla Readability identifies the main article-like content.

If the page is short or does not look like an article, the Actor falls back to a main, article, or document-body element.

When contentSelector is present:

it must be valid CSS;
it must match at least one element; and
the first matching element becomes the conversion source.

Selector mode is useful for API documentation, standards, and known templates.

It can be less portable if the source site changes its markup.

RAG ingestion workflow

A recurring RAG pipeline can:

run the Actor for a public documentation page;
read the single default-dataset record;
compare contentHash with the previously stored hash;
skip unchanged documents;
chunk markdown by the objects in headings;
retain sourceUrl and canonicalUrl as citation metadata; and
embed only new or changed chunks.

The Actor does not create embeddings or choose a vector database.

This keeps conversion reusable across AI stacks.

Document archiving workflow

For repeatable archives:

schedule one task per source page;
export the dataset record to cloud storage;
name the archive object with the date and contentHash;
retain convertedAt, finalUrl, and statusCode; and
alert in your own workflow when the hash differs.

Apify schedules can start tasks hourly, daily, weekly, or with a custom cron expression.

This Actor does not itself send alerts or retain history outside normal Apify run storage.

API usage with cURL

Start a run and wait for completion:

curl -X POST \
  "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/automation-lab~html-readability-markdown-converter/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=$APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown"}'

Keep your Apify token in a secret or environment variable.

Do not commit it to source control.

API usage with JavaScript

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN });
const input = {
  url: 'https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML',
  contentSelector: 'main',
};

const run = await client
  .actor('automation-lab/html-readability-markdown-converter')
  .call(input);

const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items[0].markdown);

API usage with Python

import os
from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient(os.environ["APIFY_TOKEN"])
run = client.actor(
    "automation-lab/html-readability-markdown-converter"
).call(run_input={
    "url": "https://nodejs.org/api/http.html",
    "maxContentBytes": 5_000_000,
})

items = client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).list_items().items
print(items[0]["title"])
print(items[0]["markdown"][:500])

Use with Apify MCP

Add this Actor to Claude Code:

claude mcp add --transport http apify \
  "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=automation-lab/html-readability-markdown-converter"

Claude Desktop

Use this remote MCP server configuration in Claude Desktop:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apify": {
      "url": "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=automation-lab/html-readability-markdown-converter"
    }
  }
}

Cursor

Add the same mcpServers.apify.url value in Cursor's MCP settings.

VS Code

Add the same remote Apify MCP URL in your VS Code MCP configuration, then enable the automation-lab/html-readability-markdown-converter tool.

Example prompts:

"Convert this public documentation URL to Markdown and summarize its headings."
"Run the HTML Readability to Markdown Converter for this page and return its canonical URL and content hash."
"Convert this raw HTML to Markdown using the supplied public base URL."

Integrations

The default dataset works with:

Apify webhooks;
Make;
Zapier;
Google Drive;
Google Sheets;
Slack;
GitHub Actions;
AWS S3; and
custom applications through the Apify API.

Large Markdown strings are generally best consumed as JSON or JSONL rather than spreadsheet cells.

Reliability and retry behavior

URL mode retries only temporary failures such as timeouts, HTTP 429, and selected HTTP 5xx responses.

Retries use bounded exponential backoff.

The Actor does not blindly retry:

malformed URLs;
private-network URLs;
permanent HTTP errors;
non-HTML content; or
anti-bot challenge pages.

Redirect destinations are validated again before fetching.

Raw HTML mode performs no network request except DNS validation when a baseUrl is supplied.

Legality and responsible use

Only process pages and HTML you are authorized to access.

Respect website terms, robots guidance, copyright, privacy, and applicable data-protection law.

Do not use the Actor to access internal services or private infrastructure.

The Actor rejects localhost, credentials in URLs, private IP ranges, link-local destinations, and unsafe redirect destinations.

Output may still contain personal or copyrighted information present in the supplied public content.

You are responsible for retention and downstream use.

Limitations

One raw HTML document or one public page URL is accepted per run.
URL mode performs direct HTTP retrieval and does not execute JavaScript.
Login-required, CAPTCHA-protected, and strongly bot-defended pages can fail.
The maximum HTML input or response size is 5 MB.
Readability is heuristic and can omit content on unusual layouts.
A custom selector uses only its first match.
Images are represented as Markdown references; image files are not downloaded.
Tables are converted using Turndown's standard behavior and may need downstream cleanup for complex layouts.
Content hashes change whenever the resulting Markdown changes.
The Actor is a converter, not a multi-page crawler or monitoring service.

Troubleshooting

The run says to provide exactly one input source

Clear either url or html.

The Actor deliberately rejects runs containing both or neither.

The selector did not match

Inspect the current page markup and update contentSelector, or remove it to use automatic Readability extraction.

The page returned HTTP 403 or an anti-bot challenge

The source does not permit this direct anonymous retrieval path.

Use supplied raw HTML when you can lawfully obtain it, or choose an Actor designed for browser rendering.

The page is JavaScript-rendered and Markdown is empty

This Actor does not render JavaScript.

Use the related Public Webpage HTML Downloader in rendered mode, then pass lawfully obtained HTML into this Actor.

Relative links are missing for raw HTML

Set baseUrl to the real public source URL represented by the HTML.

Without a base URL, only already-absolute HTTP(S) links can be retained.

The HTML is too large

Reduce the supplied HTML to the useful content, or use contentSelector with URL input.

The 5 MB ceiling is intentional for bounded memory and predictable runs.

Public Webpage HTML Downloader stores raw or browser-rendered HTML when you need page rendering or the original markup.
Multi-Site Article Content Extractor extracts article metadata, clean text, and HTML from batches of article URLs.
PDF to Structured Markdown Converter handles supplied PDFs and anonymous public PDF URLs.

Choose this Actor when the primary output you need is one clean Markdown document with headings, links, and source metadata.

FAQ

Can I convert multiple URLs in one run?

No.

The accepted product scope is one source document per run.

Create multiple Apify tasks or call the Actor once per document from your orchestrator.

Does it preserve links?

Yes.

HTTP(S) links retained in the selected content are normalized to absolute URLs when a source or base URL is available.

Does it preserve headings?

Yes.

The Markdown contains ATX headings, and the headings array exposes their level and text separately.

Can I use raw HTML without a URL?

Yes.

Leave url empty and provide html.

Add baseUrl only when relative links need resolution.

Does it render client-side JavaScript?

No.

It converts the HTML returned by direct HTTP or the raw HTML supplied in input.

Can I detect document changes?

Yes.

Compare contentHash values from successful runs for the same source and settings.

Does the Actor store a Markdown file?

The Markdown is stored in the default dataset record.

Use the API or an integration to write it to a .md file or external archive.

What happens when conversion fails?

The run exits with a failure status and a concise reason.

It does not emit or charge a document record for failed conversion.

Website to Markdown Scraper — LLM & RAG Ready

perforated_hummingbird/url-to-markdown

Scrape any website into clean, LLM-ready Markdown. This URL-to-Markdown converter strips ads, nav, and boilerplate with Mozilla Readability — feed your AI models and RAG pipelines only real content. Batch URLs, optional JavaScript rendering, pay only for pages scraped successfully.

Damon Williams

Webpage to Markdown Converter for LLMs

andok/markdown-extractor

Convert any URL into clean Markdown text. Remove ads and navbars to perfectly format web content for AI and RAG ingestion.

Andok

Html To Markdown Converter 📄

powerful_bachelor/html-to-markdown-converter

📄✨ HTML to Markdown Converter transforms web pages into clean, portable Markdown. Simply input a URL to extract content while preserving structure, formatting, and media elements.🔄 Perfect for content repurposing, documentation, and creating readable, platform-independent text from any webpage! 🚀

Powerful Bachelor

Web Page → Markdown Converter (Trafilatura, LLM-ready)

gochujang/web-to-markdown

Convert any URL to clean Markdown plus structured metadata (title, author, date, lang, image, tags). Uses trafilatura — the same library Common Crawl uses. LLM-ready output. Batch up to 500 URLs. $0.005 per URL.

Hojun Lee

HTML to Markdown Converter - Bulk Web Content to MD

santamaria-automations/html-to-markdown

Extract main article content from any website and convert to clean Markdown including headings, links, images, tables, and code blocks. Perfect for LLM training, AI pipelines, and documentation. Export data, run via API, schedule and monitor runs, or integrate with other tools.

NanoScrape

Article-to-Markdown Converter 📝

perryay/article-to-markdown-converter

Extract article content from any URL and convert to clean Markdown. Strips navigation, sidebars, and ads using readability algorithms. Returns title, author, date, excerpt, word count, reading time. Batch up to 10 URLs.

Perry AY

Webpage Readability Analyzer — Flesch Score & Grade Level

ninhothedev/readability-analyzer

$0.5/1K 🔥 Readability analyzer! Reading time, word count, Flesch score & grade level for any URL. No key. JSON, CSV, Excel or API in seconds. Score content for SEO & editorial ⚡

ninhothedev

RAG Markdown Cleaner

cooldev/rag-markdown-cleaner

Transform web pages into RAG-ready Markdown with smart chunking, metadata, code detection & quality scoring. Production-tested deduplication. Fully open-source (Apache 2.0)—review code, contribute, or self-host. Turn messy HTML into embedding-ready knowledge instantly.

Mohamed khalil Zouitni

AI Markdown Maker

onescales/bulk-ai-markdown-maker

Convert any web page into clean, AI ready markdown format in seconds. This markdown generator is perfect for content for AI models, creating documentation, or archiving web content. It intelligently parses web content, removing ads, navigation, and other clutter. Generate Markdown Today!

One Scales

148

5.0

(2)

Website To Markdown

smart_api/website-to-markdown

Convert any webpage into clean, LLM-ready Markdown in seconds — perfect for AI training data, RAG pipelines, and content archiving.

SmartApi

5.0

(1)

Website to Markdown for LLMs & RAG — Content Extractor

fetchbase/website-to-markdown

Turn any URL or whole site into clean, LLM-ready Markdown, text, or JSON. Strips nav/ads/boilerplate; keeps headings, links, tables, code. Sitemap-aware concurrent crawl, URL filters, robots.txt respected, rich metadata. Charged only per page extracted — no startup fee.

Fetchbase

HTML Readability to Markdown Converter

What does HTML Readability to Markdown Converter do?

Who is this HTML to Markdown converter for?

RAG and AI engineers

Documentation teams

Data engineers

Content migration teams

Researchers and compliance teams

Why use this Actor?

Input parameters

Getting started

URL input example

Raw HTML input example

Output fields

Output example

How much does it cost to convert HTML to Markdown?

Readability and CSS selector behavior

RAG ingestion workflow

Document archiving workflow

API usage with cURL

API usage with JavaScript

API usage with Python

Use with Apify MCP

Claude Desktop

Cursor

VS Code

Integrations

Reliability and retry behavior

Legality and responsible use

Limitations

Troubleshooting

The run says to provide exactly one input source

The selector did not match

The page returned HTTP 403 or an anti-bot challenge

The page is JavaScript-rendered and Markdown is empty

Relative links are missing for raw HTML

The HTML is too large

Related Automation Lab Actors

FAQ

Can I convert multiple URLs in one run?

Does it preserve links?

Does it preserve headings?

Can I use raw HTML without a URL?

Does it render client-side JavaScript?

Can I detect document changes?

Does the Actor store a Markdown file?

What happens when conversion fails?

You might also like

Website to Markdown Scraper — LLM & RAG Ready

Webpage to Markdown Converter for LLMs

Html To Markdown Converter 📄

Web Page → Markdown Converter (Trafilatura, LLM-ready)

HTML to Markdown Converter - Bulk Web Content to MD

Article-to-Markdown Converter 📝

Webpage Readability Analyzer — Flesch Score & Grade Level

RAG Markdown Cleaner

AI Markdown Maker

Website To Markdown

Website to Markdown for LLMs & RAG — Content Extractor