# Charset Checker - Detect Encoding Mismatches & Mojibake (`eliai/webpage-charset-encoding-checker`) Actor

Verify a page's character-encoding: HTTP vs meta charset, http-equiv, XML, BOM, and mismatch/mojibake risks. Bulk. $0.0005 per page. Failed fetches are recorded free.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/eliai/webpage-charset-encoding-checker.md
- **Developed by:** [Broke to Built](https://apify.com/eliai) (community)
- **Categories:** Developer tools, SEO tools, Automation
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $0.40 / 1,000 scanned pages

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## Charset / Encoding Checker — detect mismatches & mojibake risk

Verify a page's **character-encoding** setup and catch the mismatches that cause **mojibake** (garbled
"é" text). Compares the HTTP `Content-Type` charset, the `<meta charset>`, `http-equiv`, any XML
declaration, and BOM presence — and flags inconsistencies. Single URL or bulk. **$0.0005 per page.**
Failed fetches are recorded free.

### What you get

- **`httpCharset`**, **`metaCharset`**, **`metaHttpEquivCharset`**, **`xmlCharset`**, and **`bom`**.
- **`consistent`** — whether all declared encodings agree.
- **`issues`** — specific mismatches (e.g. HTTP says ISO-8859-1 but meta says UTF-8).
- **Fail-soft**: an unreachable URL returns `{ok:false, error}` and is **never charged**.

### Input

```json
{ "url": "https://github.com", "urls": ["https://example.com"], "maxUrls": 25 }
```

### Output (real run, 2026-08-07)

```json
{
  "ok": true, "url": "https://github.com", "status": 200,
  "contentType": "text/html; charset=utf-8",
  "httpCharset": "utf-8", "metaCharset": "utf-8",
  "metaHttpEquivCharset": null, "xmlCharset": null, "bom": null,
  "consistent": true, "issues": []
}
```

### Pricing — $0.0005 per page

Priced at the floor. No directly comparable charset/mojibake actor was found on the Apify Store on
2026-08-07 (the nearest listings are generic metadata/HTTP-status scrapers), so there is no competitor
price to quote.

### Limits (honest ones)

- Reads the declared encodings and BOM from the served response; it does not statistically sniff the byte stream to guess the true encoding.
- `consistent:false` flags a declaration mismatch — the actual rendered text may still be fine or broken depending on the browser's resolution order.
- `maxUrls` capped per run.

### FAQ

- **What causes mojibake?** A page served as one encoding but declared as another; this actor surfaces exactly those mismatches.
- **Does it detect a BOM?** Yes — UTF-8/UTF-16 byte-order marks are reported.
- **Does it guess the real encoding?** No — it compares the *declared* encodings; use it to catch misconfiguration.
- **What about a dead URL?** You get an `{ok:false, error}` record, uncharged.

### Use from code or AI agents

```bash
curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/EliAI~webpage-charset-encoding-checker/runs?token=YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H 'content-type: application/json' -d '{"url":"https://github.com"}'
```

Callable as an agent tool through the Apify MCP server (`mcp.apify.com`).

# Actor input Schema

## `url` (type: `string`):

A single page URL to scan for its character-encoding setup. The bare domain is fine — https:// is added automatically.

## `urls` (type: `array`):

Multiple page URLs to scan in one run.

## `maxUrls` (type: `integer`):

Safety cap on how many URLs to scan in one run.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "url": "https://github.com",
  "urls": [
    "https://github.com",
    "https://example.com"
  ],
  "maxUrls": 50
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

Every item this run produced, as JSON.

## `resultsCsv` (type: `string`):

The same items as a spreadsheet-ready CSV.

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "url": "https://github.com",
    "urls": [
        "https://github.com",
        "https://example.com"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("eliai/webpage-charset-encoding-checker").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "url": "https://github.com",
    "urls": [
        "https://github.com",
        "https://example.com",
    ],
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("eliai/webpage-charset-encoding-checker").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "url": "https://github.com",
  "urls": [
    "https://github.com",
    "https://example.com"
  ]
}' |
apify call eliai/webpage-charset-encoding-checker --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,eliai/webpage-charset-encoding-checker"
        }
    }
}

```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/9zGQ535FbheedOxEO/builds/KiWzcfmL2UHuHlLLr/openapi.json