# Article Extractor — Clean Text and Markdown from Any URL (`ponderable_hydrometer/article-extractor`) Actor

Extract the main article from any web page as clean text and Markdown, without menus, ads or sidebars. Returns title, site name, publication date, excerpt and word count.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/ponderable_hydrometer/article-extractor.md
- **Developed by:** [Ponderable Hydrometer](https://apify.com/ponderable_hydrometer) (community)
- **Categories:** Developer tools, Automation, SEO tools
- **Security:** Limited permissions
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $3.00 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

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

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
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.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## 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.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## Article Extractor — Clean Text and Markdown from Any URL

**Get the article, not the page.** Give it a list of URLs and it returns only the main content as clean text and Markdown, ready for an LLM, a search index or a reading list. Uses Mozilla Readability, the engine behind Firefox Reader View.

### What you get

One row per article: `url`, `finalUrl`, `title`, `siteName`, `publishedAt`, `lang`, `excerpt`, `wordCount`, `text`, `markdown`.

### Output sample

```json
{
  "url": "https://example.com/post",
  "finalUrl": "https://example.com/post",
  "title": "What is web scraping?",
  "siteName": "Example",
  "publishedAt": "2026-01-15T09:00:00Z",
  "lang": "en",
  "excerpt": "A short introduction.",
  "wordCount": 1240,
  "text": "Web scraping is…",
  "markdown": "## What is web scraping?\n\nWeb scraping is…"
}
```

### Input

| Field | Type | Default | Description |
|-------|------|---------|-------------|
| `urls` | array | — | Article pages to extract. |
| `includeMarkdown` | boolean | `true` | Also return the article as Markdown. |
| `minWords` | integer | `50` | Pages with less extracted text than this produce no row. |

### Good to know

- Pages are fetched without a browser, so content rendered only by JavaScript may come back short. Such pages, and pages under `minWords`, produce no row and no result fee.
- Author names are deliberately not returned.
- This Actor does not bypass paywalls, logins or CAPTCHAs.

### Pricing

Pay per result — **$3.00 per 1,000 results** (one extracted article = one result), plus Apify's standard per-run start event ($0.00005 per GB of memory, so a fraction of a cent per run). No subscription.

# Actor input Schema

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

Article pages to extract.

## `includeMarkdown` (type: `boolean`):

Also return the article as Markdown.

## `minWords` (type: `integer`):

Pages with less extracted text than this produce no row.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "urls": [
    "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_scraping",
    "https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Overview",
    "https://blog.apify.com/what-is-web-scraping/"
  ],
  "includeMarkdown": true,
  "minWords": 50
}
```

# Actor output Schema

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

All rows produced by this run, as JSON.

# 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 = {
    "urls": [
        "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_scraping",
        "https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Overview",
        "https://blog.apify.com/what-is-web-scraping/"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("ponderable_hydrometer/article-extractor").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 = { "urls": [
        "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_scraping",
        "https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Overview",
        "https://blog.apify.com/what-is-web-scraping/",
    ] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("ponderable_hydrometer/article-extractor").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 '{
  "urls": [
    "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_scraping",
    "https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Overview",
    "https://blog.apify.com/what-is-web-scraping/"
  ]
}' |
apify call ponderable_hydrometer/article-extractor --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,ponderable_hydrometer/article-extractor"
        }
    }
}
```

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/noBLV3ptBqjQ7N5Ax/builds/J8PJDpP4VE5jSLGaF/openapi.json