# URL to Markdown - Clean Web Pages for LLMs & RAG (`scrapesage/url-to-markdown`) Actor

Convert any list of web pages to clean Markdown for LLM/RAG ingestion, notes or docs. Main-content mode (Readability) keeps just the article; full-page mode converts the whole body. Tables and links preserved. No browser.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/scrapesage/url-to-markdown.md
- **Developed by:** [Scrape Sage](https://apify.com/scrapesage) (community)
- **Categories:** Agents, Integrations, Other
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $2.20 / 1,000 page converteds

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/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#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

## URL to Markdown - Clean Web Pages for LLMs & RAG

Give it a list of URLs and get clean **Markdown** back for each page - the ideal format for feeding web
content to an LLM (retrieval-augmented generation), building a knowledge base, or saving to notes/docs.

Two modes:

- **Main content** (default) - runs Mozilla Readability first and converts just the article body,
  stripping nav, ads, sidebars and cookie banners. The cleanest possible LLM input.
- **Full page** - converts the whole page body (minus scripts, nav, header and footer).

Links and images are resolved to absolute URLs, tables are converted to Markdown tables (even
header-less layout tables), and clutter attributes are stripped so nothing leaks as raw HTML. Pure
HTTP + parsing, no browser, cents per page.

### What you get per URL

`title` · `markdown` (the converted document) · `mode` · `wordCount` · `charCount` · `url` · `status`.
Turn on **YAML frontmatter** to prepend a `--- title / source / date ---` block to each document.

### Input

```json
{
  "urls": ["https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_scraping"],
  "mode": "mainContent",
  "frontmatter": true
}
```

- **URLs** - one per line; a bare domain gets `https://`. Leave empty for a small free sample.
- **Import URLs from a file** - paste a list, or link a public `.txt`/`.csv`, a Google Sheet/Drive
  link, or an Apify key-value-store record.
- **Output fields** - tick only the columns you need (e.g. just `url` + `markdown`).

### Notes

- Reads the server-rendered HTML. Pages rendered entirely client-side may convert to little content -
  use a proxy or a browser-based scraper for those.
- A URL that is unreachable or non-HTML is reported (`status: "failed"`) and is **not charged**.

### Use with AI assistants (MCP)

Available through the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/mcp) - an agent
can turn a list of links into clean Markdown context on demand for RAG or summarisation, with no page
noise to confuse the model.

### Agent-ready: autonomous payments (x402 & Skyfire)

This actor is **agent-ready** - AI agents can discover it, run it, and **pay for it autonomously**, with no Apify account and no human in the loop. It uses [pay-per-event](https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/publishing/monetize/pay-per-event) pricing and [limited permissions](https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/development/permissions), so it qualifies for Apify's agentic-payment standards:

- **[x402](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/x402)** - an open, HTTP-native payment protocol. Agents pay per run in USDC on the Base network directly through the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/mcp) - no account, no API key.
- **[Skyfire](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/skyfire)** - agent-to-service payments for fully autonomous AI-agent workflows.

Building an AI agent, MCP tool, or autonomous data pipeline? This scraper is ready to plug in and pay as it goes.

# Actor input Schema

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

Web page URLs to convert to Markdown, one per line. A bare domain gets <code>https://</code>. Duplicates are collapsed. <b>Leave empty and the run returns a small free sample.</b>

## `urlsFromFile` (type: `string`):

Bulk-load URLs. Either <b>paste the whole list</b> (one per line), or give <b>a single link</b> to a public <code>.txt</code>/<code>.csv</code>, a Google Sheet/Drive share link, or an Apify key-value-store record. A file that cannot be read says so and charges nothing.

## `mode` (type: `string`):

<b>Main content</b> runs Readability first and converts just the article body - the cleanest input for an LLM. <b>Full page</b> converts the whole page body (minus nav/header/footer/scripts).

## `frontmatter` (type: `boolean`):

Prepend a YAML frontmatter block (title, source URL, date, scraped-at) to each Markdown document - handy for static-site/notes ingestion.

## `concurrency` (type: `integer`):

How many URLs to fetch and convert in parallel.

## `outputFields` (type: `array`):

Pick the fields you want and every record is trimmed to exactly those. Open the dropdown and tick, or type to filter (<code>markdown</code>, <code>title</code>).

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of URLs to convert in one run (after de-duplication).

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Optional. Most pages serve HTML to a plain request, so no proxy is needed by default. Enable a proxy only if a site blocks the fetch.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "urls": [
    "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_scraping"
  ],
  "mode": "mainContent",
  "frontmatter": false,
  "concurrency": 8,
  "maxItems": 100
}
```

# Actor output Schema

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

Each scraped record - web pages converted to Markdown - as a JSON item in the default dataset.

# 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"
    ],
    "urlsFromFile": ""
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("scrapesage/url-to-markdown").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"],
    "urlsFromFile": "",
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("scrapesage/url-to-markdown").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"
  ],
  "urlsFromFile": ""
}' |
apify call scrapesage/url-to-markdown --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

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

```

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/QgLceH2mWFrNdEltK/builds/g9sIwyiN2ROmTebGC/openapi.json