# Website to Markdown for LLM & RAG – Fast Site Crawler (`shawndunn/website-to-llm-markdown-crawler`) Actor

Crawl a website or docs section and get clean Markdown per page, with title, language, word and token counts, content-hash dedup and optional overlapping chunks ready for vector databases. No browser, so it is fast and cheap.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/shawndunn/website-to-llm-markdown-crawler.md
- **Developed by:** [CarrierDaily](https://apify.com/shawndunn) (community)
- **Categories:** AI, Developer tools
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$1.00 / 1,000 pages

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

## Website to Markdown for LLM & RAG – Fast Site Crawler

Crawl a website or docs section and get clean Markdown per page, with title, language, word and token counts, content-hash dedup and optional overlapping chunks ready for vector databases. No browser, so it is fast and cheap.

### Why this actor

- HTTP-only crawler = ~10x cheaper than browser-based RAG crawlers; built-in chunking and dedup; stays under the start path.
- Pay only for results: **$1.00 per 1,000 pages**, no start fee, failed lookups are free.
- Robust: automatic retries with exponential backoff, respects `Retry-After`, per-item error rows instead of crashed runs.
- Clean, flat JSON/CSV/Excel output ready for Google Sheets, Make, Zapier, n8n, Clay, or the Apify API.

### Use cases

- Build RAG knowledge bases from docs sites
- Feed custom GPTs/assistants with a company's website
- Keep a vector DB fresh on a schedule
- Content audits and migrations

### Input

| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| `startUrls` | array | Site or section to crawl (e.g. https://docs.example.com/). |
| `maxPagesPerSite` | integer | Crawl budget per start URL. |
| `maxDepth` | integer | How many clicks away from the start URL. |
| `stayUnderStartPath` | boolean | Only follow links under the start URL path (e.g. /docs/). |
| `includeRegex` | string | Only output pages matching this regex. |
| `excludeRegex` | string | Never visit URLs matching this regex (e.g. /tag/|/page/). |
| `chunkWords` | integer | If >0, also output overlapping chunks for vector databases. |
| `chunkOverlapWords` | integer | Overlap between chunks. |
| `maxItems` | integer | 0 = no limit. Caps cost. |

Example input:

```json
{
  "startUrls": [
    "https://docs.apify.com/academy/web-scraping-for-beginners"
  ],
  "maxPagesPerSite": 5,
  "maxDepth": 1,
  "chunkWords": 300
}
```

### Output

Each dataset item looks like this (real sample from a test run, long fields trimmed):

```json
{
  "url": "https://docs.apify.com/academy/scraping-basics-javascript?legacy-js-course=/",
  "startUrl": "https://docs.apify.com/academy/web-scraping-for-beginners",
  "depth": 0,
  "title": "Web scraping basics for JavaScript devs | Academy | Apify Documentation",
  "description": "Learn how to use JavaScript to extract information from websites in this practical course, starting from the absolute basics.",
  "language": "en",
  "markdown": "# Web scraping basics for JavaScript devs\n\n**Learn how to use JavaScript to extract information from websites in this practical course, starting from the absolute basics.**\n\nIn this course we'll use JavaScript to create an application for w\u2026",
  "wordCount": 995,
  "approxTokens": 1323,
  "contentHash": "a05d980e413fc565dcec10927a371f95",
  "crawledAt": "2026-10-14T23:42:37+00:00",
  "chunks": [
    "# Web scraping basics for JavaScript devs **Learn how to use JavaScript to extract information from websites in this practical course, starting from the absolute basics.** In this course we'll use JavaScript to create an application for wat\u2026",
    "is web scraping good for, and what career opportunities does it enable for you? ### Why learn scraping The internet is full of useful data, but most of it isn't offered in a structured way that's easy to process programmatically. That's why\u2026",
    "building personal tools, such as your own real estate or rare sneakers watchdog. - Companies can hire you to build custom scrapers mining data important for their business. - Become an invaluable asset to data journalism, data science, or n\u2026",
    "\u2026"
  ]
}
```

Rows that could not be processed contain an `error` field and are **not charged**.

### Pricing

Pay-per-event: **$0.001** per page (= $1.00 / 1,000). Use **Max results** to cap spend. Apify's free plan credit covers thousands of results per month.

### Integrations & API

Run on a schedule in Apify Console, call via the Apify API / Python & JS clients, or connect to Make, Zapier, n8n, Google Sheets, Slack and webhooks. Works as a tool for AI agents via Apify MCP.

### FAQ

**Is this an official tool?** No. It is an independent actor and is not affiliated with, sponsored or endorsed by the data source or any trademark owner named here.

**Is it legal?** The actor only reads publicly available data from public endpoints, without logins, and does not bypass paywalls or access controls. You are responsible for using the data in line with applicable laws (e.g. GDPR) and the source sites' terms.

**Something broke?** Open an issue in the Issues tab; we typically respond within 24 hours and ship fixes fast.

### Polite crawling

The crawler reads each site's `robots.txt` and skips any URL it disallows (honoring `Crawl-delay`, capped at 10 s). A start URL blocked by robots.txt returns a free error row explaining why.

# Actor input Schema

## `startUrls` (type: `array`):

Site or section to crawl (e.g. https://docs.example.com/).

## `maxPagesPerSite` (type: `integer`):

Crawl budget per start URL.

## `maxDepth` (type: `integer`):

How many clicks away from the start URL.

## `stayUnderStartPath` (type: `boolean`):

Only follow links under the start URL path (e.g. /docs/).

## `includeRegex` (type: `string`):

Only output pages matching this regex.

## `excludeRegex` (type: `string`):

Never visit URLs matching this regex (e.g. /tag/|/page/).

## `chunkWords` (type: `integer`):

If >0, also output overlapping chunks for vector databases.

## `chunkOverlapWords` (type: `integer`):

Overlap between chunks.

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

0 = no limit. Caps cost.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "startUrls": [
    "https://docs.apify.com/academy/web-scraping-for-beginners"
  ],
  "maxPagesPerSite": 50,
  "maxDepth": 3,
  "stayUnderStartPath": true,
  "chunkWords": 0,
  "chunkOverlapWords": 40,
  "maxItems": 0
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `overview` (type: `string`):

No description

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

No description

# 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 = {
    "startUrls": [
        "https://docs.apify.com/academy/web-scraping-for-beginners"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("shawndunn/website-to-llm-markdown-crawler").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 = { "startUrls": ["https://docs.apify.com/academy/web-scraping-for-beginners"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("shawndunn/website-to-llm-markdown-crawler").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 '{
  "startUrls": [
    "https://docs.apify.com/academy/web-scraping-for-beginners"
  ]
}' |
apify call shawndunn/website-to-llm-markdown-crawler --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

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

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/Isitn6dLNqJNhWg9t/builds/zCQ1bqpJhgEtXrMvL/openapi.json