# Website to Markdown Crawler for LLM & RAG (fast, no browser) (`webdatatools/website-to-markdown`) Actor

Website to Markdown Crawler turns any site into clean Markdown per page for LLMs, RAG pipelines and vector DBs — no headless browser, $1 per 1,000 pages.

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

## Pricing

from $0.60 / 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.
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

### What is Website to Markdown Crawler?

Website to Markdown Crawler is an Apify Actor that turns any website into clean, LLM-ready **Markdown** — one row per page, with navigation, footers, sidebars and cookie banners stripped, headings and code blocks preserved, and every link made absolute. It runs on plain HTTP with [Crawlee](https://crawlee.dev)'s `CheerioCrawler` — **no headless browser** — which is what makes it fast and roughly **10× cheaper** than browser-based content crawlers. Feed it a start URL (or a whole `/sitemap.xml`) and it does a breadth-first crawl up to your page budget, ready to feed an **LLM, a RAG pipeline, LangChain/LlamaIndex loader, or a vector DB** (Pinecone, Qdrant, Weaviate, pgvector) in minutes.

### Why use Website to Markdown Crawler?

- **Feed an LLM or RAG pipeline in minutes.** Point it at your docs site, a competitor's help center, or your own product site and get clean Markdown ready for chunking and embedding — no HTML soup to clean up first.
- **10× cheaper, no browser.** `apify/website-content-crawler` and similar Actors spin up a browser per page. This Actor fetches raw HTML over HTTP, so it's faster and priced at **$1 per 1,000 pages**.
- **Predictable cost.** `maxPages` is the billed unit and the crawl stops at exactly that count — no surprise runs.
- **Sitemap-aware BFS crawl.** Optionally seeds from `/sitemap.xml` (including nested sitemap indexes) so you reach real content pages immediately instead of waiting for link discovery.

### How to use Website to Markdown Crawler

1. Paste one or more pages into **Start URLs**, e.g. `https://docs.apify.com/platform` or your own docs/blog root.
2. Set **Max pages** — this is the billed unit ($1 per 1,000 pages) and the crawl stops exactly there.
3. Optionally set **Include path prefixes** (e.g. `/docs`) to stay inside one section of a larger site.
4. Choose **Output format**: Markdown, plain text, or both.
5. Click **Start**, then download the dataset as JSON, CSV, Excel or HTML, or pull it straight into your RAG pipeline via the API.

### Example input

```json
{
  "startUrls": [{ "url": "https://docs.apify.com/platform" }],
  "maxPages": 50,
  "maxDepth": 3,
  "sameDomainOnly": true,
  "useSitemap": true,
  "outputFormat": "markdown"
}
```

### Example output

```json
{
  "url": "https://crawlee.dev/docs",
  "finalUrl": "https://crawlee.dev/js/docs/quick-start",
  "statusCode": 200,
  "title": "Quick Start | Crawlee for JavaScript",
  "description": "Crawlee helps you build reliable scrapers. Fast.",
  "lang": "en",
  "canonical": "https://crawlee.dev/js/docs/quick-start",
  "markdown": "# Quick Start\n\nWith this short tutorial you can start scraping with Crawlee in a minute or two...\n\n## Choose your crawler\n\n### CheerioCrawler\n\nThis is a plain HTTP crawler...",
  "text": null,
  "wordCount": 1484,
  "headings": ["Quick Start", "Choose your crawler", "CheerioCrawler", "PuppeteerCrawler"],
  "links": ["https://crawlee.dev/js/docs/introduction", "https://crawlee.dev/js/docs/guides"],
  "depth": 0,
  "contentHash": "3f9a1c2e...",
  "crawledAt": "2026-09-12T18:21:07.000Z",
  "error": null
}
```

### What data does Website to Markdown Crawler extract?

One row per crawled page:

| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| `url` / `finalUrl` | string | Requested URL and URL after redirects |
| `statusCode` | integer | HTTP status code, `null` on a failed request |
| `title` / `description` | string | Page `<title>` (or first `<h1>`) and meta description |
| `lang` | string | `<html lang>` attribute |
| `canonical` | string | `<link rel=canonical>`, resolved to an absolute URL |
| `markdown` | string | Main content as Markdown — headings, lists, code blocks, tables, absolute links/images |
| `text` | string | Main content as plain text |
| `wordCount` | integer | Word count of the extracted content |
| `headings` | array | H1-H3 text, in order, up to 50 |
| `links` | array | Same-domain absolute links found on the page, up to 200 |
| `depth` | integer | Link depth from the nearest start URL |
| `contentHash` | string | SHA-1 of the plain text — diff two runs to detect changed pages |
| `crawledAt` | string | ISO timestamp |
| `error` | string | Error message on a failed page, otherwise `null` |

`markdown`/`text` are populated according to the **Output format** input (`markdown`, `text`, or `both`); the unused one is `null`.

### Input parameters

| Parameter | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| `startUrls` | array | `docs.apify.com/platform` | Page(s) to start crawling from |
| `maxPages` | integer | 50 | Billed unit; the crawl stops at exactly this count (1-5000) |
| `maxDepth` | integer | 3 | Link depth from a start URL (0-10) |
| `sameDomainOnly` | boolean | true | Only follow links on the same domain (`www.` counts as the same) |
| `includePathPrefixes` | array | none | Only crawl paths starting with one of these, e.g. `/docs` |
| `excludePathPatterns` | array | images/PDF/CSS/JS, `/login`, `/signup`, `?replytocom=` | Regexes tested against the full URL; a match is skipped |
| `useSitemap` | boolean | true | Also seed from `/sitemap.xml` (follows one nested sitemap-index level) |
| `outputFormat` | string | `markdown` | `markdown`, `text`, or `both` |
| `removeSelectors` | array | none | Extra CSS selectors to strip before extraction |
| `maxConcurrency` | integer | 10 | Parallel requests (1-50) |
| `respectRobots` | boolean | true | Skip URLs disallowed by `robots.txt` |
| `proxyConfiguration` | object | none | Optional Apify Proxy configuration |

### Pricing

Website to Markdown Crawler uses pay-per-event pricing: **$1 per 1,000 pages** ($0.001 per page), plus a negligible actor-start fee. There is no separate compute-unit or browser billing because no browser is used. Set **Max pages** (and, on the platform, **Maximum cost per run**) to cap spend — the Actor trims its own crawl to stay within budget and never bills more pages than it delivers.

### Website to Markdown Crawler vs. browser-based content crawlers

Browser-based crawlers such as `apify/website-content-crawler` load every page in a real (often headless) browser before extracting content — that's necessary for JavaScript-rendered single-page apps, but it's slow and expensive for the huge majority of documentation sites, blogs and marketing pages that are plain server-rendered HTML. This Actor skips the browser entirely: a page that takes a browser-based crawler several seconds and a full render cycle is a sub-second HTTP fetch here, at a fraction of the price. The trade-off is explicit: **sites that only render content client-side with JavaScript (pure SPAs) will come back with little or no text** — see Limitations below.

### Using Website to Markdown Crawler with AI agents, LangChain and LlamaIndex

Website to Markdown Crawler runs on pay-per-event pricing with limited permissions, so it's callable through the [Apify MCP server](https://mcp.apify.com) directly from an AI agent — pass `startUrls` and `maxPages` and get back one Markdown row per page. The dataset also drops straight into a RAG pipeline: use Apify's [LangChain](https://python.langchain.com/docs/integrations/document_loaders/apify_dataset/) or [LlamaIndex](https://docs.llamaindex.ai/en/stable/examples/data_connectors/ApifyDatasetReader/) `ApifyDatasetLoader` to turn the dataset into `Document` objects, then chunk and embed into Pinecone, Qdrant, Weaviate or pgvector. It also connects through n8n, Make and Zapier via Apify's standard integrations.

### Limitations

- **JavaScript-rendered single-page apps are the main limitation.** This Actor fetches raw HTML over HTTP and never executes page JavaScript, so a site that renders its content entirely client-side (no content in the initial HTML) will come back with an empty or near-empty row. It does follow `<meta http-equiv="refresh">` redirect stubs (one hop) and ordinary HTTP redirects, which covers a common class of "empty landing page" issue, but not full client-side rendering. If you hit this, look for a browser-based crawler instead.
- Interactive widgets that swap content via JavaScript (tabs, accordions with lazy content) are captured in whatever state they render in the raw HTML — usually just the first/default tab.
- The main-content heuristic (no `@mozilla/readability`) is tuned for documentation and blog layouts (`article`, `main`, `#content`, `.content`); unusual layouts may need `removeSelectors` to clean up.

### FAQ

**Is this legal?** The Actor reads only public HTML. You're responsible for crawling sites you're allowed to and respecting their terms of service.

**Why is a row empty?** Almost always a JavaScript-rendered page — see Limitations above. Check the `statusCode` and `error` fields; a `200` with an empty `markdown` usually means client-side rendering.

**How do I stay inside one section of a site?** Set `includePathPrefixes`, e.g. `["/docs"]`, and/or turn off `useSitemap` if the sitemap covers more than you want.

**How do I control cost?** Set `maxPages`; the Actor never crawls or bills past it. On the platform, also set **Maximum cost per run**.

**Can I detect changed pages between runs?** Yes — compare `contentHash` (SHA-1 of the extracted text) across runs to see which pages changed.

**Does this work with n8n, Make or Zapier?** Yes, through Apify's standard integrations, and through LangChain/LlamaIndex document loaders for RAG pipelines.

### Related Actors

Part of the **webdatatools** web-intelligence suite — every Actor is pay-per-event, runs without
proxies or a headless browser, and returns one clean row per entity:

Browse the whole suite at [webdatatools](https://paulet4a-commits.github.io/webdatatools/), or call ten of
these Actors straight from Claude, Cursor or Cline with the
[webdatatools MCP server](https://github.com/paulet4a-commits/webdatatools-mcp-server).

**Website & domain intelligence**

- [Website Contact & Social Extractor](https://apify.com/webdatatools/contact-extractor) — e-mails, phones and social profiles per domain
- [Website Tech Stack Detector](https://apify.com/webdatatools/tech-stack-detector) — CMS, e-commerce, analytics, pixels and payments per domain
- [Domain DNS & Email Security Checker](https://apify.com/webdatatools/dns-email-security-checker) — SPF, DKIM, DMARC, MX provider, registrar and domain age
- [Domain Security Audit](https://apify.com/webdatatools/domain-security-audit) — TLS expiry, security headers, redirect chain, robots and llms.txt
- [Subdomain Finder (Certificate Transparency)](https://apify.com/webdatatools/subdomain-finder) — every subdomain seen in CT logs, with a live DNS check
- [Bulk Core Web Vitals & PageSpeed Audit](https://apify.com/webdatatools/core-web-vitals-audit) — Lighthouse scores, LCP, CLS, INP and top fixes per URL
- [On-Page SEO Audit](https://apify.com/webdatatools/seo-page-audit) — title, meta, headings, links, images and schema issues per page
- [Sitemap URL Extractor & Change Monitor](https://apify.com/webdatatools/sitemap-extractor) — every sitemap URL, or new and removed pages between runs
- [Wayback Machine Snapshot & Page Change Tracker](https://apify.com/webdatatools/wayback-page-diff) — how a page changed over time, or every archived snapshot

**Content for AI, LLMs and RAG**

- [AI Web Search & Read](https://apify.com/webdatatools/ai-web-search) — a query turned into clean Markdown from the top search results
- [Article & News Extractor](https://apify.com/webdatatools/article-extractor) — clean article text, author, date and Markdown per URL
- [Structured Data & JSON-LD Extractor](https://apify.com/webdatatools/structured-data-extractor) — Schema.org and Open Graph data from any page
- [Google News Scraper](https://apify.com/webdatatools/google-news-scraper) — news results by keyword, topic or site
- [Press Release Monitor](https://apify.com/webdatatools/press-release-monitor) — PR Newswire, Business Wire and GlobeNewswire releases

**Search, video and social**

- [Google Search Results Scraper](https://apify.com/webdatatools/google-search-scraper) — organic SERP results per keyword and country
- [YouTube Comments Scraper](https://apify.com/webdatatools/youtube-comments-scraper) — comments and replies with likes, no API key
- [YouTube Channel Latest Videos](https://apify.com/webdatatools/youtube-channel-videos) — the latest 15 videos of any channel from RSS
- [YouTube Channel Videos Scraper](https://apify.com/webdatatools/youtube-channel-scraper) — a channel's full video, shorts and stream list
- [YouTube Search Results Scraper](https://apify.com/webdatatools/youtube-search-scraper) — videos, channels and playlists per query
- [YouTube Video Details Scraper](https://apify.com/webdatatools/youtube-video-details) — views, likes, description, tags and chapters per video
- [Apple Podcasts Lookup & Episodes Scraper](https://apify.com/webdatatools/podcast-lookup) — podcast metadata and episodes from iTunes and RSS
- [Bluesky Scraper](https://apify.com/webdatatools/bluesky-scraper) — posts, profiles, followers and threads from the AT Protocol API

**Leads, jobs and company data**

- [Company 360](https://apify.com/webdatatools/company-360) — one row per domain: contacts, tech, security, hiring and company facts
- [Hiring Signals Scraper](https://apify.com/webdatatools/hiring-signals) — open jobs and hiring velocity from 10 public ATS boards
- [Y Combinator Companies & Founders Scraper](https://apify.com/webdatatools/yc-companies-scraper) — YC startups by batch, industry and hiring status
- [Wikidata Entity & Company Enrichment](https://apify.com/webdatatools/wikidata-entity-enrichment) — HQ, founders, employees, revenue and social IDs per company
- [Bulk Email Validator](https://apify.com/webdatatools/email-validator) — syntax, MX, disposable, role and free-provider checks
- [OpenStreetMap POI Extractor](https://apify.com/webdatatools/overpass-poi-extractor) — shops and amenities by radius, bbox or area

**Developer, app and research data**

- [npm, PyPI & Crates.io Package Health Checker](https://apify.com/webdatatools/package-health-checker) — releases, downloads, deprecation and a health score
- [GitHub Repository Health & Activity Report](https://apify.com/webdatatools/github-repo-health) — stars, commits, contributors and risk flags per repo
- [VS Code Marketplace Extension Scraper](https://apify.com/webdatatools/vscode-marketplace-extensions) — installs, ratings and versions per extension
- [Chrome Web Store Extension Scraper](https://apify.com/webdatatools/chrome-web-store-extensions) — users, rating, version and developer per extension
- [Google Play Store Scraper](https://apify.com/webdatatools/google-play-scraper) — apps, ratings, installs, developer contact and reviews
- [App Store (iOS) App Metadata & Top Charts](https://apify.com/webdatatools/app-store-lookup) — ratings, price, version and charts per app
- [CrossRef DOI & Citation Metadata Lookup](https://apify.com/webdatatools/crossref-doi-lookup) — papers, authors, journals and citation counts
- [FDA Recalls & Adverse Events Monitor](https://apify.com/webdatatools/openfda-recall-monitor) — food, drug and device recalls from openFDA
- [iCal / ICS Calendar Feed to Events Extractor](https://apify.com/webdatatools/ical-calendar-extractor) — any public calendar feed as event rows
- [Shopify Store Products Scraper](https://apify.com/webdatatools/shopify-products-scraper) — catalog, prices, variants and stock per store

### Support and feedback

Found a bug or want a feature? Open an issue on the **Issues** tab.

# Actor input Schema

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

Enter the page(s) to start crawling from, e.g. https://docs.apify.com/platform. The crawler follows links from here in breadth-first order.

## `maxPages` (type: `integer`):

Enter the maximum number of pages to crawl and convert, e.g. 50. This is the billed unit ($1 per 1,000 pages) — the crawl stops exactly at this count.

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

Enter how many links deep to follow from a start URL, e.g. 3. Set 0 to crawl only the start URL(s).

## `sameDomainOnly` (type: `boolean`):

Turn this on to only follow links on the same domain as the start URL (www. is treated as the same domain), and off to also follow links to other domains.

## `includePathPrefixes` (type: `array`):

Optional. Only crawl URLs whose path starts with one of these prefixes, e.g. /docs. Leave empty to crawl every path allowed by the other settings.

## `excludePathPatterns` (type: `array`):

Optional. Regular expressions tested against the full URL; a match is skipped, e.g. .(png|jpe?g)$ to skip images. Defaults cover binary files and login/signup pages.

## `useSitemap` (type: `boolean`):

Turn this on to also read /sitemap.xml on each start URL's domain and add its URLs (filtered by the settings above) to the crawl queue, up to Max pages.

## `outputFormat` (type: `string`):

Choose what content to put in each row: Markdown only, plain text only, or both. Markdown preserves headings, lists, code blocks and tables.

## `removeSelectors` (type: `array`):

Optional. Extra CSS selectors to strip before extracting content, e.g. .cookie-banner or #newsletter-signup, on top of the built-in nav/header/footer/aside removal.

## `maxConcurrency` (type: `integer`):

Enter the maximum number of pages fetched in parallel, e.g. 10. Lower it if the target site rate-limits you.

## `respectRobots` (type: `boolean`):

Turn this on to skip URLs disallowed by the site's robots.txt file (recommended and on by default).

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

Optional. Select a proxy configuration, e.g. Apify Proxy with the datacenter group, if the target site blocks requests from shared IPs.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "startUrls": [
    {
      "url": "https://docs.apify.com/platform"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://crawlee.dev/docs"
    }
  ],
  "maxPages": 50,
  "maxDepth": 3,
  "sameDomainOnly": true,
  "includePathPrefixes": [],
  "excludePathPatterns": [
    "\\.(png|jpe?g|gif|svg|webp|pdf|zip|mp4|css|js)$",
    "/login",
    "/signup",
    "\\?replytocom="
  ],
  "useSitemap": true,
  "outputFormat": "markdown",
  "removeSelectors": [],
  "maxConcurrency": 10,
  "respectRobots": true,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `pages` (type: `string`):

All crawled pages — download as JSON, CSV, Excel or HTML.

# 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": [
        {
            "url": "https://docs.apify.com/platform"
        },
        {
            "url": "https://crawlee.dev/docs"
        }
    ],
    "maxPages": 50,
    "maxDepth": 3,
    "includePathPrefixes": [],
    "excludePathPatterns": [
        "\\.(png|jpe?g|gif|svg|webp|pdf|zip|mp4|css|js)$",
        "/login",
        "/signup",
        "\\?replytocom="
    ],
    "outputFormat": "markdown",
    "removeSelectors": [],
    "maxConcurrency": 10
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("webdatatools/website-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 = {
    "startUrls": [
        { "url": "https://docs.apify.com/platform" },
        { "url": "https://crawlee.dev/docs" },
    ],
    "maxPages": 50,
    "maxDepth": 3,
    "includePathPrefixes": [],
    "excludePathPatterns": [
        "\\.(png|jpe?g|gif|svg|webp|pdf|zip|mp4|css|js)$",
        "/login",
        "/signup",
        "\\?replytocom=",
    ],
    "outputFormat": "markdown",
    "removeSelectors": [],
    "maxConcurrency": 10,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("webdatatools/website-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 '{
  "startUrls": [
    {
      "url": "https://docs.apify.com/platform"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://crawlee.dev/docs"
    }
  ],
  "maxPages": 50,
  "maxDepth": 3,
  "includePathPrefixes": [],
  "excludePathPatterns": [
    "\\\\.(png|jpe?g|gif|svg|webp|pdf|zip|mp4|css|js)$",
    "/login",
    "/signup",
    "\\\\?replytocom="
  ],
  "outputFormat": "markdown",
  "removeSelectors": [],
  "maxConcurrency": 10
}' |
apify call webdatatools/website-to-markdown --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,webdatatools/website-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/XzLicaoE1OdrHNA4E/builds/fVlL44yNOLmLVV1rH/openapi.json