# Web scraping MCP

Web scraping MCP servers let your coding agent read web pages. We sent one Wikipedia article through all 6 and counted tokens: 94,415 to 112,517. FATSEARCH returned **1,384** in three reads and found the same answer.

> We make FATSEARCH. The numbers below are our own runs, dated. Where another reader is the better pick, we say so.

| Reader | Tokens in context | Answer found | Model bill | Answer in the text | Agent answered right | Tokens per question |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| FATSEARCH | 1,384 | yes | $0.0028 | 35/38 | 26/38 | 2.6k |
| Jina Reader | 94,415 | yes | $0.19 | 8/38 | — | — |
| Tavily | 97,504 | yes | $0.20 | 19/38 | — | — |
| Oxylabs | 102,609 | yes | $0.21 | — | — | — |
| Bright Data | 103,625 | yes | $0.21 | — | — | — |
| Firecrawl | 112,517 | yes | $0.23 | 24/38 | 24/38 | 2.8k |

Columns 2–4: 2026-10-17, Wikipedia “Rust (programming language)” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rust_(programming_language)), one run each; model bill at $2/M input tokens (Claude Sonnet 5.5). Columns 5–7: Social, news, shops, travel, classifieds, search: pages a built-in fetch can’t read. FATSEARCH 0.1.0, 2026-10-16, one run each; Firecrawl’s copy was cut to fit the agent run.

Each reader's section below says when it's the better pick. Method and raw data: [benchmarks](/docs/benchmarks/#one-page-six-readers).

These are hosted readers. Open-source tools you run yourself went through the same page on 2026-10-19: [open source web search MCP](/compare/open-source-web-search-mcp/), and the two crawlers head to head in [Crawl4AI vs Firecrawl](/compare/crawl4ai-vs-firecrawl/).

## FATSEARCH

Local CLI + MCP server, your own provider key. Measured: outline, then one filter, then one section (plain HTTP, $0).

```text
= j11.u46 Rust (programming language) - Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · 57 sections · 6 photos · 2 videos · 40.9ktok · pl…
u46#0 info | author Contributors to Wikimedia projects · published 2010-10-30T22:30:54Z · modified 2026-10-15T20:56:59Z
m1 photo 250x167 png | A bright orange crab icon → https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/20/Rustacean-or…
m2 photo 250x314 png | (no alt) → https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/af/Rust_standard_libraries.svg/5…
m3 photo 250x193 png | (no alt) → https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6c/Cargo_clippy_hello_world_exam…
… +10 media → fats u46 media
u46#1 (top) (9) | Jump to content
u46#9 Syntax and features (9.2k, 27 sub) | [edit [l175] ] Main article: Rust syntax [l176] Rust's syntax [l177] is simil…
```

Price: $0.001–0.0065 per hard page, $0 plain pages (https://github.com/fatsearch/fatsearch#readme, checked 2026-10-21)

## Jina Reader

Hosted URL-to-Markdown reader, MCP server. Measured: r.jina.ai, no key.

```text
Title: Rust (programming language)
URL Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rust_(programming_language)
Published Time: 2010-10-30T22:30:54Z
Markdown Content:
| Rust |
| --- |
| [![Image 1: Rust logo: a capital letter R attached inside a sprocket with teeth on the outside, both black on a white …
| [Paradigms](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programming_paradigm "Programming paradigm") | * [Multi-paradigm](https://en…
```

Price: Free without a key at 20 requests a minute. With a key it is billed by output tokens; a new key comes with 10M free tokens. (https://jina.ai/reader/, checked 2026-10-19)

When it's better: Zero install, no account. Put r.jina.ai/ in front of a URL and you get Markdown back. Good for a quick one-off read in a script.

## Tavily

Hosted search + extract API, MCP server. Measured: /extract, basic depth.

```text
[Jump to content](#bodyContent)
[![](/static/images/icons/enwiki-25.svg)  ![Wikipedia](/static/images/mobile/copyright/wikipedia-wordmark-en-25.svg) ![T…
[Search](/wiki/Special:Search "Search Wikipedia [f]")
## Contents
* [1 History](#History)
  + [1.1 2006–2009: Early years](#2006–2009:_Early_years)
  + [1.2 2009–2012: Mozilla sponsorship](#2009–2012:_Mozilla_sponsorship)
  + [1.3 2012–2015: Evolution](#2012–2015:_Evolution)
```

Price: Free: 1,000 API credits a month. Pay as you go: $0.008 a credit. A basic extract costs 1 credit per 5 successful URLs (advanced: 2). (https://www.tavily.com/pricing, https://docs.tavily.com/documentation/api-credits, checked 2026-10-19)

When it's better: Search is the main job. Tavily is a search API for agents and can return page text with the results in one call. FATSEARCH searches too, but hands back result ids your agent opens one by one.

## Oxylabs

Hosted scraper API + proxies, MCP server. Measured: Web Scraper API /v1/scrape, markdown, no JS.

```text
[Jump to content](#bodyContent)
Main menu
Main menu
move to sidebar
hide
Navigation
* [Main page](/wiki/Main_Page "Visit the main page [z]")
* [Contents](/wiki/Wikipedia%3AContents "Guides to browsing Wikipedia")
```

Price: Web Scraper API, other sites: $1.00 per 1,000 results on the Starter plan ($30 a month). $5 of free welcome credits. (https://oxylabs.io/products/scraper-api/web/pricing, checked 2026-10-19)

When it's better: You need whole pages at volume, including Google and Amazon, with proxies and an unblocker under one subscription.

## Bright Data

Hosted unblocker API + proxies, MCP server. Measured: Web Unlocker, markdown.

```text
 Rust (programming language) - Wikipedia
[Jump to content](#bodyContent)
 Main menu
Main menu
move to sidebar hide
Navigation
*   [Main page](/wiki/Main_Page "Visit the main page [z]")
*   [Contents](/wiki/Wikipedia:Contents "Guides to browsing Wikipedia")
```

Price: Web Unlocker: 5,000 free requests a month, then $1.5 per 1,000 requests, pay as you go. (https://brightdata.com/pricing/web-unlocker, checked 2026-10-19)

When it's better: You need pages that fight back, at volume. Web Unlocker handles CAPTCHAs, browser rendering and retries. You pay only for success.

## Firecrawl

Hosted scrape, crawl + search API (AGPL core), MCP server. Measured: v2 /scrape, markdown, default settings.

```text
[Jump to content](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rust_(programming_language)#bodyContent)
[![This is a good article. Click here for more information.](https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/94/Symbol_…
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
General-purpose programming language
| Rust |
| --- |
| [![Rust logo: a capital letter R attached inside a sprocket with teeth on the outside, both black on a white backgroun…
| [Paradigms](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programming_paradigm "Programming paradigm") | - [Multi-paradigm](https://en…
```

Price: Free: 1,000 credits a month (one scraped page = one credit). Hobby: $16 a month billed yearly ($19 monthly) for 5,000 credits. Standard: $83 a month billed yearly for 100,000. (https://www.firecrawl.dev/pricing, checked 2026-10-19)

When it's better: You want a whole site, not one page. Firecrawl crawls a site in one request, maps its URLs, batch-scrapes many pages and returns structured JSON or screenshots. It can also search, click through a page, and turn PDFs and DOCX into Markdown. Its core is open source under the AGPL and can be self-hosted, though some features are Cloud-only. FATSEARCH has no crawler and no DOCX yet.

## Comparisons

- [Crawl4AI vs Firecrawl](https://fatsearch.com/compare/crawl4ai-vs-firecrawl/): Crawl4AI: 74,896 tokens. Firecrawl hosted: 112,517, self-hosted: 107,332. FATSEARCH: 1,384. Same Wikipedia page.
- [Firecrawl alternatives](https://fatsearch.com/compare/firecrawl-alternatives/): Firecrawl returned 112,517 tokens for one Wikipedia page. FATSEARCH got the same answer in 1,384. 6 readers, real counts.
- [Jina Reader vs Firecrawl](https://fatsearch.com/compare/firecrawl-vs-jina-reader/): Jina Reader: 94,415 tokens. Firecrawl: 112,517. FATSEARCH: 1,384. Same Wikipedia page, real counts.
- [Firecrawl vs Tavily](https://fatsearch.com/compare/firecrawl-vs-tavily/): Firecrawl: 112,517 tokens. Tavily: 97,504. FATSEARCH: 1,384. Same Wikipedia page, same answer, head-to-head.
- [Jina Reader alternative](https://fatsearch.com/compare/jina-reader-alternatives/): Jina Reader returned 94,415 tokens for one Wikipedia page. FATSEARCH: 1,384, same answer. 6 readers with real numbers.
- [Open source web search MCP](https://fatsearch.com/compare/open-source-web-search-mcp/): One Wikipedia page through 6 open-source MCP tools, default settings: 2,373 to 117,088 tokens. FATSEARCH: 1,384 in three reads.
- [Tavily alternatives](https://fatsearch.com/compare/tavily-alternatives/): Tavily returned 97,504 tokens for one Wikipedia page. FATSEARCH got the same answer in 1,384. 6 readers with real counts.

## Guides

- [Claude Code web fetch 403](https://fatsearch.com/guides/claude-code-web-fetch-403/): Claude Code's WebFetch got a 403 from npm, Medium and G2. FATSEARCH read all three: npm in 345 ms for $0. Real output, dated.
- [Web fetch vs web search](https://fatsearch.com/guides/claude-code-web-fetch-vs-web-search/): Claude Code's two web tools on one question: WebSearch returned links (626 tokens), WebFetch a 302-token summary of the page.
- [How to scrape Twitter](https://fatsearch.com/guides/how-to-scrape-twitter/): How to scrape Twitter, priced: X's own API at $0.005 a post, Apify actors from $0.00025 a tweet, TwitterAPI.io at $0.15 per 1K tweets.
- [RapidAPI scraper](https://fatsearch.com/guides/rapidapi-scrapers/): What a RapidAPI scraper listing really is: Nokia owns it, a 25% fee, no refunds, and dead APIs still sell. How to vet one before you pay.
- [Web scraping MCP Claude Code](https://fatsearch.com/guides/web-scraping-mcp-claude-code/): Firecrawl MCP used 38,129 tokens per task in Claude Code, FATSEARCH 5,026. The same 51 tasks, Sonnet, headless, measured.
- [Web search MCP for Claude Code](https://fatsearch.com/guides/web-search-mcp-for-claude-code/): Add a web search MCP server to Claude Code and check it works. Every step with its real output: FATSEARCH 0.1.3, Claude Code 2.1.280.

## Questions

### Which scraping service is the best?

Depends on the job. On 38 hard pages, the answer was in the text for FATSEARCH 35/38, Firecrawl 24/38, Tavily 19/38, Jina without a key 8/38. For site crawls, search plus text, or pages at volume, see each reader's section above.

### Is Firecrawl MCP free?

The MCP server is open source (MIT). Firecrawl also hosts an MCP endpoint you can use without a key for search, scrape and parse, capped per IP address per day. Past that you need a key. Free: 1,000 credits a month (one scraped page = one credit). Hobby: $16 a month billed yearly ($19 monthly) for 5,000 credits. Standard: $83 a month billed yearly for 100,000. You can also self-host Firecrawl's AGPL core, but some features are Cloud-only.

### Is there a free alternative to Tavily?

FATSEARCH is open source and reads plain pages for free. Search, and pages that need a provider, run on your own Oxylabs or Bright Data key: $0.001–0.0065 per hard page, $0 plain pages. Jina Reader: Free without a key at 20 requests a minute. With a key it is billed by output tokens; a new key comes with 10M free tokens. Tavily itself: Free: 1,000 API credits a month. Pay as you go: $0.008 a credit. A basic extract costs 1 credit per 5 successful URLs (advanced: 2).

## Related

- [Firecrawl alternatives](https://fatsearch.com/compare/firecrawl-alternatives/)
- [Jina Reader alternative](https://fatsearch.com/compare/jina-reader-alternatives/)
- [Tavily alternatives](https://fatsearch.com/compare/tavily-alternatives/)
- [Jina Reader vs Firecrawl](https://fatsearch.com/compare/firecrawl-vs-jina-reader/)
- [Benchmarks: every run, charted](https://fatsearch.com/benchmarks/)
- [Method: one page, six readers](https://fatsearch.com/docs/benchmarks/#one-page-six-readers)
- [Method: the hard-pages run](https://fatsearch.com/docs/benchmarks/#other-readers)

By FATSEARCH · data as of 2026-10-21 · reviewed 2026-10-19 · https://fatsearch.com/compare/