Jina Reader alternative
Jina Reader alternatives, measured: Jina returned 94,415 tokens for one Wikipedia article. FATSEARCH got the same answer in 1,384, 68× less context. We ran the same page through 6 readers total.
We make FATSEARCH. The numbers below are our own runs, dated. Where another reader is the better pick, we say so.
| One page, | 38 hard pages, | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | — | — |
| Firecrawl | 112,517 | yes | $0.23 | 24/38 | 24/38 | 2.8k |
| Tavily | 97,504 | yes | $0.20 | 19/38 | — | — |
| Oxylabs | 102,609 | yes | $0.21 | — | — | — |
| Bright Data | 103,625 | yes | $0.21 | — | — | — |
One page: Wikipedia “Rust (programming language)”, default settings, one run each. Tokens = Anthropic’s own counter; fats = outline + one filter + one section. Model bill = tokens × $2 per million input tokens (Claude Sonnet 5.5, ); reader fees not included.
Hard pages: 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. “—” = not in that run.
Where Jina Reader falls short
Jina Reader is easy to start with: no install, no account, one HTTP call. The cost is coverage. On 38 hard pages (social, news, shops, travel), Jina without a key found the answer on just 8/38. FATSEARCH found it 35/38, Firecrawl 24/38. Most of Jina’s misses were refusals: its keyless tier turned away anonymous requests to many of these sites, so that number is about access, not how well it reads a page. A key may do better; we didn’t test one.
The token cost matters too. Jina returns the full page as Markdown, so even when it succeeds, your agent reads 94,415 tokens for a Wikipedia article. FATSEARCH reads an outline first (1,384 tokens total across three calls), and the agent picks the section it needs. Method and raw files: benchmarks.
Choosing a replacement
Jina AI, which makes Jina Reader, is now part of Elastic (Elastic completed the purchase); the reader still runs at r.jina.ai. Each reader below shows what it returned on the same page, pricing, and when it wins. The comparison hub has every reader side by side. Head-to-heads: Firecrawl vs Jina Reader and Firecrawl vs Tavily.
Reader by reader
FATSEARCH
Local CLI + MCP server, your own provider key. Measured: outline, then one filter, then one section (plain HTTP, $0).
1,384 tokens across three reads. First lines:
= 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 (github.com, checked )
Jina Reader
Hosted URL-to-Markdown reader, MCP server. Measured: r.jina.ai, no key.
94,415 tokens, 68× what FATSEARCH used. First lines:
Title: Rust (programming language) URL Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rust_(programming_language) Published Time: 2010-10-30T22:30:54Z Markdown Content: | Rust | | --- | | [ | * [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. (jina.ai, checked )
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.
Firecrawl
Hosted scrape, crawl + search API (AGPL core), MCP server. Measured: v2 /scrape, markdown, default settings.
112,517 tokens, 81× what FATSEARCH used. First lines:
[Jump to content](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rust_(programming_language)#bodyContent) [ | - [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. (firecrawl.dev, checked )
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.
Tavily
Hosted search + extract API, MCP server. Measured: /extract, basic depth.
97,504 tokens, 70× what FATSEARCH used. First lines:
[Jump to content](#bodyContent) [   ## 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). (tavily.com, docs.tavily.com, checked )
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.
102,609 tokens, 74× what FATSEARCH used. First lines:
[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. (oxylabs.io, checked )
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.
103,625 tokens, 75× what FATSEARCH used. First lines:
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. (brightdata.com, checked )
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.
Questions
What is Jina Reader and what does it do?
Jina Reader is a hosted service that converts a URL to Markdown. Send a request to r.jina.ai/{url} and it returns the page as Markdown text. Jina AI, which makes it, is now part of Elastic. 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.
How much does Jina AI cost?
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. On our Wikipedia test, Jina returned 94,415 tokens. At $2/M input tokens that is $0.19 in model cost per read.
How can I get a free Jina API key?
You do not need one to start. Jina Reader works without a key at a lower rate limit. For higher throughput, sign up at jina.ai and generate a key. A new key comes with free tokens.
Try FATSEARCH on your own pages
Free and open source. Bring any one key, or none.
curl -fsSL https://fatsearch.com/install.sh | shnpm i -g fatsearchbrew install fatsearch/tap/fatsearchcargo install --locked fatsearchor let your agent do it
Read and follow fatsearch.com/agent-setup/SKILL.md