# 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.

| 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 | — | — | — |

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.

## 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](/docs/benchmarks/#one-page-six-readers).

## Choosing a replacement

Jina AI, which makes Jina Reader, is now part of Elastic ([Elastic completed the purchase](https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251009619654/en/Elastic-Completes-Acquisition-of-Jina-AI-a-Leader-in-Frontier-Models-for-Multimodal-and-Multilingual-Search)); 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](/compare/) has every reader side by side. Head-to-heads: [Firecrawl vs Jina Reader](/compare/firecrawl-vs-jina-reader/) and [Firecrawl vs Tavily](/compare/firecrawl-vs-tavily/).

## 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.

## 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.

## 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.

## 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.

## Related

- [Web scraping MCP: every reader we measured](https://fatsearch.com/compare/)
- [Firecrawl alternatives](https://fatsearch.com/compare/firecrawl-alternatives/)
- [Tavily alternatives](https://fatsearch.com/compare/tavily-alternatives/)
- [Jina Reader vs Firecrawl](https://fatsearch.com/compare/firecrawl-vs-jina-reader/)
- [Firecrawl vs Tavily](https://fatsearch.com/compare/firecrawl-vs-tavily/)
- [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/jina-reader-alternatives/