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To convert a known, publicly accessible webpage URL into Markdown for a RAG pipeline, prepend https://r.jina.ai/ to the target URL and request the resulting address. Jina Reader fetches the page and returns content formatted for language-model workflows. It is an extraction service, not a search engine, and it will not bypass a site’s access controls.
Convert a webpage URL to Markdown
For a basic request, place the full target URL after the Reader prefix. Jina’s documented pattern is https://r.jina.ai/https://your.url. Replace https://your.url with the publicly accessible page you want to extract:
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https://r.jina.ai/https://example.com/articleSend a GET request to that address with a browser, HTTP client, or your application. Reader fetches the supplied page and returns LLM-oriented content, commonly Markdown, that you can pass to later stages of a RAG or agent workflow. The basic prefix pattern is documented in the Jina Reader repository.
This workflow starts with a URL you already know. If you need to discover pages for a query, Jina documents a separate s.jina.ai search endpoint; search and single-URL extraction are different jobs. Consult the repository documentation for the search URL pattern.
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Adjust fetching and extraction with request headers
Reader’s request headers can affect how a page is fetched, what part of it is retained, and how the response is returned. The options documented by Jina include:
X-Engine:directuses a plain HTTP fetch. The default browser route renders pages, allowing client-side JavaScript to run.cf-browser-renderingis described as experimental.X-Respond-With: selects alternate response forms.- Selector headers: use CSS selectors to retain or remove matching page content.
- ReaderLM-v2 structured output: the
x-json-schemaandx-instructionheaders can be used to request structured JSON.
Header spelling, defaults, supported values, and validation rules can change. Check the current Reader API documentation before relying on a header or copying a production request. A browser-rendered fetch may help with client-side pages, but it does not guarantee that every page can be extracted.
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Know what Reader can and cannot fetch
The hosted Reader API works with publicly accessible URLs and supports PDFs as well as web pages, including pages that need client-side rendering. It does not support local HTML files. Even a public URL can fail if its origin blocks the request.
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Jina says Reader does not actively circumvent or bypass website defenses, anti-bot systems, or access controls. A paid API key does not unlock a blocked site. You are responsible for complying with the target site’s terms and respecting third-party intellectual-property rights. See the Reader API documentation and vendor FAQ for the service’s access limitations.
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Check rate limits and usage costs before scaling
Jina’s published Reader table, checked October 3, 2026, lists these request-per-minute limits. They are a dated snapshot, not guaranteed capacity; Jina says rate limits can change.
| Access type | Published Reader limit |
|---|---|
| No API key | 20 requests per minute |
| Free or paid API key | 500 requests per minute |
| Premium API key | Up to 5,000 requests per minute |
The same Jina table reports an average latency of 7.9 seconds. That is a published average, not a response-time guarantee; actual time depends on the selected engine and the page being fetched. Reader usage counts output tokens, and authenticated usage is priced by content length. API limits are enforced by requests per minute and tokens per minute, whichever threshold is reached first. The page also says each new API key includes 10 million free tokens; this allowance and the token pricing are subject to change. Check Jina’s current Reader pricing and limits before estimating a live workload. Jina notes that it introduced a new pricing model on May 6, 2025, another reason not to treat older pricing details as current.
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Basic Reader use is described as free, while an API key provides higher limits and token-based billing. For an application, estimate both the number of pages and the extracted output length: request volume alone may not tell you which limit or cost will apply.
Choose hosted Reader or self-hosted models
Using the hosted Reader API and deploying Reader models yourself are separate decisions. The hosted API is a service for fetching and extracting URLs; self-hosting means operating a model and handling its deployment and licensing.
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Jina’s documentation says ReaderLM-v2 and jina-vlm are licensed under CC-BY-NC 4.0, and commercial production use requires a commercial license. Jina identifies Jina On-Prem, sold by Elastic since August 10, 2026, as the commercial on-prem licensing route. Verify the current license and sales terms with the relevant official documentation before planning a commercial deployment. These model terms should not be confused with the hosted API’s token-based billing. See Jina’s Reader documentation.
The ReaderLM-v2 paper authors describe a 1.5-billion-parameter model that supports documents up to 512K tokens and report better results than named larger models on their curated evaluation. Those are claims from the paper, not independent workload benchmarks. They do not establish that self-hosting will be faster, cheaper, or more accurate for your particular pages and pipeline. The paper record should be consulted for its evaluation details.
A practical decision checklist
- Use the hosted API when you want to submit known public URLs without operating the extraction model yourself, and its current rate and token terms fit your workload.
- Test the fetch path against representative pages. Compare direct fetching with browser rendering where relevant, and confirm the extracted text includes the content your downstream system needs.
- Plan for failures caused by origin blocks, unsupported local files, or pages that do not yield the expected content; Reader does not remove access restrictions.
- Evaluate self-hosting separately if operational control is important, including deployment requirements and the model’s commercial license.
Jina’s official material describes product options and limits, but does not establish a workload-specific independent benchmark for hosted versus self-hosted operation. Choose based on your own pages, throughput, cost, and licensing requirements rather than treating model-paper benchmark results as a service comparison.
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