# Jina Reader vs Microlink (slim)

> Microlink scores 65.9 (B) to Jina Reader's 51.9 (D) for scraping. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jina-reader-vs-microlink.md (~5,700 tokens) · this version ~3,080 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jina-reader-vs-microlink.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jina-reader-vs-microlink
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-07
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)

Microlink scores 65.9 (B) on agent readiness against Jina Reader's 51.9 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Jina Reader leads on reliability. Both do scraping.

- Jina Reader: D 51.9, rank #999 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/jina-reader.min.md
- Microlink: B 65.9, rank #395 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/microlink.min.md
- Jina Reader, good for Agents that read the web a page at a time and want to bound the tokens. Ahead on Reliability, 70 against 52. Also Open source.
- Microlink, good for Agents that need link previews, screenshots, PDFs, metadata or a page as Markdown from one GET. Ahead on Schema & documentation, 89 against 77; Security & auth, 44 against 32; Payments & pricing, 47 against 35; Maintenance & community, 86 against 45; Transparency & trust, 75 against 62. Also Runs on your own machine; Free to start without a card; No incidents deducted, where Jina Reader loses 7 points for them.

| Category | Jina Reader | Microlink |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 70 | 52 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 77 | 89 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 80 | 82 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 32 | 44 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 35 | 47 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 45 | 86 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 62 | 75 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Jina Reader | Microlink |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Jina AI (Elastic) | Microlink Labs, S.L. |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://r.jina.ai/` | `https://mcp.microlink.io/mcp` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | stdio, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Freemium |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | none |
| Tools exposed | none | 24 |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-23 | 2026-10-31 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-05-04 | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-09-07 | no date given |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 12k stars | 805 npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 2.5/5 (2) | none |

Why the edge:
- Maintenance & community, Microlink +41: Jina Reader 45 (The API reference Jina builds in the jina-ai/meta-prompt repository records dated changes to Reader's published interface since it first appeared on 14 October, with /echo paths added on 21 October and the `webBotAuth` parameter and Web Bot Auth paths on 23 October 2026, the newest dated API change. The MCP server's last version, 1.10.0, is dated 18 September (30). The MCP versions 1.5.0 to 1.10.0 between 11 August and 18 September are untagged bumps in package.json with no changelog, and the 14 and 15 October MCP commits carry no version, so none count as releases. The reference changes carry no version or changelog entry either (0). 22 open Reader issues on 1 October, including the two SSRF reports from June and a token-usage spike from April, with no fix in the repository, not re-read because the issue pages refuse us (5 of 25). No official SDK, the MCP server is the maintained client (5 of 15). Reader has CI workflows, the MCP repository has none (5 of 10).); Microlink 86 (@microlink/mcp 2.8.17 and microlink.io 1.1.4 on 31 October 2026, and October changelog entries for the API (30). 31 MCP releases tagged since 17 September and the October changelog's API changes (20). No open issues on microlinkhq/microlink, a monthly changelog, and email and feedback-form support (18 of 25). Not in the official MCP registry under its own namespace, though the server card names io.microlink/mcp; the JavaScript SDK is current (8 of 15). Lint, tests and coverage run on pull requests (10). 30 + 20 + 18 + 8 + 10 = 86.)
- Reliability, Jina Reader +18: Jina Reader 70 (Atlassian Statuspage at status.jina.ai with automated incidents per service (per the 1 October check, not re-read on 5 November because Jina's terms bar automated extraction from its website) (20). On 1 October the feed reached back only to 15 September 2026. In that window r.jina.ai had no incidents and s.jina.ai had eight five-minute ones. Minor only, less 5 for the short window. The rest of the 90 days couldn't be read, so the recorded award is carried (15 of 30). Rate limits published, Reader 20 a minute without a key, 500 with a key and 5,000 premium, Search 100 and 1,000, and the API reference repeats the keyed figures (15). Jina's merged OpenAPI file (docs.jina.ai/openapi.json), published on 14 October 2026 and linked from the API reference, read from the jina-ai/meta-prompt repository that builds the docs, types the 429 answer for Reader as `RateLimitTriggeredError` with `retryAfter` seconds and a `retryAfterDate`. No backoff guidance, and Reader takes no writes (10). No SLA found (0). GA (10).); Microlink 52 (Graded on the hosted lines. microlink.io/status exists but is drawn by script, showing only 'Please wait' to our reader, and status.microlink.io failed through our proxy, so components and history are unchecked and scored absent (0). No readable history (5). Free and keyed quotas are published, 5 and 25 requests a day and 2 at a time, with paid quotas from 46,000 a month and x-rate-limit headers on every response (15). 429 with ECONCURRENCY says to wait a second and retry, a quota 429 gives the reset time, and every call only reads, but there is no Retry-After header documented (12 of 15). The terms commit to 99.9% uptime on paid plans, with service credits only under an Enterprise agreement (10). Generally available (10). 0 + 5 + 15 + 12 + 10 + 10 = 52.)
- Transparency & trust, Microlink +13: Jina Reader 62 (The Reader repository is the Apache-2.0 open-source branch of the code behind r.jina.ai and s.jina.ai, minus the storage layer (25 of 30). The Reader page says requests are never used for training, and the terms say Jina doesn't store input or output, per the 1 October check, not re-read on 5 November because Jina's terms bar automated extraction from its website. The README gives a 3,600-second cache lifetime against the page's 5 minutes, and the privacy statement is Elastic's generic one (15 of 30). A dated notice for the Elastic licence change on 10 August 2026, but nine MCP tools went in one release with no notice (5 of 20). The API reference says eu.r.jina.ai and eu.s.jina.ai keep all processing inside the EU. No subprocessor list or default data location found (5 of 20).); Microlink 75 (The API is closed under terms naming Microlink Labs, S.L. with its registry details, and the SDK, MCP server and the libraries behind it are MIT (20 of 30). The DPA, updated 30 October 2026, gives cache retention of 24 hours by default up to 31 days, logs 15 days and deletion within 15 days, but the privacy policy is undated, names no controller and gives no periods (20 of 30). The terms promise advance notice before a paid feature is materially reduced, and the changelog records changes by month, with no notice period (10 of 20). Subprocessors list updated 16 October 2026, with services, data types and locations (18 of 20). 20 + 20 + 10 + 18 = 68.)
- Schema & documentation, Microlink +12: Jina Reader 77 (Jina's merged OpenAPI file (docs.jina.ai/openapi.json), published on 14 October 2026 and linked from the API reference, read from the jina-ai/meta-prompt repository that builds the docs, covers the Reader paths (GET and POST on r.jina.ai) with 98 typed parameters each and a typed response for every status. The Markdown reference at docs.jina.ai/api.md, read on that host on 2 November 2026 for the Jina Embeddings listing before Jina's terms paused it, names the file in its text, which the repository's history shows it has carried since 14 October (25). The reference is also published as Markdown at docs.jina.ai/api.md, and docs.jina.ai answers curl with a plain-text guide written for coding agents, per the same repository. The Reader README is a full Markdown reference of every header (10). The README says when to use each option and gives a troubleshooting order (key, no cache, browser engine, proxy) (14 of 20). Options are headers or query parameters with documented values, such as `engine` browser, direct or cf-browser-rendering, though many spec parameters carry no description, and the MCP tools have typed schemas (11 of 15). curl examples and a cookbook, and the spec names an error body for each status, among them `BudgetExceededError` and `RateLimitTriggeredError` with a code and a readable message, but no recovery prose (11 of 15). No API changelog. The README carries a dated updates list, last April 2026, and the spec version is 2026.10.13.1624 (6 of 15).); Microlink 89 (OpenAPI 3.1 at microlink.io/openapi.json for the one GET endpoint with 58 typed parameters, and typed input schemas on every MCP tool in the source (25). llms.txt of 527 lines, auth.md, an API catalogue and Markdown copies of every docs page (10). Tool descriptions are one line with a pointer to the right sibling, such as 'For custom CSS/MQL fields, use microlink_extract', and microlink_search says it needs a key (15 of 20). Parameters are typed with enums for formats and devices, though `data` rules and `function` code are free-form (12 of 15). Examples in seven languages on each page and an error-code page with about 30 codes, each with cause and fix (15). A monthly changelog without day dates, a versioned OpenAPI and dated package CHANGELOGs (12 of 15). 25 + 10 + 15 + 12 + 15 + 12 = 89.)
- Security & auth, Microlink +12: Jina Reader 32 (One Bearer key per account, revocable, no scopes, shared with Search, Embeddings and Reranker, and Reader also runs with no key at all (20). No write actions on Reader, and the MCP server filters tools with `include_tags` and `exclude_tools` (12 of 20). Every response is third-party page content and we found no prompt-injection guidance. `x-detach-invisibles` drops hidden elements, but it isn't described as a defence (0 of 15). No per-request log found (0 of 15). No security.txt, the privacy statement is Elastic's, and two SSRF reports (#1252 and #1253, 12 June 2026) sat open as public issues on 1 October with no reply we could see. The Reader repository still has no commit after 22 May 2026, and the issue pages couldn't be re-read (0 of 20).); Microlink 44 (One API key per account in the `x-api-key` header, with no scopes, rotation or expiry documented. auth.md says to keep it out of URLs and no query option is documented (20 of 30). Tools are reads apart from microlink_function, which runs caller-supplied code against the page in Microlink's browser, and the checkout tools never return a key (10 of 20). Pages come back as Markdown and text, and no prompt-injection guidance was found in the docs, auth.md or the MCP README (0). A request id on every response, with no per-call log for the customer documented (4 of 15). security.txt is valid to 28 July 2027 and links a responsible-disclosure policy and acknowledgements. No bug bounty or certification found (10 of 20). 20 + 10 + 0 + 4 + 10 = 44.)
- Payments & pricing, Microlink +12: Jina Reader 35 (No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Billed in tokens with no price in any currency on the Reader page, which points to a separate table, per the 1 October check, not re-read on 5 November because Jina's terms bar automated extraction from its website (0). Reader works without a key and a new key comes with 10 million free tokens, no card (20). An agent can read pages with no signup at 20 a minute, but Search needs a key (15 of 20).); Microlink 47 (No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Plans are public and the Pro price is stated per 1,000 requests ($1.07), but Business and Enterprise are on request (15 of 20). Free key with 25 requests a day, no card (20). The free endpoint and hosted MCP server answer 5 requests a day with no key or signup, and the MCP checkout tools let an agent start a purchase that a person completes (12 of 20). 0 + 15 + 20 + 12 = 47.)