# Jina Reader vs Outcrawl (slim)

> Outcrawl scores 62.4 (B) to Jina Reader's 45.3 (E) for scraping. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jina-reader-vs-outcrawl.md (~6,100 tokens) · this version ~3,680 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jina-reader-vs-outcrawl.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jina-reader-vs-outcrawl
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-02
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)

Outcrawl scores 62.4 (B) on agent readiness against Jina Reader's 45.3 (E), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Jina Reader leads on reliability. Both do scraping.

- Jina Reader: E 45.3, rank #1077 of 1268 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/jina-reader.min.md
- Outcrawl: B 62.4, rank #456 of 1268 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/outcrawl.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, 60 against 45. Also Open source.
- Outcrawl, good for Agents that want one key and one balance for reading pages, walking a site, searching with rendered results and handing a signed-in or multi-step task to a hosted browser agent with a hard budget, and teams on TypeScript that want a residential-exit browser over CDP with a replay of every session. Ahead on Schema & documentation, 71 against 43; Agent ergonomics, 83 against 76; Security & auth, 66 against 32; Payments & pricing, 40 against 35; Maintenance & community, 79 against 65. Also Free to start without a card; No incidents deducted, where Jina Reader loses 7 points for them.

| Category | Jina Reader | Outcrawl |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 60 | 45 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 43 | 71 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 76 | 83 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 32 | 66 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 35 | 40 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 65 | 79 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 60 | 56 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Jina Reader | Outcrawl |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Jina AI (Elastic) | Aeonmind LLC (Outcrawl) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://r.jina.ai/` | `https://api.outcrawl.ai/v1` |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Freemium |
| Price for scraping | not published | $4.90 per 1,000 pages |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | Proprietary hosted service under Aeonmind LLC's terms of service (last updated 1 November 2026). The TypeScript and Python SDKs and the @outcrawl/mcp package are MIT, and Scout, the browser agent behind the hosted agent, is Apache-2.0 in a read-only GitHub mirror |
| Tools exposed | none | 29 |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-09-18 | 2026-10-20 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-05-04 | 2026-11-01 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-09-07 | 2026-11-01 |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 12k stars | 948 stars, 53 npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 2.5/5 (2) | none |

Why the edge:
- Security & auth, Outcrawl +34: 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) sit open as public issues with no reply we could see and no commit since 22 May (0 of 20).); Outcrawl 66 (OAuth 2.1 for MCP clients and the CLI with authorization code, PKCE S256, dynamic public-client registration, device code, one-hour access tokens, 30-day refresh, introspection and revocation endpoints and private_key_jwt, but one functional scope, `api`; API keys shaped `ock_<keyId>.<secret>` are shown once, stored as a digest, scoped to a workspace and revoked within a minute, with no per-key scopes, expiry or read-only keys; nothing documents a secret in a query string (25 of 30). No read-only key or scope. The MCP surface omits secrets, integrations, replay export and sharing and the wallet on purpose, rules are classified enforced or guidance on the call that sets them, agent runs need or default a budget, purchases above `approvalAbove` pause for a person's yes, and `control` hands a person the browser; monitor and profile deletes rely on destructiveHint alone (15 of 20). Every tool returns untrusted page content. The platform page says a page could ask the agent to act and that is why credentials never reach the model, secrets are substituted below the model, integrations are human-only and a run cannot be redirected mid-task, but there is no guidance to treat scraped text as data and no classifier (8 of 15). Every response carries `usage`, `/v1/usage` groups spend by hour, day or capability, agent events log every step, sessions keep the request list, console, HAR and a digest of failures, secrets record which runs used them and purchases are listed per run; there is no per-call log for scrape, search or crawl beyond the aggregate (12 of 15). No security.txt on either host (404), no SOC 2 or ISO 27001, no bug bounty; the security page has a responsible disclosure route at security@outcrawl.ai with a 90-day window and a no-legal-action statement (6 of 20). 25+15+8+12+6 = 66.)
- Schema & documentation, Outcrawl +28: Jina Reader 43 (No OpenAPI file found (0 of 25). jina.ai/llms.txt returned 404 in last week's check and issue #1224 asking for one is open, but the GitHub README is a full Markdown reference of every header (5 of 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 with documented values, such as `x-engine` browser, curl or auto, and the MCP tools have typed schemas (11 of 15). curl examples and a cookbook, but no documented error responses (7 of 15). No API changelog. The README carries a dated updates list, last April 2026 (6 of 15).); Outcrawl 71 (API reading, with the MCP server described. An OpenAPI 3.1 document at https://outcrawl.ai/docs/api-reference/openapi.json lists 62 operations over 51 paths with a summary each and the same 11 status codes, generated from the vendor's capability registry, but every request body is an untyped object marked `additionalProperties: true` with a pointer to the docs, every 200 response is an untyped object, and `Error` is the only schema; the typed shapes live in the SDK declarations and in the MCP server's zod schemas, which were read in the 0.4.3 npm package rather than from the hosted server (15 of 25). llms.txt and a 525 KB llms-full.txt on the docs, a Markdown twin of every page and an llms.txt on the site (10). The MCP descriptions each end with a `Not for:` clause naming the better tool and most with a `Cost:` clause, the OpenAPI summaries say when not to use a route, and the capability pages say which neighbour to use instead (18 of 20). Scrape formats are an enum of eight, event levels and record kinds are enums, `caps.budget` is required, and the SDK types bound every option, while the OpenAPI bodies carry none of it (10 of 15). curl, TypeScript and Python examples on every page, 20 worked programs, a 31-row error table with meanings and a retryable list, and MCP errors with a `recovery` string, though the closed union is sized 24, 31, 45 and 22 on different pages (13 of 15). `/v1` in the path and 1.0.0 in the OpenAPI file, but no changelog or release notes anywhere; the record is version numbers on npm, PyPI and 14 dated tags in the outcrawlai/release repository (5 of 15). 15+10+18+10+13+5 = 71.)
- Reliability, Jina Reader +15: Jina Reader 60 (Atlassian Statuspage at status.jina.ai with automated incidents per service (20). The feed only reaches back to 15 September 2026. In that window r.jina.ai had no incidents and s.jina.ai had eight five-minute ones, seven with error rates of 8 to 13 per cent and one at 45 per cent on 15 September. Minor only, less 5 for the two-week window (15 of 30). Rate limits published, Reader 20 a minute without a key, 500 with a free or paid key and 5,000 premium, Search 100 and 1,000 (15). No 429 or Retry-After guidance found on the Reader page or in the README (0). No SLA found (0). GA (10).); Outcrawl 45 (Hosted reading, for the REST API with the MCP server that shares its limits. No public status page was found. None is linked from the site or the docs, https://outcrawl.ai/status answers 404 and status.outcrawl.ai does not answer (0). No readable incident history, so the floor (5). Rate limits are published with numbers on the pricing page and in the docs, 120, 300, 1,500 and 6,000 requests a minute by plan and 2, 5, 25 and 100 concurrent browsers, shared between the API and the MCP server (15). Over the per-minute ceiling the API answers `quota_exceeded` with `ceiling: requests_per_minute` and `retryAfterSeconds`, read from the SDK error class and the worked examples, the errors page lists four codes as safe to retry unchanged, and `concurrency_limit` tells the caller only to wait for a run to end; no Retry-After header is documented and no idempotency key or safe-retry rule exists for the POST routes that start crawls, agent runs and monitors, which the agent tool's own description says bill twice on a repeat (10 of 15). An SLA exists only on Enterprise, a 99.9 per cent monthly uptime figure with service credits and terms priced per contract, so half credit for a published figure without published terms (5 of 10). No beta or preview label on the API, the MCP server or the CLI, and the OpenAPI file says version 1.0.0, though both SDKs are at 0.4.15 and the domain is nine weeks old (10). 0+5+15+10+5+10 = 45.)
- Maintenance & community, Outcrawl +14: Jina Reader 65 (The MCP server that fronts Reader reached 1.10.0 on 2026-09-18, after adding OCR and page options to read_url on 15 September. The Reader repository's last commit is 22 May 2026 (30). MCP versions 1.5.0 to 1.10.0 between 11 August and 18 September (20). 22 open Reader issues, including the two SSRF reports from June and a token-usage spike from April, with no fix in the repository (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).); Outcrawl 79 (@outcrawl/sdk and the PyPI package outcrawl both reached 0.4.15 on 20 October 2026, 13 days before the check, and the Scout mirror was synced on 1 November (30). 21 npm versions since 8 September and 17 PyPI releases since 22 September 2026, with 14 dated tags in outcrawlai/release (20). Scout's pull request #1 of 13 October was answered the same day with an import note and closed, while three pull requests and one issue opened on 18 October had no reply after 15 days; the service has no changelog, support is one email address, and no community channel exists (8 of 25). Not in the official MCP registry; official SDKs in TypeScript and Python current at 0.4.15, with a CLI (15). The three npm packages are published from GitHub Actions with trusted publishing, the TypeScript SDK has zero runtime dependencies and the Python SDK one, and Scout has tests per package, but the mirror has no CI workflows and @outcrawl/mcp has sat at 0.4.3 since 29 September with a tool list that differs from the hosted docs (6 of 10). 30+20+8+15+6 = 79.)
- Agent ergonomics, Outcrawl +7: Jina Reader 76 (`x-max-tokens` truncates and `x-token-budget` rejects oversized pages, `x-target-selector` returns one element, and images, links and media can be dropped or reduced to text (25). Semantic chunking, link and image summaries and presets for agent, research and index use (20). No documented error codes (8 of 20). Reads are GETs and safe to retry, with a cache and `x-no-cache` to bypass it. The MCP tools carry no readOnly or destructive hints (13 of 20). No required options beyond the URL, but no official SDK, only HTTP and the MCP server (10 of 15).); Outcrawl 83 (API reading. Scrape returns main content only by default with `formats` picking markdown, html, rawHtml, links, screenshots or schema JSON, search renders page bodies only on request, agent events take a `level` and an `after` cursor, the MCP server shows request bodies up to a character limit and says when it truncated, and the MCP surface is 29 tools with no toolsets (20 of 25). Cursor pagination on crawl results, agent results and downloads, `limit`, depth and path filters on crawl, status, outcome, task and age filters on sessions, and usage grouped by hour, day, month or capability (20). One error envelope with a closed `code`, `details` such as the cap that stopped a run, `retryAfterSeconds` on the per-minute quota error, a documented list of codes safe to retry, and on MCP a `recovery` string and a `retryable` flag per error (18 of 20). No idempotency key on any route, a repeated agent, crawl or monitor submit runs twice, and `concurrency_limit` carries no retry hint; cancel is idempotent, `integration_changed` (409) guards updates, and the npm MCP package sets readOnlyHint on GET tools, destructiveHint on DELETE tools and idempotentHint on either, which the hosted server was not read to confirm (10 of 20). Scrape needs a URL alone, agent runs need `caps.budget` on the API and SDKs with the MCP server defaulting it, and official SDKs exist in TypeScript and Python beside a CLI (15). 20+20+18+10+15 = 83.)
- Payments & pricing, Outcrawl +5: 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 (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).); Outcrawl 40 (No x402, MPP or L402 in the OpenAPI file, the docs, the pricing pages or the terms (0). Per-unit rates published without a login, 1 credit a page, 5 credits per 10 search results, 1 credit a browser minute, 2,000 credits a GB and 1 credit a monitor check, with the dollar rate per plan ($4.90 per 1,000 credits on Builder down to about $3.20 on Scale), top-up prices per 10,000 and an estimate of about 15 credits a minute for agent runs (20). Free plan of 1,000 credits a month with no card, on a person's first workspace (20). A person signs in with Google, GitHub, an email code or a magic link behind reCAPTCHA, and MCP's OAuth consent needs that browser sign-in; no keyless route, no programmatic key creation (0). 0+20+20+0 = 40.)