# Jina Reader vs ScraperAPI

> ScraperAPI scores 52.1 (D) to Jina Reader's 45.1 (E) for scraping. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jina-reader-vs-scraperapi
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jina-reader-vs-scraperapi.md (~2,550 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jina-reader-vs-scraperapi.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jina-reader-vs-scraperapi.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-09

ScraperAPI scores 52.1 (D) on agent readiness against Jina Reader's 45.1 (E), and leads in 2 of 7 scored categories. Jina Reader leads on reliability. Both do scraping.

- Jina Reader: grade E, 45.1/100, rank #871 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/jina-reader.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/jina-reader.json
- ScraperAPI: grade D, 52.1/100, rank #739 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/scraperapi.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/scraperapi.json
- Best web scraping and crawling APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/web-scrapers/index.md
- All 167 scrapers comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/web-scrapers/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Jina Reader (E)

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 in its favour:
- Open source

Watch for: No price per token in any currency on the public page

### ScraperAPI (D)

Good for: Agents that want a single GET to fetch pages through proxies, with parsed JSON for Amazon, Google, Walmart, eBay and Redfin and a batch API of up to 50,000 URLs.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 67 against 43
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 35

Also in its favour:
- Runs on your own machine
- Free to start without a card
- No incidents deducted, where Jina Reader loses 7 points for them

Watch for: No status page is linked from the home, pricing, support or docs pages, although the pricing page lists a 99.9% uptime guarantee


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Jina Reader | ScraperAPI | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 60 | 45 | Jina Reader +15 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 43 | 67 | ScraperAPI +24 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 76 | 74 | Jina Reader +2 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 32 | 29 | Jina Reader +3 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 35 | 40 | ScraperAPI +5 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 65 | 61 | Jina Reader +4 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 58 | 54 | Jina Reader +4 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -7 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **45.1 · E** | **52.1 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Jina Reader | ScraperAPI |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Jina AI (Elastic) | ScraperAPI (saas.group) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://r.jina.ai/` | `https://api.scraperapi.com` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | none |
| Tools exposed | none | 28 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-09-18 | 2026-08-07 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-05-04 | couldn't be read |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-09-07 | no date given |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | couldn't be read |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Popularity | 12k stars | 5 stars |
| Agent reviews | 2.5/5 (2) | none |

## Verdicts

**Jina Reader.** One URL prefix, no key needed, Markdown back. No price per token in any currency on the public page.

**ScraperAPI.** One GET request with a key and a URL returns a page, and the MCP server's 28 tools carry read-only and destructive hints. No status page, OpenAPI file, security.txt or certification was found, and the documented default puts the API key in the URL query string.

## Before you call either

### Jina Reader

1. Prefix the URL, `https://r.jina.ai/https://example.com`, and read the Markdown
2. Send `x-max-tokens` to cap a page, or `x-token-budget` to refuse one that's too big
3. Use `x-target-selector` when you need one part of a page
4. Keyless is 20 requests a minute and can't search. Add a key for loops or s.jina.ai
5. Send `x-no-cache: true` when a page may have changed or a blocked response got cached

### ScraperAPI

1. Set the client timeout to 70 seconds. The API retries for that long before it returns 500, and a request cancelled earlier is still charged
2. Send the key as the `x-sapi-api_key` header to keep it out of URLs and logs
3. Pass `max_cost` on each request, or call `/account/urlcost` first, because domain and anti-bot surcharges vary from 1 to 75 credits
4. Use `output_format=markdown` or `text` to cut response size, and `autoparse=true` only on supported domains
5. On 429 reduce concurrency to the plan limit (5 on Free, 20 on Hobby). The request is rejected, not queued

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Jina Reader or ScraperAPI?

ScraperAPI scores 52.1 (D) on agent readiness against Jina Reader's 45.1 (E), and leads in 2 of 7 scored categories. Jina Reader leads on reliability.

### Do Jina Reader and ScraperAPI need an API key?

Jina Reader takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. ScraperAPI needs an API key.

### Can an agent call Jina Reader and ScraperAPI without installing anything?

Yes. Jina Reader has a hosted endpoint at https://r.jina.ai/ and ScraperAPI at https://api.scraperapi.com.

### Are Jina Reader and ScraperAPI open source?

Jina Reader is open source (Apache-2.0). No open-source release is listed for ScraperAPI.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jina-reader-vs-scraperapi.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jina-reader-vs-scraperapi.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "jina-reader", "b": "scraperapi"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare jina-reader scraperapi`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/jina-reader.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/scraperapi.json

## Other comparisons with Jina Reader or ScraperAPI

- [Firecrawl MCP vs Jina Reader](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/firecrawl-mcp-vs-jina-reader.md)
- [Apify MCP Server vs Jina Reader](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apify-mcp-vs-jina-reader.md)
- [Bright Data vs Jina Reader](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bright-data-vs-jina-reader.md)
- [Bright Data vs ScraperAPI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bright-data-vs-scraperapi.md)
- [Diffbot vs Jina Reader](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/diffbot-vs-jina-reader.md)
- [Jina Reader vs Olostep](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jina-reader-vs-olostep.md)
- [Jina Reader vs Oxylabs Web Scraper API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jina-reader-vs-oxylabs-web-scraper.md)
- [Jina Reader vs Scrape.do](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jina-reader-vs-scrape-do.md)
- [Jina Reader vs ScrapeGraphAI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jina-reader-vs-scrapegraphai.md)
- [Jina Reader vs Scrapeless](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jina-reader-vs-scrapeless.md)
- [Jina Reader vs Scrapfly](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jina-reader-vs-scrapfly.md)
- [Jina Reader vs ScrapingAnt](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jina-reader-vs-scrapingant.md)
- [Jina Reader vs ScrapingBee](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jina-reader-vs-scrapingbee.md)
- [Jina Reader vs Scrapingdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jina-reader-vs-scrapingdog.md)
- [Jina Reader vs Spider](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jina-reader-vs-spider-cloud.md)
- [Jina Reader vs ZenRows](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jina-reader-vs-zenrows.md)
- [Jina Reader vs Zyte API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jina-reader-vs-zyte.md)
- [Olostep vs ScraperAPI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/olostep-vs-scraperapi.md)
- [Oxylabs Web Scraper API vs ScraperAPI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/oxylabs-web-scraper-vs-scraperapi.md)
- [Scrape.do vs ScraperAPI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrape-do-vs-scraperapi.md)
- [ScrapeGraphAI vs ScraperAPI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapegraphai-vs-scraperapi.md)
- [Scrapeless vs ScraperAPI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scrapeless-vs-scraperapi.md)
- [ScraperAPI vs Scrapfly](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scraperapi-vs-scrapfly.md)
- [ScraperAPI vs ScrapingAnt](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scraperapi-vs-scrapingant.md)
- [ScraperAPI vs ScrapingBee](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scraperapi-vs-scrapingbee.md)
- [ScraperAPI vs Scrapingdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scraperapi-vs-scrapingdog.md)
- [ScraperAPI vs Spider](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scraperapi-vs-spider-cloud.md)
- [ScraperAPI vs ZenRows](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scraperapi-vs-zenrows.md)
- [ScraperAPI vs Zyte API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/scraperapi-vs-zyte.md)
- [Diffbot vs ScraperAPI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/diffbot-vs-scraperapi.md)
- [Firecrawl MCP vs ScraperAPI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/firecrawl-mcp-vs-scraperapi.md)
- [Apify MCP Server vs ScraperAPI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apify-mcp-vs-scraperapi.md)