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Web page to Markdown with curl and jq

Everything the API does fits in a shell one-liner. These recipes use curl to call the API and jq to pick fields out of the JSON, with a PowerShell version for Windows at the end.

Last updated: · 4 min read

Quick answer

How do I convert a web page to Markdown from the command line?

Run curl -sG https://webreaderapi.com/api/v1/read --data-urlencode "url=…" with your key in an Authorization: Bearer header, then pipe the answer to jq -r .markdown. WebReaderAPI returns the page's main content as Markdown with its metadata. One plain page uses 1 credit, from $0.07/1K pages as of October 2026. No KYC; pay in crypto.

How do I set up the terminal?

Install curl and jq, which most Linux and macOS systems already have, and export your key once per session. Every recipe below reads it from $WEBREADER_API_KEY, so the key never appears in your shell history as part of a command.

Use -G with --data-urlencode for GET requests: curl then encodes the page address for you, which matters because addresses contain ?, & and = of their own.

Set the key and save one page as a .md file
export WEBREADER_API_KEY="your-key"

curl -sG "https://webreaderapi.com/api/v1/read" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $WEBREADER_API_KEY" \
  --data-urlencode "url=https://example.com/guides/compost" \
  | jq -r '.markdown' > compost.md

How do I see what a call returned and cost?

Ask jq for the metadata instead of the content. final_url shows where redirects led, rendered tells you whether a browser was used, and credits_used is what the call cost. If the answer is an error, the same filter prints null fields; print .error to read the code and message.

Metadata only, or the error if there is one
curl -sG "https://webreaderapi.com/api/v1/read" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $WEBREADER_API_KEY" \
  --data-urlencode "url=https://example.com/guides/compost" \
  | jq '.error // {title, final_url, rendered, credits_used, word_count}'

How do I list a page's links?

Add include_links=true and turn the links list into tab-separated lines. That gives you a quick map of a page's outgoing links, which you can sort, filter with grep or feed to a batch job.

Links as text and URL, one per line
curl -sG "https://webreaderapi.com/api/v1/read" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $WEBREADER_API_KEY" \
  --data-urlencode "url=https://example.com/docs/" \
  -d include_links=true \
  | jq -r '.links[] | "\(.text)\t\(.url)"' | sort -u

How do I read a JavaScript page or a PDF?

Add -d render=true for a page that builds its content with JavaScript; it then costs 2 credits. A PDF needs nothing special: send its URL and the text comes back in markdown. PDF files up to 20 MB and 100 pages are converted to Markdown, at 1 credit per started block of 10 pages.

A rendered page, then a PDF
curl -sG "https://webreaderapi.com/api/v1/read" -H "Authorization: Bearer $WEBREADER_API_KEY" \
  --data-urlencode "url=https://example.com/app/changelog" -d render=true \
  | jq -r '.markdown' > changelog.md

curl -sG "https://webreaderapi.com/api/v1/read" -H "Authorization: Bearer $WEBREADER_API_KEY" \
  --data-urlencode "url=https://example.com/files/annual-report.pdf" \
  | jq -r '.markdown' > annual-report.md

How do I run a batch job from the shell?

Post a JSON body with your URLs to /batch, keep the job_id, then read the job. A small loop waits until the job is done and prints each page's title or error code. For long jobs, follow next_cursor as shown on the batch and crawl page.

Batch of three URLs, then wait for the result
JOB=$(curl -s "https://webreaderapi.com/api/v1/batch" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $WEBREADER_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"urls": ["https://example.com/a", "https://example.com/b", "https://example.com/c"]}' \
  | jq -r '.job_id')

until [ "$(curl -s "https://webreaderapi.com/api/v1/jobs/$JOB" -H "Authorization: Bearer $WEBREADER_API_KEY" | jq -r '.status')" = "done" ]; do
  sleep 5
done

curl -s "https://webreaderapi.com/api/v1/jobs/$JOB" -H "Authorization: Bearer $WEBREADER_API_KEY" \
  | jq -r '.results[] | "\(.url)\t\(.title // .error.code)"'

How do I check my credits?

Call /credits; it is free. It returns credits_remaining, credits_used_today and your concurrency_limit. Prepaid credits never expire: unused pages stay on your account until you use them.

Remaining credits
curl -s "https://webreaderapi.com/api/v1/credits" -H "Authorization: Bearer $WEBREADER_API_KEY" | jq '.credits_remaining'

What is the PowerShell version on Windows?

Invoke-RestMethod parses the JSON for you, so no jq is needed. Build the query with [uri]::EscapeDataString to encode the page address, and pass the key in a headers table.

PowerShell: save one page
$headers = @{ Authorization = "Bearer $env:WEBREADER_API_KEY" }
$target = [uri]::EscapeDataString('https://example.com/guides/compost')
$page = Invoke-RestMethod -Uri "https://webreaderapi.com/api/v1/read?url=$target" -Headers $headers
$page.markdown | Out-File -Encoding utf8 compost.md
"$($page.title): $($page.word_count) words, $($page.credits_used) credit(s)"

curl: common questions

Why does my URL with & in it fail?

Because the shell or curl split it. Quote the whole url=… argument and pass it with --data-urlencode, as in the recipes above; curl then encodes &, ? and = inside the page address.

How do I see the HTTP status of an error?

Add -w '\n%{http_code}\n' to print it after the body, or -i to see all headers. The body's error.code is the stable value to test in scripts.

Is a failed call billed?

No. 1 credit = 1 page read without a browser; 2 credits when the page needs a browser to render JavaScript. A request that fails, or that a site's robots.txt refuses, is not charged.

From $0.07/1K pages · no KYC

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