Many websites only show their content after they load in a browser, which trips up simple tools that just download a page. Crawl4AI opens pages the way a real browser does, so it gets what people actually see, and hands it back in a tidy form that AI tools understand. It's actively looked after, widely used and flexible: for most jobs it doesn't need an AI model at all, so you only pay for AI where it's worth it.
About Crawl4AI
When you want an AI to learn from a website, say to answer questions from your help centre, you first need to get the words off the pages. That's harder than it sounds: modern sites are full of menus, ads and code, and many only show their content after they load in a browser. Crawl4AI does this job for you. It visits pages like a real browser, strips away the clutter, and gives you clean text (in a simple format called Markdown) or neatly organised data.
What it can do
Clean, readable text. It keeps what matters, such as headings, tables, lists and code, and drops menus, ads and other clutter.
Organised data without AI costs. When a page follows a pattern, like a list of products, you tell it where each detail sits and it pulls everything out as tidy data. No AI model needed.
Pages that need a browser. It can scroll, click, wait for content to appear, stay logged in, and connect through other networks when a site needs it.
Whole websites, not just one page. It follows links to go through a site, and can focus on the pages most relevant to what you're looking for.
Use it how you like. As a Python library inside your own code, a command you run in a terminal, or a service on your own server. Or skip the setup and use Crawl4AI Cloud, the hosted version, with a single key.
Works inside AI assistants. Through MCP, the standard way for assistants to use outside tools, Claude Code, Cursor, Codex and others can read websites with Crawl4AI. Both the cloud and your own server offer this.
Where it fits
It's the "reading" step at the start of many AI projects: collect pages from documentation or research sources, turn each one into clean text, then hand it to your AI so it can search it and answer questions. It's also handy for gathering product catalogues or checking pages that change regularly.
Good to know
Because it runs a real browser, it needs more computer power and setup than simple tools that only download a page.
Running it yourself is free. The cloud charges per page, about $1 for 1,000 simple pages, and your first $10 is free until 31 December 2026.
For big jobs, crawl politely: fetch a few pages at a time, and follow each site's rules (its robots.txt file and terms of use).
Licence: Apache 2.0 with one extra condition. If you use it publicly or share it, you must give Crawl4AI the credit its licence asks for. The licence box on this page shows exactly what's required.
What you can build with it
A chatbot that answers questions from your website or help pages
Turning messy web pages into clean, readable text
Collecting product details or prices into a tidy table
Giving an AI research assistant the ability to read the web
Keeping an eye on pages that change, like a competitor's prices
Building blocks
Crawl4AI is made of parts you can use on their own in your project. Copy a prompt to have your AI assistant add one for you, and see the licence card for what you may do with them.
Web crawling and Markdown extraction
Free to use, with extra conditions
Crawls browser-rendered websites and returns clean Markdown, links, media, metadata or structured JSON. Use it directly from Python for RAG ingestion, research agents and repeatable extraction jobs.
Apache 2.0 with attribution clause (read from LICENSE)
Self-hosted crawling service
Free to use, with extra conditions
Runs Crawl4AI behind a containerized API with browser pooling, authentication, monitoring and an interactive playground. It also includes an MCP server, so AI agents and coding assistants can call the crawler as a tool.
