TL;DR
- Reader: put
https://r.jina.ai/in front of any URL and get clean, LLM-ready text. Works without a key at 20 requests a minute. - Search:
https://s.jina.ai/plus a query returns the top 5 results with their content. It needs a key. - Billing is by tokens. New keys get 10 million free tokens; each search costs a fixed amount, starting at 10,000 tokens.
- Jina is now part of Elastic. For search + page text priced per call, Keirolabs starts at $1.33 per 1,000 with markdown, and extract at $1.78.
Jina Reader might be the simplest web tool ever made for LLMs. You take a URL, stick r.jina.ai/ in front of it, and you get the page as clean text. No SDK, no setup, often no key. That’s why it shows up in so many quick prototypes.
How Jina Reader works
Reader: URL to text
curl https://r.jina.ai/https://example.com/blog/some-postReader fetches the page, strips navigation, ads and scripts, and returns the main content as markdown-style text that’s ready to drop into a prompt. Add a key for higher limits:
curl https://r.jina.ai/https://example.com/blog/some-post \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $JINA_API_KEY"Search: query to results with content
curl "https://s.jina.ai/latest%20rust%20release" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $JINA_API_KEY"Search returns the top 5 results, each with its URL and content. It requires a key.
Pricing and limits
From jina.ai/reader, November 5, 2026:
- Billing is token-based. Reader charges by the tokens in the output. Search charges a fixed number of tokens per request, starting at 10,000.
- Every new API key comes with 10 million free tokens.
- Paid token packs are listed on Jina’s price table.
| No key | Free key | Paid key | Premium key | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reader (r.jina.ai) | 20 RPM | 500 RPM | 500 RPM | 5,000 RPM |
| Search (s.jina.ai) | Not available | 100 RPM | 100 RPM | 1,000 RPM |
Jina’s own page lists slightly different rate limits in different places (its FAQ uses other numbers than its table). Check the current limits page before you size a production job around them.
The Elastic connection
Jina’s site is now branded Elastic, and enterprise, commercial licensing and on-prem enquiries go to Elastic Sales. Jina’s models are offered in Elastic’s inference service. The Reader API still works the same way, but expect commercial terms to follow Elastic’s.
What Jina Reader is good for
- Prototypes: zero setup, works from a browser bar.
- Reading a known URL into a prompt.
- Light search where 5 results with content is enough.
Where it falls short
- Token billing is hard to predict. A long page costs more than a short one, and a search costs at least 10,000 tokens however small the answer.
- 5 results per search is limiting for research agents.
- No browser control for pages that need clicks, logins or heavy interaction.
Jina Reader alternatives
| Alternative | Read a URL | Search + content | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Keirolabs | extract: $1.78–5.33 per 1,000 | search/content: $1.33–4.00 per 1,000 | Flat per-call credits, own index, JS rendering, MCP |
| Firecrawl | 1 credit per page (~$0.75–3.80 per 1,000) | 2 credits per 10 results | Crawls whole sites |
| Exa | $1 per 1,000 pages (contents) | $4–7 + $1 per 1,000 pages | Neural index |
| Tavily | Extract: 1 credit per 5 URLs | $5–8 per 1,000 | Agent frameworks |
If you like Reader’s simplicity but want predictable bills, Keirolabs is the natural step up: every call costs a fixed number of credits whatever the page length. extract turns a URL into clean markdown for 2 credits, search/content gives you results with markdown for 1.5, and lite search is $0.03–0.10 per 1,000 when you only need links. When a page needs JavaScript, extract’s deep mode renders it on the same key. KEIRO20 takes 20% off through Black Friday: pricing.
More: web scraping API vs search API · free web search APIs.
FAQ
Is Jina Reader free?
Reader works without a key at 20 requests a minute, and every new key includes 10 million free tokens. Heavy use needs paid tokens.
What is r.jina.ai?
Jina’s Reader endpoint. Prefix any URL with it to get the page’s main content as LLM-ready text.
What is s.jina.ai?
Jina’s search endpoint. Add a query to get the top 5 web results with their content. It needs an API key.
Who owns Jina AI?
Jina’s site and commercial offerings now sit under Elastic.