🚀🤖 Crawl4AI: Open-source LLM Friendly Web Crawler & Scraper.

My journey with computers started in childhood when my dad, a computer scientist, introduced me to an Amstrad computer. Those early days sparked a fascination with technology, leading me to pursue computer science and specialize in NLP during my postgraduate studies. It was during this time that I first delved into web crawling, building tools to help researchers organize papers and extract information from publications a challenging yet rewarding experience that honed my skills in data extraction.

Fast forward to 2023, I was working on a tool for a project and needed a crawler to convert a webpage into markdown. While exploring solutions, I found one that claimed to be open-source but required creating an account and generating an API token. Worse, it turned out to be a SaaS model charging $16, and its quality didn’t meet my standards. Frustrated, I realized this was a deeper problem. That frustration turned into turbo anger mode, and I decided to build my own solution. In just a few days, I created Crawl4AI. To my surprise, it went viral, earning thousands of GitHub stars and resonating with a global community.

I made Crawl4AI open-source for two reasons. First, it’s my way of giving back to the open-source community that has supported me throughout my career. Second, I believe data should be accessible to everyone, not locked behind paywalls or monopolized by a few. Open access to data lays the foundation for the democratization of AI, a vision where individuals can train their own models and take ownership of their information. This library is the first step in a larger journey to create the best open-source data extraction and generation tool the world has ever seen, built collaboratively by a passionate community.

Thank you to everyone who has supported this project, used it, and shared feedback. Your encouragement motivates me to dream even bigger. Join us, file issues, submit PRs, or spread the word. Together, we can build a tool that truly empowers people to access their own data and reshape the future of AI.

• 🧹 Clean Markdown: Generates clean, structured Markdown with accurate formatting.
• 🎯 Fit Markdown: Heuristic-based filtering to remove noise and irrelevant parts for AI-friendly processing.
• 🔗 Citations and References: Converts page links into a numbered reference list with clean citations.
• 🛠️ Custom Strategies: Users can create their own Markdown generation strategies tailored to specific needs.
• 📚 BM25 Algorithm: Employs BM25-based filtering for extracting core information and removing irrelevant content.

• 🤖 LLM-Driven Extraction: Supports all LLMs (open-source and proprietary) for structured data extraction.
• 🧱 Chunking Strategies: Implements chunking (topic-based, regex, sentence-level) for targeted content processing.
• 🌌 Cosine Similarity: Find relevant content chunks based on user queries for semantic extraction.
• 🔎 CSS-Based Extraction: Fast schema-based data extraction using XPath and CSS selectors.
• 🔧 Schema Definition: Define custom schemas for extracting structured JSON from repetitive patterns.

• 🖥️ Managed Browser: Use user-owned browsers with full control, avoiding bot detection.
• 🔄 Remote Browser Control: Connect to Chrome Developer Tools Protocol for remote, large-scale data extraction.
• 👤 Browser Profiler: Create and manage persistent profiles with saved authentication states, cookies, and settings.
• 🔒 Session Management: Preserve browser states and reuse them for multi-step crawling.
• 🧩 Proxy Support: Seamlessly connect to proxies with authentication for secure access.
• ⚙️ Full Browser Control: Modify headers, cookies, user agents, and more for tailored crawling setups.
• 🌍 Multi-Browser Support: Compatible with Chromium, Firefox, and WebKit.
• 📐 Dynamic Viewport Adjustment: Automatically adjusts the browser viewport to match page content, ensuring complete rendering and capturing of all elements.

• 🖼️ Media Support: Extract images, audio, videos, and responsive image formats like srcset and picture.
• 🚀 Dynamic Crawling: Execute JS and wait for async or sync for dynamic content extraction.
• 📸 Screenshots: Capture page screenshots during crawling for debugging or analysis.
• 📂 Raw Data Crawling: Directly process raw HTML (raw:) or local files (file://).
• 🔗 Comprehensive Link Extraction: Extracts internal, external links, and embedded iframe content.
• 🛠️ Customizable Hooks: Define hooks at every step to customize crawling behavior.
• 💾 Caching: Cache data for improved speed and to avoid redundant fetches.
• 📄 Metadata Extraction: Retrieve structured metadata from web pages.
• 📡 IFrame Content Extraction: Seamless extraction from embedded iframe content.
• 🕵️ Lazy Load Handling: Waits for images to fully load, ensuring no content is missed due to lazy loading.
• 🔄 Full-Page Scanning: Simulates scrolling to load and capture all dynamic content, perfect for infinite scroll pages.

• 🐳 Dockerized Setup: Optimized Docker image with FastAPI server for easy deployment.
• 🔑 Secure Authentication: Built-in JWT token authentication for API security.
• 🔄 API Gateway: One-click deployment with secure token authentication for API-based workflows.
• 🌐 Scalable Architecture: Designed for mass-scale production and optimized server performance.
• ☁️ Cloud Deployment: Ready-to-deploy configurations for major cloud platforms.

• 🕶️ Stealth Mode: Avoid bot detection by mimicking real users.
• 🏷️ Tag-Based Content Extraction: Refine crawling based on custom tags, headers, or metadata.
• 🔗 Link Analysis: Extract and analyze all links for detailed data exploration.
• 🛡️ Error Handling: Robust error management for seamless execution.
• 🔐 CORS & Static Serving: Supports filesystem-based caching and cross-origin requests.
• 📖 Clear Documentation: Simplified and updated guides for onboarding and advanced usage.
• 🙌 Community Recognition: Acknowledges contributors and pull requests for transparency.

Choose the installation option that best fits your needs:

Basic Installation

For basic web crawling and scraping tasks:

pip install crawl4ai
crawl4ai-setup # Setup the browser

By default, this will install the asynchronous version of Crawl4AI, using Playwright for web crawling.

👉 Note: When you install Crawl4AI, the crawl4ai-setup should automatically install and set up Playwright. However, if you encounter any Playwright-related errors, you can manually install it using one of these methods:

1. Through the command line:

   playwright install
   

2. If the above doesn't work, try this more specific command:

   python -m playwright install chromium
   

This second method has proven to be more reliable in some cases.

Installation with Synchronous Version

The sync version is deprecated and will be removed in future versions. If you need the synchronous version using Selenium:

pip install crawl4ai[sync]

Development Installation

For contributors who plan to modify the source code:

git clone https://github.com/unclecode/crawl4ai.git
cd crawl4ai
pip install -e .                    # Basic installation in editable mode

Install optional features:

pip install -e ".[torch]"           # With PyTorch features
pip install -e ".[transformer]"     # With Transformer features
pip install -e ".[cosine]"          # With cosine similarity features
pip install -e ".[sync]"            # With synchronous crawling (Selenium)
pip install -e ".[all]"             # Install all optional features

🚀 Now Available! Our completely redesigned Docker implementation is here! This new solution makes deployment more efficient and seamless than ever.

New Docker Features

The new Docker implementation includes:

• Browser pooling with page pre-warming for faster response times
• Interactive playground to test and generate request code
• MCP integration for direct connection to AI tools like Claude Code
• Comprehensive API endpoints including HTML extraction, screenshots, PDF generation, and JavaScript execution
• Multi-architecture support with automatic detection (AMD64/ARM64)
• Optimized resources with improved memory management

Getting Started

# Pull and run the latest release candidate
docker pull unclecode/crawl4ai:0.6.0-rN # Use your favorite revision number
docker run -d -p 11235:11235 --name crawl4ai --shm-size=1g unclecode/crawl4ai:0.6.0-rN # Use your favorite revision number

# Visit the playground at http://localhost:11235/playground

For complete documentation, see our Docker Deployment Guide.

import asyncio
from crawl4ai import AsyncWebCrawler, BrowserConfig, CrawlerRunConfig, CacheMode
from crawl4ai.content_filter_strategy import PruningContentFilter, BM25ContentFilter
from crawl4ai.markdown_generation_strategy import DefaultMarkdownGenerator

async def main():
    browser_config = BrowserConfig(
        headless=True,  
        verbose=True,
    )
    run_config = CrawlerRunConfig(
        cache_mode=CacheMode.ENABLED,
        markdown_generator=DefaultMarkdownGenerator(
            content_filter=PruningContentFilter(threshold=0.48, threshold_type="fixed", min_word_threshold=0)
        ),
        # markdown_generator=DefaultMarkdownGenerator(
        #     content_filter=BM25ContentFilter(user_query="WHEN_WE_FOCUS_BASED_ON_A_USER_QUERY", bm25_threshold=1.0)
        # ),
    )
    
    async with AsyncWebCrawler(config=browser_config) as crawler:
        result = await crawler.arun(
            url="https://docs.micronaut.io/4.7.6/guide/",
            config=run_config
        )
        print(len(result.markdown.raw_markdown))
        print(len(result.markdown.fit_markdown))

if __name__ == "__main__":
    asyncio.run(main())

import asyncio
from crawl4ai import AsyncWebCrawler, BrowserConfig, CrawlerRunConfig, CacheMode
from crawl4ai.extraction_strategy import JsonCssExtractionStrategy
import json

async def main():
    schema = {
    "name": "KidoCode Courses",
    "baseSelector": "section.charge-methodology .w-tab-content > div",
    "fields": [
        {
            "name": "section_title",
            "selector": "h3.heading-50",
            "type": "text",
        },
        {
            "name": "section_description",
            "selector": ".charge-content",
            "type": "text",
        },
        {
            "name": "course_name",
            "selector": ".text-block-93",
            "type": "text",
        },
        {
            "name": "course_description",
            "selector": ".course-content-text",
            "type": "text",
        },
        {
            "name": "course_icon",
            "selector": ".image-92",
            "type": "attribute",
            "attribute": "src"
        }
    }
}

    extraction_strategy = JsonCssExtractionStrategy(schema, verbose=True)

    browser_config = BrowserConfig(
        headless=False,
        verbose=True
    )
    run_config = CrawlerRunConfig(
        extraction_strategy=extraction_strategy,
        js_code=["""(async () => {const tabs = document.querySelectorAll("section.charge-methodology .tabs-menu-3 > div");for(let tab of tabs) {tab.scrollIntoView();tab.click();await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, 500));}})();"""],
        cache_mode=CacheMode.BYPASS
    )
        
    async with AsyncWebCrawler(config=browser_config) as crawler:
        
        result = await crawler.arun(
            url="https://www.kidocode.com/degrees/technology",
            config=run_config
        )

        companies = json.loads(result.extracted_content)
        print(f"Successfully extracted {len(companies)} companies")
        print(json.dumps(companies[0], indent=2))


if __name__ == "__main__":
    asyncio.run(main())

import os
import asyncio
from crawl4ai import AsyncWebCrawler, BrowserConfig, CrawlerRunConfig, CacheMode, LLMConfig
from crawl4ai.extraction_strategy import LLMExtractionStrategy
from pydantic import BaseModel, Field

class OpenAIModelFee(BaseModel):
    model_name: str = Field(..., description="Name of the OpenAI model.")
    input_fee: str = Field(..., description="Fee for input token for the OpenAI model.")
    output_fee: str = Field(..., description="Fee for output token for the OpenAI model.")

async def main():
    browser_config = BrowserConfig(verbose=True)
    run_config = CrawlerRunConfig(
        word_count_threshold=1,
        extraction_strategy=LLMExtractionStrategy(
            # Here you can use any provider that Litellm library supports, for instance: ollama/qwen2
            # provider="ollama/qwen2", api_token="no-token", 
            llm_config = LLMConfig(provider="openai/gpt-4o", api_token=os.getenv('OPENAI_API_KEY')), 
            schema=OpenAIModelFee.schema(),
            extraction_type="schema",
            instruction="""From the crawled content, extract all mentioned model names along with their fees for input and output tokens. 
            Do not miss any models in the entire content. One extracted model JSON format should look like this: 
            {"model_name": "GPT-4", "input_fee": "US$10.00 / 1M tokens", "output_fee": "US$30.00 / 1M tokens"}."""
        ),            
        cache_mode=CacheMode.BYPASS,
    )
    
    async with AsyncWebCrawler(config=browser_config) as crawler:
        result = await crawler.arun(
            url='https://openai.com/api/pricing/',
            config=run_config
        )
        print(result.extracted_content)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    asyncio.run(main())

import os, sys
from pathlib import Path
import asyncio, time
from crawl4ai import AsyncWebCrawler, BrowserConfig, CrawlerRunConfig, CacheMode

async def test_news_crawl():
    # Create a persistent user data directory
    user_data_dir = os.path.join(Path.home(), ".crawl4ai", "browser_profile")
    os.makedirs(user_data_dir, exist_ok=True)

    browser_config = BrowserConfig(
        verbose=True,
        headless=True,
        user_data_dir=user_data_dir,
        use_persistent_context=True,
    )
    run_config = CrawlerRunConfig(
        cache_mode=CacheMode.BYPASS
    )
    
    async with AsyncWebCrawler(config=browser_config) as crawler:
        url = "ADDRESS_OF_A_CHALLENGING_WEBSITE"
        
        result = await crawler.arun(
            url,
            config=run_config,
            magic=True,
        )
        
        print(f"Successfully crawled {url}")
        print(f"Content length: {len(result.markdown)}")

• [x] 0. Graph Crawler: Smart website traversal using graph search algorithms for comprehensive nested page extraction
• [ ] 1. Question-Based Crawler: Natural language driven web discovery and content extraction
• [ ] 2. Knowledge-Optimal Crawler: Smart crawling that maximizes knowledge while minimizing data extraction
• [ ] 3. Agentic Crawler: Autonomous system for complex multi-step crawling operations
• [ ] 4. Automated Schema Generator: Convert natural language to extraction schemas
• [ ] 5. Domain-Specific Scrapers: Pre-configured extractors for common platforms (academic, e-commerce)
• [ ] 6. Web Embedding Index: Semantic search infrastructure for crawled content
• [ ] 7. Interactive Playground: Web UI for testing, comparing strategies with AI assistance
• [ ] 8. Performance Monitor: Real-time insights into crawler operations
• [ ] 9. Cloud Integration: One-click deployment solutions across cloud providers
• [ ] 10. Sponsorship Program: Structured support system with tiered benefits
• [ ] 11. Educational Content: "How to Crawl" video series and interactive tutorials

• Data Capitalization: Transform digital footprints into measurable, valuable assets.
• Authentic AI Data: Provide AI systems with real human insights.
• Shared Economy: Create a fair data marketplace that benefits data creators.

1. Open-Source Tools: Community-driven platforms for transparent data extraction.
2. Digital Asset Structuring: Tools to organize and value digital knowledge.
3. Ethical Data Marketplace: A secure, fair platform for exchanging structured data.

For more details, see our full mission statement.