# Sila vs Jina Reader

Jina Reader turns a single URL into LLM-friendly text when you prefix it with r.jina.ai, billed by output tokens. Sila covers the same single-page case and adds whole-site crawls, page signals and credit-based plans. If you only ever read one URL at a time, Reader is the lighter tool.

Facts checked 2026-11-05

## Choose Sila when

-   You need to crawl a whole site, not read one URL per request, with status, pages, cancel and webhooks.
-   You want page signals (forms, integrations, JSON-LD, language, category) alongside the markdown.
-   You want predictable per-page credits (1 static, 5 headless) instead of billing by output tokens.
-   You want an API key per workspace with usage and credits you can check at /v1/usage.

## Choose Jina Reader when

-   You only need single-URL reads and want the lightest integration: prefix a URL with r.jina.ai.
-   You want to start without a signup: Reader works without a key at 20 requests per minute.
-   You want a higher rate limit on a free key: 500 requests per minute, with 10M free tokens per new key.

## Facts side by side

| Attribute | Sila | Jina Reader |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Access | REST API with a Bearer API key; no keyless tier | Prefix a URL with r.jina.ai, one URL per request |
| Rate limit | Per-API-key limit; excess requests return 429 rate\_limited | 20 RPM without a key, 500 RPM with a free key |
| Free allowance | 500 credits/month | 10M free tokens per new key |
| Billing rule | 1 credit per statically fetched page, 5 credits per page that needed the headless browser or a screenshot | Billed by output tokens |
| Page signals in the response | Yes: title, description, language, category, JSON-LD, forms and detected integrations | Not listed on the pages checked |
| Whole-site crawl | Yes, with sitemap, llms-full.txt and incremental re-crawls | One URL per request |
| MCP | Hosted at api.sila.sh/mcp (OAuth or API key) | Hosted at mcp.jina.ai |

Access

SilaREST API with a Bearer API key; no keyless tier

Jina ReaderPrefix a URL with r.jina.ai, one URL per request

Rate limit

SilaPer-API-key limit; excess requests return 429 rate\_limited

Jina Reader20 RPM without a key, 500 RPM with a free key

Free allowance

Sila500 credits/month

Jina Reader10M free tokens per new key

Billing rule

Sila1 credit per statically fetched page, 5 credits per page that needed the headless browser or a screenshot

Jina ReaderBilled by output tokens

Page signals in the response

SilaYes: title, description, language, category, JSON-LD, forms and detected integrations

Jina ReaderNot listed on the pages checked

Whole-site crawl

SilaYes, with sitemap, llms-full.txt and incremental re-crawls

Jina ReaderOne URL per request

MCP

SilaHosted at api.sila.sh/mcp (OAuth or API key)

Jina ReaderHosted at mcp.jina.ai

## Sources, checked 2026-11-05

-   [jina.ai/reader](https://jina.ai/reader)

## 500 free credits every month.

Create a key in under a minute and scrape your first page.

[Get API key](https://sila.sh/login)