# Website Main Content Extractor (`sync-network/website-main-content-extractor`) Actor

Extract the main content from any webpage — clean text without navigation, ads, footers, or boilerplate. Perfect for AI/LLM pipelines, RAG systems, content analysis, and data extraction. Returns title, description, author, publish date, and clean body text.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/sync-network/website-main-content-extractor.md
- **Developed by:** [Alam](https://apify.com/sync-network) (community)
- **Categories:** Developer tools, SEO tools, AI
- **Stats:** 4 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $0.50 / 1,000 url processeds

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## Website Main Content Extractor

Extract the main content from any webpage — clean text without navigation, ads, footers, or boilerplate. Perfect for AI/LLM pipelines, content analysis, and data extraction.

### Features

- 🧹 **Boilerplate removal** — Strips navigation, ads, sidebars, footers
- 📝 **Main content extraction** — Gets the actual article/page content
- 🏷️ **Metadata extraction** — Title, description, author, date, images
- ⚡ **Fast HTTP-based** — No browser overhead
- 🌐 **Batch processing** — Process multiple URLs per run
- 🤖 **AI-ready output** — Clean text perfect for LLM input, RAG pipelines, or training data

### Input Parameters

| Field | Type | Default | Description |
|-------|------|---------|-------------|
| `urls` | array | **required** | List of URLs to extract content from |
| `maxUrls` | integer | `50` | Maximum URLs per run |

### Output Example

```json
{
    "url": "https://example.com/article",
    "title": "The Future of AI",
    "description": "An in-depth look at...",
    "mainContent": "The actual article text without any boilerplate...",
    "author": "Jane Smith",
    "publishDate": "2026-03-10",
    "wordCount": 1500,
    "images": ["https://example.com/img1.jpg"]
}
```

### Use Cases

- **RAG pipelines** — Feed clean content into LLM retrieval systems
- **Content analysis** — Extract and analyze article text at scale
- **AI training data** — Collect clean text for model fine-tuning
- **SEO auditing** — Check what content search engines actually see
- **Data pipelines** — Clean content extraction for ETL workflows
- **Summarization** — Feed extracted content into summarization models

### Pricing

**$0.50 per 1,000 URLs processed**

# Actor input Schema

## `urls` (type: `array`):

List of URLs to extract clean content from

## `proxy` (type: `object`):

Proxy settings for accessing websites

## `outputFormat` (type: `string`):

Format for the cleaned content

## `preserveLinks` (type: `boolean`):

Keep links in the output (marked as [text](url))

## `includeMetadata` (type: `boolean`):

Include page title, description, and other metadata

## `maxContentLength` (type: `integer`):

Maximum characters per page (0 = no limit)

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "urls": [
    {
      "url": "https://example.com/"
    }
  ],
  "proxy": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  },
  "outputFormat": "markdown",
  "preserveLinks": false,
  "includeMetadata": true,
  "maxContentLength": 100000
}
```

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "urls": [
        {
            "url": "https://example.com/"
        }
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("sync-network/website-main-content-extractor").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "urls": [{ "url": "https://example.com/" }] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("sync-network/website-main-content-extractor").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "urls": [
    {
      "url": "https://example.com/"
    }
  ]
}' |
apify call sync-network/website-main-content-extractor --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,sync-network/website-main-content-extractor"
        }
    }
}

```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/wMyxqN6iJoOXbhv4f/builds/IGUheGNhRTbpByiIS/openapi.json