> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://outcrawl.ai/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Quickstart
> Make your first API call in under five minutes.
export const OutcrawlStyles = () => {
if (typeof document !== 'undefined' && !document.getElementById('outcrawl-overrides')) {
const s = document.createElement('style');
s.id = 'outcrawl-overrides';
s.textContent = `
/* Match the product's radius grid (4 / 6 / 8 / 9999), not Mintlify's default. */
.rounded-sm { border-radius: 0.375rem !important; } /* 6px, --r-ctl */
.rounded-md { border-radius: 0.375rem !important; } /* 6px, --r-ctl */
.rounded-lg { border-radius: 0.5rem !important; } /* 8px, --r-panel */
.rounded-l-sm { border-top-left-radius: 0.375rem !important; border-bottom-left-radius: 0.375rem !important; }
.rounded-r-sm { border-top-right-radius: 0.375rem !important; border-bottom-right-radius: 0.375rem !important; }
.rounded-l-md { border-top-left-radius: 0.375rem !important; border-bottom-left-radius: 0.375rem !important; }
.rounded-r-md { border-top-right-radius: 0.375rem !important; border-bottom-right-radius: 0.375rem !important; }
.rounded-l-lg { border-top-left-radius: 0.5rem !important; border-bottom-left-radius: 0.5rem !important; }
.rounded-r-lg { border-top-right-radius: 0.5rem !important; border-bottom-right-radius: 0.5rem !important; }
/* Cards: never pure white in light mode, matching the one-big-card surface tone. */
.card { background-color: #fcfcfc !important; border-radius: 0.5rem !important; }
html.dark .card { background-color: #141311 !important; }
/* Docs hero box */
.oc-hero { background-color: #fcfcfc; border: 1px solid #e5e2dc; }
html.dark .oc-hero { background-color: #141311; border-color: #26241f; }
html.dark .oc-hero h1 { color: #edeae4; }
/* Thin, transparent-track, hide-until-hover scrollbar. */
::-webkit-scrollbar { width: 6px; height: 6px; background-color: transparent; }
::-webkit-scrollbar-track { background-color: transparent; }
::-webkit-scrollbar-thumb { background-color: rgba(155, 155, 155, 0.5); border-radius: 10px; transition: opacity 0.3s ease; opacity: 0; }
::-webkit-scrollbar-thumb:hover { background-color: rgba(155, 155, 155, 0.7); }
*:hover::-webkit-scrollbar-thumb,
*:focus::-webkit-scrollbar-thumb,
*:active::-webkit-scrollbar-thumb { opacity: 1; }
* { scrollbar-width: thin; scrollbar-color: rgba(155, 155, 155, 0.5) transparent; }
`;
document.head.appendChild(s);
}
return null;
};
Get from zero to your first scrape in under five minutes.
## Step 1: sign in
Go to [https://outcrawl.ai/console](https://outcrawl.ai/console) and sign in with Google, GitHub, an email code, or a magic link.
Every plan, including Free, starts with a credit balance. Scrape, crawl, search, browsers and agents all draw from the same one.
## Step 2: connect
The fastest path is connecting an AI assistant, one command, sign in over OAuth, no key to copy:
```bash theme={"theme":{"light":"github-light","dark":"catppuccin-mocha"}}
claude mcp add --transport http outcrawl https://api.outcrawl.ai/mcp
```
See [MCP setup](/docs/mcp/setup) for Cursor, Codex, and any other client.
Writing your own code instead? Create an API key from **[https://outcrawl.ai/console/keys](https://outcrawl.ai/console/keys)**, shown once, copy it immediately. Your key looks like `ock_.`.
The base URL is `https://api.outcrawl.ai/v1`. Every request carries your key as a bearer token.
```typescript TypeScript theme={"theme":{"light":"github-light","dark":"catppuccin-mocha"}}
import { Outcrawl } from '@outcrawl/sdk';
const oc = new Outcrawl(); // reads OUTCRAWL_API_KEY
const doc = await oc.scrape('https://example.com', { formats: ['markdown'] });
console.log(doc.markdown);
console.log(doc.usage); // what this call cost
```
```python Python theme={"theme":{"light":"github-light","dark":"catppuccin-mocha"}}
import asyncio
from outcrawl import Outcrawl
async def main() -> None:
async with Outcrawl() as oc: # reads OUTCRAWL_API_KEY
doc = await oc.scrape("https://example.com", formats=["markdown"])
print(doc.markdown)
print(doc.usage)
asyncio.run(main())
```
```bash curl theme={"theme":{"light":"github-light","dark":"catppuccin-mocha"}}
curl https://api.outcrawl.ai/v1/scrape \
-H "Authorization: Bearer ock_YOUR_KEY_ID.YOUR_SECRET" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"url": "https://example.com",
"formats": ["markdown"]
}'
```
Install a client first: `npm install @outcrawl/sdk` (TypeScript) or `pip install outcrawl` (Python). Both read `OUTCRAWL_API_KEY` from the environment, so you never have to paste the key into code.
The response comes back with the page content in the format you asked for, plus a `usage` object stating exactly what the call cost. One credit for that page, the same rate whether you called it directly, through crawl, or through search.
## Step 3: try the console playground
Prefer not to write code yet? The console has a playground for scrape, crawl and search at **[https://outcrawl.ai/console/playground](https://outcrawl.ai/console/playground)**. Run a request from the browser and it shows the equivalent curl, TypeScript and Python for what you just did.
## What else can you do?
Crawl streams every page from a seed URL, not just one.
Get results you can act on, optionally rendered.
Submit a natural-language task and it finishes in a real browser.
Live CDP control from the TypeScript SDK.
This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.