Does it require any API key?

No. The Fetch MCP makes standard HTTP(S) requests with no authentication. That also means you get whatever the target site returns to an anonymous visitor — no logged-in content, no premium articles.

Can it handle JavaScript-rendered pages?

No. It is a plain HTTP client — it returns the raw HTML the server ships. For single-page apps that only populate content client-side, use the Puppeteer MCP, which renders in a real browser.

Does it convert HTML to Markdown?

Yes. The default response is Markdown, stripped of navigation and chrome. That cuts tokens by 5-10x versus raw HTML and is usually what you want to feed back into the model.

Can it follow redirects and handle cookies?

It follows HTTP redirects automatically up to a sane depth. It does not maintain a cookie jar across calls — each fetch is stateless. For session-based scraping you need Puppeteer.

Are there rate limits?

None imposed by the MCP itself. Be polite on the target side: throttle loops, respect robots.txt, and prefer cached results. Some sites block obvious agent user-agents, so you may see 403s where a browser would succeed.

Fetch

Name: Top MCPs — curated MCP directory
Creator: Top MCPs
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Retrieve web pages and convert them to clean markdown.

Score 93(?)Anthropic (modelcontextprotocol)MIT 84kVerified May 31, 2026Top MCPs for Web Scraping →

Install View on GitHub

Quick answer

What it does

Fetches a URL and returns the page content converted to markdown, stripping ads, navigation, and irrelevant markup.

Best for

Documentation reading
Article summarization
Public web page extraction
Link analysis

Not for

JavaScript-heavy SPAs
Login-required pages

Setup recipe

Pick your client, then follow the three steps.

Install

claude_desktop_config.jsonjson

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "fetch": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "mcp-server-fetch"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Paste under mcpServers. Fully quit and reopen Claude after editing.

CLI or .mcp.jsonshell

claude mcp add fetch -- uvx mcp-server-fetch

Run from your repo. Commit .mcp.json to share with your team.

.cursor/mcp.jsonjson

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "fetch": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "mcp-server-fetch"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Global path: ~/.cursor/mcp.json. Reload window after editing.

.vscode/mcp.jsonjsonc

{
  "servers": {
    "fetch": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "mcp-server-fetch"
      ]
    }
  }
}

VS Code uses the "servers" key (not "mcpServers").

~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.jsonjson

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "fetch": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "mcp-server-fetch"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Open via Cascade → hammer icon → Configure.

cline_mcp_settings.jsonjson

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "fetch": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "mcp-server-fetch"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Open via the Cline sidebar → MCP Servers → Edit.

~/.continue/config.jsonjson

{
  "experimental": {
    "modelContextProtocolServers": [
      {
        "transport": {
          "type": "stdio",
          "command": "uvx",
          "args": [
            "mcp-server-fetch"
          ]
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

Continue uses modelContextProtocolServers with a transport block.

~/.codex/config.tomlshell

# ~/.codex/config.toml
[mcp_servers.fetch]
command = "uvx"
args = [
  "mcp-server-fetch",
]

Codex uses TOML. Each server is a [mcp_servers.<name>] subtable.

~/.config/zed/settings.jsonjsonc

{
  "context_servers": {
    "fetch": {
      "command": {
        "path": "uvx",
        "args": [
          "mcp-server-fetch"
        ]
      }
    }
  }
}

Zed calls them "context_servers". Settings live-reload on save.

ChatGPT → Apps directorynone

Fetch doesn't ship a hosted HTTPS endpoint today. ChatGPT supports remote MCP servers only — to use this server in ChatGPT you'll need to deploy it to a public HTTPS URL first (e.g. via Cloudflare Workers or Vercel) or wait for an official remote build.

2
Set required secrets
No credentials required — this MCP runs over stdio without authentication.
3
Try a minimum working prompt
Summarise an article from the open web
Fetch https://modelcontextprotocol.io and summarise in three bullets: (1) what MCP is, (2) which clients support it today, (3) the minimum code to write a custom server.
Tested with: Claude Desktop, Cursor.

Tools & permissions

Tool	Description	Args	Side effects
`fetch`	Fetch a URL and return its content converted to markdown.	url: string, max_length?: number, start_index?: number, raw?: boolean	Network

Security & scope

Access scope: Network
Sandbox: Makes outbound HTTP(S) requests to the URL given in the tool call. No authentication or proxy support by default.
Gotchas: No URL allow-list by default — the agent can fetch any public URL. Combine with a client-side approval step for sensitive workflows.
Large pages are truncated; do not rely on it for >~1MB documents.

Agent prompt pack

— copy into Claude, Cursor, or ChatGPT.

Paste into Claude, Cursor, or ChatGPT. Edit the [brackets] before sending.

Recommend the best MCP servers for [task: e.g. web scraping work] in [client: Claude].

Constraints:
- Prefer tools that are [official | open-source | read-only] — pick what matters for my use case.
- Exclude MCPs that require [e.g. a paid plan, OAuth-only flows, remote-only transport].
- Return at most 3 picks, ranked.

For each pick include:
1. One-sentence rationale.
2. The ready-to-paste install snippet for my client.
3. Any required secrets I need to create before installing.

Cross-check the top-mcps.com listing: https://top-mcps.com/top-mcps-for-web-scraping

Compare Fetch against a real alternative. Swap the second MCP in [brackets] if you want a different match.

Compare Fetch MCP vs [Brave Search MCP] for the following job: [describe the job, e.g. "let an agent create GitHub issues on bug triage"].

Judge them on:
- Setup time and complexity (what a new user hits first).
- Auth model (none / API key / OAuth 2.1) and credential risk.
- Transport (stdio / Streamable HTTP / SSE) and where the server runs.
- Required secrets and the blast radius if they leak.
- Operational risk in an unattended agent loop.
- Which one is "good enough" for a weekend prototype vs. production.

End with one sentence: which should I pick for my scenario, which is: [my scenario].

References:
- https://top-mcps.com/mcp/fetch
- top-mcps.com listing for Brave Search

Asks the agent to install and verify. Works inside Claude Code, Cursor Agent, Codex CLI.

Install the Fetch MCP server for my [client: Claude] at the default config path for that client.

Use the exact install snippet published at https://top-mcps.com/mcp/fetch (fetch https://top-mcps.com/mcp/fetch.json for the canonical server.json if you can read URLs).

Before finishing:
1. Create the required secrets (no secrets) and put them in the appropriate env block — do not hard-code them.
2. Restart or reload the client so it picks up the new server.
3. Verify the server is connected (green / running state) and at least one tool is listed.
4. If anything fails, read the client's MCP logs and report the exact error — do not silently retry.

Confirm when done and list the tools the server now exposes.

Frequently asked questions

What changed

— 2 updates tracked.

May 31, 2026
Refreshed install snippets and fact sheet; verified for 2026.
Nov 25, 2024
Initial directory listing.

More Web Scraping MCPs

Other tools in the same category worth evaluating.

Puppeteer

Full browser automation: navigate, click, screenshot, and scrape.

browserautomationscrapingpuppeteer

5 minMedium

Playwright

Official

Official Microsoft browser automation across Chromium, Firefox, and WebKit.

browserautomationplaywrighttesting

5 minMedium

Browserbase

Official

Hosted, isolated Chromium runtime for AI agents that need a fresh browser per task.

browsercloudbrowserbaseautomation

5 minMedium

Compared with Fetch

Side-by-side breakdowns for the choices people most often weigh against this MCP.

FetchvsBrave Search FetchvsPuppeteer FetchvsTavily FetchvsContext7

Exploring Top MCPs for Web Scraping? See all Web Scraping MCPs →

Quick answer

What it does

Best for

Not for

Setup recipe

Install

Set required secrets

Try a minimum working prompt

Tools & permissions

Security & scope

Agent prompt pack

Full details

Frequently asked questions

Does it require any API key?

Can it handle JavaScript-rendered pages?

Does it convert HTML to Markdown?

Can it follow redirects and handle cookies?

Are there rate limits?

What changed

More Web Scraping MCPs

Puppeteer

Playwright

Browserbase

Compared with Fetch