> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.reader.dev/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Markdown and HTML together

> Request both formats in one call and pick what you need downstream.

Reader can return the same scrape as multiple formats in one request. You pay for one scrape (1 or 3 credits depending on mode), and the response carries whichever formats you asked for.

## Request both

```ts theme={null}
const result = await reader.read({
  url: "https://example.com/blog/post",
  formats: ["markdown", "html"],
});

if (result.kind === "scrape") {
  console.log(result.data.markdown); // for the LLM
  console.log(result.data.html);     // for custom DOM parsing
}
```

## When to use markdown only

The default. Clean, tokenizer-friendly, good for LLMs and RAG. Use markdown by itself unless you know you need HTML.

## When to include HTML

* **You need structure Reader's markdown conversion strips.** For example, `<table>`s with complex layouts sometimes lose nuance in markdown. The HTML preserves it.
* **You want to run your own parser.** If you already have a cheerio / BeautifulSoup pipeline and just need Reader's clean HTML as input, skip the markdown.
* **You're extracting specific elements.** You want just the first `<img>`, or every `<blockquote>`, without parsing markdown back.

Asking for both formats costs the same as asking for one: Reader scrapes once and serializes twice. Leave both on during development, drop to `["markdown"]` in production once you know what you need.

## What HTML you actually get

The HTML Reader returns is **cleaned**, not the raw DOM. Scripts, styles, tracking pixels, and (if `onlyMainContent: true`) boilerplate are already removed. It's the same DOM Reader used internally to generate the markdown: good for parsing, not for rehydrating the original page.

If you need the absolute raw HTML, set `onlyMainContent: false`. Reader will skip its boilerplate stripping and give you closer to the source.

## Next

* [Main content extraction](/home/guides/getting-started/main-content)
* [Include and exclude selectors](/home/guides/getting-started/selectors)