Extract links
One request, one page, every link it contains — internal, external, anchors and even mailto or tel links — sorted into a structured list you can act on immediately. It's the smallest, cheapest endpoint in the web toolkit, built for the moments when you don't need content, just the wiring between pages.
Run it online
Run this on our servers with your account. Free tools run in your browser; this one bills your KIT balance per the price above.
A narrow job, done cheaply and often
Not every question needs a full crawl or a scrape of page content — sometimes you just need to know what a specific page links to, right now, without reading the rest of it. This endpoint answers exactly that, which is why it's priced as a flat, tiny per-request fee rather than the per-URL pricing that makes sense for content-heavy extraction.
What the request and response look like
A call to POST /web/links with a single URL returns a task_id immediately, then the page is fetched and every anchor tag on it is collected into a structured result — each link's href, its visible anchor text, and whether it points internally within the same domain or out to an external one. The finished result reaches you by signed webhook or a signed link valid for 24 hours, the same delivery pattern as every other task on the platform.
Why the internal-versus-external split matters
Link structure has been a signal search engines weigh since the earliest PageRank-style algorithms of the late 1990s, and the internal-versus-external distinction still separates two very different concerns — internal links describe how a site organizes itself, external links describe who it trusts or references. Splitting them automatically in the response means you don't have to write that classification logic yourself for every page you check.
What you get back, precisely
The response is a flat, structured array — no nested content, no rendered text beyond each link's anchor label — which keeps both the payload small and the price point genuinely negligible for checking hundreds of pages. As with the rest of the platform, a page that fails to load is retried automatically up to three times before returning a clear error, and you're never charged for a task that never completed.
How it slots into a bigger workflow
Teams run this endpoint ahead of a broader crawl to estimate scope, alongside SEO audits to spot orphaned pages or excessive external linking, and inside link-checking pipelines that flag anchors pointing to domains no longer in good standing. Because the cost per call is small enough to run against every page on a site without a second thought, it's often the first tool reached for before deciding whether a heavier scrape or crawl is even warranted.
What you can do with it
Internal linking audits
Pull every link from a set of key pages to check that important pages are receiving enough internal links to support their SEO weight.
Outbound link and affiliate checks
Extract external links from a page to verify affiliate URLs are present and pointing where they should before a campaign goes live.
Estimating crawl scope before committing
Run link extraction on a homepage first to gauge how many unique paths a full crawl of the site would likely need to cover.
Detecting broken or suspicious outbound links
Feed extracted external links into a separate check for dead domains or redirects to flag pages that need cleanup.
FAQ
What does the link extraction API return?
A structured list of every link on the page, each with its URL, anchor text, and whether it's internal to the same domain or external.
How much does web.links cost?
$0.002 per request, a flat fee regardless of how many links the page contains, billed only when the task completes.
Is there a free way to extract links from a URL?
There's no free tier — free tiers get abused and slow everyone down. Access runs on a prepaid ForHosting KIT balance: top up from $10.00 (it never expires) and each request is charged at its published price, so a call with no balance returns HTTP 402. No subscription, no tokens, no invented credits, and a failed task is never charged.
Does it return internal and external links separately?
Yes, each link in the result is tagged as internal or external so you can filter or group them without extra logic on your side.
Does it follow the links it extracts?
No, this endpoint only reads the one page you submit; following links across a site is what the crawl endpoint is for.
Does it include mailto and tel links?
Yes, anchor tags of every kind on the page are collected, including mailto and tel links alongside standard page URLs.
How do I receive the results?
By signed webhook when the task finishes, or via a signed link valid for 24 hours if you prefer to retrieve it yourself.
Can I run this on many pages in bulk?
Yes, submit one request per URL; at $0.002 per request it stays inexpensive even when checked across hundreds of pages.
For developers — API access
Everything on this page is available programmatically. This section is for teams who want to wire it into their own systems; everyone else can just use the tool above.
API endpoint
Prefer to automate it? One authenticated POST creates the task; the result comes back by webhook or a signed link. The same capability also runs here on the web, and soon from our app, email and Telegram.
Call it from your stack
curl -X POST https://api.kit.forhosting.com/web/links \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $KIT_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"url":"https://ejemplo.com"}'const res = await fetch("https://api.kit.forhosting.com/web/links", {
method: "POST",
headers: {
"Authorization": `Bearer ${process.env.KIT_KEY}`,
"Content-Type": "application/json"
},
body: JSON.stringify({
"url": "https://ejemplo.com"
})
});
const { task_id } = await res.json();import os, requests
res = requests.post(
"https://api.kit.forhosting.com/web/links",
headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['KIT_KEY']}"},
json={
"url": "https://ejemplo.com"
},
)
task_id = res.json()["task_id"]<?php
$res = file_get_contents("https://api.kit.forhosting.com/web/links", false, stream_context_create([
"http" => [
"method" => "POST",
"header" => "Authorization: Bearer " . getenv("KIT_KEY") . "\r\nContent-Type: application/json",
"content" => '{"url":"https://ejemplo.com"}',
],
]));
$task = json_decode($res, true);body := bytes.NewBufferString(`{"url":"https://ejemplo.com"}`)
req, _ := http.NewRequest("POST", "https://api.kit.forhosting.com/web/links", body)
req.Header.Set("Authorization", "Bearer "+os.Getenv("KIT_KEY"))
req.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/json")
res, _ := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)Example request
{
"url": "https://ejemplo.com"
}Example response
{
"task_id": "tsk_a1b2c3d4e5f6a1b2c3d4e5f6",
"type": "web.links",
"status": "queued",
"_links": {
"result": "/tasks/tsk_…/result"
}
}The API is asynchronous: the call returns a task_id immediately and the result arrives by webhook. Polling is capped at 1 req/s per task.
Pricing
Published price — no tokens, no invented credits. A failed task is never charged.
Limits
timeout_sec | 30 |
max_crawl_pages | 25 |
Errors
| HTTP | Code | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
401 | unauthorized | Missing or invalid API key. |
402 | insufficient_balance | Your balance doesn't cover the task price. |
404 | unknown_type | That task type doesn't exist. |
429 | rate_limited | Too many requests. Use the webhook instead of polling. |