Updated November 9, 2026

Send a webpage to ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini

The useful handoff is Markdown, not the page you are looking at. A chat model can read a heading, a list, and a fenced code sample. It does worse with a paste that still contains the menu, the share buttons, and a pile of class names. Convert first, then send. This page is that second step. The conversion itself is the webpage to Markdown guide.

WebInk has two send surfaces. The URL to Markdown tool runs in the browser after a public fetch. The extension’s Send to AI panel runs on the tab you already opened, which is the one that can see a logged-in page. They do not behave the same way for every assistant.

What the web tool does

After a conversion, Send to AI lets you pick ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or Perplexity.

• ChatGPT opens chatgpt.com with the prompt in the q parameter.
• Claude opens a new chat with the prompt in the q parameter.
• Perplexity opens a search with the prompt in the q parameter.
• Gemini has no query template in this tool. WebInk copies the prompt and opens gemini.google.com/app. You paste there. That is expected, not a failed click.

There is a second fallback that applies to every assistant with a query template. If the encoded URL would be longer than 8,000 characters, WebInk does not open a broken link. It copies the prompt and opens that assistant’s home page instead. Long documentation pages hit this often. A short blog post often fits. When the button label flips to show that the prompt was copied, paste it into the chat that just opened.

The web tool only converts URLs the server can fetch. A paywalled journal or a dashboard you are signed into will not be in that result. Convert those with the extension, then send from the side panel.

What the extension does

Send to AI in the extension is built around URL templates and saved prompts. The presets that open with a q parameter are ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Grok. You can add another platform by giving it a URL template. Gemini is not a built-in extension preset, because a reliable Gemini query parameter is not wired up. Use the web tool’s Gemini action, or copy the prompt from the extension and paste it into Gemini yourself.

Prompts are reusable. A prompt can include {{markdown}} for the converted article, {{url}}, {{title}}, and {{selection}} for text you highlighted. The extension can also copy the resolved prompt without opening a tab. Use that Copy control when you want to attach a file in the chat UI, or when you do not want a shortened URL opened for you.

Selection matters. Sending the whole page is correct for a short post. Sending the section you highlighted is correct for a spec where only one heading is relevant. The rest of the page still costs context if you include it, and it gives the model extra chances to answer from a sidebar you did not mean to ask about.

Shape the prompt

Put the instruction before the article, and put the source URL in the instruction. A template can do that every time. For example, ask for a summary that quotes headings, refuses to invent numbers that are not in the text, and ends with the source link. The article then follows as Markdown. The template editor is where that wrapper lives if you also want it on the saved file.

Do not send secrets. A signed URL, a session id in a query string, or an internal runbook is still sensitive after it becomes Markdown. Conversion does not redact. Read the preview before you open a third-party chat. Prefer the extension for pages that should not be fetched by the public URL tool at all.

If you are deciding between HTML and Markdown because of cost, read HTML vs Markdown for LLMs. Those figures are illustrations. They are not measured on your page inside WebInk.

When to skip the prefilled URL

Use copy, or download a .md file and upload it, when any of these are true:

• The article is long enough to blow past the 8,000 character URL cap.
• You are opening Gemini.
• The chat product you want is not in the preset list.
• You need images explained. Markdown image links are URLs or, after a ZIP export, local files. A query-string prompt does not attach those bytes. Upload the file in the chat UI if the model must see the picture.

Saving the file first is often the calmer workflow for research. You keep a copy you can cite, and the chat is a scratch pad. The AI research use case follows that order on purpose.

Start with one public article in the URL tool if you only need ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or Perplexity. Install the extension when the page is already open, when you need a saved prompt, or when the site requires your login.

The exact text the web tools send

The URL tool does not send a bare document. After a successful conversion it builds this prompt, with the real URL and the converted Markdown filled in:

Please analyze the following Markdown content converted from https://example.com/posts/cache-invalidation:

## What changed

Writers delete the key on update. A short TTL only hides a stale value until that delete exists.

The HTML tool uses a shorter wrapper and does not add the source URL, because a paste may not have one: “Please analyze the following Markdown content:” and then the converted text. ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity receive that string in the q parameter when the encoded URL is within 8,000 characters. Gemini always takes the clipboard path described above. This browser remembers the assistant you picked.

The extension does not use that “Please analyze” wrapper unless you write it into a prompt. Clicking a prompt name sends the template after substitution. The Copy control, visible when you hover a prompt, writes the same resolved text and leaves the current tab alone. The settings control opens the extension options on the AI Prompts section. AI Platforms is the neighboring section, where you add a name, a home URL, and an optional URL template that contains {{prompt}}.

What the stock extension prompts contain

These six ship with the extension. They are editable, reorderable, and resettable from options. Read the variables before you trust the answer, because a prompt can sound like it read the article when it only received a link.

• Summarize. Instructions for a TL;DR, key points, and takeaways, then {{url}}. The Markdown body is not in the stock template.
• Translate to English. Asks for a formatted translation and includes {{markdown}}.
• Extract Key Info. Asks for facts, people, claims, and sources, then {{url}} only.
• Explain Selection. Includes {{selection}} and {{url}}. If you have not highlighted text, the send stops and a toast asks you to select text on the page. A prompt that uses selection shows a marker while a selection exists.
• Mind Map. Asks for a nested Markdown list and includes {{url}} only.
• Fix Formatting. Asks for corrected Markdown and includes {{markdown}}.

A research summary that must quote the article needs {{markdown}} in the template. One workable shape is an instruction, then the source line, then the body:

Summarize the article. Quote at least two sentences that appear in the text. Do not invent numbers.

Source: {{url}}
Title: {{title}}

{{markdown}}

You can export prompts and platforms together as webink-ai-config.json from the Send to AI header. That file is a backup of your templates. It is not a transcript of a chat. Preset platforms can be hidden. The delete action keeps presets and removes custom platforms.

Long prompts in the extension

When the platform has a URL template and the encoded URL would be longer than 8,000 characters, the extension copies the full resolved prompt, opens a tab whose query contains only the start of that prompt, and shows the toast “Content too long, truncated. Full content copied to clipboard.” Paste the clipboard into the chat and ignore the cut-off query. A platform with no URL template skips the query entirely: the prompt is copied, the home URL opens, and the toast says to paste it into the AI platform.

Save the file if you will need the quotation later. The save guide covers copy, a single .md, and Download .zip. The AI research use case is the habit of keeping that file after the chat is closed.

When the handoff looks wrong

• The chat answered from a cookie banner. The preview still contained chrome. Reconvert, or edit the Markdown before you send. AI Fix can strip leftover navigation, and it can also mis-clean a page, so read the result.
• Explain Selection did nothing useful and you saw an error toast. Highlight the paragraph on the page first. The selection is plain text from the page, not the Markdown preview.
• A custom platform opened the home page every time. The URL template was empty, so WebInk treated it as copy-and-open. Add {{prompt}} to the template only if that product actually reads a query parameter.
• You needed the figure explained. Send the text, then upload the image in the chat UI, or unzip Download .zip and upload the file from images/.

FAQ