diff --git a/surfsense_backend/app/capabilities/web/crawl/schemas.py b/surfsense_backend/app/capabilities/web/crawl/schemas.py
index d6c9c38a3..30e8ff6ae 100644
--- a/surfsense_backend/app/capabilities/web/crawl/schemas.py
+++ b/surfsense_backend/app/capabilities/web/crawl/schemas.py
@@ -18,6 +18,8 @@ from typing import Literal
 
 from pydantic import BaseModel, Field
 
+from app.capabilities.core.validation import HttpUrlStr
+
 MAX_START_URLS = 20
 """Per-call cap on seed URLs: bounds a synchronous request's fan-out (05)."""
 
@@ -29,7 +31,7 @@ MAX_CRAWL_PAGES = 200
 
 
 class CrawlInput(BaseModel):
-    startUrls: list[str] = Field(
+    startUrls: list[HttpUrlStr] = Field(
         min_length=1,
         max_length=MAX_START_URLS,
         description=(
diff --git a/surfsense_backend/tests/unit/capabilities/web/crawl/test_schemas.py b/surfsense_backend/tests/unit/capabilities/web/crawl/test_schemas.py
index f7b9a2b39..080dda2b2 100644
--- a/surfsense_backend/tests/unit/capabilities/web/crawl/test_schemas.py
+++ b/surfsense_backend/tests/unit/capabilities/web/crawl/test_schemas.py
@@ -20,6 +20,11 @@ def test_requires_at_least_one_start_url() -> None:
         CrawlInput(startUrls=[])
 
 
+def test_rejects_malformed_start_url() -> None:
+    with pytest.raises(ValidationError):
+        CrawlInput(startUrls=["not-a-url"])
+
+
 def test_camelcase_fields_and_defaults() -> None:
     model = CrawlInput(startUrls=["https://e.com"])
     assert model.startUrls == ["https://e.com"]