# Wayback Machine Scraper - Archived Snapshots & URL History (`bar-lab/wayback-machine-scraper`) Actor

List Internet Archive Wayback Machine snapshots for any URL or whole domain: capture dates, archive links, status codes, MIME types, sizes, optional page text. Filter by date, status and type, collapse duplicates. Pay per snapshot.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/bar-lab/wayback-machine-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Bartosz Golis](https://apify.com/bar-lab) (community)
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $1.00 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## Wayback Machine Scraper

Get the full **capture history of any page or website** from the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine: every snapshot with date, archive link, HTTP status, MIME type and size — optionally with the page text. Uses the official CDX API with automatic paging, so even huge domains work.

### Features

- Exact URL, URL prefix, whole host or whole domain incl. subdomains
- **Collapse duplicates:** only when content changed, one per day / month / year, or one per URL (= list of every archived URL of a site)
- Filter by date range, status code and MIME type (e.g. find every archived PDF on a domain)
- Optional **page text** of each snapshot

### Example input

```json
{
  "urls": ["competitor.com/pricing"],
  "collapse": "unique-content",
  "from": "2023-01-01",
  "fetchContent": true
}
```

### Example output

```json
{
  "url": "https://competitor.com/pricing",
  "capturedAt": "2024-03-02T10:11:12+00:00",
  "archiveUrl": "https://web.archive.org/web/20240302101112/https://competitor.com/pricing",
  "statusCode": 200,
  "mimeType": "text/html",
  "lengthBytes": 18342,
  "contentText": "Pricing ..."
}
```

### Use cases

- **Competitor monitoring:** see how pricing and landing pages changed over time
- **SEO & migrations:** recover lists of old URLs of a site, find lost pages and PDFs
- **Research, journalism & legal:** prove what a page said on a given date
- **Domain due diligence:** check a domain's history before buying it

### Pricing

Pay per result — you pay only for records saved to the dataset. Use **Max results in total** to cap the cost of a run.

# Actor input Schema

## `urls` (type: `array`):

Pages or sites to look up, e.g. `example.com` or `example.com/pricing`.

## `matchType` (type: `string`):

How to match the URL.

## `collapse` (type: `string`):

Reduce near-duplicate captures.

## `from` (type: `string`):

Only captures on or after this date.

## `to` (type: `string`):

Only captures on or before this date.

## `statusCodes` (type: `array`):

Keep only these status codes, e.g. `200`.

## `mimeTypes` (type: `array`):

Keep only these types, e.g. `text/html`, `application/pdf`.

## `newestFirst` (type: `boolean`):

Return the most recent captures first.

## `fetchContent` (type: `boolean`):

Download each snapshot and include its text (slower).

## `maxSnapshotsPerUrl` (type: `integer`):

Stop after this many snapshots per URL.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Stop the whole run after this many snapshots.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "urls": [
    "example.com"
  ],
  "matchType": "exact",
  "collapse": "unique-content",
  "newestFirst": false,
  "fetchContent": false,
  "maxSnapshotsPerUrl": 1000
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

## `runSummary` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "urls": [
        "example.com"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("bar-lab/wayback-machine-scraper").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "urls": ["example.com"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("bar-lab/wayback-machine-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "urls": [
    "example.com"
  ]
}' |
apify call bar-lab/wayback-machine-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,bar-lab/wayback-machine-scraper"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/SxpMwfP5yTMxEWtss/builds/RvCbsTKgYd0Zvb2Gc/openapi.json