Wayback Machine API – Website History & Change Detection

Compare archived website content, not just capture metadata.

Turn public Internet Archive history into structured dataset records without writing CDX queries, constructing replay URLs, cleaning archived HTML, or building a diff engine.

What this Actor does

Mode	Result
snapshots	Distinct archived HTML versions with timestamps, metadata, and replay URLs
extract	Archived title, word count, preview, and optional normalized full text
compare	Oldest-versus-newest comparison with change score and added/removed sentence samples

Each URL produces one structured dataset record. Failed URLs also produce a record with an error, so batch results remain usable.

Best for

• SEO recovery — find historical page versions after migrations, redesigns, or accidental edits
• Competitor research — compare past and present messaging, pricing, and landing pages
• Compliance evidence — collect structured public historical evidence with timestamps and source URLs
• Website monitoring — quantify how archived content changed across a selected date range
• Data and AI pipelines — export normalized JSON instead of parsing Wayback responses downstream

Example input

{
  "mode": "compare",
  "urls": ["https://example.com"],
  "from": "2020",
  "to": "2026",
  "maxSnapshots": 100,
  "includeText": false
}

Dates accept YYYY, YYYYMMDD, or a full Wayback timestamp. You can process up to 50 public URLs per run.

Example output

{
  "mode": "compare",
  "url": "https://example.com/",
  "from": "2020",
  "to": "2026",
  "snapshotCount": 3,
  "oldVersion": {
    "timestamp": "20200101213728",
    "title": "Example Domain"
  },
  "newVersion": {
    "timestamp": "20200108211718",
    "title": "Example Domain"
  },
  "comparison": {
    "changed": false,
    "changePercentage": 0,
    "oldWordCount": 30,
    "newWordCount": 30,
    "addedSentenceCount": 0,
    "removedSentenceCount": 0,
    "addedSamples": [],
    "removedSamples": []
  }
}

API quick start

JavaScript

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN });
const input = {
  mode: 'compare',
  urls: ['https://example.com'],
  from: '2020',
  to: '2026',
  maxSnapshots: 100,
  includeText: false,
};

const run = await client.actor('capi2/wayback-change-api').call(input);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.dir(items, { depth: null });

Python

import os
from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient(os.environ["APIFY_TOKEN"])
run = client.actor("capi2/wayback-change-api").call(run_input={
    "mode": "compare",
    "urls": ["https://example.com"],
    "from": "2020",
    "to": "2026",
    "maxSnapshots": 100,
    "includeText": False,
})

for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

cURL

curl --request POST \
  --url "https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/capi2~wayback-change-api/run-sync-get-dataset-items?clean=true" \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $APIFY_TOKEN" \
  --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
  --data '{
    "mode": "compare",
    "urls": ["https://example.com"],
    "from": "2020",
    "to": "2026",
    "maxSnapshots": 100,
    "includeText": false
  }'

Transparent pay-per-event pricing

A mode can emit multiple events because extraction and comparison build on a snapshot query.

Event	Price
Snapshot query	$0.002 each
Archived page extraction	$0.010 each
Website version comparison	$0.025 each
Dataset result	$0.00001 each
Actor start	$0.00005 per run

Customers do not pay the Actor's platform usage costs. Review the estimate and set a maximum charge appropriate for your batch.

Safeguards and limits

• Public HTTP(S) URLs only
• URL validation and credential stripping
• 50 URLs per run
• 1,000 snapshots per URL
• 2 MB per archived HTML response
• 45-second archived-page fetch timeout
• At most 20 added and 20 removed sentence samples

These limits reduce accidental cost and unexpectedly large outputs. Archive availability and coverage depend on the Internet Archive. This Actor does not bypass authentication or access controls.

Data delivery

Results are available as an Apify dataset and can be exported as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, or RSS. Connect runs to schedules, webhooks, or your existing Apify integrations for repeatable workflows.