Eldwren: Wayback Machine Scraper — Website History, Snapshots & Archived URLs

How old is a website, what did it look like, and which URLs did it have?

Give it domains or URLs; get the site's Wayback Machine history in one record (first and last capture, archive age, years online, gap years, status codes, snapshot links), or every snapshot of a page, or every URL of a domain the Internet Archive holds. Built on the archive's official CDX API. $3 per 1,000 histories; snapshots and archived URLs $0.80 per 1,000.

▶ Try it now with a prefilled input · history $0.003 per URL, snapshot rows $0.0008 · never-archived URLs and archive errors free · Apify's free plan includes $5 of credit a month

Built for: domain investors and buyers checking a domain's past · SEO teams recovering old URLs for redirects · due-diligence and fraud teams checking how long a business has been online · researchers and journalists · AI agents asking "how old is this site?"

Real output (real run on Apify, 25 Oct 2026, the prefilled input: apify.com, 4 s, $0.003):

Field	Value
First capture	2007-05-31 (snapshot)
Last capture	2026-10-16 (8 days ago)
Archive age	19.4 years
Years with captures	18 (2007–2026), gap years 2009, 2010
Months archived	127
Monthly status codes	200 × 103, 301 × 10

Snapshots mode, one per year (same run day, 12 rows, $0.0096):

Captured	URL	Status	Type	Bytes
2007-05-31	http://www.apify.com:80/	200	text/html	1,013
2008-09-19	http://www.apify.com:80/	200	text/html	1,029
2011-02-10	http://apify.com/	200	text/html	2,801

{"urls": ["apify.com"], "mode": "summary"}

Ready-made inputs (one click)

Job	Input	Result
How old is this site?	{"urls": ["apify.com"]}	One history record.
Bulk domain age check	{"urls": ["a.com", "b.com", "c.com"]}	One record per domain; never-archived domains free.
Every version of a page	{"urls": ["example.com/pricing"], "mode": "captures", "collapse": "digest"}	One row each time the page content changed.
All old URLs of a domain	{"urls": ["example.com"], "mode": "urls", "maxResultsPerUrl": 5000}	Every archived URL, for a redirect map.
Every PDF the domain ever had	{"urls": ["example.com"], "mode": "urls", "mimeFilter": "application/pdf"}	Archived PDF URLs with raw download links.
New snapshots alert	{"urls": ["competitor.com/pricing"], "mode": "captures", "monitor": true}	On a schedule: only captures newer than last time.

Use cases

• Domain due diligence: archive age, years online and gaps (parked or dropped years) before buying a domain or trusting a new vendor.
• SEO migrations and lost pages: list every URL a domain ever had and redirect the ones that still earn links.
• Competitor history: every version of a competitor's pricing or product page, with links to the archived copies.
• Evidence and research: dated, linkable snapshots of what a page said and when.
• Recover lost files: archived PDFs, images and documents with raw (id_) download links.

Why Eldwren

	Eldwren	Typical Wayback scraper on the Store
Three jobs in one	History summary, snapshots, archived URLs	Usually one
Ready answers	First/last capture, archive age, years online, gap years, versions	Raw rows only
Thinning	One per hour/day/month/year or per content change	Limited
Filters	Date range, status (2xx, !404), MIME type, prefix/host/domain match	Varies
Reliability	Back-off and retries on archive rate limits; failures free	Recent failure rates up to 5% on some rivals (Store stats, 25 Oct 2026)
Price	$0.003 per history, $0.0008 per row, no start fee	$1 to $5 per 1,000 rows (median about $3.25), some with a $0.02 start fee (Store prices on 25 Oct 2026)

Input

Field	What it does
urls	Domains or page URLs (required).
mode	summary (default), captures or urls.
maxResultsPerUrl	Row limit per input (captures/urls).
collapse	none, hour, day (default), month, year, digest.
from, to	Date range, e.g. 2015 or 2020-06-01.
statusFilter, mimeFilter	e.g. 2xx, !404; text/html, application/pdf.
matchType	exact, prefix, host, domain.
monitor, monitorKey	Only new captures since the last monitor run.

Output

Summary: target, archived, firstCapture, lastCapture, firstCaptureUrl, lastCaptureUrl, lastStatus, archiveAgeYears, daysSinceLastCapture, monthsWithCaptures, yearsWithCaptures, firstYear, lastYear, gapYears, monthsCapturedByYear, monthlyStatusCodes, distinctMonthlyVersions.

Snapshots / archived URLs: target, url, timestamp, capturedAt, statusCode, mimeType, bytes, digest, archiveUrl, rawArchiveUrl.

Pricing

• $0.003 per URL summarized (history mode).
• $0.0008 per snapshot or archived URL listed.
• Free: never-archived URLs, archive errors, unchanged URLs in monitor mode. No start fee.

Run it on a schedule

Apify Console → Schedules → Create new → cron 0 9 * * * → Add Actor → Eldwren with "mode": "captures" and "monitor": true. Through the API:

POST https://api.apify.com/v2/schedules?token=YOUR_TOKEN
{
  "name": "eldwren-rival-pricing-snapshots",
  "cronExpression": "0 9 * * *",
  "timezone": "America/New_York",
  "isEnabled": true,
  "actions": [{
    "type": "RUN_ACTOR",
    "actorId": "cybermax/wayback-machine",
    "runInput": {
      "body": "{\"urls\":[\"competitor.com/pricing\"],\"mode\":\"captures\",\"collapse\":\"digest\",\"monitor\":true}",
      "contentType": "application/json"
    }
  }]
}

Integrations

API (synchronous): POST https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/cybermax~wayback-machine/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_TOKEN with the input JSON returns the rows.

Make / Zapier: Apify app → "Run an Actor" (cybermax/wayback-machine, run synchronously) → "Get dataset items" → map firstCapture, archiveAgeYears into your CRM or sheet.

n8n: Apify node, or HTTP Request:

POST https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/cybermax~wayback-machine/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_TOKEN
{"urls": ["example.com"], "mode": "summary"}

Google Sheets:

=IMPORTDATA("https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/cybermax~wayback-machine/runs/last/dataset/items?format=csv&fields=target,firstCapture,lastCapture,archiveAgeYears,yearsWithCaptures&token=YOUR_TOKEN")

Python (pip install apify-client):

from apify_client import ApifyClient
client = ApifyClient("YOUR_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("cybermax/wayback-machine").call(run_input={"urls": ["apify.com", "example.com"]})
for r in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(r["target"], r.get("firstCapture"), r.get("archiveAgeYears"))

AI agents (MCP): https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=cybermax/wayback-machine (Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN). Typical prompts: "How long has acme-shop.com been online?", "List every URL example.com had in 2019".

When NOT to use it

• Page text of old snapshots: Eldwren returns capture data and links; open archiveUrl (or rawArchiveUrl) to read the page, or pass those links to Inkpluck.
• Sites excluded from the archive by their owner return excluded: true (free).
• Exact capture counts for huge domains: history mode samples one capture per month to stay fast.

FAQ

Why not browse web.archive.org? Fine for one page. Eldwren answers for hundreds of domains at once, adds the archive age and gaps, and filters by date, status and file type.

Is "archive age" the domain's registration date? No: it's when the Internet Archive first saw the site, a strong signal of how long it has been live. For WHOIS registration dates use DomainDNA.

Can an AI agent use it (MCP)? Yes. Add https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=cybermax/wayback-machine as an MCP server in Claude, Cursor, VS Code or any MCP client.

Why is it sometimes slow? The archive answers big domains slowly and rate-limits bursts. Eldwren keeps parallel requests low and backs off, so runs finish instead of failing.

Is it legal to use? Eldwren uses the Internet Archive's public CDX API, which the archive provides for programmatic access. Archived pages belong to their owners. This is general information, not legal advice.

Start now

▶ Try Eldwren with a prefilled input · $3 per 1,000 histories. Questions? Open an issue on the Store page and it gets answered the same day.

Also from CyberMax

• Namewhere — company name to domain: find a company's website, then check its history.
• DomainDNA — tech stack, WHOIS & domain age: what a site runs on and when it was registered.
• Sitemoss — sitemap URL extractor: today's URLs, to compare with the archived ones.
• Bouncefern — bulk URL status & redirect checker: check which old URLs still redirect.

Changelog

• 2026-10-25: First release: history summary, snapshots and archived-URL modes on the official CDX API, collapse, date/status/MIME filters, resume-key paging, back-off, monitor mode.

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