# Wayback Machine Scraper: archived page history and text (`larkmoor/wayback-snapshots`) Actor

Pull the Internet Archive's capture history for any URL and the text of each archived version: capture date, status, digest, title and clean page text. One snapshot per day, month or year, or every capture; date range; newest first.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/larkmoor/wayback-snapshots.md
- **Developed by:** [Larkmoor Data](https://apify.com/larkmoor) (community)
- **Categories:** Developer tools, SEO tools
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $0.68 / 1,000 snapshots

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

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: archived page history & text

Pull the Internet Archive's capture history for any URL and the text of each archived version: when it was captured, status, content digest, title and clean page text. One snapshot per day/month/year or every capture, date range, newest first. Track how a competitor's pricing page, a product listing, a news article or a whole site changed over the years; recover content from pages that are gone.

### What you can use it for

- Pricing and positioning history of competitors: one snapshot per month of their pricing page as clean text
- Recover deleted pages, old product listings, press releases or policy texts
- Research and journalism: how a statement, a claim or a term of service changed over time
- SEO: see what a domain hosted before you buy it; find old URLs to redirect

### Why this one

- Uses the Internet Archive's public CDX index: exact capture timestamps, HTTP status, MIME type and content digest (spot unchanged copies at a glance)
- One capture per day/month/year or every capture, date range, newest first
- Fetches the archived page without the Wayback toolbar and returns clean readable text and the title; raw links included
- Pay only for results: **$0.80 per 1,000 snapshots**. No subscription.

### Input

- **URLs** (`urls`): Pages to look up in the Wayback Machine. A trailing \* lists every captured URL under a path (e.g. example.com/blog/\*).
- **From (YYYY-MM-DD)** (`from`)
- **To (YYYY-MM-DD)** (`to`)
- **One snapshot per** (`collapse`) Default: `"month"`.
- **Newest first** (`newestFirst`) Default: `true`.
- **Max snapshots per URL** (`maxSnapshotsPerUrl`) Default: `50`.
- **Fetch the archived page text** (`fetchContent`): Off = just the list of captures (fast). Default: `true`.
- **Max text characters per snapshot** (`maxTextChars`) Default: `20000`.
- **Only successful captures (HTTP 200)** (`onlyStatus200`) Default: `true`.
- **Max snapshots total** (`maxResults`) Default: `10000`.

### Output

One row per snapshot in the dataset (JSON, CSV, Excel, or through the API). Sample:

```json
[
 {
  "inputUrl": "apify.com/pricing",
  "originalUrl": "https://apify.com/pricing",
  "timestamp": "20261016001017",
  "capturedAt": "2026-10-16T00:10:17+00:00",
  "snapshotUrl": "https://web.archive.org/web/20261016001017/https://apify.com/pricing",
  "rawUrl": "https://web.archive.org/web/20261016001017id_/https://apify.com/pricing",
  "statusCode": "200",
  "mimeType": "text/html",
  "digest": "73WMRZT2IMYSBDAE57XHAVUCOLSVYQUY",
  "length": 66057,
  "title": null,
  "text": null,
  "fetchError": "HTTP 500"
 },
 {
  "inputUrl": "apify.com/pricing",
  "originalUrl": "https://apify.com/pricing",
  "timestamp": "20251216133154",
  "capturedAt": "2025-12-16T13:31:54+00:00",
  "snapshotUrl": "https://web.archive.org/web/20251216133154/https://apify.com/pricing",
  "rawUrl": "https://web.archive.org/web/20251216133154id_/https://apify.com/pricing",
  "statusCode": "200",
  "mimeType": "text/html",
  "digest": "STLLDYULBJDT2ZERWG2M56YFMRMFDDRX",
  "length": 50753,
  "title": null,
  "text": null,
  "fetchError": "HTTP 500"
 }
]
```

### Tips

- Wildcards work: example.com/blog/\* lists every captured URL under that path (turn fetchContent off for a fast inventory).
- The Internet Archive has short outages; the tool waits and retries, and reports fetchError per snapshot instead of failing the run.

### Integrations and API

Run it on a schedule, trigger it from the API or a webhook, and send results to Google Sheets, Zapier, Make, Slack, a database or your own code with the platform's standard integrations.

### Data and fair use

This tool reads only public sources (official APIs, public feeds or pages the publisher makes available to everyone) and respects robots.txt and rate limits. You are responsible for using the data in line with the source's terms and applicable law.

### How much it costs

You pay per result (pay-per-event), nothing per month and nothing when a run returns nothing. The price is **$0.80 per 1,000 snapshots** on the Free plan, with automatic discounts on paid plans (Bronze −5%, Silver −10%, Gold −15%, Platinum −20%).

Worked examples:

- 100 snapshots → **$0.08**
- 1,000 snapshots → **$0.80**
- 10,000 snapshots → **$8.00**

Platform usage (compute, storage) is included in the price: the actor runs at a small memory setting by default, so a typical run of 1,000 snapshots finishes in well under a minute.

### FAQ

**Does it respect archive.org?**

Yes, requests are paced and use the public CDX and Wayback APIs the Internet Archive documents for exactly this purpose.

**Why are some fields empty?**

A field is `null` when the source does not publish it for that row. The output keeps every column so your spreadsheet or integration always sees the same shape.

**Can I run it on a schedule?**

Yes. Use Apify Schedules (daily, hourly, cron) and connect the run to Make, Zapier, n8n, Google Sheets, a webhook or the API. Each run writes a dataset you can download as JSON, CSV or Excel.

**Is there a free trial?**

The Apify Free plan includes $5 of monthly platform credit, enough to try this actor on a few hundred results at no cost. There is no subscription for the actor itself.

**Can an AI agent use this?**

Yes. The actor is available through Apify's MCP server and the API, so LLM agents (Claude, ChatGPT, LangChain, CrewAI) can call it as a tool with the same input.

**What happens if something fails?**

Runs log every skipped item with a reason. If the source is down, the actor stops cleanly and you are only charged for the results it returned.

### Changelog

- **2026-10-18** — Lower price with Bronze/Silver/Gold discounts; smaller default memory (cheaper runs); clean table view of results; FAQ and cost examples; input defaults reviewed.

### Support

Found a problem or need a field added? Open an issue on the Issues tab; it is read and answered.

# Actor input Schema

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

Pages to look up in the Wayback Machine. A trailing \* lists every captured URL under a path (e.g. example.com/blog/\*).

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

From (YYYY-MM-DD).

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

To (YYYY-MM-DD).

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

One snapshot per. Default: "month".

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

Newest first. Default: true.

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

Max snapshots per URL. Default: 50. (min 1, max 5000)

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

Off = just the list of captures (fast).

## `maxTextChars` (type: `integer`):

Max text characters per snapshot. Default: 20000. (min 200)

## `onlyStatus200` (type: `boolean`):

Only successful captures (HTTP 200). Default: true.

## `maxResults` (type: `integer`):

Max snapshots total. Default: 10000. (min 1)

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "urls": [
    "apify.com/pricing"
  ],
  "collapse": "month",
  "newestFirst": true,
  "maxSnapshotsPerUrl": 50,
  "fetchContent": true,
  "maxTextChars": 20000,
  "onlyStatus200": true,
  "maxResults": 10000
}
```

# Actor output Schema

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

All results as JSON items in the run's default dataset (also downloadable as CSV/Excel from the dataset).

# 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": [
        "apify.com/pricing"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("larkmoor/wayback-snapshots").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": ["apify.com/pricing"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("larkmoor/wayback-snapshots").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": [
    "apify.com/pricing"
  ]
}' |
apify call larkmoor/wayback-snapshots --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

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

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/pUPfUKsuPqJ0Kin79/builds/fYFZOen3cgzC04fcA/openapi.json