# Wayback Machine URL Exporter - CDX API (`pinkish_gallop/wayback-url-exporter`) Actor

Export every archived URL of a domain, subdomain or path from the Internet Archive Wayback Machine CDX API. Deduplicate by URL or content, filter by HTTP status, MIME type, date range and substring. Great for SEO migrations, broken-link recovery and OSINT.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/pinkish_gallop/wayback-url-exporter.md
- **Developed by:** [Sai](https://apify.com/pinkish_gallop) (community)
- **Categories:** SEO tools, Developer tools
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 50.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

Pay per event

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 URL Exporter - CDX API

Export every archived URL of a domain, subdomain or path from the Internet Archive Wayback Machine CDX API. Deduplicate by URL or content, filter by HTTP status, MIME type, date range and substring. Great for SEO migrations, broken-link recovery and OSINT.

### What does this Actor do?

The Internet Archive's Wayback Machine has captured hundreds of billions of web pages. Its **CDX API** can list every URL it ever saw for a domain - including pages that no longer exist. This Actor turns that API into a clean, deduplicated dataset you can filter by HTTP status, MIME type, date range and substring, with direct links to each archived snapshot. It is the online, no-install version of tools like `waybackurls` and `gau`.

Key features:

- Plain HTTP against official public endpoints - no browser, no proxy, no login, runs on 128 MB memory.
- Pay only for results: one charge per row saved; your maximum charge per run is always respected.
- `maxItems` hard cap (default 100) and bounded pagination - runs can never loop forever.
- Incremental mode via a since-date so scheduled runs only fetch new data.
- Polite rate limiting, retries with exponential backoff and `Retry-After` support.
- Clean, flat, consistently named JSON fields ready for Excel, Google Sheets, BigQuery or your API.

### Who is it for?

- **SEO site migrations** - recover every historical URL so you can build complete 301 redirect maps.
- **Broken backlink recovery** - find old pages that still have links pointing to them and restore or redirect them.
- **Content recovery** - list old blog posts, PDFs or images and open the archived copy.
- **Security research & bug bounty recon** - enumerate forgotten endpoints, parameters and files (in-scope targets only).
- **Competitive research** - see how a competitor's site structure and product pages changed over time.

### How it works

The Actor builds a CDX query with server-side filters (status, MIME type, URL substring, date range) and server-side collapsing, then pages through results using CDX resume keys. Requests are throttled (1.5 s default) with retries and long timeouts, because archive.org is a non-profit and rate-limits heavy users. A local seen-set guarantees no duplicate rows.

### Input

| Field | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| `targets` | array | - | e.g. example.com, blog.example.com, example.com/docs/ |
| `matchType` | string | "domain" | domain = host + all subdomains; host = exact host; prefix = URL prefix; exact = single URL. |
| `maxItems` | integer | 100 | Hard cap on rows saved and charged. |
| `dedupe` | string | "urlkey" | urlkey = one row per unique URL (first capture in range); digest = one row per unique content; none = every capture. |
| `statusCodes` | array | \["200"] | Keep only these (e.g. 200, 301, 404). Empty = all. |
| `mimeTypes` | array | \[] | Keep only these (e.g. text/html, application/pdf). Empty = all. |
| `excludeMimeTypes` | array | \[] | e.g. image/jpeg, text/css |
| `fromDate` | string | - | YYYY or YYYY-MM-DD. Use your last run date for incremental exports. |
| `toDate` | string | - | YYYY or YYYY-MM-DD. |
| `urlContains` | string | "" | Keep only URLs containing this text (server-side filter). |
| `urlExcludes` | array | \[] | Drop URLs containing any of these strings. |
| `pageSize` | integer | 2000 | Rows per CDX request. |
| `delayMs` | integer | 1500 | archive.org throttles aggressive clients; keep >= 1000. |

#### Example input

```json
{
  "targets": [
    "example.com"
  ],
  "matchType": "domain",
  "statusCodes": [
    "200"
  ],
  "mimeTypes": [
    "text/html",
    "application/pdf"
  ],
  "fromDate": "2018",
  "toDate": "2026-10-01",
  "dedupe": "urlkey",
  "maxItems": 5000
}
```

### Output

Each result is one row in the default dataset. You can download it as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML or HTML, or read it through the Apify API. A real row from a test run on 26 October 2026:

```json
{
  "target": "apify.com",
  "url": "https://apify.com/",
  "urlKey": "com,apify)/",
  "timestamp": "20240106234848",
  "capturedAt": "2024-01-06T23:48:48Z",
  "mimeType": "text/html",
  "statusCode": 200,
  "digest": "CI23EQLBQNE7EWSZRZT6HLVWOEIDTFE3",
  "lengthBytes": 52534,
  "archiveUrl": "https://web.archive.org/web/20240106234848/https://apify.com/",
  "rawArchiveUrl": "https://web.archive.org/web/20240106234848id_/https://apify.com/"
}
```

### Tips

- Use `matchType: domain` to include all subdomains; `prefix` to export one folder.
- Set `statusCodes` to empty to also get redirects (301/302) and 404s.
- For incremental runs set `fromDate` to your previous run date.
- `rawArchiveUrl` (the `id_` form) returns the original bytes without the Wayback toolbar.

### Pricing

This Actor uses pay-per-event pricing: about **$0.30 per 1,000 results**. There is no monthly rental fee. Platform usage is minimal because the Actor runs on 128 MB with plain HTTP requests. Set **Maximum cost per run** in the run options and the Actor stops cleanly as soon as the limit is reached - you are never charged beyond it.

### Scheduling and integrations

Create an Apify Schedule (for example daily at 08:00) and pass a since-date to get only new items each time. Connect the dataset to Google Sheets, Slack, Zapier, Make, n8n or a webhook to receive results automatically, or call the Actor from Python or JavaScript using the Apify API client.

### Limitations

Very large domains can have millions of captures; set `maxItems` sensibly. The archive is occasionally slow or returns 503 - the Actor retries, but extremely large exports are best split by `fromDate`/`toDate`.

### FAQ

**Do I need an account or API key on the source site?** No. Only public, unauthenticated endpoints are used.

**Do I need proxies?** No. The Actor makes a small number of well-spaced requests to official APIs, so datacenter IPs work fine.

**Why did my run return fewer items than maxItems?** The source simply had no more items matching your filters and date range, or your maximum cost per run was reached.

**Is this legal?** The Actor only reads publicly available data through documented public endpoints. You are responsible for using the data in line with the source's terms and applicable laws such as GDPR, especially for personal data.

**Something broke?** Open an issue on the Actor's Issues tab with your run ID and we will fix it quickly.

# Actor input Schema

## `targets` (type: `array`):

e.g. example.com, blog.example.com, example.com/docs/

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

domain = host + all subdomains; host = exact host; prefix = URL prefix; exact = single URL.

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

Hard cap on rows saved and charged.

## `dedupe` (type: `string`):

urlkey = one row per unique URL (first capture in range); digest = one row per unique content; none = every capture.

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

Keep only these (e.g. 200, 301, 404). Empty = all.

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

Keep only these (e.g. text/html, application/pdf). Empty = all.

## `excludeMimeTypes` (type: `array`):

e.g. image/jpeg, text/css

## `fromDate` (type: `string`):

YYYY or YYYY-MM-DD. Use your last run date for incremental exports.

## `toDate` (type: `string`):

YYYY or YYYY-MM-DD.

## `urlContains` (type: `string`):

Keep only URLs containing this text (server-side filter).

## `urlExcludes` (type: `array`):

Drop URLs containing any of these strings.

## `pageSize` (type: `integer`):

Rows per CDX request.

## `delayMs` (type: `integer`):

archive.org throttles aggressive clients; keep >= 1000.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "targets": [
    "apify.com"
  ],
  "matchType": "domain",
  "maxItems": 100,
  "dedupe": "urlkey",
  "statusCodes": [
    "200"
  ],
  "mimeTypes": [],
  "excludeMimeTypes": [],
  "urlContains": "",
  "urlExcludes": [],
  "pageSize": 2000,
  "delayMs": 1500
}
```

# Actor output Schema

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

No description

## `resultsView` (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 = {
    "targets": [
        "apify.com"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("pinkish_gallop/wayback-url-exporter").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 = { "targets": ["apify.com"] }

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

```

## MCP server setup

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

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/IcwdO6Tt3yHhfYSn6/builds/th6m2yKMaN2lgEX1m/openapi.json