# Wayback Machine History: archived snapshots and changes per URL (`steadydata/wayback-history`) Actor

Every archived snapshot of a URL in the Wayback Machine, newest first: timestamp, snapshot link, status, content type, size and whether the content changed since the previous capture. Filter on period, one per day or month, or a whole site by prefix. Up to 200 URLs a run. Pay per snapshot.

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

## Pricing

from $0.65 / 1,000 snapshot listeds

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 History: archived snapshots and changes per URL

Every archived snapshot of a URL in the Wayback Machine, newest first: timestamp, snapshot link, status, content type, size and whether the content changed since the previous capture. Filter on period, one per day or month, or a whole site by prefix. Up to 200 URLs a run. Pay per snapshot.

### Why this scraper

- **Only delivered results are charged.** Inputs that fail come back as clear error
  records at no cost.
- Straight from the Internet Archive's CDX index, the database behind the Wayback Machine, one request per URL. Measured on the platform: the monthly captures of three sites since January 2024, 34 rows, for under a cent.
- One row per capture with a working snapshot link, the HTTP status and content type the site answered at the time, the size, and two computed columns: whether the content differs from the previous capture (by the archive's own digest) and how many days passed since it.
- `collapse` turns thousands of captures into one per day, month or year, or into only the captures where the content actually changed, which is what a change history needs.
- `matchType` prefix or domain lists every archived page under a path or host, which finds old pages a site has since removed.

### Who this is for

Put pages or domains in `urls` (up to 200 per run), choose `collapse` (default month), `matchType` (default exact), optionally `sinceDate`, `untilDate`, `successfulOnly` and `maxSnapshotsPerUrl`. Built for SEO teams checking when a page changed or disappeared, legal and compliance work that needs dated evidence of what a page said, competitor and pricing history, due diligence on a domain's past, and researchers building timelines of a site.

### Who this is not for

The Wayback Machine captures what its crawlers and users saved; a page that nobody archived has no history, and comes back as a free `NOT_ARCHIVED` row. The row says that a capture exists and whether its content changed; it does not contain the page text (the `snapshotUrl` does). Captures of sites that opted out or were excluded are not in the index. The archive asks for a polite pace, so a run of many URLs takes about a second per URL.

### Input fields

| Field | Type | Required or default | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| `urls` | list of text | required | One per row, up to 200: a page URL, or a domain for its home page. Use matchType prefix to list every captured page under it. |
| `matchType` | text (exact, prefix, domain) | exact | exact for the URL itself, prefix for every URL that starts with it, domain for the whole host including subdomains. |
| `collapse` | text (all, day, month, year, change) | month | all for every capture, day, month or year for one per period, change for only captures whose content differs from the previous one. |
| `sinceDate` | text |  | Only captures on or after this date (YYYY-MM-DD). Empty means from the first capture. |
| `untilDate` | text |  | Only captures on or before this date (YYYY-MM-DD). Empty means up to now. |
| `successfulOnly` | true/false | true | Only captures with HTTP status 200. Off includes redirects and errors. |
| `maxSnapshotsPerUrl` | number | 100 | Cost ceiling per URL, newest first. |

### Input example

```json
{
    "urls": [
        "https://www.bbc.com/",
        "apify.com"
    ],
    "matchType": "exact",
    "collapse": "month",
    "successfulOnly": true,
    "maxSnapshotsPerUrl": 100
}
```

### Output example

| Field | Type | What it holds |
|---|---|---|
| `requestedUrl` | text | The URL as given in the input, normalised with a scheme. |
| `url` | text | The URL the archive actually captured; with prefix or domain matching this differs from requestedUrl. |
| `capturedAt` | text | When the Wayback Machine captured the page, in UTC. |
| `timestamp` | text | The same moment in the archive's own YYYYMMDDhhmmss form, used in snapshot links. |
| `snapshotUrl` | text | The archived copy of the page at that moment on web.archive.org. |
| `statusCode` | number | The HTTP status the site answered at capture time; 200 is a normal page, 301 a redirect. |
| `mimeType` | text | The content type at capture time, text/html for pages. |
| `lengthBytes` | number | The compressed size of the capture in the archive. |
| `digest` | text | The archive's hash of the content; equal digests mean identical content. |
| `contentChanged` | true/false | True when the content differs from the previous delivered capture, false when identical; empty on the oldest row. |
| `daysSincePrevious` | number | Days between this capture and the previous delivered one; empty on the oldest row. |

Error codes: `INVALID_URL`, `NOT_ARCHIVED`, `BLOCKED`.

One delivered row looks like this:

```json
{
  "requestedUrl": "https://www.bbc.com/",
  "url": "https://www.bbc.com/",
  "capturedAt": "2026-09-25T00:10:41Z",
  "timestamp": "20260925001041",
  "snapshotUrl": "https://web.archive.org/web/20260925001041/https://www.bbc.com/",
  "statusCode": 200,
  "mimeType": "text/html",
  "lengthBytes": 99161,
  "digest": "2F6WFT5YX4IZCWYRE3HRJBTGJTWBYFKK",
  "contentChanged": true,
  "daysSincePrevious": 24.33,
  "status": "ok"
}
```

### Related actors from steadydata

- [internet-archive-search](https://apify.com/steadydata/internet-archive-search): books, audio, video and software in the same archive
- [webpage-to-markdown](https://apify.com/steadydata/webpage-to-markdown): the text of a page as it is today
- [domain-dns-ssl-report](https://apify.com/steadydata/domain-dns-ssl-report): who owns the domain now and since when

### Pricing

Pay per event: one `snapshot-listed` event per delivered result. No charge for inputs
that fail, no separate platform-usage surcharge.

**Free Apify plan:** this actor delivers up to 25 rows per run for accounts on the Apify free
plan, and then stops with a message. That limit is set by us, not by Apify. It exists so the
actor keeps paying for itself for the people who do pay. Any paid Apify plan runs it at full
size, billed per delivered row, with failed rows never charged.

**Reviews:** if this actor saves you time, a short review on this page is the one thing that
helps most. Ratings are what other buyers look at first, and we have no other way to ask.

### FAQ

**Is personal data collected?**
No. The rows are URLs, timestamps and technical properties of archived captures.

**How do I see when a page changed?**
Set `collapse` to `change`: the archive then returns only captures whose content digest differs from the one before, and `daysSincePrevious` tells how long each version lived.

**How do I find pages a site has removed?**
Set `matchType` to `prefix` with the site's URL (or `domain` to include subdomains) and `collapse` to `year`: every URL ever captured under it comes back once per year, including ones that no longer exist.

**Why do I get fewer rows than expected?**
Because `successfulOnly` keeps captures with status 200 by default; switch it off to include redirects and error pages, and set `collapse` to `all` for every single capture.

**How do I open a snapshot?**
`snapshotUrl` opens the archived copy in the browser; replace `web/` with `web/id_/` in the link for the raw HTML without the archive's toolbar.

**What does a run cost when a URL was never archived?**
Nothing. `NOT_ARCHIVED`, `INVALID_URL` and `BLOCKED` rows are free; only delivered snapshots are charged.

**What happens when the source changes?**
Sources change from time to time; that is the nature of this work. The actor is
monitored daily and fixed fast, and while it is broken you are not charged, because
only delivered results cost anything.

# Changelog

This Actor's version history is a separate document: https://apify.com/steadydata/wayback-history/changelog.md

# Actor input Schema

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

One per row, up to 200: a page URL, or a domain for its home page. Use matchType prefix to list every captured page under it.

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

exact for the URL itself, prefix for every URL that starts with it, domain for the whole host including subdomains.

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

all for every capture, day, month or year for one per period, change for only captures whose content differs from the previous one.

## `sinceDate` (type: `string`):

Only captures on or after this date (YYYY-MM-DD). Empty means from the first capture.

## `untilDate` (type: `string`):

Only captures on or before this date (YYYY-MM-DD). Empty means up to now.

## `successfulOnly` (type: `boolean`):

Only captures with HTTP status 200. Off includes redirects and errors.

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

Cost ceiling per URL, newest first.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "urls": [
    "https://www.bbc.com/",
    "apify.com"
  ],
  "matchType": "exact",
  "collapse": "month",
  "successfulOnly": true,
  "maxSnapshotsPerUrl": 100
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (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": [
        "https://www.bbc.com/",
        "apify.com"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("steadydata/wayback-history").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": [
        "https://www.bbc.com/",
        "apify.com",
    ] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("steadydata/wayback-history").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": [
    "https://www.bbc.com/",
    "apify.com"
  ]
}' |
apify call steadydata/wayback-history --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

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

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/N8Z5ERXUswzD9DoEB/builds/lXC1PHE1OxcqsTxqy/openapi.json