📚 Wayback Machine Checker

Check if URLs are archived on the Wayback Machine and find closest snapshots by date. Essential for compliance, legal evidence, and content restoration.

Store Quickstart

Start with the Quickstart template to verify 3 archived URLs. For bulk verification, use Portfolio Archive Check with up to 500 URLs.

Key Features

• 📚 Official Internet Archive API — Uses archive.org/wayback/available endpoint
• 📅 Closest-snapshot lookup — Find archived version nearest to any date
• 🔍 Availability check — Know if a URL was ever archived
• 📊 Snapshot count — Total archived versions per URL
• ⚡ Bulk processing — Up to 500 URLs per run
• 🔑 No API key needed — Free, open Internet Archive service

Use Cases

Who	Why
Compliance teams	Legal evidence preservation for regulated industries
Journalists	Verify historical versions of web pages that may have been edited
SEO recovery	Restore content from accidentally deleted pages
Brand protection	Track archived versions of competitor sites over time
Academic research	Cite archived web sources in publications

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
urls	string[]	(required)	URLs to check in archive (max 500)
closest	string		Target date YYYY-MM-DD (optional)
checkAvailability	boolean	true	Return availability details

Input Example

{
  "urls": ["https://example.com/old-article", "https://deleted-site.com"],
  "closest": "2020-01-01",
  "checkAvailability": true
}

Output

Field	Type	Description
url	string	URL queried
archived	boolean	Whether the URL has any snapshots in the Wayback Machine
closestSnapshotUrl	string	URL of the closest snapshot to the requested date
closestSnapshotDate	string	Date of the closest snapshot (YYYYMMDDhhmmss)
totalSnapshots	integer	Approximate total snapshots ever taken
firstSnapshotDate	string	Date of the earliest known snapshot
lastSnapshotDate	string	Date of the most recent snapshot

Output Example

{
  "url": "https://example.com/old-article",
  "available": true,
  "closestSnapshot": {
    "url": "https://web.archive.org/web/20200115000000/https://example.com/old-article",
    "timestamp": "20200115000000"
  },
  "archivedVersions": 23
}

API Usage

Run this actor programmatically using the Apify API. Replace YOUR_API_TOKEN with your token from Apify Console → Settings → Integrations.

cURL

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/taroyamada~wayback-machine-checker/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{ "urls": ["https://example.com/old-article", "https://deleted-site.com"], "closest": "2020-01-01", "checkAvailability": true }'

Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_API_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("taroyamada/wayback-machine-checker").call(run_input={
  "urls": ["https://example.com/old-article", "https://deleted-site.com"],
  "closest": "2020-01-01",
  "checkAvailability": true
})

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

JavaScript / Node.js

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: 'YOUR_API_TOKEN' });
const run = await client.actor('taroyamada/wayback-machine-checker').call({
  "urls": ["https://example.com/old-article", "https://deleted-site.com"],
  "closest": "2020-01-01",
  "checkAvailability": true
});

const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

Tips & Limitations

• Use closestDate: "20200101" format (YYYYMMDD) to find a specific historical snapshot.
• Great for verifying when a page was first published or last modified.
• Combine with Broken Link Checker to recover content from dead pages via archive links.
• Wayback Machine is free but rate-limits aggressive callers — keep concurrency low.

FAQ

How far back can I check?

Internet Archive has snapshots back to 1996. Coverage depends on whether a URL was crawled.

Why is my URL 'not available'?

Either it was never archived, or Internet Archive excluded it (due to robots.txt or removal request).

Is this the same as running curl to archive.org?

Yes, but with bulk processing, error handling, and structured output for datasets.

Can I archive new URLs?

This actor only reads from the archive. To save NEW pages, use archive.org's /save/ endpoint.

Why is archived false for my URL?

The Internet Archive may not have crawled that URL yet, or robots.txt blocked it at the time.

Can I trigger a new snapshot?

Not via this actor. Use the Wayback Machine 'Save Page Now' feature manually.

Related Actors

URL/Link Tools cluster — explore related Apify tools:

• 🔗 URL Health Checker — Bulk-check HTTP status codes, redirects, SSL validity, and response times for thousands of URLs.
• 🔗 Broken Link Checker — Crawl websites to find broken links, 404 errors, and dead URLs.
• 🔗 URL Unshortener — Expand bit.
• 🏷️ Meta Tag Analyzer — Analyze meta tags, Open Graph, Twitter Cards, JSON-LD, and hreflang for any URL.
• Sitemap Analyzer API | sitemap.xml SEO Audit — Analyze sitemap.
• Schema.org Validator API | JSON-LD + Microdata — Validate JSON-LD and Microdata across multiple pages, score markup quality, and flag missing or malformed Schema.
• Site Governance Monitor | Robots, Sitemap & Schema — Recurring robots.
• RDAP Domain Monitor API | Ownership + Expiry — Monitor domain registration data via RDAP and track expiry, registrar, nameserver, and ownership changes in structured rows.
• Domain Security Audit API | SSL Expiry, DMARC, Domain Expiry — Summary-first portfolio monitor for SSL expiry, DMARC/SPF/DKIM, domain expiry/ownership, and security headers with remediation-ready outputs.

Cost

Pay Per Event:

• actor-start: $0.01 (flat fee per run)
• dataset-item: $0.003 per output item

Example: 1,000 items = $0.01 + (1,000 × $0.003) = $3.01

No subscription required — you only pay for what you use.