# Wayback Machine Domain History & Archived URLs (`wish.tools/wayback-domain-history`) Actor

TEMPORARILY PAUSED pending data-source permission from the Internet Archive: runs exit immediately, fetch nothing and charge nothing. Domain age and history report from Wayback CDX data: first/last seen, captures per year, gaps, snapshot lists.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/wish.tools/wayback-domain-history.md
- **Developed by:** [Wish Tools](https://apify.com/wish.tools) (community)
- **Categories:** SEO tools, Developer tools
- **Security:** Limited permissions
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $4.00 / 1,000 domain history reports

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 Domain History & Archived URLs

> **⏸ Temporarily paused (since 13 Oct 2026).** We are asking the Internet Archive for permission for this use of Wayback Machine data. Until then, runs exit immediately with the message "Temporarily paused pending data-source permission", fetch nothing from archive.org and **charge nothing**. Please don't schedule runs for now.

Find out **how old a website really is and how it has changed**, from the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. For each domain or URL you get a clean **history report**, and optionally the list of **snapshots** and **every archived URL** ever seen on the domain.

Built on the official **Wayback CDX API** and deliberately **polite**: at most 30 requests per minute, with a full 60-second pause after any rate-limit signal. The Internet Archive is a non-profit; this Actor treats it like one.

### What you get

**Domain history report** (one per target):

- `firstSeen` / `lastSeen`: first and latest capture in the archive
- `yearsActive`, `monthsWithCaptures`, `capturesByYear`
- `statusCodes`: how often the site answered 200, redirects (301/302) or errors
- `contentChanges`: how many times the homepage content changed (month to month)
- `longestGapMonths` + `gaps[]`: periods when the site disappeared from the archive (a classic sign of an expired or dropped domain)
- `redirectsSeen`, `firstSnapshotUrl`, `lastSnapshotUrl`: one-click links to the archived pages

**Snapshots (optional):** individual captures with timestamp, status, MIME type, size, content digest and a direct Wayback link. By default only captures where the content actually changed.

**Archived URLs (optional):** distinct URLs ever captured on the domain and its subdomains, with the date first captured. HTML pages only by default.

### Use cases

- **Domain due diligence:** before buying an expired or aftermarket domain, check its age, gaps and past use
- **SEO and site migrations:** recover old URLs to set up 301 redirects and reclaim lost backlinks
- **Brand and competitor research:** see when a competitor launched, rebranded or changed pricing pages
- **Fraud and KYB checks:** a "company website" that first appeared three weeks ago is a red flag
- **Bulk enrichment:** add website age to lead lists

### Input example

```json
{
  "targets": ["lunar.app", "https://www.tibber.com/"],
  "domainReport": true,
  "snapshots": true,
  "maxSnapshotsPerTarget": 50,
  "archivedUrls": true,
  "maxUrlsPerTarget": 500,
  "fromYear": 2015
}
```

### Output example (report)

```json
{
  "type": "domainReport",
  "target": "lunar.app",
  "archived": true,
  "firstSeen": "2020-03-27T13:18:55+00:00",
  "lastSeen": "2026-10-02T13:08:17+00:00",
  "yearsActive": 7,
  "monthsWithCaptures": 68,
  "capturesByYear": {"2020": 9, "2021": 6, "2022": 12, "2023": 10, "2024": 11, "2025": 12, "2026": 8},
  "statusCodes": {"200": 3, "301": 11, "302": 13, "307": 24, "308": 9},
  "contentChanges": 2,
  "longestGapMonths": 3,
  "firstSnapshotUrl": "https://web.archive.org/web/20200327131855/https://lunar.app/"
}
```

Each item has a `type` (`domainReport`, `snapshot`, `archivedUrl`, `error`); the dataset has two ready-made views. See `sample_output.json`.

### Pricing

- **$0.01 per domain report**
- **$0.001 per snapshot or archived-URL record** ($1 per 1,000)

Targets that the Internet Archive fails to answer produce a free `error` item. Use the run's maximum cost setting to cap spending; the Actor stops cleanly at your limit.

### Speed and limits

To respect the Internet Archive, the Actor makes at most 0.5 requests per second (one report ≈ 2 requests). The archive is sometimes slow or briefly unavailable; the Actor retries with backoff. Expect roughly **15–25 domain reports per minute** when the archive is healthy, and slower when it isn't. Large URL lists are fetched in one request per target (up to your max).

### Notes

Data comes from the Internet Archive's public Wayback CDX API. The Internet Archive's terms describe access as being for research and scholarship. Use the results accordingly, and support the Archive at https://archive.org/donate. This Actor is not affiliated with the Internet Archive.

### Privacy: personal contact data is removed

Every output item is passed through a sanitiser before it is saved. Email addresses and phone numbers anywhere in any text field (title, description, HTML, location, URLs, errors…) are replaced with `[redacted]`, and contact-person, recruiter and hiring-manager fields are dropped. Names introduced as a contact ("Your contact: …", "Ansprechpartnerin: …") are also redacted. The output contains organisation-level data only and is not meant for contacting individuals.

# Actor input Schema

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

Domains (example.com) or page URLs (https://example.com/pricing). One report per entry.

## `domainReport` (type: `boolean`):

One summary per target: first/last seen in the archive, years active, captures per year, status codes, number of content changes, longest archive gaps, links to first and last snapshot. Charged per report.

## `snapshots` (type: `boolean`):

List individual archived captures of the target with direct Wayback links. Charged per record.

## `onlyContentChanges` (type: `boolean`):

Skip captures that are byte-identical to the previous one (collapse by digest).

## `maxSnapshotsPerTarget` (type: `integer`):

Upper limit of snapshot records per target (oldest first).

## `archivedUrls` (type: `boolean`):

List distinct URLs ever archived on the domain and its subdomains (with first capture). Useful for finding old pages for redirects, migrations and content audits. Charged per record.

## `maxUrlsPerTarget` (type: `integer`):

Upper limit of distinct archived URLs per target.

## `urlsHtmlOnly` (type: `boolean`):

Skip images, scripts, CSS and other assets when discovering URLs.

## `onlySuccessful` (type: `boolean`):

For snapshot and URL lists: skip redirects and errors.

## `fromYear` (type: `integer`):

Optional lower bound.

## `toYear` (type: `integer`):

Optional upper bound.

## `requestsPerSecond` (type: `string`):

The Internet Archive is a non-profit; this Actor never exceeds its published guidance and pauses all requests for 60 s after any rate-limit response.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "targets": [
    "example.com",
    "https://example.com/pricing"
  ],
  "domainReport": true,
  "snapshots": false,
  "onlyContentChanges": true,
  "maxSnapshotsPerTarget": 100,
  "archivedUrls": false,
  "maxUrlsPerTarget": 1000,
  "urlsHtmlOnly": true,
  "onlySuccessful": false,
  "requestsPerSecond": "0.5"
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `reports` (type: `string`):

One history report per target.

## `records` (type: `string`):

Optional snapshot and archived URL rows.

# 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",
        "lunar.app"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("wish.tools/wayback-domain-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 = { "targets": [
        "apify.com",
        "lunar.app",
    ] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("wish.tools/wayback-domain-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 '{
  "targets": [
    "apify.com",
    "lunar.app"
  ]
}' |
apify call wish.tools/wayback-domain-history --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,wish.tools/wayback-domain-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/ZiO5pMSeqUrNHlRWH/builds/lbekrMbt9eOjhSHkI/openapi.json