How to get a website's Wayback Machine history
The Wayback Machine holds years of snapshots, but pulling them by hand is slow. The Wayback Machine History tool uses the official archive.org APIs to list snapshots, first and last seen dates, captures per year, or every archived URL on a domain.
- Open the tool on Apify. The form is prefilled with sitemaps.org, so Start works right away.
- Pick a mode. Timeline is the quick overview. Snapshots (one per year) is a good first history. Archived URLs is for a migration redirect map.
- Set a row cap. 50 per URL is enough for a look. Raise it when you need the full list.
- Run it, then download JSON, CSV or Excel, or read the dataset through the API.
What you get
- Snapshots: every capture of a URL, with date, status, MIME type, size, a snapshot link and a raw link. Optionally one per day, month, year, or only when the content changed.
- Timeline: one row per URL with first seen, last seen, total captures, captures per year, status code counts and how many times the content actually changed.
- Archived URLs: every unique URL the archive holds for a domain, a host, or a path prefix, with the first capture of each.
- Closest: the capture nearest to a date, for example what the page looked like on January 1, 2015.
Who it is for
SEO agencies recovering old URLs before a migration, or rebuilding a redirect map. Domain buyers who want to know what an aged name used to host. Researchers and journalists who need a dated archive link. Developers who want clean JSON at a predictable price.
A real sample
First yearly snapshots of sitemaps.org, from a real run on November 12, 2026:
| Captured (UTC) | Archived URL | Status | Snapshot |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2002-04-10 19:25 | http://sitemaps.org:80/ | 200 | view |
| 2004-07-01 21:56 | http://www.sitemaps.org:80/ | 200 | view |
| 2005-02-05 07:08 | http://www.sitemaps.org:80/ | 302 | view |
| 2006-12-05 09:52 | http://sitemaps.org:80/ | 200 | view |
And a timeline row from the same day, for sitemaps.org: first seen April 10, 2002, last seen November 6, 2026, 14,183 captures across 24 years, 58 content versions. One row, charged once. Shortened:
{
"input": "sitemaps.org",
"mode": "timeline",
"firstSeen": "2002-04-10T19:25:31Z",
"lastSeen": "2026-11-06T05:21:29Z",
"totalCaptures": 14183,
"yearsWithCaptures": 24,
"uniqueContentVersions": 58,
"statusCodes": {"200": 4260, "301": 4499, "302": 1557, "403": 20, "503": 12},
"countsComplete": true,
"status": "ok"
}There is a public example too: yearly Wayback snapshots of sitemaps.org.
How it compares
You can look up one URL for free on web.archive.org. This tool is for lists, timelines and domain-wide URL maps you can export. When we priced it on November 12, 2026, other Apify Wayback tools we compared charged $1.00 per 1,000 rows plus a start fee, or $3.50 to $5.00 per 1,000. Ours is $1 per 1,000 rows, with no start fee, and empty lookups are free.
What it costs
$1 per 1,000 rows. No start fee. Inputs with no captures, invalid or private inputs, and archive failures after retries are free. A timeline of 20 domains costs $0.02. You can cap spend with max rows or the run's maximum charge.
Questions
What sources does it use?
Only the official Internet Archive APIs: the CDX server and the Wayback Availability API. It does not scrape web.archive.org pages, and it never downloads or re-hosts archived content. You get snapshot links to open yourself.
What is the difference between Snapshots, Timeline, Archived URLs and Closest?
Snapshots lists captures of a URL, and can collapse to one per day, month, year or content change. Timeline is one row per URL with first seen, last seen, captures per year and status codes. Archived URLs lists every unique URL the archive holds for a domain, host or path prefix. Closest returns the capture nearest to a date you pick.
What if a URL was never archived?
You get one row with status not-found and error code NO_SNAPSHOTS. That row is free.
Is the archive always up?
Not always. Large domain queries can be slow or return a temporary error. The tool retries three times, then writes a free error row and tells you in plain English. For big domains, use a path prefix and a date range.
Do you download the archived pages?
No. Each row has a snapshot link and a raw link. Open or fetch those yourself if you need the content.
Is this legal?
The tool only calls official public APIs, with no login, at about one request per second. You are responsible for how you use the data.