# Wayback Machine Scraper – Internet Archive Snapshots (`ninhothedev/wayback-machine-scraper`) Actor

$1/1K 🔥 Fast Wayback Machine scraper! Internet Archive snapshot history & availability — timestamps, URLs, status & MIME. JSON, CSV, Excel or API in seconds. Paste URLs & pull thousands of captures for OSINT, SEO & research ⚡

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

## Pricing

from $1.00 / 1,000 results

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/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
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.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## 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.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## Wayback Machine Scraper – Internet Archive Snapshots

**Get clean snapshot history and closest-available captures for any URL from the Wayback Machine (Internet Archive). Full CDX capture timeline or the snapshot nearest a date. As JSON, CSV or Excel. No key, no proxy.**

### 💵 Pricing

**Pay per result — about $1 per 1,000 items (input and output).** No subscription, no proxy needed. You only pay for the data you scrape, and new Apify accounts include free monthly credits so you can test it for **$0**.

### 🔎 What can it extract?

- **Full snapshot history** for a URL (every archived capture via the CDX index)
- Capture `timestamp_iso`, ready-to-open `snapshot_url`, MIME type, HTTP status, digest, length
- **Closest available snapshot** to any target date (or the latest)
- Works with bare domains (`apple.com`) or deep URLs (`github.com/about`)
- Optional `fromYear` / `toYear` range filtering

### 🚀 How do I use it?

1. Click **Try for free**.
2. Set the input (see example below).
3. Click **Start** and download results as JSON, CSV or Excel — or pull them via the API / schedule them.

### ⚙️ Input example

```json
{
  "mode": "snapshots",
  "urls": ["apple.com", "github.com"],
  "maxItems": 100
}
```

Availability lookup:

```json
{
  "mode": "available",
  "urls": ["apple.com"],
  "targetDate": "20150101"
}
```

### 📦 Output example

```json
{
  "url": "http://www.apple.com/",
  "timestamp_iso": "1998-05-25T09:12:35",
  "snapshot_url": "http://web.archive.org/web/19980525091235/http://www.apple.com/",
  "mimetype": "text/html",
  "status_code": "200"
}
```

### 🎯 Use cases

- **OSINT** — investigate how a site looked and changed over time
- **SEO** — audit historical content, redirects and status codes
- **Research** — build datasets of web history and page evolution
- **Web archiving** — enumerate every capture of a domain

### 💰 How much will it cost?

You pay only the per-result price (no proxy cost):
100 → ~$0.10 · 1,000 → ~$1 · 10,000 → ~$10

### 🆚 Why this one

| Feature | This actor | Others |
|---|---|---|
| Full CDX capture history | ✅ | latest only |
| Closest-to-date lookup | ✅ | partial |
| Bare domain + deep URL | ✅ | sometimes |
| No key, no proxy | ✅ | sometimes |

### 🔗 Related actors

- [Website Tech Stack Detector](https://apify.com/ninhothedev/website-tech-stack-detector) — detect frameworks & tools
- [RDAP Domain Scraper](https://apify.com/ninhothedev/rdap-domain-scraper) — domain registration data
- [Google News Scraper](https://apify.com/ninhothedev/google-news-scraper) — news articles
- [Wikipedia Scraper](https://apify.com/ninhothedev/wikipedia-scraper) — knowledge

### ❓ FAQ

**Key/proxy?** No, the Internet Archive is public. **How far back?** As far as the archive holds — often the late 1990s. **Bulk?** Pass many URLs at once.

### 🛟 Support

Found a bug or need an extra field? Open an issue on the actor — fixes and new fields ship fast.

### Legal & privacy

Data via the public Internet Archive Wayback Machine (availability + CDX APIs).

***

**Keywords:** wayback machine scraper, internet archive, web archive, snapshot history, cdx, osint, seo, domain history, JSON CSV Excel

# Actor input Schema

## `mode` (type: `string`):

snapshots = full capture history for each URL (CDX index). available = closest snapshot to targetDate (or the latest capture) for each URL.

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

One or more URLs or domains to look up in the Internet Archive, e.g. apple.com or https://github.com/about.

## `targetDate` (type: `string`):

Only for mode=available. Find the snapshot closest to this date, format YYYYMMDD (e.g. 20150101). Leave empty to get the latest snapshot.

## `fromYear` (type: `string`):

Optional lower bound for snapshots mode, format YYYY (e.g. 2005). Leave empty for no lower bound.

## `toYear` (type: `string`):

Optional upper bound for snapshots mode, format YYYY (e.g. 2020). Leave empty for no upper bound.

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

Maximum number of snapshots returned per URL in snapshots mode.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "mode": "snapshots",
  "urls": [
    "apple.com",
    "github.com"
  ],
  "maxItems": 100
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `snapshots` (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": [
        "apple.com",
        "github.com"
    ],
    "maxItems": 100
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("ninhothedev/wayback-machine-scraper").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": [
        "apple.com",
        "github.com",
    ],
    "maxItems": 100,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("ninhothedev/wayback-machine-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"])
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).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": [
    "apple.com",
    "github.com"
  ],
  "maxItems": 100
}' |
apify call ninhothedev/wayback-machine-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=ninhothedev/wayback-machine-scraper",
                "--header",
                "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

```

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/oUl9Rjun8Z9k2gw8g/builds/MT96GduLXerK7Pd03/openapi.json