What is Wayback Machine?
The Wayback Machine is the web archive run by the Internet Archive, a non-profit library based in San Francisco. Since 1996 it has been crawling and storing copies of public web pages, and today it holds more than a trillion captures. Type in a web address and you get a calendar of every date the page was saved, so you can see how it looked years ago.
It is widely used to recover deleted articles, check what a page said at a certain time, find broken links and research the history of a company or website. Anyone can also use Save Page Now to archive a page on demand and get a permanent link to that copy, which is handy for citations and evidence.
Main Features
- Browse saved copies of websites going back to 1996
- Calendar view of every capture date for a URL
- Save Page Now to archive any public page instantly
- Permanent links to archived copies for citations
- Search by site address and keyword
- Browser extensions for quick lookups
How to Get Started with Wayback Machine
- Go to web.archive.org
- Enter the web address you want to look up
- Pick a year and a highlighted date on the calendar
- To archive a page yourself, paste its URL into Save Page Now
Wayback Machine Pricing
The Wayback Machine is free to use. It is run by the non-profit Internet Archive, which is funded by donations.
Who Should Use It?
- Researchers and students citing web sources
- Journalists and fact-checkers
- SEO specialists checking old site versions
- Website owners recovering lost content
- Anyone curious about how the web used to look
Wayback Machine Alternatives
- Semantic Scholar: A free search engine for academic research papers
- Kagi: An ad-free search engine with privacy-focused results
- Free Tool Suite: A collection of free online utilities in one place
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the Wayback Machine free?
Yes. It is free for everyone and is run by the non-profit Internet Archive, which relies on donations.
Can I save a page to the Wayback Machine myself?
Yes. Use Save Page Now on the home page to archive any public page and get a permanent link to the copy.
Why is a page missing from the archive?
Not every page is crawled, and some sites block archiving or ask to be excluded, so a few pages have no saved copies.