Name: Wayback Machine API: Snapshots, URLs, History, Content
Brand: martindata
SKU: api-martindata-wayback-machine-api
Availability: InStock
Author: API Market

# Wayback Machine API

## Overview

The Wayback Machine API reads the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine and returns clean JSON through one endpoint with four modes. Snapshots lists the archived captures of a page, URLs lists every archived URL under a domain, history summarises a domain's archive record with first and last capture and captures per year, and content returns the text of an archived page as Markdown.

It is built for SEO teams, researchers, journalists, compliance teams and data engineers who need to see how a page or site looked in the past, recover old URLs, or track when content changed. Every row carries the original URL, the capture time, the status code and a direct web.archive.org link.

## Features

*   **1 endpoint, 4 modes**: `snapshots`, `urls`, `history` and `content`, chosen with the `mode` field.
*   **Date filters**: limit captures with `dateFrom` and `dateTo`, as a year, month or day.
*   **Change tracking**: `collapse: changes` keeps only captures whose content changed.
*   **Domain-wide URL lists**: every archived URL of a domain, with or without subdomains and query strings.
*   **Archived page text**: the Markdown text, title, headings and optional outgoing links of a capture.
*   **Up to 100 results per call**: set with `maxItems`.
*   **Rate limit**: up to 10 requests per second on every plan.

## Use Cases

*   **SEO and site migrations**: recover old URLs and redirects of a domain.
*   **Change monitoring**: see when a pricing or terms page changed and what it said before.
*   **Research and journalism**: cite how a page looked on a given date.
*   **Compliance and evidence**: keep a dated record of a published page.

## API Documentation

### Base URL

All requests go through the API.market proxy at this base URL:

```
https://prod.api.market/api/v1/martindata/wayback-machine-api
```

### Authentication

Every request must include your API.market key in the `x-api-market-key` header:

```
x-api-market-key: YOUR_API_KEY
```

Replace `YOUR_API_KEY` with your actual API key.

### Endpoints

#### 1. Snapshots of a page

Returns the archived captures of each URL, oldest first, with the capture time, status code, MIME type, size and archive links.

**Method:** `POST`

**Endpoint:** `/m/wayback-machine-scraper`

**Parameters:**

| Name | In | Description | Type | Required | Default | Max Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| mode | body | Set to `snapshots` | string | Yes | - | - |
| urls | body | Pages or domains, such as `apify.com` or `https://example.com/pricing`. Wayback links work too | array of strings | Yes | - | - |
| dateFrom | body | Only captures from this date: 2020, 2020-05 or 2020-05-17. Empty = from the first capture. | string | No | - | - |
| dateTo | body | Only captures up to this date: 2023, 2023-12 or 2023-12-31. Empty = until today. | string | No | - | - |
| collapse | body | 'Content change' returns only versions whose content changed (best for change tracking). Day/month/year return at most one capture per period. | string | No | - | - |
| onlySuccessful | body | Skip redirects, 404s and errors (snapshots and URLs modes). | boolean | No | - | - |
| maxItems | body | Stop after this many results in total. | integer | No | 20 | 100 |

**Example Request:**

```bash
curl -X POST 'https://prod.api.market/api/v1/martindata/wayback-machine-api/m/wayback-machine-scraper' \
  -H 'x-api-market-key: YOUR_API_KEY' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
  "mode": "snapshots",
  "urls": [
    "apify.com"
  ],
  "collapse": "changes",
  "maxItems": 5
}'
```

**Example Response (200 OK):**

```json
{
  "count": 5,
  "items": [
    {
      "archiveUrl": "https://web.archive.org/web/20070531101538/http://www.apify.com:80/",
      "capturedAt": "2007-05-31T10:15:38Z",
      "digest": "EE6FCHP3MKBC3EV5D5Q4WQJNZNVUTNU6",
      "input": "https://apify.com",
      "mimeType": "text/html",
      "rawUrl": "https://web.archive.org/web/20070531101538id_/http://www.apify.com:80/",
      "scrapedAt": "2026-11-05T20:59:42Z",
      "sizeBytes": 1013,
      "statusCode": 200,
      "timestamp": "20070531101538",
      "url": "http://www.apify.com:80/"
    },
    {
      "archiveUrl": "https://web.archive.org/web/20110210025321/http://apify.com/",
      "capturedAt": "2011-02-10T02:53:21Z",
      "digest": "YW37QD7ORZTIPSZS3TXWLLEG5APRIPB3",
      "input": "https://apify.com",
      "mimeType": "text/html",
      "rawUrl": "https://web.archive.org/web/20110210025321id_/http://apify.com/",
      "scrapedAt": "2026-11-05T20:59:42Z",
      "sizeBytes": 2801,
      "statusCode": 200,
      "timestamp": "20110210025321",
      "url": "http://apify.com/"
    }
  ]
}
```

#### 2. Archived URLs of a domain

Returns every archived URL found under each domain or path prefix, with its first capture time and a link to the latest capture.

**Method:** `POST`

**Endpoint:** `/m/wayback-machine-scraper`

**Parameters:**

| Name | In | Description | Type | Required | Default | Max Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| mode | body | Set to `urls` | string | Yes | - | - |
| urls | body | Pages or domains, such as `apify.com` or `https://example.com/pricing`. Wayback links work too | array of strings | Yes | - | - |
| dateFrom | body | Only captures from this date: 2020, 2020-05 or 2020-05-17. Empty = from the first capture. | string | No | - | - |
| dateTo | body | Only captures up to this date: 2023, 2023-12 or 2023-12-31. Empty = until today. | string | No | - | - |
| includeSubdomains | body | On = every archived URL on the domain and all subdomains. Off = only URLs that start with the given URL (path prefix). | boolean | No | - | - |
| ignoreQueryStrings | body | On = one row per page path (drops duplicates like ?utm_source=... or session IDs). Off = every distinct URL including query strings. | boolean | No | - | - |
| fileExtensions | body | Only URLs ending with these extensions, e.g. pdf, xml, js, json, zip. Empty = all. | array of strings | No | - | - |
| mimeType | body | Regex on the MIME type, e.g. text/html or application/pdf. Empty = all. | string | No | - | - |
| maxScannedRows | body | Safety limit for very large domains when filtering by extension or MIME type. Each 500 rows take roughly 5-40 seconds on the archive side. | integer | No | - | - |
| onlySuccessful | body | Skip redirects, 404s and errors (snapshots and URLs modes). | boolean | No | - | - |
| maxItems | body | Stop after this many results in total. | integer | No | 20 | 100 |

**Example Request:**

```bash
curl -X POST 'https://prod.api.market/api/v1/martindata/wayback-machine-api/m/wayback-machine-scraper' \
  -H 'x-api-market-key: YOUR_API_KEY' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
  "mode": "urls",
  "urls": [
    "example.com"
  ],
  "maxItems": 5
}'
```

**Example Response (200 OK):**

```json
{
  "count": 1,
  "items": [
    {
      "archiveUrl": "https://web.archive.org/web/20020120142510/http://example.com:80/",
      "extension": null,
      "firstCapturedAt": "2002-01-20T14:25:10Z",
      "host": "example.com",
      "input": "https://example.com",
      "latestArchiveUrl": "https://web.archive.org/web/2/http://example.com:80/",
      "mimeType": "text/html",
      "path": "/",
      "query": null,
      "scrapedAt": "2026-11-05T21:00:43Z",
      "statusCode": 200,
      "url": "http://example.com:80/"
    }
  ]
}
```

#### 3. Domain history

Returns one summary row per domain: whether it is archived, first and last capture, captures per year and the days with captures.

**Method:** `POST`

**Endpoint:** `/m/wayback-machine-scraper`

**Parameters:**

| Name | In | Description | Type | Required | Default | Max Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| mode | body | Set to `history` | string | Yes | - | - |
| urls | body | Pages or domains, such as `apify.com` or `https://example.com/pricing`. Wayback links work too | array of strings | Yes | - | - |
| dateFrom | body | Only captures from this date: 2020, 2020-05 or 2020-05-17. Empty = from the first capture. | string | No | - | - |
| dateTo | body | Only captures up to this date: 2023, 2023-12 or 2023-12-31. Empty = until today. | string | No | - | - |
| maxItems | body | Stop after this many results in total. | integer | No | 20 | 100 |

**Example Request:**

```bash
curl -X POST 'https://prod.api.market/api/v1/martindata/wayback-machine-api/m/wayback-machine-scraper' \
  -H 'x-api-market-key: YOUR_API_KEY' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
  "mode": "history",
  "urls": [
    "python.org"
  ],
  "maxItems": 3
}'
```

**Example Response (200 OK):**

```json
{
  "count": 1,
  "items": [
    {
      "archived": true,
      "capturesPerYear": {
        "1997": 4,
        "1998": 4,
        "1999": 14,
        "2000": 18,
        "2001": 33,
        "2002": 35,
        "2003": 25,
        "2004": 170,
        "2005": 300,
        "2006": 68,
        "2007": 79,
        "2008": 56,
        "2009": 93,
        "2010": 112,
        "2011": 149,
        "2012": 159,
        "2013": 186,
        "2014": 359,
        "2015": 323,
        "2016": 333,
        "2017": 354,
        "2018": 363,
        "2019": 364,
        "2020": 366,
        "2021": 362,
        "2022": 365,
        "2023": 365,
        "2024": 365,
        "2025": 365,
        "2026": 309
      },
      "daysWithCaptures": 6098,
      "daysWithStatus200": 3049,
      "distinctVersions": 2047,
      "firstCapturedAt": "1997-05-01T01:16:26Z",
      "firstSnapshotUrl": "https://web.archive.org/web/19970501011626/https://python.org",
      "input": "https://python.org",
      "lastCapturedAt": "2026-11-05T01:44:46Z",
      "lastSnapshotUrl": "https://web.archive.org/web/20261105014446/https://python.org",
      "scrapedAt": "2026-11-05T21:01:06Z",
      "snapshotsByYear": {
        "1997": "https://web.archive.org/web/19970701000000*/https://python.org",
        "1998": "https://web.archive.org/web/19980701000000*/https://python.org",
        "1999": "https://web.archive.org/web/19990701000000*/https://python.org",
        "2000": "https://web.archive.org/web/20000701000000*/https://python.org",
        "2001": "https://web.archive.org/web/20010701000000*/https://python.org",
        "2002": "https://web.archive.org/web/20020701000000*/https://python.org",
        "2003": "https://web.archive.org/web/20030701000000*/https://python.org",
        "2004": "https://web.archive.org/web/20040701000000*/https://python.org",
        "2005": "https://web.archive.org/web/20050701000000*/https://python.org",
        "2006": "https://web.archive.org/web/20060701000000*/https://python.org",
        "2007": "https://web.archive.org/web/20070701000000*/https://python.org",
        "2008": "https://web.archive.org/web/20080701000000*/https://python.org",
        "2009": "https://web.archive.org/web/20090701000000*/https://python.org",
        "2010": "https://web.archive.org/web/20100701000000*/https://python.org",
        "2011": "https://web.archive.org/web/20110701000000*/https://python.org",
        "2012": "https://web.archive.org/web/20120701000000*/https://python.org",
        "2013": "https://web.archive.org/web/20130701000000*/https://python.org",
        "2014": "https://web.archive.org/web/20140701000000*/https://python.org",
        "2015": "https://web.archive.org/web/20150701000000*/https://python.org",
        "2016": "https://web.archive.org/web/20160701000000*/https://python.org",
        "2017": "https://web.archive.org/web/20170701000000*/https://python.org",
        "2018": "https://web.archive.org/web/20180701000000*/https://python.org",
        "2019": "https://web.archive.org/web/20190701000000*/https://python.org",
        "2020": "https://web.archive.org/web/20200701000000*/https://python.org",
        "2021": "https://web.archive.org/web/20210701000000*/https://python.org",
        "2022": "https://web.archive.org/web/20220701000000*/https://python.org",
        "2023": "https://web.archive.org/web/20230701000000*/https://python.org",
        "2024": "https://web.archive.org/web/20240701000000*/https://python.org",
        "2025": "https://web.archive.org/web/20250701000000*/https://python.org",
        "2026": "https://web.archive.org/web/20260701000000*/https://python.org"
      },
      "statusCodes": {
        "-": 691,
        "200": 3049,
        "204": 1,
        "301": 2350,
        "403": 3,
        "404": 2,
        "500": 1,
        "503": 1
      },
      "yearsOnArchive": 29.5,
      "yearsWithoutCaptures": []
    }
  ]
}
```

#### 4. Archived page content

Returns the text of the capture closest to `snapshotDate` as Markdown, with the title, headings and capture details.

**Method:** `POST`

**Endpoint:** `/m/wayback-machine-scraper`

**Parameters:**

| Name | In | Description | Type | Required | Default | Max Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| mode | body | Set to `content` | string | Yes | - | - |
| urls | body | Pages or domains, such as `apify.com` or `https://example.com/pricing`. Wayback links work too | array of strings | Yes | - | - |
| snapshotDate | body | Return the capture closest to this date, e.g. 2019-06-01. Empty = the latest capture. | string | No | - | - |
| maxContentChars | body | Maximum length of the Markdown text per page. | integer | No | - | - |
| includeLinks | body | Add the list of outgoing links found on the archived page (original URLs, not archive URLs). | boolean | No | - | - |
| maxItems | body | Stop after this many results in total. | integer | No | 20 | 100 |

**Example Request:**

```bash
curl -X POST 'https://prod.api.market/api/v1/martindata/wayback-machine-api/m/wayback-machine-scraper' \
  -H 'x-api-market-key: YOUR_API_KEY' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
  "mode": "content",
  "urls": [
    "https://example.com"
  ],
  "snapshotDate": "2020-01-01",
  "maxContentChars": 2000,
  "maxItems": 1
}'
```

**Example Response (200 OK):**

```json
{
  "count": 1,
  "items": [
    {
      "archiveUrl": "https://web.archive.org/web/20200101231047/https://example.com/",
      "archived": true,
      "canonicalUrl": null,
      "capturedAt": "2020-01-01T23:10:47Z",
      "h1": [
        "Example Domain"
      ],
      "input": "https://example.com",
      "language": null,
      "markdown": "Example Domain\nThis domain is for use in illustrative examples in documents. You may use this\n    domain in literature without prior coordination or asking for permission.\nMore information...",
      "metaDescription": null,
      "rawUrl": "https://web.archive.org/web/20200101231047id_/https://example.com/",
      "scrapedAt": "2026-11-05T21:01:21Z",
      "statusCode": 200,
      "timestamp": "20200101231047",
      "title": "Example Domain",
      "truncated": false,
      "url": "https://example.com/",
      "wordCount": 28
    }
  ]
}
```

## Status Codes

| Code | Status | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 200 | OK | The request succeeded and the response body holds the result. |
| 400 | Bad Request | A required parameter is missing or a value is invalid. Check the parameter table for the endpoint. |
| 401 | Unauthorized | The `x-api-market-key` header is missing or the key is not valid. |
| 403 | Forbidden | Your key is valid but your subscription does not allow this request, for example an endpoint outside your plan. |
| 404 | Not Found | The path does not exist, or the resource you asked for was not found. |
| 429 | Too Many Requests | You sent more than 10 requests per second. Slow down and retry, honouring the `Retry-After` header. |
| 500 | Internal Server Error | Something went wrong while processing the request. Retry after a short wait. |
| 503 | Service Unavailable | The service or its upstream data source is temporarily unavailable. Retry with backoff. |

## Rate Limits

Every plan allows up to 10 requests per second. Subscription plans also have a monthly call quota shown on the pricing page. Sending more than 10 requests per second returns `429 Too Many Requests`. Throttle your client to stay under 10 requests per second, back off and retry when you get a 429, and honour the `Retry-After` header when it is present.

## FAQ

*   **Which mode should I use?**

    Use `snapshots` for the captures of one page, `urls` to list every archived URL of a domain, `history` for a summary of a domain's archive record, and `content` to read an archived page.

*   **Why is the urls mode slower?**

    It scans the archive index of the whole domain. Large domains can take a minute or more, so keep `maxItems` low or narrow the scan with `fileExtensions` or `mimeType`.

*   **What does collapse do?**

    `changes` returns only captures whose content changed. `hour`, `day`, `month` and `year` return at most one capture per period. `none` returns every capture.

*   **How long does a call take?**

    Most calls answer in 5 to 30 seconds because the data is fetched live. Some modes can take up to a minute or more on large inputs, so set your client timeout to at least 150 seconds.

*   **Are repeated requests cached?**

    Yes. An identical request made within 6 hours returns the cached result straight away.

## Contact Us

If you have any questions or need assistance, you can reach out to us through the embedded chat on the bottom right corner of the page or send an email to hello@magicapi.com.


Get Wayback Machine snapshots of a page, every archived URL of a domain, domain history and archived page text as clean JSON.

Wayback Machine API: Snapshots, URLs, History, Content