Internet Archive API: Get archived page
Finds the closest Wayback Machine capture of a web page to a past date and returns its title and readable text.
Unofficial. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Internet Archive.
Inputs
Values from the run on Oct 23, 2026, shown under Output.
- Date, required
date Past date as YYYY-MM-DD, YYYY-MM or YYYY, for example 2019-08-12.
2019-08-12
- Page, required
page Website address to view, for example nike.com/pricing or https://example.com/.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_Lovelace
3 characters or more.
Input as JSON
{ "date": "2019-08-12", "page": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_Lovelace" }Output
{ "days_away": 1, "main_text": "Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace ( née Byron ; 10 December 1815 – 27 November 1852) was an English mathematician and writer, chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage 's proposed mechanical general-purpose computer, the Analytical Engine . She was the first to recognise that the machine ha…", "page_title": "Ada Lovelace - Wikipedia", "snapshot_url": "https://web.archive.org/web/20190811044413/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_Lovelace" , "snapshot_datetime": "2019-08-11T04:44:13+00:00"}Code
curl https://api.fous.com/v1/runs \ -H "Authorization: Bearer $FOUS_API_KEY" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{"method":"web.archive.org/get_archived_page","input":{"date":"2019-08-12","page":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_Lovelace"}}' # Save as fous.py, then run: python3 fous.pyimport json, os, timefrom urllib.error import HTTPErrorfrom urllib.request import Request, urlopenAPI = "https://api.fous.com/v1/runs" KEY = os.environ["FOUS_API_KEY"]HEADERS = { "Authorization": f"Bearer {KEY}", "Content-Type": "application/json" ,}def call(url, body=None): data = json.dumps(body).encode() if body else None request = Request(url, data, HEADERS) try: with urlopen(request, timeout=120) as r: return r.status, json.load(r) except HTTPError as error: message = json.load(error)["error"]["message"] raise RuntimeError(message) from errorstatus, run = call(API, { "method": "web.archive.org/get_archived_page" , "input": { "date": "2019-08-12", "page": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_Lovelace" }})# 202: still going after 30 s. Ask again until it ends.while status == 202: time.sleep(2) status, run = call(f"{API}/{run['id']}")print(json.dumps(run["data"], indent=2))// Save as fous.mjs, then run: node fous.mjsconst api = "https://api.fous.com/v1/runs" ;const headers = { Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.FOUS_API_KEY}`, "Content-Type": "application/json" ,};let response = await fetch(api, { method: "POST", headers, body: JSON.stringify({ "method": "web.archive.org/get_archived_page" , "input": { "date": "2019-08-12", "page": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_Lovelace" } }), signal: AbortSignal.timeout(120_000),});let run = await response.json();// 202: still going after 30 s. Ask again until it ends.while (response.status === 202) { await new Promise((done) => setTimeout(done, 2_000)); response = await fetch(`${api}/${run.id}`, { headers }); run = await response.json();}if (!response.ok) throw new Error(run.error.message);console.log(run.data);# Connect your agent to Fous once, over MCP (Streamable HTTP):# https://api.fous.com/mcp# Set FOUS_API_KEY first: create a key at https://app.fous.com/keys.# Claude Codeclaude mcp add \ --scope user \ --transport http fous https://api.fous.com/mcp \ --header "Authorization: Bearer ${FOUS_API_KEY:?Set FOUS_API_KEY to your Fous API key}"# Codexcodex mcp add fous \ --url https://api.fous.com/mcp \ --bearer-token-env-var FOUS_API_KEY# Cursor, VS Code, Windsurf, Cline and morenpx -y add-mcp https://api.fous.com/mcp -g -n fous \ --header "Authorization: Bearer ${FOUS_API_KEY:?Set FOUS_API_KEY to your Fous API key}"# Then ask your agent:# "Use Fous to run web.archive.org/get_archived_page# with {"date":"2019-08-12","page":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_Lovelace"}"Over HTTP, the answer’s data holds the output. A run still going after 30 seconds answers 202 with its id: ask GET /v1/runs/{id} until it ends.
Schema
Input schema
{ "type": "object", "required": [ "page", "date" ], "properties": { "date": { "type": "string", "description": "Past date as YYYY-MM-DD, YYYY-MM or YYYY, for example 2019-08-12." }, "page": { "type": "string", "minLength": 3, "description": "Website address to view, for example nike.com/pricing or https://example.com/." } }, "additionalProperties": false}Output schema
{ "type": "object", "required": [ "snapshot_datetime", "days_away", "snapshot_url", "page_title", "main_text" ], "properties": { "days_away": { "type": "integer", "description": "Number of calendar days between the requested date and capture date." }, "main_text": { "type": "string", "description": "Readable text from the archived page, up to 20,000 characters." }, "page_title": { "type": [ "string", "null" ], "description": "Title from the archived page, if present." }, "snapshot_url": { "type": "string", "description": "Link to the captured page in the Wayback Machine." }, "snapshot_datetime": { "type": "string", "description": "Closest archived capture date and time in UTC (ISO 8601)." } }, "additionalProperties": false}- Price
- 1 credit per completed run (1¢ with pay as you go); failed runs are free.
- Method
web.archive.org/get_archived_page- Returns
- capture time, days from requested date, snapshot URL, page title, main text
Use it from your agent
Give your agent this line. It reads SKILL.md, gets a Fous API key and connects the Fous MCP server. Its run then takes the method web.archive.org/get_archived_page with the inputs above.
Ask your agent
- What did the homepage of nytimes.com look like on 2016-11-08?
- Show me the archived text of bbc.co.uk/news from March 2011.
- Find the Wayback Machine snapshot of github.com/pricing closest to 2020-05-01 and give me its title.
- I need the main text of an old version of a university admissions page from 2008, as close to 2008-09-15 as possible.
- Retrieve the capture of https://www.gov.uk/browse from around 2014 and tell me how many days off the snapshot was.
See more
All Internet Archive methodsLists Wayback Machine captures of a web page, oldest first, with HTTP status and whether the content changed since the previous capture.
web.archive.org/list_snapshotsGets daily weather and time-ordered airport observations for a past date near a city, airport, or ZIP code. Summary averages use the available observations; missing measurements are null.
wunderground.com/get_historical_weatherReturns NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for a date: title, explanation, featured media link, optional high-resolution link, and credit.
nasa.gov/get_astronomy_picture_of_the_dayGets XE's daily mid-market exchange rate for a past UTC date and converts an amount with it.
xe.com/get_historical_rateGets a coin's price, market cap and 24-hour volume at 00:00 UTC on a past date. Non-USD currencies are available only for the last 365 days.
coingecko.com/get_coin_price_on_dateGets official daily Treasury par yield curve rates for a date, or the latest published date on or before it.
home.treasury.gov/get_treasury_yieldsSearches New York Times article headlines and summaries by keyword, optionally within a date range, and returns matching articles with dates, authors, sections and links, newest or most relevant first.
nytimes.com/search_newsSearches historic U.S. newspaper pages (Chronicling America) by text, with optional state and issue-year filters. Returns relevance-ranked page records with snippets and image links; newspaper OCR may contain transcription errors.
loc.gov/search_historic_newspapers