# 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.

- Page: https://fous.com/methods/web.archive.org/get-archived-page
- Method: `web.archive.org/get_archived_page`, version 1
- Website: web.archive.org
- Returns: capture time, days from requested date, snapshot URL, page title, main text
- Effect: read (it gets data and changes nothing)
- Sign-in: none needed
- Cost: 1 credit per completed run (1¢ with pay as you go); failed runs are free

## Inputs

| Field | Type | Required | In the run below | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| `date` | string | yes | `"2019-08-12"` | Past date as YYYY-MM-DD, YYYY-MM or YYYY, for example 2019-08-12. |
| `page` | string | yes | `"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_Lovelace"` | Website address to view, for example nike.com/pricing or https://example.com/. |

## Output

From a run on Oct 23, 2026, shortened. Its input:

```json
{
  "date": "2019-08-12",
  "page": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_Lovelace"
}
```

Its output:

```json
{
  "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"
}
```

## Run it

From code, with a Fous API key in `FOUS_API_KEY`; the answer's `data` holds the output:

```bash
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"}}'
```

From an AI agent connected to the Fous MCP server: its `run` with the same method and input. To connect one, give it `set up https://fous.com/SKILL.md`.

## 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.

## Input schema

```json
{
  "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

```json
{
  "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
}
```

## See more

- [Internet Archive API: List archived snapshots of a page](https://fous.com/methods/web.archive.org/list-snapshots.md): Lists Wayback Machine captures of a web page, oldest first, with HTTP status and whether the content changed since the previous capture.
- [Weather Underground API: Get historical weather](https://fous.com/methods/wunderground.com/get-historical-weather.md): Gets 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.
- [NASA API: Get astronomy picture of the day](https://fous.com/methods/nasa.gov/get-astronomy-picture-of-the-day.md): Returns NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for a date: title, explanation, featured media link, optional high-resolution link, and credit.
- [XE API: Get historical exchange rate](https://fous.com/methods/xe.com/get-historical-rate.md): Gets XE's daily mid-market exchange rate for a past UTC date and converts an amount with it.
- [CoinGecko API: Get coin price on date](https://fous.com/methods/coingecko.com/get-coin-price-on-date.md): Gets 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.
- [U.S. Treasury API: Get Treasury yields](https://fous.com/methods/home.treasury.gov/get-treasury-yields.md): Gets official daily Treasury par yield curve rates for a date, or the latest published date on or before it.
- [The New York Times API: Search articles](https://fous.com/methods/nytimes.com/search-news.md): Searches 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.
- [loc.gov API: Search historic newspapers](https://fous.com/methods/loc.gov/search-historic-newspapers.md): Searches 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.
- [All Internet Archive methods](https://fous.com/methods/archive.org.md)