Archive.today (also accessible as archive.ph and archive.is — all the same service) is one of the two most widely used web archiving tools available today. If you’ve ever clicked an archive link on a news article or shared a link to a deleted page, you’ve probably encountered it without knowing the details of how it works or how it compares to the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. This guide covers both.
What Archive.today Actually Is
Archive.today is a web archiving service founded in 2012 that saves snapshots of web pages on demand. Unlike the Wayback Machine, which continuously crawls the public web using automated bots, archive.today operates primarily on user submissions. Someone pastes a URL and clicks Save; the service renders the page and stores a permanent copy.
The service runs under several domains — archive.today, archive.ph, archive.is, archive.fo, archive.md, archive.li — because it has faced blocking or legal challenges in various countries. When one domain is unreachable, another typically works. All point to the same service and archive.
The operator remains anonymous, which has been a source of criticism. Unlike the Internet Archive (a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with a clear governance structure), archive.today does not publicly disclose who runs it or how it’s funded.
How It Differs from the Wayback Machine
Understanding what each service does helps you choose the right tool:
The Wayback Machine (web.archive.org) operates through automated, continuous web crawling. It has archived over a trillion pages since 1996. Most of what’s in it was captured without anyone specifically requesting it — the bots found it by following links. This gives it unmatched historical breadth. The Wayback Machine is the right first stop for pages that have existed for years, popular sites that were crawled frequently, and anything where you want historical snapshots over time.
Archive.today operates primarily through user submissions. If no one submitted a page, it probably doesn’t have it. But what it does have was saved because someone wanted it saved — often meaning controversial content, articles likely to be deleted, or paywalled pieces. Archive.today also renders JavaScript-heavy pages effectively and captures full screenshots alongside HTML, which means it handles modern, dynamic websites reliably.
Coverage difference in practice: For a news article published in 2018 from a major outlet, the Wayback Machine likely has dozens of captures. For a niche blog post that was never submitted to archive.today, the Wayback Machine might have it but archive.today probably doesn’t. For a paywalled Wall Street Journal article published today, archive.today is more likely to have a usable copy.
For a broader overview of archiving tools including the Wayback Machine’s calendar view and API, see How to Find an Archived Version of Any Website.
How to Save a Page to Archive.today
- Go to archive.today
- Paste the full URL of the page you want to archive into the top field (labeled “My url is alive and I want to archive its content”)
- Click Save
- The service will render the page — this takes 10-60 seconds depending on page complexity
- When complete, you’ll get a permanent URL to the snapshot (format:
archive.today/[alphanumeric])
That URL is permanent. Bookmark it or share it — it should remain accessible indefinitely (the service’s stated policy is permanent storage).
Checking if a Page Has Already Been Archived
If you want to see existing snapshots before creating a new one:
- Go to archive.today
- Paste the URL into the bottom field (labeled “I want to search the existing records”)
- Click the search icon
You’ll see a list of snapshots with dates, or a message that no archive exists. Multiple snapshots of the same URL appear in reverse chronological order.
The robots.txt Controversy
One of archive.today’s most significant policy differences from the Wayback Machine is its treatment of robots.txt directives.
Website owners can use a robots.txt file to signal to crawlers that they don’t want their content archived. The Wayback Machine generally honors these requests for new crawls and has a process for site owners to request exclusion. Archive.today does not honor robots.txt opt-out requests — once a page is submitted, the snapshot stays.
The service’s stated rationale is that it acts as an agent of the submitting user, not as an automated crawler. Critics — particularly publishers — have argued this makes it difficult to remove content they want taken down. The service does not have a public self-service removal process. Only clear legal requirements (copyright claims, defamation actions) have reliably led to removals, and even those are handled informally.
Archive.today has also faced allegations of using automated accounts to access paywalled content, and was involved in a publicized dispute with a security blogger in which it was accused of orchestrating DDoS attacks. These controversies are worth knowing about as context, though they don’t affect the tool’s practical utility for most users accessing publicly available pages.
When to Use Archive.today vs the Wayback Machine
Use archive.today when:
- The page is paywalled and you want to check if someone submitted a readable copy
- The Wayback Machine doesn’t have the specific page you need
- You want to preserve a page right now before it might be deleted (especially if it’s controversial or likely to disappear)
- The site blocks the Wayback Machine’s crawler via robots.txt
Use the Wayback Machine when:
- You need historical snapshots of a page over time (not just one)
- The page has existed for years and you want coverage from a specific period
- You want to submit a URL for ongoing crawls (not just a one-time snapshot)
- You need a nonprofit-backed, institutionally transparent archive
Use both as complements: A URL not found in one may be in the other. When recovering a dead link, checking both services doubles the chance of finding a usable copy.
How to Submit a URL for Future Protection
If you want to protect a page you care about before it disappears:
Wayback Machine: Go to web.archive.org and use the “Save Page Now” box on the right side of the homepage. Paste the URL and click Save. No account needed.
Archive.today: Go to archive.today, paste the URL into the top field, and click Save.
Both are free and take under a minute. Submitting to both is the safest approach for content you specifically don’t want to lose.
What Archive.today Saves (and What It Doesn’t)
Archive.today captures a full HTML snapshot of the page as rendered, including inline styles and images, plus a screenshot of the rendered page. This makes it more reliable for visually complex pages than plain HTML dumps.
What it doesn’t preserve well:
- Video embeds: Embedded YouTube or Vimeo content is not saved, only the embed placeholder
- Login-gated content (unless archive.today has account access, which it is alleged to maintain for some major publications)
- Interactive functionality: Forms, dynamic filters, and JavaScript interactions are captured as static snapshots, not functional replicas
- Linked pages: Archiving one URL does not archive the pages it links to
Link Rot in Your Bookmarks: Where Archive.today Fits
If you have a collection of saved links, a portion have already gone dead — the older the collection, the higher the percentage. Manually checking each one against both archive.today and the Wayback Machine is time-consuming.
Bookmend automates the Wayback Machine recovery step for your Chrome bookmarks: it detects dead links (confirming each failure twice 48 hours apart to avoid false positives), then finds the Wayback Machine snapshot closest to when you originally saved each link. For pages the Wayback Machine doesn’t have but archive.today does, you’d need to check archive.today manually — but Bookmend handles the systematic scan and the Wayback recovery for most cases automatically.
Run a free rot check on your bookmarks export to see how many of your saved links have gone dead. No upload, no account, everything runs locally in your browser.
Troubleshooting: What to Do When Archive.today Is Blocked
Archive.today has been blocked in various countries and by some corporate or institutional network filters. If archive.today returns an error or does not load, try these alternatives:
Try a different domain. Archive.today operates under multiple domains — archive.ph, archive.is, archive.fo, archive.md, archive.li — because of blocking in different regions. If one is unreachable on your network, another is likely accessible. All domains serve the same archive.
Check if it is a regional block. In some countries (Turkey, for instance, has had periods of blocking), ISP-level blocks prevent access to specific domains. A VPN or DNS change may resolve this. Using a DNS resolver like 1.1.1.1 (Cloudflare) instead of your ISP’s default DNS can sometimes bypass DNS-level blocks without a full VPN.
Use the Wayback Machine instead. For any URL you cannot access via archive.today, check web.archive.org. The two services overlap significantly for popular news and public pages. The Wayback Machine has broader historical coverage and is rarely blocked.
Use Google Search cached links or other cached versions. For recent pages, Google previously cached pages in its search index — though this cache was deprecated in early 2024 and access is no longer reliable.
How Archive.today Handles Dynamic and JavaScript-Heavy Pages
Archive.today’s approach to capturing pages sets it apart from simpler HTML archiving tools. When you submit a URL, archive.today uses a headless browser (a real browser engine operating without a visible window) to render the full page, including JavaScript execution and CSS rendering. It then saves:
- A full rendered HTML snapshot with inline styles extracted and external resources embedded where possible
- A PNG screenshot of the full rendered page
This two-part capture means dynamic content that requires JavaScript to display — carousels, dynamically loaded articles, infinite scroll content that was loaded at the time of capture — is preserved as a static frozen state. The screenshot is especially valuable for this: even if the HTML snapshot has rendering issues in a modern browser, the screenshot shows exactly what the page looked like when it was saved.
The limitation is interactive functionality: forms, real-time data widgets, video embeds, and API-driven content that requires live server calls will appear as frozen placeholders in the HTML snapshot. The screenshot, however, captures whatever was visible on screen at the moment of archiving — including any video player thumbnails or loaded feed content.
Frequently asked questions
Archive.today is an independent web archiving service, separate from the Internet Archive. It was founded in 2012 and operates under several domains — archive.today, archive.ph, and archive.is — all pointing to the same service. The operator is anonymous. Unlike the Internet Archive, archive.today is not a registered nonprofit and does not publicly disclose its funding model.
The Wayback Machine automatically crawls the public web using bots and has archived over a trillion pages since 1996. Archive.today primarily saves pages that users explicitly submit — it does not mass-crawl. The Wayback Machine has far greater historical breadth; archive.today is better for paywalled content and pages specifically submitted by someone who wanted them preserved.
No. Archive.today does not honor robots.txt directives the way the Wayback Machine does. It has been criticized for this by publishers and site owners. The Wayback Machine will, in many cases, accept robots.txt-based removal requests for new crawls (and sometimes retroactively). Archive.today generally does not remove archived content except in cases involving clear legal requirements.
Go to archive.today, paste the URL you want to save into the top field labeled 'My url is alive and I want to archive its content,' and click Save. The service will fetch and render the page, then give you a permanent link to the snapshot. The whole process usually takes under a minute.
Paste the URL you're looking for into the bottom search field on archive.today (labeled 'I want to search the existing records'). If the page has been previously archived, you'll see a list of snapshots with timestamps. If no snapshot exists, you'll see an option to submit a new save.
Often yes — more reliably than the Wayback Machine. Archive.today renders the page as a real browser session would see it, which can capture content during a first-visit preview window or before a paywall prompt appears. It has also been reported to maintain accounts at some publications to access content. This is one of its most common use cases.
For looking up and saving publicly accessible pages, yes — it's a widely used tool. The anonymity of its operator and its robots.txt stance have drawn criticism, but there are no widespread reports of harm to users who submit URLs or view archived pages.
Archive.today has faced blocking or legal challenges in various countries, which led to operating under multiple domains (archive.is, archive.ph, archive.fo, archive.md, archive.li). If one domain is unreachable in your country or network, another typically works.
No — archive.today saves one URL at a time. It captures the page at that exact URL, not linked pages or entire site structures. For archiving whole websites, the Wayback Machine's Save Page Now 2 (SPN2) tool supports recursive crawls, or tools like wget --mirror can generate a local static copy.
Both. Archive.today saves a full HTML snapshot of the page (with inline styles and embedded content), plus a rendered screenshot. This is why it handles dynamic and JavaScript-heavy pages well compared to older archiving approaches.
Bookmend uses the Wayback Machine's API to recover dead bookmarks — specifically, it finds the snapshot closest to the date you originally saved each link. Archive.today is a useful manual backup tool when the Wayback Machine doesn't have a particular page. For systematic bookmark recovery, Bookmend automates the Wayback Machine lookup across your whole bookmark collection.
Archive.today does not have a public self-service removal tool. The general policy is that snapshots are permanent. For legally substantiated removal requests (copyright, defamation, etc.), some users have had success contacting the operator, but the process is informal and not guaranteed. This contrasts with the Wayback Machine, which has a more documented exclusion process.
