Archive.today

From HandWiki

archive.today (formerly archive.is) is a web archiving website that saves snapshots on demand. It has support for JavaScript-heavy sites such as Google Maps and X.[1] archive.today records two snapshots: one replicates the original webpage including any functional live links; the other is a screenshot of the page.[2]

History

archive.today was founded in 2012 as a web archive. It allegedly registered its trademark in the Czech Republic in 2013.[3] The site originally branded itself as archive.today, but changed the primary mirror to archive.is in May 2015.[4] It began to deprecate the archive.is domain in favor of other mirrors in January 2019.[5] According to the archive.today blog, the website had saved about 500 million pages by 2021,[6][7] 700 terabytes in total size.[8]

In July 2013, archive.today began supporting the API of the Memento Project at Los Alamos National Laboratory.[9][10] Due to budget constraints at LANL, the Memento Project was disestablished in September 2025.[11]

In early 2023, a team of researchers at the University of Amsterdam identified archive.today as the most-used open-access archiving service among fact-checking organisations, based on the European Digital Media Observatory (it)'s dataset on the Russo-Ukrainian war.[12][13]

In August 2023, the Wikitravel Press co-founder and Google Cloud executive Jani Patokallio published an investigation on his blog Gyrovague regarding archive.today's funding sources and the founder's identity.[7][14]

On 30 October 2025, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) subpoenaed archive.today's domain registrar, Tucows. The subpoena stated its purpose was to identify the owner(s) of the archive.today domain name, and that it was part of a criminal investigation conducted by the FBI, the nature of which was not disclosed.[15][16] The Catalan daily Ara interpreted the action as part of a campaign to selectively criminalize anonymous digital archives reliant on micro-donations (such as Anna's Archive, eliminated by Google from its search results), even though industrial datasets used for training large language models (such as the Common Crawl, financed by OpenAI and Anthropic) also fail to compensate content creators and owners.[8] News coverage of the subpoena mentioned Patokallio's report.[14][17]

Screenshot of LibreWolf's developer tools on the "Network" tab, with multiple automated connections to "gyrovague.com" made by a JavaScript script (all of them are blocked by uBlock Origin browser extension)
Screenshot of archive.today performing a DDoS attack on gyrovague.com

On 14 January 2026, it emerged that archive.today had inserted malicious JavaScript code in its CAPTCHA page to involve visitors in a DDoS attack against Gyrovague, and the archive.today blog posted public criticisms of Patokallio. Emails released by Patokallio show archive.today requesting the temporary removal of his report and later threatening him with AI pornography.[14][17] On 20 February 2026, the English Wikipedia banned links to archive.today, citing the DDoS attack and evidence that archived content was tampered with to insert Patokallio's name.[18] The decision was made despite concerns over maintaining content verifiability[18] while removing and replacing the second-largest archiving service used across the Wikimedia Foundation's projects.[19] The Wikimedia Foundation had stated its readiness to take action regardless of the community verdict.[18][19] Patokallio expressed his satisfaction with the outcome.[3]

Features

Template:Primary sources section

Archiving

archive.today can capture individual pages in response to explicit user requests.[20][21][22] Since its beginning, it has supported crawling pages with URLs containing the now-deprecated hash-bang fragment (#!).[23] The website records only text and images, excluding XML, RTF, spreadsheet (xls or ods) and other non-static content. However, videos for certain sites, like Twitter, are saved.[24] It keeps track of the history of snapshots saved, requesting confirmation before adding a new snapshot of an already saved page.[25][26] Once a web page is archived, it cannot be deleted directly by any Internet user.[27] Users can download archived pages as a ZIP file, except pages archived since 29 November 2019,[28] when archive.today changed their browser engine from PhantomJS to Chromium (non-headless).[29] archive.today does not obey robots.txt because it acts "as a direct agent of the human user."[22]

Pages are captured at a browser width of 1,024 pixels. CSS is converted to inline CSS, removing responsive web design and selectors such as :hover and :active. Content generated using JavaScript during the crawling process appears in a frozen state.[30] HTML class names are preserved inside the old-class attribute. When text is selected, a JavaScript applet generates a URL fragment seen in the browser's address bar that automatically highlights that portion of the text when visited again. Web pages can be duplicated from archive.today to web.archive.org as second-level backup, but archive.today does not save its snapshots in WARC format. The reverse—from web.archive.org to archive.today—is also possible,[31] but the copy usually takes more time than a direct capture.

Archive of a Wikipedia webpage by archive.today on 5 January, 2026

While saving a page, a list of URLs for individual page elements and their content sizes, HTTP statuses and MIME types is shown. This list can only be viewed during the crawling process.[citation needed] Removing advertisements, popups or expanding links from archived pages is possible by asking the owner to do it on his blog.[32]

The research toolbar enables advanced keywords operators, using * as the wildcard character. Paired quotation marks address the search to an exact sequence of keywords present in the title or in the body of the webpage, whereas the insite operator restricts it to a specific Internet domain.[33] While saving a dynamic list, archive.today search box shows only a result that links the previous and the following section of the list (e.g. 20 links for page).[34] The other web pages saved are filtered, and sometimes may be found by one of their occurrences.[25][clarification needed] The search feature is backed by Google CustomSearch. If it delivers no results, archive.today attempts to utilize Yandex Search.[35]

Bypassing paywalls

archive.today users often employ the service to bypass paywalls, similarly to the defunct website 12ft.[15][36]

Worldwide availability

Australia and New Zealand

In March 2019, the site was blocked for six months by several internet providers in Australia and New Zealand in the aftermath of the Christchurch mosque shootings in an attempt to limit distribution of the footage of the attack.[37][38]

China

According to GreatFire.org, archive.today has been blocked in mainland China since March 2016,[39] archive.li since September 2017,[40] archive.fo since July 2018,[41] as well as archive.ph since December 2019.[42]

Finland

On 21 July 2015, the operators blocked access to the service from all Finnish IP addresses, stating on Twitter that they did this in order to avoid escalating a dispute they allegedly had with the Finnish government.[43][44]

Russia

In 2016, the Russian communications agency Roskomnadzor began blocking access to archive.is from Russia.[45][46][44]

On 23 March 2026, archive.today and several mirror domains were blocked by Russian authorities.[47]

See also

  • Digital preservation – Formal endeavor to ensure that digital information of continuing value remains accessible and usable
  • Link rot – URLs ceasing to function
  • List of web archiving initiatives

References

  1. ↑ Brinkmann, Martin (22 April 2015). "Create publicly available web page archives with Archive.is". https://www.ghacks.net/2015/04/22/create-publicly-available-web-page-archives-with-archive-is/. 
  2. ↑ Brunelle, Justin F.; Kelly, Mat; Weigle, Michele C.; Nelson, Michael L. (25 January 2015). "The impact of JavaScript on archivability". International Journal on Digital Libraries 17 (2): 95–117. doi:10.1007/s00799-015-0140-8. https://www.cs.odu.edu/~mweigle/papers/brunelle-ijdl16.pdf. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 McCurdy, Will (21 February 2026). "Wikipedia Blacklists Archive.today Links Over Alleged DDoS Attack on Blogger". PC Magazine. https://www.pcmag.com/news/wikipedia-blacklists-archiveis-after-alleged-ddos-attack-on-blogger. Retrieved 2 March 2026. 
  4. ↑ "Why did you change the URL back from archive-today to archive-is?". Archive.is Blog. 3 May 2015. https://blog.archive.is/post/118010496181/why-did-you-change-the-url-back-from-archive-today. 
  5. ↑ @archiveis (4 January 2019). "Please do not use archive.IS mirror for linking, use others mirrors [.TODAY .FO .LI .VN .MD .PH. .IS might stop working soon."]. https://twitter.com/archiveis/status/1081276424781287427. 
  6. ↑ "What percentage of 5-char-codes is used now? [..."]. Archive.is blog (Tumblr). 2021-09-03. https://archive-is.tumblr.com/post/661314951417315328/what-percentage-of-5-char-codes-is-used-now-full. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Patokallio, Jani (5 August 2023). "archive.today: On the trail of the mysterious guerrilla archivist of the Internet" (in en). https://gyrovague.com/2023/08/05/archive-today-on-the-trail-of-the-mysterious-guerrilla-archivist-of-the-internet/. 
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Cuesta, Albert (15 November 2025). "L'FBI, a la caça del web arxivat que incomoda els mitjans". Ara. https://www.ara.cat/media/l-fbi-caca-web-arxivat-incomoda-mitjans_1_5561784.html. Retrieved 2 March 2026. 
  9. ↑ Nelson, Michael L. (9 July 2013). "Archive.is Supports Memento" (in en). Research and Teaching Updates. Web Science and Digital Libraries Research Group at Old Dominion University. https://ws-dl.blogspot.nl/2013/07/2013-07-09-archiveis-supports-memento.html. 
  10. ↑ "archive.is". Memento Development Group. https://mementoweb.org/depot/native/archiveis/. 
  11. ↑ Taylor, Nicholas (2025-08-07). "Memento TimeTravel sunset". memento-dev (Mailing list). Archived from the original on 2025-08-18. Retrieved 2025-11-21.
  12. ↑ "Losing our memory of fake news". Community Research and Development Information Service. 24 February 2023. https://cordis.europa.eu/article/id/442985-losing-our-memory-of-fake-news. Retrieved 2 March 2026. 
  13. ↑ Porcellini, Valentin. "Mapping the "memory loss" of disinformation in fact-checks: the challenge of preserving disinformation traces". https://www.veraai.eu/posts/mapping-memory-loss-archiving-dmi-winter-school. Retrieved 2 March 2026. 
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 Brodkin, Jon (February 10, 2026). "Archive.today CAPTCHA page executes DDoS; Wikipedia considers banning site" (in en). https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/02/wikipedia-might-blacklist-archive-today-after-site-maintainer-ddosed-a-blog/. 
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Koebler, Jason. "FBI Tries to Unmask Owner of Infamous Archive.is Site". https://www.404media.co/fbi-tries-to-unmask-owner-of-infamous-archive-is-site/. 
  16. ↑ Kirchner, Malte (5 November 2025). "Archive.today: FBI Demands Data from Provider Tucows". heise.de. https://www.heise.de/en/news/Archive-today-FBI-Demands-Data-from-Provider-Tucows-11066346.html. 
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Ferreira, Bruno (15 February 2026). "Notorious 'Archive Today' website allegedly leads bizarre DDoS campaign against security blogger — Wikipedia considers removing all links to the Archive" (in en). Tom's Hardware. https://www.tomshardware.com/software/search-engines/archive-today-allegedly-leads-bizarre-ddos-campaign-against-security-blogger-wikipedia-considers-removing-all-links-to-the-archive. 
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 Brodkin, Jon (2026-02-20). "Wikipedia blacklists Archive.today, starts removing 695,000 archive links" (in en). https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/02/wikipedia-bans-archive-today-after-site-executed-ddos-and-altered-web-captures/. 
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 Lewczuk, Maciej (11 February 2026). "Archive.today zamienił użytkowników w nieświadomych hakerów. Wikipedia reaguje na atak DDoS". PurePC. https://www.purepc.pl/archive-today-wikipedia-atak-ddos-blog-hakerzy-fbi-linki-do-archiwow-tozsamosc-administratora. Retrieved 2 March 2026. 
  20. ↑ Dascalescu, Dan (18 February 2013). "Web page archiving". Dan Dascalescu's Wiki. https://wiki.dandascalescu.com/reviews/online_services/web_page_archiving. 
  21. ↑ Koebler, Jason (29 October 2014). "Dear GamerGate: Please Stop Stealing Our Shit". Motherboard. https://www.vice.com/en/article/dear-gamergate-please-stop-stealing-our-shit/. "There is no way for a website to protect itself from having an Archive.today user mirror the site." 
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 "Archive.today FAQ" (in en). https://archive.today/faq. 
  23. ↑ "Home page of Archive.is in 2013". https://archive.is/. 
  24. ↑ "Archive.today blog". https://blog.archive.today/post/657607767402659840/have-you-considered-allowing-small-mp4s-and-webms. 
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 Occhipinti, Kris (15 April 2016) (in en), Archiving Websites with the Archive.is, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LK_bp9_ZyQs, retrieved 27 January 2022 
  26. ↑ "Example snapshot history on archive.is". https://archive.today/https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/6062608?hl=en. 
  27. ↑ "Some Frequently Asked Question". 24 January 2013. https://blog.archive.is/post/41395737942/how-can-i-delete-an-archived-page. 
  28. ↑ "The "download zip" button has been giving a "Not found" error for quite some time.". 17 July 2020. https://blog.archive.today/post/623883809154383872/the-download-zip-button-has-been-giving-a-not. 
  29. ↑ "What scraper or headless browser are you using? it works so well.". 20 May 2020. https://blog.archive.today/post/618635148292964352/what-scraper-or-headless-browser-are-you-using-it. Retrieved 14 February 2025. 
  30. ↑ JavaScript-generated loading animation of Dailymotion video https://archive.today/20200121182128/https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3sexy8 appearing in a frozen state
  31. ↑ https://archive.today/20190324174341/https://web.archive.org/web/20130520191911/https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia
  32. ↑ "Example user request on the Archive.is blog". https://blog.archive.today/post/677427547064156160/could-you-expand-17wus-and-links-under-same. 
  33. ↑ For example, the string insite: https://en.wikipedia.org "World Cup" returns the https://archive.today/search/?q=insite%3A+http%3Aen.wikipedia.org+ "World+Cup"/ related snapshots
  34. ↑ Example of dynamic list: "au:"thomas aquinas"". https://www.worldcat.org/search?q=au%3A%22thomas+aquinas%22&fq=&dblist=638&start=21&qt=page_number_link. 
  35. ↑ "Just realized that I can search for keywords in the search bar for archive today, was this a recently added feature?". 18 January 2022. https://blog.archive.today/post/673695282217762816/just-realized-that-i-can-search-for-keywords-in. 
  36. ↑ Bonifield, Stevie (6 November 2025). "FBI subpoenas the web registrar behind Archive.is". The Verge. https://www.theverge.com/news/815691/fbi-subpoena-archive-is-owner. "The site is commonly used to dodge paywalls, similar to 12ft.io, which the News/Media Alliance successfully had taken down earlier this year, claiming it 'offered illegal circumvention technology' to access copyrighted content without paying for it." 
  37. ↑ "ISPs in AU and NZ start censoring the internet without legal precedent". 19 March 2019. https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/blog/2019/03/isps-in-au-and-nz-start-censoring-the-internet-without-legal-precedent/. 
  38. ↑ "New Zealand ISPs Say They're Blocking Sites That Fail To Remove Christchurch Shooting Video". Gizmodo Australia. 19 March 2019. https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2019/03/new-zealand-isps-say-theyre-blocking-sites-that-fail-to-remove-christchurch-shooting-video/. 
  39. ↑ "archive.is is 100% blocked in China". 12 August 2018. https://en.greatfire.org/archive.is. 
  40. ↑ "archive.li is 100% blocked in China". 12 August 2018. https://en.greatfire.org/https/archive.li. 
  41. ↑ "archive.fo is 100% blocked in China". 12 August 2018. https://en.greatfire.org/https/archive.fo. 
  42. ↑ "archive.ph is 100% blocked in China". https://en.greatfire.org/https/archive.ph. 
  43. ↑ Lapintie, Lassi (22 July 2015). "Suomalaisilta estettiin haktivistien suosimalla verkkosivulla käynti" (in fi). Iltalehti. https://www.iltalehti.fi/digi/a/2015072220070969. 
  44. ↑ 44.0 44.1 Toler, Aric (2018-02-22). "How to Archive Open Source Materials" (in en-GB). https://www.bellingcat.com/resources/how-tos/2018/02/22/archive-open-source-materials/. 
  45. ↑ Elistratov, Vladimir (29 January 2016). "Roskomnadzor zablokiroval servis archive.is, khranyashchiy kopii veb-saytov" (in ru). https://tjournal.ru/21966-roskomnadzor-zablokiroval-servis-archive-is-hranyashchiy-kopii-veb-saytov. 
  46. ↑ Cushing, Tim (4 February 2016). "Russia Blocks Another Archive Site Because It Might Contain Old Pages About Drugs". Techdirt. https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20160203/08365233504/russia-blocks-another-archive-site-because-it-might-contain-old-pages-about-drugs.shtml. 
  47. ↑ "Russian authorities block paywall removal site Archive.today". 2026-03-23. https://techcrunch.com/2026/03/23/russian-authorities-block-paywall-removal-site-archive-today/. 

Template:Digital preservation



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