Wikipedia:Using the Wayback Machine

This page gives information about using the Wayback Machine to cite archived copies of web pages used by articles. This is useful if a web page has changed, moved, or disappeared; links to the original content can be retained.

Editors are also encouraged to add an archive link as a part of each citation, or at least submit the referenced URL for archiving, at the same time that each citation is created or updated.

Visit the web form at https://archive.org/, enter the original URL of the web page of interest in the "Wayback Machine" search box and then select BROWSE HISTORY. The next screen may

In short, this is the code that needs to be added to a reference:

A link to the Wayback Machine usually starts with https://web.archive.org/web/ followed either by a single asterisk or a 14-digit datetime reference, then a slash and finally the URL of the original web page.

Use the above URL format to discover the extent to which the requested page has been archived. Click one of the highlighted dates to select that specific archived copy.

It is possible to narrow down the request by providing a date code with fewer than 14 digits followed by * (in this example, display only archived snapshots matching December 2005)

If the target web page hasn't yet been archived, a box appears near the bottom of the page with a link inviting the user to Save this url in the Wayback Machine. Clicking this invokes a request to

The above URL will show the current version of the requested web page and start the process that will attempt to archive the web page. If successful, the archived copy will become available immediately the process is completed.

For some requested pages, the Wayback Machine will return an error message explaining why that particular page has not and cannot be archived. In those cases, try a different archiving service such as WebCite.

Once the target web page has been archived, each of the specific dated archives can be individually requested using the format shown below.

Use the above format to link directly to a specific archive copy.

Adding an asterisk immediately after the date (or in place of it) is a quick way to show the calendar view of all archived copies.

The following flags can be appended to the datetime field to modify the format in which the archived content is displayed:

Use the above format to link directly to a specific archive copy without the display of the Wayback Machine Toolbar.

The next example links to the most current version of the archived page.

Using the above format is discouraged. The request is redirected to the longform URL, including 14-digit datetime stamp, for the latest archive copy thereby defeating the purpose of using the archive to link directly to a specific old version of the page.

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