Waybackpack: How to Download Every Archived Version of a Page

Waybackpack is a free, open-source command-line tool, written in Python, that downloads every archived version of a single URL from the Wayback Machine. Give it an address such as example.com and it saves each capture into its own folder named after the capture time, so you end up with the full history of that page on your disk. It is excellent for tracking how one page changed or recovering the text of a specific page. It is not a whole-site downloader: it does not follow links to other pages, so to save an entire website you need a different approach.

This guide shows how to install waybackpack, the commands you will actually use, how to narrow the download to the captures you need, and when another tool is a better fit. If you just want a clean copy of an archived website without running scripts, our Wayback website download service delivers it as ready-to-host HTML.

What waybackpack does and does not do

Task	Waybackpack?
Download every capture of one URL	Yes, this is its main job
Limit downloads to a date range	Yes
List capture dates without downloading	Yes
Get the original HTML without the archive toolbar	Yes, with the raw option
Crawl a whole website and its internal pages	No
Download images, CSS and scripts used by the page	No, only the URL you name
Rebuild a working website	No

Think of waybackpack as a precise tool for page history. For whole sites, see our comparison of Wayback Machine downloader alternatives.

How to install waybackpack

Waybackpack needs Python 3 and pip, which are available on Windows, macOS and Linux. Open a terminal (Command Prompt or PowerShell on Windows) and run:

pip install waybackpack

If your system has both Python 2 and 3, use pip3 instead. To check that it installed correctly and to see every option for your installed version, run:

waybackpack --help

Options can change between versions, so treat the help output as the final reference for the commands below.

Basic waybackpack commands

See which captures exist

Before downloading anything, list the capture addresses so you know how much you are about to fetch:

waybackpack example.com --list

This prints one archived URL per capture. A busy homepage can have thousands of captures, so listing first saves time and avoids putting unnecessary load on the archive.

Download every capture of a page

waybackpack example.com -d ./example-history

Waybackpack creates a folder for each capture timestamp inside example-history and saves the page there. The folder names make it easy to sort captures by date.

Limit the download to a date range

Most of the time you only need a few years. Use the date options with dates written as year, year and month, or a full timestamp:

waybackpack example.com -d ./example-2015 --from-date 2015 --to-date 2016

Skip identical captures

If a page did not change for months, the archive may hold many identical copies. The unique-only option keeps just the captures whose content changed, which shrinks the download dramatically:

waybackpack example.com -d ./example-changes --uniques-only

Get the original HTML without archive changes

By default, archived pages include the Wayback Machine’s own toolbar and rewritten links. The raw option asks for the page as it was originally captured, which is what you want if you plan to read, compare or reuse the HTML:

waybackpack example.com -d ./example-raw --raw

Useful options for larger downloads

• Delay between requests. Add a pause between downloads so you do not hit the archive too quickly. If you see rate-limit errors, increase it.
• Ignore errors. Keeps the run going when an individual capture fails instead of stopping the whole job.
• No clobber. Skips files you already downloaded, so you can resume an interrupted run.
• Follow redirects. Useful when the URL you named redirected to another address at some point in its history.
• Custom user agent. Identify your script politely, for example with a project name and contact email.

A practical command for a page with a long history might combine several of these:

waybackpack example.com/about -d ./about-page --raw --uniques-only --from-date 2012 --delay 2 --ignore-errors

A worked example: recovering an old About page

Suppose a small business lost its website and wants the text of its About page as it read in 2018. First, list the captures for that year to see how many exist:

waybackpack example.com/about --list --from-date 2018 --to-date 2018

If the list shows dozens of captures, most will be identical. Download only the versions that changed, in raw form, with a short delay:

waybackpack example.com/about -d ./about-2018 --from-date 2018 --to-date 2018 --uniques-only --raw --delay 2

Open the newest folder first and copy the text you need. If the wording changed during the year, compare two or three folders side by side and pick the version the owner remembers. The whole job usually takes a few minutes and produces a dated record of where the text came from, which is useful if anyone later asks which version was restored.

Common waybackpack problems

It only downloaded one page

That is expected. Waybackpack works on the exact URL you give it. To capture other pages, run it again for each URL, or use a tool designed to crawl a whole site.

Downloads stop or show 429 errors

The archive is limiting your request rate. Add or increase the delay, run the job at a quieter time, and avoid running several copies in parallel. Our guide to fixing a Wayback Machine downloader that is not working covers rate limits and timeouts in more detail, and the Wayback Machine 429 error guide explains how long a block lasts and how to pace a resumed job.

The saved pages look broken

Waybackpack saves the HTML of the URL only. Images, stylesheets and scripts live at other addresses and are not downloaded, so opening the file locally shows plain text and missing images. That is fine for reading and comparing content, but a usable website needs those assets too.

No captures found

Check the exact address: www versus non-www, http versus https, and trailing slashes can be archived separately. If nothing exists for any form of the address, read what to do when a website is not in the Wayback Machine.

Good uses for waybackpack

• Recovering the text of one important page, such as an old About page, terms page or article.
• Comparing versions of a page over time, for example to see when content or prices changed.
• Research and journalism that needs a reproducible record of how a page looked on given dates.
• Choosing the best snapshot before a full restoration; see our guide to choosing a Wayback snapshot.

When to use something else

If your goal is a complete, browsable copy of a website, waybackpack is the wrong tool. A whole-site downloader collects every page and asset from a chosen snapshot period, and the files still need cleaning before they work offline or on hosting. Our step-by-step guide on how to use Wayback Machine Downloader covers that route, and fixing links in a downloaded Wayback website explains the cleanup. For programmatic access to capture lists, the Wayback Machine API guide shows how to query the CDX index directly. If you would rather skip the command line, our Wayback site downloader delivers the snapshot you choose as cleaned, browsable files.

Waybackpack saves raw captures; if you want a one-command mirror of a single snapshot instead, read how to download Wayback Machine pages with wget.

Frequently asked questions

Is waybackpack free?

Yes. Waybackpack is open-source software that you install and run yourself. The Wayback Machine data it downloads is free to access, subject to the Internet Archive’s terms and rate limits.

Does waybackpack work on Windows?

Yes. Install Python 3 for Windows, make sure pip is on your path, then install and run waybackpack from Command Prompt or PowerShell.

Can waybackpack download a whole website?

No. It downloads the captures of one URL at a time and does not follow links. Use a whole-site downloader or a download service for complete websites.

What is the difference between waybackpack and the Wayback Machine API?

The API returns information about captures, such as dates and addresses. Waybackpack uses that kind of information to download the captured pages for you, saving each version into its own folder.

Need the whole site, not just one page? Request a free archive review and we will tell you what can be downloaded.