How to check if a page has been archived, and what to do if it hasn't

Before you rely on an archived copy, it helps to know whether one exists at all, and how many there are. Checking takes a minute, and the answer tells you what to do next: open a copy, compare a few, or save the page yourself while you still can.

Check several archives at once

The fastest check is to paste the address into byepaywall and open the services one after another. Each opens in its own tab, and byepaywall marks the ones you’ve already tried, so you can see at a glance which archives turned something up.

Archive.today shows its newest snapshot, or a page saying it has none.
Wayback Machine opens the page’s capture calendar. An empty calendar means no copies.
Ghostarchive shows a list of its saved copies, or “No archives for that site.”

If you’d rather check each service yourself, here’s how.

The Wayback Machine

Go to web.archive.org.
Paste the full address and press Enter.
Read the summary above the calendar. It says how many times the page was saved and between which dates.

No summary and an empty calendar means the Wayback Machine has no copy of that exact address. You can also type web.archive.org/web/*/ in front of the address to open the calendar directly.

The colour of each date matters too. Blue means the page loaded normally when it was captured. Orange and red mean the archive received an error page, so those copies may not contain the content you need. How to view the archived version of a page explains the colours in more detail.

archive.today

Go to archive.ph.
Use the box labelled “I want to search the archive for saved snapshots”.
Paste the address and press search.

You’ll see a list of snapshots with their dates, or nothing if the page hasn’t been saved. Adding archive.ph/newest/ in front of the address jumps straight to the latest snapshot when there is one.

Ghostarchive

Ghostarchive is smaller, but it sometimes holds pages the bigger archives missed. Use the search box on its homepage and paste the address. If it has copies, they’re listed with the date each was made.

Why a page might have no copy

An empty result doesn’t always mean the page was never saved. Common reasons:

The address doesn’t match exactly. Archives store copies under the precise address they visited. A version with extra tracking parameters, a different ending, or http instead of https can count as a different page. Try the plain address without anything after a ?. byepaywall strips the common tracking parameters automatically.
The page is new. Archives don’t capture everything as soon as it’s published. A page from this morning may not have been visited yet.
The site blocks archiving. Some sites tell archive crawlers to stay away, or ask for copies to be removed.
The page needs an account. Archives only see what an anonymous visitor sees. Anything behind a sign-in isn’t captured.

What to do when there’s no copy

If the page is still online

Save it now. Both the Wayback Machine and archive.today let anyone request a copy of a public page, and it usually takes under a minute. How to save a copy of a page walks through both, plus how to keep a private copy on your own device.

If the page is gone

Try variations of the address. Remove the ending after the last /, or go up to the section page, and check whether the archive has that.
Search for the title. The same text is sometimes republished elsewhere, quoted in another article, or posted in a different section of the same site.
Check the site itself. Pages often move during a redesign. The site’s own search may find the new address.
Try the other archives. Each one captures pages independently, so it’s worth checking all of them before giving up. Wayback Machine vs archive.today explains how their coverage differs.
Ask the publisher. For an important document, a polite email to the site asking where it went often gets an answer.

Make it a habit for pages that matter

If you cite pages in your work or keep references for later, check for an archived copy when you first find the page, not when you need it. Saving a copy at that point takes a minute, and it means the version you read stays available. The byepaywall FAQ covers which service to try first when you’re looking for an existing copy.