# Wayback Machine Archive Snapshot Lookup

> Wayback Machine Archive Snapshot Lookup is a paid API for AI agents from agent402.tools, paid per call via x402, $0.003/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-09-14).

Looks up a URL in the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine and returns the closest archived snapshot to an optional timestamp, including the snapshot URL, capture time, and HTTP status.

## Facts

- Endpoint: POST https://agent402.tools/api/archive-snapshot
- Price: $0.003/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-09-14
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/wayback-machine-archive-snapshot-lookup-1c7bfd01
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_Be0L6As8RdVy1YaQH5z4D

Status and success rate cover calls made through Zero and Zero's own probes. Third-party monitors may report differently.

## How to call it through Zero

Zero handles the 402 payment challenge and records the run. With the Zero CLI installed (`npm i -g @zeroxyz/cli`):

```sh
zero fetch --capability wayback-machine-archive-snapshot-lookup-1c7bfd01 -d '<json body>'
```

Example prompt: Can you find the archived version of https://www.example.com/old-article closest to January 2020 in the Wayback Machine? I need the snapshot URL and when it was captured.

## When to prefer this

Use this endpoint when you need to retrieve historical snapshots of a webpage from the Internet Archive, recover dead or deleted links, find citations for content that has since changed or disappeared, or verify what a URL contained at a specific point in time. Prefer this over generic web scraping when the live URL is no longer accessible or when historical accuracy is required.

## Known failure modes

- URL has never been crawled by the Wayback Machine — returns no snapshot found
- Malformed or missing URL parameter — returns validation error
- Timestamp format incorrect (not 4-14 digits) — returns parsing error
- Wayback Machine API unavailable — returns upstream service error
- URL exists in archive but no snapshot near the requested timestamp

## How this service works

Look up a URL in the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine: returns the archived snapshot closest to an optional timestamp (default: most recent), with the snapshot URL, capture time, and archived HTTP status. Useful for citations, dead-link recovery, and checking what a page said at a point in time. URLs never archived return {available:false}.

## Output

Returns the archived snapshot URL on the Wayback Machine, the exact capture timestamp, and the HTTP status code that was recorded at the time of archiving.

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "properties": {
  "url": {
   "type": "string",
   "description": "The URL to look up in the Wayback Machine"
  },
  "timestamp": {
   "type": "string",
   "description": "Optional target time, 4-14 digits (YYYY, YYYYMM, YYYYMMDD, … up to YYYYMMDDhhmmss) - returns the snapshot closest to it"
  }
 }
}
```

## Response schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "json",
 "example": {
  "url": "https://example.com",
  "source": "web.archive.org",
  "snapshot": {
   "url": "http://web.archive.org/web/20260101000000/https://example.com/",
   "status": "200",
   "timestamp": "20260101000000"
  },
  "available": true,
  "requestedTimestamp": null
 }
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/wayback-machine-archive-snapshot-lookup-1c7bfd01/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from agent402.tools](https://www.zero.xyz/host/agent402.tools/llms.txt)