How to Verify Online Claims Using Web Archives

Web pages change and disappear. When someone claims a company promised something, a politician said something, or a product used to cost less, web archives can often show what the page actually said and when.

1. Find the archived versions

1. Go to the Wayback Machine at web.archive.org and enter the page's address.
2. The calendar shows the dates it was captured. Pick one close to the date in question.
3. Check captures just before and after to narrow down when something changed.

Wayback Quick Access does this from the page you're on: it opens the latest snapshot or the full list of captures, and shows a "?" badge when no copy exists.

2. Compare versions

The Wayback Machine's Changes tool compares two captures of a page and highlights what was added or removed. It's the fastest way to spot quiet edits to terms, prices or statements.

3. Check other archives

If the Wayback Machine has no copy, try archive.today, national library web archives, or search engines' cached results while they last. See archives beyond the Wayback Machine.

Common things to verify

• "We've always said...": check old versions of policy and about pages.
• Price claims: compare product pages before and after a "sale".
• Deleted posts and statements: see finding deleted posts.
• How long a business has existed: the first capture of its website gives a lower limit.
• AI answers: check what a cited source said at the time. See fact-checking AI answers.

Know the limits

• Gaps: not every page is captured, and not every day.
• Mixed dates: images and other parts of a capture can come from different times than the main page.
• Interactive content: pages that load content with scripts may be captured incompletely.
• Exclusions: some site owners ask for their pages to be excluded.

A missing capture doesn't prove a page never said something. Treat archives as strong evidence, not the whole story.

Save evidence yourself

1. Use Save Page Now to archive a page the moment you find something important. Wayback Quick Access does this in one click. See how Save Page Now works.
2. Take a full-page screenshot with the date visible.
3. Note the full address and the time you viewed it.

Cite archived pages

When sharing your findings, link to the specific archived capture, whose address includes the date and time, so others can check it themselves. See also cached vs archived pages.