How to Cite an Archived Web Page in APA, MLA, Chicago and Wikipedia

A citation to a live web page is a promise that the page will still say the same thing when your reader clicks it. That promise is broken all the time — legal scholarship has found that a large share of links in court opinions and law journals no longer lead to the cited content. The fix is simple: cite (or add) an archived copy with a timestamp, so the exact version you read is always one click away.

Anatomy of an archive URL

https://web.archive.org/web/20240314093000/https://example.com/report
                          └─ yyyymmddhhmmss ─┘ └──── original URL ────┘

Archive.today links look like archive.ph/AbC12 and also point at one fixed capture. Either way, you cite three things: the original page, the archive URL, and the date it was archived.

APA 7th edition

APA cites the archived version directly. Use the page's publication date if it has one, and the archive URL in place of the live one.

Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of page. Site Name. https://web.archive.org/web/20240314093000/https://example.com/report

Example:
National Example Agency. (2023, June 2). Annual water quality report. https://web.archive.org/web/20240314093000/https://example.gov/water-report

MLA 9th edition

MLA treats the archive as a second container and recommends an access date for content that may change.

Author. "Title of Page." Site Name, Day Month Year published. Internet Archive, web.archive.org/web/20240314093000/https://example.com/report. Accessed Day Month Year.

Chicago (notes and bibliography)

Bibliography:
Author. "Title of Page." Site Name. Month Day, Year. Archived March 14, 2024. https://web.archive.org/web/20240314093000/https://example.com/report.

Note:
1. Author, "Title of Page," Site Name, Month Day, Year, archived March 14, 2024, https://web.archive.org/web/20240314093000/https://example.com/report.

BibTeX

@misc{example2023report,
  author       = {{National Example Agency}},
  title        = {Annual water quality report},
  year         = {2023},
  howpublished = {\url{https://example.gov/water-report}},
  note         = {Archived 14 March 2024 at \url{https://web.archive.org/web/20240314093000/https://example.gov/water-report}}
}

Wikipedia: archive-url and archive-date

Wikipedia keeps the original URL and adds the archive alongside it. When the original dies, editors set url-status=dead and readers are sent to the archive automatically.

{{cite web
 | url          = https://example.gov/water-report
 | title        = Annual water quality report
 | publisher    = National Example Agency
 | date         = 2 June 2023
 | access-date  = 14 March 2024
 | archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20240314093000/https://example.gov/water-report
 | archive-date = 14 March 2024
 | url-status   = live
}}

Generate citations automatically

Typing timestamps into five citation styles is error-prone. Web Archive Viewer does it for you: save any capture to the Library and copy its citation in APA, MLA, Chicago, BibTeX or Wikipedia format with the archive URL and date already filled in. The Library is free (one collection of 25 items on your device), with notes, tags and JSON export.

Researchers on Pro can also export a whole Timeline, Compare or SEO & changes result as citations in one go, which is handy for footnoting a report about how a page changed.

Good habits for citing the web

1. 01Archive at the moment you cite. The capture then matches what you read. See how to archive a web page.
2. 02Keep both URLs. The original tells readers where the content lived; the archive guarantees they can read it.
3. 03Use two archives for critical sources. A Wayback and an Archive.today copy protect you if one is ever excluded.
4. 04Check old bibliographies. Run your reference list through a bulk dead-link check and add archive links to anything that broke.

FAQ