Information Requests

The Internet Archive's Policy for Responding to Information Requests

The following sets forth the Internet Archive's policy with regard to requests for documents or other records for use in legal proceedings. Please also read our frequently asked questions in their entirety for additional information.

The Internet Archive is a nonprofit organization dedicated to archiving the Internet and other digital materials, and providing public access to these records. We are not in the business of fulfilling requests for documents for use in legal matters. Our collections are available at no cost via archive.org. As a nonprofit, our resources are limited, and processing affidavit document requests involve significant time and effort that we would prefer be devoted more directly towards our mission. Please remember that a declaration or affidavit from the Internet Archive may not be necessary.

Before asking the Internet Archive to authenticate your documents, we ask that you please seek judicial notice or simply ask your opposing party to stipulate to the documents' authenticity. Of course, the best source of such information is the party who posted the information on the URLs at issue, and the second-best source of such information is someone who actually accessed the historical versions of the URLs.

However, if you are determined to obtain a declaration or affidavit authenticating printouts from the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, we will do our best to help you in accordance with this policy.

To initiate your request, you must send us payment as described below and an electronic list of the extended URLs for each page you would like us to print out. By extended URL, we are referring to the full URL that appears in the Address field of your Web browser when you are looking at the page of interest (e.g., http://web.archive.org/web/19970126045828/http://www.archive.org/). If you want more than one page from a particular domain, you must supply the extended URL for each page. Please be sure to navigate to each of your requested URLs prior to submission and ensure that they are correct as they appear in the list sent to us. Do not copy a hyperlink from an archived page; please allow the link to load and then copy the resolved URL in the browser bar. Due to the burden on our limited resources, we cannot respond to requests for all linked pages at a particular domain. The list of extended URLs should be emailed to affidavits@archive.org. Please include your contact information in your email.

Our standard fee is $250 per request, plus $20 for each extended URL therein, excepting URLs that contain downloadable/printable files. Any such URLs (for example, .pdf, .doc, or .zip files) instead cost $30 per extended URL. The Internet Archive provides a declaration (not notarized) by default. If you would like an affidavit (notarized) instead, there is an additional $100 fee. Note About Notarization: During the Covid-19 pandemic, we are offering remote notary (via notarize.com or a comparable service). This process uses digital signing and thus, we cannot provide a "wet ink signature" version with this option. Please confirm in your request that electronic notarization is acceptable if you would like to utilize this option.

We accept payment through PayPal (sent via paypal.com to the account under affidavits@archive.org, directly accessible here) or our online payment portal. PLEASE DO NOT SEND PAYMENT VIA OUR DONATION PAGE.

When you submit payment, please make sure that the Internet Archive can readily identify the request to which your payment relates. If using PayPal, please specify the email address that is sending the request and that the payment is for "declaration/affidavit request" in the "add note" field. If using our payment portal, please select "2-Affidavits/Legal Requests" under "Payment Type" and include the email address sending the request in the "Notes" field. Please also include either the Transaction Number (PayPal) or Confirmation Number (portal) associated with the payment in your email request to affidavits@archive.org.

The Internet Archive will provide printed pages and a standard declaration or affidavit of authenticity. We strive to have reasonable requests completed within fifteen business days from receipt of a request and payment, but do not make any guarantees regarding turn-around time. Requests for especially large numbers of URLs may take longer or we may contact you and ask that you limit your request. Errors contained in your request will also delay the process.

We provide documents electronically. If you require a physical copy of the declaration or affidavit, please so indicate in your email to us. In this instance, there are two shipping options: 1) provide us with your Fedex account number and let us know the rate/shipping speed desired or 2) shipping via USPS Priority Mail Flat Rate. As mentioned above, during the Covid-19 pandemic, we cannot provide an original physical copy for a notarized affidavit, as the remote notary process uses digital signing.

Typically, playbacks are printed or screenshots taken using the Chrome browser. If you specify a preference for printouts from another popular browser, we will do our best to accommodate the request.

Our policy is to respond to reasonable requests within these parameters. We reserve the right to refuse any request that we deem to be unreasonable, and may require you to reimburse other costs we incur as a result of your request.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Frequently Asked Questions