How to save a copy of a page before it changes or gets deleted

Web pages change without notice. Articles get corrected, terms of service get rewritten, product pages disappear, and whole sites go offline. If a page matters to you, saving a copy while it’s still there is the only way to be sure you’ll be able to see that exact version later.

There are two kinds of copy, and they suit different needs:

A public archived copy lives on an archive service. Anyone can open it with a link, which makes it good for citing and sharing.
A private copy lives on your own device. Nobody else can see it, which makes it right for anything personal.

Save a public copy with the Wayback Machine

The Internet Archive’s Save Page Now tool stores a copy in the Wayback Machine.

Go to web.archive.org/save.
Paste the page’s address and press Save page.
Wait while it captures the page. When it’s done, you’ll get a link to the new copy. Keep that link.

The new copy also appears in the page’s capture calendar, alongside any older ones. Signing in to an Internet Archive account adds a few extra options, but isn’t required for a basic save.

Save a public copy with archive.today

Go to archive.ph.
In the box labelled “My url is alive and I want to archive its content”, paste the address and press save.
If the page has been saved recently, archive.today may show you the existing snapshot and ask whether to save it again. Choose to save a new one if the page has changed.
When it finishes, you get a short link to the snapshot, plus a screenshot of the page.

Saving can take a little while on busy days, and you may see a security check first.

Which one to use

Using both doesn’t hurt. Two independent copies are safer than one. The Wayback Machine is better if you want the page to sit in a long history of versions, and archive.today’s screenshot is handy when the layout matters. Wayback Machine vs archive.today compares them in detail.

Afterwards, it’s worth checking the copy actually contains what you need. Open it and make sure the text loaded. If the site showed the archive a sign-in screen or an error instead, that’s what got saved. How to check if a page has been archived covers what to do when a save comes back empty.

Keep a private copy on your device

Public archives are the wrong place for pages that are personal, such as an order confirmation, a page you see while signed in, or anything with your details on it. Archive services can only save what a logged-out visitor sees anyway. For these, save a copy locally.

Save as PDF

This works in every browser and keeps the copy as one tidy file.

Open the page and choose Print from the browser menu (Command + P on Mac, Ctrl + P on Windows).
Pick Save as PDF as the destination (on Mac, use the PDF menu in the print dialog).
Save the file somewhere you’ll find it, with a name that includes the date.

PDFs don’t always keep the exact layout, but the text and images come through.

Save the page file

Chrome and Edge: choose Save page as (Command + S or Ctrl + S) and pick “Webpage, Complete” to keep images. Where it’s offered, “Webpage, Single File” puts everything in one file.
Safari on Mac: choose File > Save As and pick “Web Archive” to keep the page in a single file you can open in Safari later.
Firefox: choose Save Page As and pick “Web Page, complete”.

Take a full-page screenshot

A screenshot shows exactly what was on screen, which is useful as evidence. Firefox can capture the whole page: right-click and choose Take Screenshot, then Save full page. On iPhone, take a screenshot in Safari, tap the preview and choose Full Page to save it as a PDF.

A good routine for pages that matter

Save a public copy in at least one archive and keep the link.
Keep a private PDF if the page is important to you or might be disputed later.
Note the date you saved it, and the original address.

This is the same routine people use when they cite web pages in reports and coursework. How to cite an archived page explains what to include in the reference.

Why it’s worth the minute it takes

Pages disappear more often than most people expect, and when they go, they rarely leave a forwarding address. Why links break over time looks at how common this is and how archives help.

When you open copies through byepaywall’s tool, the link you paste stays in your browser and goes straight to the service you pick. Our privacy page explains this in full.