The Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine has reached a historic milestone, preserving over one trillion web pages since its founding in 1996. This vast digital collection now holds around 150 petabytes of historical web data, functioning as an extensive, time‑stamped record of the internet’s evolution. This achievement underscores a deep commitment to maintaining universal access to knowledge and offers a vital response to the inherently transient nature of online content.
To mark this milestone, the Internet Archive is hosting a series of celebratory events throughout October 2025, culminating in a main gathering on October 22 at its San Francisco headquarters, accompanied by a worldwide livestream. The celebration honors the collective effort invested in building a free and open digital library of the web. It reflects a shared human drive to document and preserve, recognizing that today’s digital output shapes tomorrow’s historical understanding.
European institutions have been important partners in the broader preservation network, contributing to national web‑archiving initiatives under the umbrella of Internet Archive Europe. This work ensures that diverse cultural narratives remain preserved alongside the global stream of web data, strengthening the continuity and inclusivity of the historical record.
This expansive archive is an indispensable resource for researchers, investigative journalists, and historians facing the challenge of “link rot,” where online sources disappear without notice. The Wayback Machine furnishes enduring access to digital artifacts that might otherwise vanish, safeguarding the coherence of the internet’s collective memory.
Founded by Brewster Kahle, the Internet Archive was envisioned as a “Library of Alexandria for the Internet”—a vision that, with the trillion‑page milestone, is now closer than ever to realization.