
Internet Archive
American non-profit digital archive / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Internet Archive is an American digital library founded on May 10, 1996, and chaired by free information advocate Brewster Kahle.[1][2][4] It provides free access to collections of digitized materials including websites, software applications, music, audiovisual and print materials. The Archive is also an activist organization, advocating a free and open Internet. As of January 1, 2023[update], the Internet Archive holds more than 39 million print materials, 11.6 million pieces of audiovisual content, 2.6 million software programs, 15 million audio files, 4.7 million images, 251,000 concerts, and over 832 billion web pages in its Wayback Machine. Their mission is to provide "universal access to all knowledge."[1]
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Type of business | 501(c)(3) nonprofit |
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Type of site | Digital library |
Available in | English |
Founded | May 10, 1996; 27 years ago (1996-05-10)[1][2] |
Headquarters | Richmond District San Francisco, California, United States 37.782321°N 122.471611°W / 37.782321; -122.471611 |
Founder(s) | Brewster Kahle |
Chairman | Brewster Kahle |
Services |
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Revenue | ![]() |
Employees | ![]() |
URL | archive |
Commercial | No |
Launched | 1996 (1996) |
Current status | Active |

The Internet Archive allows the public to upload and download digital material to its data cluster, but the bulk of its data is collected automatically by its web crawlers, which work to preserve as much of the public web as possible. Its web archive, the Wayback Machine, contains hundreds of billions of web captures.[5][6] The Archive also oversees numerous book digitization projects, collectively one of the world's largest book digitization efforts.