Milestones: Internet Archive Celebrates One Trillion Web Pages Preserved

Ed. Note: infoDOCKET would like to take a moment to congratulate the Internet Archive on this monumental and important achievement. In a word, Wow! The vision and efforts (24x7x365) of Brewster Kahle, Mark Graham, and the ENTIRE IA team cannot be understated. The Wayback Machine is and will continue to be an essential research resource (and more) for the world. Thank you, thank you, thank you, for making it happen! 

Fron an Internet Archive Release:

The Internet Archive this week marks a once-in-a-generation achievement under the banner “The Web We’ve Built: Celebrating 1 Trillion Web Pages Archived.” Several events will celebrate the milestone of the Wayback Machine having now preserved more than one trillion web pages, a vast, public record of our digital lives, safeguarded for the future.

The celebration begins Tuesday, October 21, at noon with a public rally on the steps of San Francisco City Hall, where city leaders, digital preservation advocates, and community supporters will gather to honor the milestone. Following the rally, at 2:30 p.m., the San Francisco Board of Supervisors will officially proclaim October 22 as “Internet Archive Day” in recognition of the organization’s global contributions to digital preservation and open access to knowledge.

That evening, the Archive will host “Doors Open 2025,” a rare, behind-the-scenes look at how books, film, music, and microfilm are preserved and digitized. Guests at the Physical Archive in Richmond, CA will tour preservation labs, view rare acquisitions, and experience the journey of materials from donation to long-term public access.

The centerpiece event follows Wednesday, October 22, at the Internet Archive headquarters in San Francisco with an evening street festival and a live program in the Great Room. Highlights include remarks from Brewster Kahle, founder of the Internet Archive, and Mark Graham, director of the Wayback Machine. Also featured will be video appearances by internet pioneers Vint Cerf and Sir Tim Berners-Lee, as well as cultural voices like Annie Rauwerda (Depths of Wikipedia) and Luca Messarra (Vanishing Culture). A global livestream will ensure the milestone is accessible worldwide.

Earlier this month, the Internet Archive presented the 2025 Internet Archive Hero Award to Berners-Lee, recognizing his role in inventing the World Wide Web and his enduring advocacy for an open, accessible internet. The award ceremony in San Francisco set the stage for this week’s events.

By the Numbers — The Wayback Machine Today

• 498 million pages preserved each day
• 800,000 daily visitors relying on the archive
• 1,250+ partner libraries and organizations building curated collections through Archive-It

These numbers underscore the scale of the Internet Archive’s work and the global reliance on its services.

Events this week are part of a broader campaign which invites the public to share personal stories of how the web and the Wayback Machine shape lives. Through livestreams, exhibits, and global activations, the Archive is making the celebration viewable worldwide.

Filed under: Associations and Organizations, Awards, Digital Preservation, Libraries, News, Open Access, Preservation