# Running a local copy of Wikipedia **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 15, 2025, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/running-a-local-copy-of-wikipedia/1015611 "2025-03-15T13:52:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Heracles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heracles/32/487_2.png) [@Heracles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heracles)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2025, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/running-a-local-copy-of-wikipedia/1015611/1 "2025-03-15T13:52:23Z")
Given the recent attacks on Wikipedia by Musk and his cronies, I have a strong feeling that the site will be forced offline within the next year or so. So I’d like to preserve its content, at least for my use – and it may come in handy after the apocalypse, when the survival of my band of misfits hinges on knowing the airspeed velocity of an unladen sparrow. Wikipedia offers [a way to download the content](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Database_download) as a Very Large File. I did so about a month ago and stored the file on my server in the basement. But I would like to confirm that I can actually use/display this content. The list of possible software for this is very confusing, and so far I haven’t found a combination that works with my Very Large File. I have Windows and Linux computers, plus Android and iOS devices. It would be nice if at least one of those worked. Has anybody here succeeded at operating an offline Wikipedia archive? ---
**Author:** ![dolphinboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dolphinboy/32/330_2.png) [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2025, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/running-a-local-copy-of-wikipedia/1015611/2 "2025-03-15T14:02:37Z")
This may be considered a hijack, but can you provide a cite showing there is a credible risk of Wikipedia being “forced offline”? Musk and his cronies may not like it, but Wikipedia isn’t breaking any laws, as far as I know, and we still have the first amendment the last time I checked. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2025, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/running-a-local-copy-of-wikipedia/1015611/3 "2025-03-15T14:08:58Z")
[Moderating] > [@dolphinboy](#): > > This may be considered a hijack In FQ? Definitely. Save that question for P&E. ---
**Author:** ![Heracles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heracles/32/487_2.png) [@Heracles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heracles)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2025, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/running-a-local-copy-of-wikipedia/1015611/4 "2025-03-15T14:25:03Z")
OK, let’s forget my mention of Musk. My goal is to operate Wikipedia, at least the English part, entirely on my LAN with no Internet connection. In an ideal world this would include pictures and media, but those would probably not fit on my 3-terabyte disk. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2025, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/running-a-local-copy-of-wikipedia/1015611/5 "2025-03-15T14:41:41Z")
Googling, the English language Wikipedia would be 100 GB with images, though I don’t know if that includes the edit history for each page. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2025, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/running-a-local-copy-of-wikipedia/1015611/6 "2025-03-15T15:04:45Z")
Wikimedia Commons alone is 359.52 TB. I’d stick to text. FWIW, > **[Wikipedia:Size of Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Size_of_Wikipedia)** > > The size of the English Wikipedia can be measured in terms of the number of articles, number of words, number of pages, and the size of the database, among other ways. As of 15 March 2025, there are 6,966,724 articles in the English Wikipedia containing over 4.8 billion words (giving a mean of about 694 words per article). The total number of pages is 62,729,563. Articles make up 11.11 percent of all pages on Wikipedia. As of 16 October 2024, the size of the current version of all articles compre... ETA: Sorry. None of that really answers the OP’s question. ---
**Author:** ![FinsToTheLeft](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finstotheleft/32/2930_2.png) [@FinsToTheLeft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinsToTheLeft)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2025, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/running-a-local-copy-of-wikipedia/1015611/7 "2025-03-15T15:11:03Z")
This is what you need: > **[Main Page - XOWA](http://xowa.org/)** You can then download a backup from Wikipedia and run it locally. Here’s another: > **[Explore Offline Wikipedia and Educational Content with Kiwix- Kiwix](https://kiwix.org/)** > > Discover the power of Kiwix - your gateway to offline Wikipedia and a vast array of educational content. Access knowledge anytime, anywhere without an internet connection. Explore the benefits of Kiwix today. The Wiki backup is 110GB. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2025, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/running-a-local-copy-of-wikipedia/1015611/8 "2025-03-15T22:08:22Z")
Here’s a project where someone used Kiwix to make a portable off-grid wikipedia appliance [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/R63x2TXm0s8/maxresdefault.jpg "Build an Off Grid Wikipedia with #RaspberryPi") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R63x2TXm0s8) ---
**Author:** ![Kron](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kron/32/12444_2.png) [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2025, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/running-a-local-copy-of-wikipedia/1015611/9 "2025-03-15T23:28:35Z")
Points lost for not including the words “Don’t Panic” in large, friendly letters on the cover. ---
**Author:** ![Heracles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heracles/32/487_2.png) [@Heracles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heracles)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2025, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/running-a-local-copy-of-wikipedia/1015611/10 "2025-03-16T03:39:54Z")
Thanks for the suggestions! I installed XOWA first, then found out the readily-available Wikipedia content was from 2019, or 2017 in some alternate sources. So I also installed Kiwix, which works on Linux or Windows or various other platforms, as the video above hints. The Kiwix ecosystem provides easy access to fresh Wikipedia content (2024 apparently), and also offers much more (TED content, LEGO answers, Stack Overflow, etc.). That will give me much to consume in my bunker as the apocalypse unfolds! As a first step, right now I have a usable Wikipedia in English without images, I’m looking at what to download next. Thank you! ---
**Author:** ![Heracles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heracles/32/487_2.png) [@Heracles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heracles)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2025, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/running-a-local-copy-of-wikipedia/1015611/11 "2025-10-10T07:43:18Z")
For reference, in case someone needs the info: Once you have Kiwix installed, the built-in browser may or may not allow you to view a content list. You can visit [kiwik.org](http://kiwik.org), and eventually you get to [this library page](https://library.kiwix.org/#lang=eng) showing a bunch of content, which you can filter by language and topic. If you click on a thumbnail, you end up viewing the content online with no way to download it. If you want to download the corresponding .Zim file (which is the whole point), go back to the list of thumbnails, and click on the little cyan rectangle, _within_ the thumbnail, that says “Download”. Then you get a pop-up giving a choice of a direct download or a BitTorrent file or Magnet link. Alternatively, you can visit the PWA page ([link](https://pwa.kiwix.org/www/index.html#)). It’s sort of difficult to navigate, but you can eventually find links for various revisions of each file. (My renewed interest in this was triggered by a [Wired article](https://www.wired.com/story/ted-cruz-targets-wikipedia-over-ideological-bias/), originally [from Ars Technica](https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/10/ted-cruz-picks-a-fight-with-wikipedia-accusing-platform-of-left-wing-bias/), about Ted Cruz, chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, writing to the Wikimedia Foundation about ideological bias.) ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2025, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/running-a-local-copy-of-wikipedia/1015611/12 "2025-10-10T22:22:49Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Here’s a project where someone used Kiwix to make a portable off-grid wikipedia appliance You used to could buy a handheld device for offline text-only Wikipedia for under $100. > **[Pardon Our Interruption...](https://www.ebay.com/splashui/challenge?ap=1&appName=orch&ru=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fitm%2F197319213228&iid=d106d5a6-9045-42f8-8161-826aa8e11de9&iim=QMTg0Ljl&iia=llEwNS45fU&iiz=UJzOS4xMDA*HXh)** I never bought one of those but I did used to have Wikitaxi on my PC. At the time the text database for Wikipedia compiled into one file of around 2 to 4 GB, I don’t remember precisely. > **[WikiTaxi \[Yunqa • The Delphi Inspiration\]](https://www.yunqa.de/delphi/apps/wikitaxi/index)** ---
**Author:** ![Heracles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heracles/32/487_2.png) [@Heracles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heracles)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2025, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/running-a-local-copy-of-wikipedia/1015611/13 "2025-10-11T11:43:03Z")
Kiwix itself offers a self-contained device that provides content through Wi-Fi, with various selections of content: [Kiwix Hotspot: Offline Wikipedia & More - Access Anywhere!](https://kiwix.org/en/kiwix-hotspot/) It’s basically a Raspberry Pi in a nice casing. They ship by Swiss Post, so right now people in the U.S. may not be able to get it. You can also purchase (for download) a prepackaged operating system and install it on your own Raspberry Pi.