Price drop alerts: know when a product gets cheaper
You found the product and you're in no rush — but nobody actually opens ten shops every morning. A price alert means naming a target once and hearing back only when the price really moves: what gets re-checked each hour, what triggers the alert, and why a 5% drop counts as news.
You found the product, you saw the price, and you decided not to buy yet — because you're in no rush and it feels like it will get cheaper. So far you've done exactly the right thing. The trouble starts tomorrow: nobody actually opens ten shops every morning to see whether the number moved. You check for a few days, then you forget, and two weeks later you either pay the original price or discover there was a discount that lasted three days. A price alert exists to close that gap.
What a price alert actually is
A price alert means that instead of you chasing the price, the price comes to find you. You say once which product, what price you're willing to wait for, and for how long; after that you do nothing. The price is fetched again automatically, over and over, and you only hear back when there is something to hear — when it genuinely came down. The difference from checking yourself isn't only convenience, it's accuracy: an automated check never skips a day and never gets bored by Wednesday.
Why "I'll just check it myself" doesn't work
- You forget. Day-one motivation doesn't survive to the end of the week, and the drop usually lands exactly when your attention is elsewhere.
- You watch one shop, not the market. The same product may have got cheaper at a seller you never thought to open.
- Some drops are short. A price that falls overnight and recovers by morning never happened at all for someone who looks once a week.
- The crossed-out number on the page proves nothing. To know a discount is real you need to know what the price was before it — and that only comes from measuring repeatedly.
Target price and horizon: the two numbers you choose
Every watch starts with two numbers, and both are yours. First the target: the price at which you'd actually buy. It has to be below today's price, or the watch is meaningless from the moment it's created. Second the horizon: how long you can wait, from one to seven days. The one-week ceiling isn't arbitrary — in a market that moves with the currency, "the price two weeks ago" is no longer the answer to your question, it's the answer to a different one. If you're not yet sure the number on the page is fair, telling a real discount from a fake one is the step before watching.
Two kinds of watch: every shop, or one seller
This is the most consequential choice at setup, and you're asked once. If only the product matters and you don't care where it comes from, watch every shop. But if the seller is part of what you chose — the warranty, the delivery, a shop you trust — or the item has a specific colour and capacity that a fresh search might confuse with a sibling model, follow that one page instead.
| Kind of watch | What happens each hour | What it won't see |
|---|---|---|
| Every shop | The same wording is searched across the shops again and the cheapest trustworthy price is taken. | It isn't loyal to one seller, and may land on a near-identical variant rather than exactly the one you saw. |
| One seller | That same product page at that same shop is re-opened and its price is read. | It won't notice the item getting cheaper elsewhere, and goes quiet if that page disappears. |
When you'll hear from us
Two things raise an alert. The first is obvious: the price reached the target you named. The second matters more and usually surprises people — if the price falls at least 5% below what it was on the day you created the watch, you hear about it even though the target wasn't met. A target is a wish, not a filter: somebody who set 40M on a 50M product certainly wants to know it reached 44M.
The subtle part is that the 5% is measured against the price at the moment you created the watch, not against the previous check. If the baseline were the last check, a product falling four percent a day would never trigger anything, and you'd miss a real, sustained decline entirely. When the alert arrives it carries the new price and a link to that seller, so you don't have to start the search over.
- Hourly
- the price is fetched again
- 5%
- smallest drop we'll tell you about
- Up to 7 days
- horizon you choose yourself
- 5
- active watches at once
Watching from a product link
You don't have to start from a search result. If you found the product page somewhere else, just send its link: the page is opened on your own device, the price written on it at that moment is read, and all you do is confirm it's the right item. From there we either follow that page, or — if you prefer — search the shops under the same name as well.
If that page carries several variants — colours and capacities at different prices — no number is taken at all, deliberately, and you're asked to pick the one you mean and send the new link. Taking the bottom of the range would have been easy, and it would have built a watch whose baseline is a price that never appears on the page.
What can be watched
Ordinary goods — phones and appliances through to industrial items — plus cars and motorcycles. What can't be watched is second-hand classifieds and property, and the reason is logical rather than technical: one used fridge, or one particular flat, is sold once and then the listing is gone. There the price doesn't fall, the ad disappears — and a watch whose job is to report a price drop has nothing to say.
If a watch hits a dead end, we say so
A watch can quietly become useless: a page whose shop stopped publishing a price, or a wording that no shop returns anything for. From the outside that state looks exactly like patience, because both mean "nothing yet." So after several consecutive checks that produced no price at all, we say so plainly, and you can reword the product or pick a different seller. It's said once, not every hour — the absence of news shouldn't be turned into news.
A price alert is not price history
The two complement each other and are not the same thing. Price history looks backward: it shows whether today's number is high or low against recent days, and helps you decide whether waiting is worth it at all. A watch looks forward: once you've decided, you no longer have to follow it yourself. The natural order is exactly that — read the chart to see where today sits in the trend, and if it's high, set a watch and get on with your day. If you're still choosing between options, the price comparison guide comes before either of them.
Common questions about price alerts
- Are price alerts free?
- The first watch on any account is free — once, for good. Beyond that, up to five active watches at a time, you need the paid plan, which is currently bought inside the Price Finder Android app.
- How often is the price checked?
- Every hour. For as long as the watch is active the price is fetched again on its own and you don't have to check anything yourself; you only hear back when the price actually comes down.
- What if the price never reaches my target?
- If it falls at least 5% below what it cost on the day you created the watch, you're told even though the target wasn't met. If neither happens before the horizon you chose runs out, the watch simply ends — you don't get a pointless alert.
- Can I watch the price at one specific shop?
- Yes. At setup you can pick a single seller instead of every shop, and then that same product page at that same shop is re-opened every hour and its price read. The trade is that it won't notice the item getting cheaper anywhere else.
- What can't be watched?
- Second-hand classifieds and property. One used item, or one particular flat, is sold once and the listing is taken down — so there the price doesn't fall, the ad disappears. New goods, cars and motorcycles can all be watched.
- What if the watch never finds a price?
- If several consecutive checks turn up no price at all — the shop stopped publishing one on that page, say, or no shop returns anything for that wording — we tell you so plainly, and you can reword the product or pick a different seller.
How to start
Under every price card in Price Finder there's a "watch price" button: you write the target and the horizon, choose whether to watch every shop or one seller, and that's it. The first watch on any account is free — once, for good — because a feature whose value is "we'll tell you in a few days" can't be understood from a description or a screenshot and has to happen to you once. Beyond that (up to five active watches) you need the paid plan, which is currently bought inside the Android app. After that there's nothing left to do but wait: when the price comes down, the new number and the seller's link come to you.