How to set up Google Alerts, and when to watch a page instead
· Gairė
5 min read
Price drop on shop.example: Philips Airfryer NA120/00.
In short. Go to google.com/alerts, type a topic in the box at the top, click "Show options" to choose how often and from which kinds of sites, and click "Create Alert". Google then emails you when it finds new search results that match. What Google Alerts doesn't do is watch one page you pick, such as a product's price or a list of new items. For that you need a page monitor, and many people use both.
Watch one page, not the whole web.
Try it on a pageContents
We make Gairė, a page monitor. Below we say where Google Alerts is the better tool.
How to set up a Google Alert
- Open google.com/alerts, signed in to the Google account that should get the alerts.
- Type your topic in the box at the top: a name, a product, a company or a phrase.
- Click "Show options" and choose:
- How often: As-it-happens, At most once a day, or At most once a week;
- Sources: Automatic, or only News, Blogs, Web, Video, Books, Discussions or Finance;
- Language and Region;
- How many: Only the best results, or All results;
- which account gets the alert.
- Click "Create Alert". You'll get an email whenever Google finds matching new results.
Make an alert more precise
The topic is a search, so Google Search's own operators can narrow it. The Alerts help page doesn't list them, so search the same words on Google first to see what they find:
- "exact phrase" in quotes, for a name or a product model;
- a minus sign to leave a word out:
jaguar -car; - OR between alternatives:
"air fryer" OR "airfryer"; - site: to limit results to one website:
"press release" site:example.com.
Even with site:, you're told about new pages Google finds on that site, not about a change to a page that already exists.
Change or delete an alert
- Change it: on google.com/alerts, click "Edit" next to the alert (then "Show options" if you don't see them), make your changes and click "Update alert".
- Delete it: click "Delete" next to the alert, or "Unsubscribe" at the bottom of an alert email.
- Change how you get alerts: click "Settings", tick the options you want and click "Save".
What Google Alerts can't do
- Watch one page. A product page whose price drops is the same page as yesterday, not a new search result, so there's nothing to send.
- Tell you what changed. You get links to new results, not "the price went from €129 to €99".
- Text you. Alerts come by email.
When to watch a page instead
If the question is "did this page change?", you want a page monitor. In Gairė:
- Paste the page: a product you want to buy, a competitor's product page, or a search with your filters on a listings site. Before anything is saved, Gairė shows what it reads there: the price, whether it's in stock, or the items on the list.
- Choose what to be told about: a price drop or rise, back in stock, sold out, or new items on the list.
- Get the change itself, by email, text or chat app: "price drop on shop.example – Philips Airfryer NA120/00: 129,99 € → 99,99 €".
It checks once an hour on a free account. (Plus) Up to 5 pages can be checked every 15 minutes with Plus.
Side by side
| Google Alerts | Gairė | |
|---|---|---|
| What it watches | New Google Search results for a topic | One page you choose |
| What you get | Links to new results | What changed: the item, its old and new value |
| You set it up with | Words | A page's address |
| How it tells you | Email, text, WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Discord or a webhook (texts and WhatsApp to numbers in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland and Portugal) | |
| Cost | Free | 10 pages free, checked hourly; Plus €12 a month for 50 |
Google Alerts as described on Google's help page "Create an alert" and its own page, read on 22 October 2026. Gairė from gaire.lt the same day.
When Google Alerts is the better tool
- Mentions of a name, a brand or a topic anywhere on the web. You don't know which page they'll be on, and a page monitor needs the page.
- News on a subject, rather than one source.
- Free, with no limit on topics.
Using both
- A shop: Google Alerts for its own brand name; Gairė on its competitors' product pages.
- A buyer: Google Alerts for reviews of the model they want; Gairė on its product page, for the day the price drops.
Questions
- Is Google Alerts free?
- Yes.
- Why am I not getting any alerts?
- Google's help page suggests three checks: that you're signed in to the account the alert belongs to; that the alert is switched on (if a message says your alerts have been disabled, click "Enable"); and that your inbox isn't full and the emails aren't in spam (in Gmail, add googlealerts-noreply@google.com to your contacts). Also, an email comes only when Google finds new matching results. With "Only the best results" chosen, "All results" sends more.
- Can Google Alerts watch a specific page for changes?
- No. It tells you about new search results, not changes to a page you pick. Use a page monitor for that.
- Can I get alerts by text message?
- Not from Google Alerts, which sends email. Gairė sends texts and WhatsApp alerts to numbers in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland and Portugal, and email, Telegram, Slack and Discord alerts anywhere.
- Is there a free page monitor?
- Gairė watches 10 pages free, checked every hour, with no card. Others have free plans too: see "Price monitoring tools compared (2026)".
Watch the page you care about
Free, no card.