# Website Change Monitor: Track Page Content Changes (`accountable_eel/website-change-monitor`) Actor

Website change detection: watch any webpage for content changes. Paste a competitor's pricing page, a changelog or a terms of service page and get an alert row only when the text actually changes. Cookie banners and widgets are stripped first. Track pricing page changes to Google Sheets or n8n.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/accountable_eel/website-change-monitor.md
- **Developed by:** [Adriana Voss](https://apify.com/accountable_eel) (community)
- **Categories:** Developer tools, Automation
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $15.00 / 1,000 site checkeds

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## Website Change Monitor: Track Page Content Changes

Watch any webpage for content changes. Paste a competitor's pricing page, a changelog, or a
terms-of-service page and get an alert row only when the text actually changes.

### How to use

1. **In the Apify Console.** Open the actor page and click **Start** — the `urls` field is already pre-filled with a working example. Results land in the run's dataset as soon as each item is found.
2. **Via the API.** Call it directly with a POST request — no Console needed once you have an API token:
   ```bash
   curl "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/accountable_eel~website-change-monitor/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=<YOUR_TOKEN>" \
     -X POST \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{"urls":["https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_scraping"]}'
   ```
3. **On a schedule.** Save this actor as an Apify **Task** with the input you want, then add a **Schedule** (hourly, daily, weekly) so it runs on its own — no server of your own required.

### Input

```json
{
  "urls": [
    "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_scraping"
  ]
}
```

One URL per line. Each one is fetched, its main article content extracted, and compared against the last time this actor checked it. Accepted formats: https://example.com/pricing, https://example.com/changelog, https://example.com/terms-of-service.

```json
{
  "urls": ["https://example.com/pricing", "https://example.com/changelog"],
  "deltaMode": true,
  "keywordWatch": ["price", "security"],
  "ignoreSelectors": [".related-articles", "#ad-banner"],
  "diffGranularity": "section"
}
```

`urls` is the list of pages to watch. One dataset row is returned per URL; rows with
`"found": false` are never charged. With `deltaMode` on (the default), the first check of a
URL reports `changeType: "first-check"` and remembers the page; every check after that
compares against what was last remembered.

### What counts as a change

Before comparing, this actor strips the same noise `url-to-markdown` strips when extracting
an article: cookie/consent banners (OneTrust, Cookiebot, Didomi, and a generic
id/class-based fallback), nav/header/footer/script/style, and anything matched by your own
`ignoreSelectors`. A rotating "related articles" widget, an ad slot, or a cookie banner that
re-renders with a new timestamp every load is stripped before the diff runs — so you are
never billed for, or alerted on, noise you didn't ask to watch.

The remaining article text is split into blocks (by section heading, or by paragraph if you
set `diffGranularity: "paragraph"`) and each block is hashed. A block whose hash disappears
and a new one appears in roughly the same place is reported as a changed section with
`{before, after}` snippets; a block that only moved position is treated as unchanged. If you
set `keywordWatch`, a change is only reported (`changed: true`) when the added or removed
text contains at least one watched term — a change that doesn't touch a watched term still
updates the actor's memory of the page, but comes back as `changed: false` so you aren't
alerted on noise you asked it to ignore.

A page that fails to load, is blocked, or doesn't exist comes back as an ordinary
`"found": false` row (`status`: `BLOCKED` / `NOT_FOUND` / `REQUEST_FAILED`) — the same
convention every other actor in this portfolio uses — rather than a `changeType` of its own,
and is never charged.

### Output

One row per item, for example:

| query | found | status | url | changed | changeType | changedSections | matchedKeywords | title | lang | wordCount | checkedAt | previousCheckedAt | scrapedAt |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_scraping | true | OK | <url> | <changed since last check> | \<change type (first-check / unchanged / changed)> | \<what changed (before / after snippets)> | <watched keywords found in the change> | <page title> | <language> | <word count> | <checked at> | <previously checked at> | 1970-01-01T00:00:00.000Z |

A miss comes back as a row with `"found": false` and is never charged.

### Example runs

- **Watch a Wikipedia article for edits** — `urls: ["https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_scraping"]`, `deltaMode: true`. First check seeds the baseline; every scheduled check after it reports `changed: true` only when the article text itself was edited.
- **Watch a changelog for a specific kind of update** — `urls: ["https://docs.python.org/3/whatsnew/3.13.html"]`, `keywordWatch: ["security", "deprecat"]`. Only alerts when a watched term appears in the actual edit, not on every unrelated tweak to the page.
- **Watch a terms-of-service page for real policy changes** — `urls: ["https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/about/legal/terms/mozilla/"]`, `ignoreSelectors: [".last-updated-banner"]`. Strips a rotating "last updated" timestamp banner before diffing, so the actor only alerts on an actual wording change.

### Pricing

- **Site checked**: $30 per 1,000 page checks

Plus a $0.01 start fee per run. Each event above is billed independently, only when it actually returns data — misses (`found:false`) are never charged.

### Use it from Clay, n8n, Make, or an AI agent

This actor runs synchronously over plain HTTP — call it directly from a script, a workflow tool, or an AI agent, no Apify Console needed once you have an API token.

```bash
curl "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/accountable_eel~website-change-monitor/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=<YOUR_TOKEN>" \
  -X POST \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"urls":["https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_scraping"]}'
```

**n8n.** Add an HTTP Request node: Method `POST`, URL `https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/accountable_eel~website-change-monitor/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=<YOUR_TOKEN>`, Body Content Type `JSON`, JSON Body `{"urls":["https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_scraping"]}` (swap in an expression from an earlier node for a real value).

**Clay.** Add an "HTTP API" column: Method `POST`, URL `https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/accountable_eel~website-change-monitor/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=<YOUR_TOKEN>`, Body `{"urls":["{{page check}}"]}`, mapping the row's page check into the `urls` array.

**MCP.** In Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client with the Apify MCP server, ask for "website change monitor: track content changes" — the agent will find and run this actor.

# Actor input Schema

## `urls` (type: `array`):

One URL per line. Each one is fetched, its main article content extracted, and compared against the last time this actor checked it. Accepted formats: https://example.com/pricing, https://example.com/changelog, https://example.com/terms-of-service. You're only charged for the ones we actually find — a miss costs nothing.

## `testRun` (type: `boolean`):

Turn this on to test your input on a small sample before running the full list. Turn it off to process everything.

## `onlyFound` (type: `boolean`):

Only keep rows where something was actually found. Misses are always free, whether or not you show them here.

## `includeKeywords` (type: `array`):

Optional. Only keep results that mention at least one of these words (e.g. a job title, a city, a product name). Leave empty to keep everything.

## `excludeKeywords` (type: `array`):

Optional. Drop any result that mentions one of these words. Leave empty to skip nothing.

## `maxResults` (type: `integer`):

Optional. Stop the run once this many results have been found — useful for a quick, cheap sample. Leave blank for no limit.

## `keywordWatch` (type: `array`):

Optional. One term per line, case-insensitive. If set, a page is only reported as changed when the added or removed text contains at least one of these terms — e.g. watch a changelog for "security" or a pricing page for "$". Leave empty to report any content change.

## `ignoreSelectors` (type: `array`):

Optional. One CSS selector per line, e.g. ".related-articles" or "#ad-banner". Matching elements are stripped before comparing, so a rotating "related articles" widget or an ad slot never triggers a false alert — and you're never billed for noise you asked to ignore.

## `diffGranularity` (type: `string`):

How finely the page is split before comparing. "Section" groups each heading with the text under it — fewer, bigger alerts. "Paragraph" catches a one-line edit inside a long section but reports more alerts for the same page.

## `deltaMode` (type: `boolean`):

On by default: this is what the actor is for. The first check of a URL remembers its content and reports changeType "first-check". Every check after that compares against what was last remembered and reports "changed" or "unchanged". Turn this off to just extract and return each page's current content with no comparison (changed/changeType come back null).

## `deltaName` (type: `string`):

Leave empty and one is derived automatically from your "Ignore" selectors and "Compare by" setting, so changing either one starts a fresh baseline. Type your own name to keep one memory across such a change, or to share one watchlist across two schedules.

## `columns` (type: `array`):

Choose which pieces of information to include in each result row. All are included by default.

## `maxConcurrency` (type: `integer`):

Parallel requests. Keep conservative — this target has no browser fallback, so getting blocked costs more than slow-and-steady.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Apify Proxy config. Residential recommended for anti-bot-sensitive targets.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "urls": [
    "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_scraping"
  ],
  "testRun": false,
  "onlyFound": false,
  "includeKeywords": [],
  "excludeKeywords": [],
  "keywordWatch": [],
  "ignoreSelectors": [],
  "diffGranularity": "section",
  "deltaMode": true,
  "deltaName": "",
  "columns": [
    "url",
    "changed",
    "changeType",
    "changedSections",
    "matchedKeywords",
    "title",
    "lang",
    "wordCount",
    "checkedAt",
    "previousCheckedAt"
  ],
  "maxConcurrency": 5,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "urls": [
        "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_scraping"
    ],
    "includeKeywords": [],
    "excludeKeywords": [],
    "keywordWatch": [],
    "ignoreSelectors": []
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("accountable_eel/website-change-monitor").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "urls": ["https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_scraping"],
    "includeKeywords": [],
    "excludeKeywords": [],
    "keywordWatch": [],
    "ignoreSelectors": [],
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("accountable_eel/website-change-monitor").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "urls": [
    "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_scraping"
  ],
  "includeKeywords": [],
  "excludeKeywords": [],
  "keywordWatch": [],
  "ignoreSelectors": []
}' |
apify call accountable_eel/website-change-monitor --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,accountable_eel/website-change-monitor"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/7aoqO8DXQ4vtz0ts7/builds/rTUs8jYUociF0vGon/openapi.json