# Competitor Price Monitor: Track Product Price & Stock Changes (`physealabs/competitor-price-monitor`) Actor

Track product prices and stock on any store. Each run checks your URLs, compares with the last run and flags price drops, increases, back-in-stock and sold-out. Schedule it daily. No login, no API key. By Physea Labs · Liminal. Launch Sale: 90% OFF for the first week!

- **URL**: https://apify.com/physealabs/competitor-price-monitor.md
- **Developed by:** [jay casey](https://apify.com/physealabs) (community)
- **Categories:** E-commerce, Business
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$1.00 / 1,000 product url checkeds

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

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

## Competitor Price Monitor: Track Product Price & Stock Changes

> **Launch Sale: 90% OFF for the first week!** Every event below is billed at 10% of list price during launch week.

Watch competitor product pages on any store. Every run records the price and stock of each URL, compares it with the previous run and tells you what changed: price drop, price increase, back in stock, sold out.

### Quick start

Press **Start**. The sample checks two public demo product pages in seconds (first run shows `first_seen`). Run it again, or schedule it daily with the same watchlist name, and changes appear automatically.

### What you get

- Current price, currency, availability, title, SKU and image for every URL
- `previous_price`, `price_change`, `price_change_pct` and when it was last checked
- `change_type`: first_seen, unchanged, price_drop, price_increase, back_in_stock, out_of_stock, check_failed
- History kept in a named key-value store per watchlist (`price-monitor-<name>`), so schedules just work
- Works on any shop that publishes JSON-LD, microdata, OpenGraph or a visible price; custom regex for the rest

### Good for

- Daily competitor price tracking for e-commerce and D2C brands
- MAP (minimum advertised price) compliance checks on resellers
- Restock alerts for sold-out products
- Feeding price changes into Slack, email or a sheet via Apify integrations (filter on `change_type`)

### Pricing

- $0.001 per URL checked (about $1 per 1,000 checks)
- Blocked or failed checks are free
- **Launch Sale: 90% OFF for the first week!**

You pay only for results that come back. Set a max cost per run in the run options and the run stops cleanly
when it hits it. Normal Apify platform usage applies. No API keys or logins needed.

### Input

| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| `productUrls` | Product pages from any store(s). One URL per row. |
| `watchlistName` | Runs with the same name share history. Use one name per watchlist/schedule. |
| `minChangePercent` | Smaller price moves are reported as unchanged. |
| `onlyChanges` | Skip unchanged rows in the dataset (they are still checked and billed). |
| `priceRegex` | Only for odd pages: a regex whose first group captures the price, e.g. data-price="(\[\d.]+)". |
| `maxUrls` | Safety cap per run. |
| `proxyConfiguration` | Optional. Leave off for small runs. Turn on Apify Proxy if a site rate-limits or blocks you. |

### Output

Rows go to the default dataset (see the **Price checks** view). A `RUN_SUMMARY.json` record in the key-value
store has totals, what was charged and any proxy notes.

### Limits

- Reads server-rendered HTML. Prices injected only by JavaScript may need the custom regex.
- Marketplaces with bot walls need Apify Proxy; for Amazon use our Amazon listings actor.
- History is per watchlist name. Change the name to start fresh.

### Run it from code

Same input as the Console sample:

```json
{
  "productUrls": [
    {
      "url": "https://www.scrapingcourse.com/ecommerce/product/abominable-hoodie/"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://books.toscrape.com/catalogue/a-light-in-the-attic_1000/index.html"
    }
  ],
  "watchlistName": "demo"
}
```

```sh
curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/physealabs~competitor-price-monitor/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=$APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d @input.json
```

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient
items = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN").actor("physealabs/competitor-price-monitor").call(run_input={"productUrls": [{"url": "https://www.scrapingcourse.com/ecommerce/product/abominable-hoodie/"}, {"url": "https://books.toscrape.com/catalogue/a-light-in-the-attic_1000/index.html"}], "watchlistName": "demo"})
```

It also works from Zapier, Make, n8n and Apify schedules.

***

Built by **Physea Labs · Liminal**, the team behind Liminal's grounded research and decision tools. Same no-nonsense extraction we use in-house, now on the Apify Store. Questions or a field you need? Open an issue on the actor page.

# Actor input Schema

## `productUrls` (type: `array`):

Product pages from any store(s). One URL per row.

## `watchlistName` (type: `string`):

Runs with the same name share history. Use one name per watchlist/schedule.

## `minChangePercent` (type: `integer`):

Smaller price moves are reported as unchanged.

## `onlyChanges` (type: `boolean`):

Skip unchanged rows in the dataset (they are still checked and billed).

## `priceRegex` (type: `string`):

Only for odd pages: a regex whose first group captures the price, e.g. data-price="(\[\d.]+)".

## `maxUrls` (type: `integer`):

Safety cap per run.

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

Optional. Leave off for small runs. Turn on Apify Proxy if a site rate-limits or blocks you.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "productUrls": [
    {
      "url": "https://www.scrapingcourse.com/ecommerce/product/abominable-hoodie/"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://books.toscrape.com/catalogue/a-light-in-the-attic_1000/index.html"
    }
  ],
  "watchlistName": "demo",
  "minChangePercent": 0,
  "onlyChanges": false,
  "maxUrls": 500,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

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

Current price, currency, availability, title, SKU and image for every URL

## `summary` (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 = {
    "productUrls": [
        {
            "url": "https://www.scrapingcourse.com/ecommerce/product/abominable-hoodie/"
        },
        {
            "url": "https://books.toscrape.com/catalogue/a-light-in-the-attic_1000/index.html"
        }
    ],
    "watchlistName": "demo",
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": false
    }
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("physealabs/competitor-price-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 = {
    "productUrls": [
        { "url": "https://www.scrapingcourse.com/ecommerce/product/abominable-hoodie/" },
        { "url": "https://books.toscrape.com/catalogue/a-light-in-the-attic_1000/index.html" },
    ],
    "watchlistName": "demo",
    "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": False },
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("physealabs/competitor-price-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 '{
  "productUrls": [
    {
      "url": "https://www.scrapingcourse.com/ecommerce/product/abominable-hoodie/"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://books.toscrape.com/catalogue/a-light-in-the-attic_1000/index.html"
    }
  ],
  "watchlistName": "demo",
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}' |
apify call physealabs/competitor-price-monitor --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,physealabs/competitor-price-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/KaQnVaUdWQd6EcixY/builds/biHMGMfphKQb2Sdmy/openapi.json