# MercadoLibre Price Drop Alerts & Watchlist (`pricelatam/mercadolibre-price-drop-alerts`) Actor

MercadoLibre price drop alerts for your watchlist in 18 LATAM countries: paste product IDs, URLs or searches, schedule it, and get a price alert only when the best price falls vs. the last check, 7 or 30 days ago, or the lowest ever. Pay per product checked.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/pricelatam/mercadolibre-price-drop-alerts.md
- **Developed by:** [Miguel Pinzon](https://apify.com/pricelatam) (community)
- **Features:** Limited permissions
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $1.00 / 1,000 product 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

## MercadoLibre Price Drop Alerts & Watchlist

**MercadoLibre price drop alerts for your own watchlist.** Paste the MercadoLibre (or Mercado Livre) products you care about, as IDs or URLs, or a few search keywords, choose what counts as a drop, and schedule the Actor. Every run checks the current best price across all sellers and returns **only the products whose price dropped**: compared with the last check, with 7 or 30 days ago, or with the lowest price ever recorded. Connect Apify's email, Slack or webhook integration and you have a **price alert** that lands where you work. Data comes from the official MercadoLibre API in 18 Latin American countries. You pay per product checked, plus a small fee per alert.

> Independent tool, not affiliated with MercadoLibre.

> **Need full price history?** See [MercadoLibre Price Tracker](https://apify.com/pricelatam/mercadolibre-price-tracker): every product with its best price, all offers and the complete price series.

> **Selling on MercadoLibre?** [MercadoLibre Seller Price Monitor](https://apify.com/pricelatam/mercadolibre-seller-price-monitor) tracks your store, distributors or competitors per catalog product: price, rank, gap to the cheapest competitor and MAP violations.

### What does it do?

For every product on your watchlist, each run:

1. Reads **every seller offer** of the catalog product (`/p/MCO27172677` pages) through the MercadoLibre API.
2. Records the observation in a **shared price-history database**, the same one used by [MercadoLibre Price Tracker](https://apify.com/pricelatam/mercadolibre-price-tracker) and refreshed daily for popular products in Colombia, Mexico, Argentina and Brazil.
3. Compares the current best price with the history **as it was before this run**.
4. Writes a row **only if the price dropped** by at least your thresholds (`status: "drop"`). A product nobody has recorded before is stored and returned once as `status: "baseline"`; from the next run on it can trigger alerts.

Unchanged prices and price increases produce no row, so an empty dataset means "nothing got cheaper".

### Main use case: scheduled price alerts by email, Slack or webhook

1. **Build your watchlist.** Open the Actor and paste product IDs or URLs into **Products to watch** (and/or keywords into **Search keywords**). Pick the comparison and minimum drop.
2. **Run it once.** Products that are new to the database come back as `baseline`; the rest are already compared.
3. **Schedule it.** In Apify Console, go to *Schedules* → *Create new*, select this Actor with your saved input and run it every 6, 12 or 24 hours ([docs](https://docs.apify.com/platform/schedules)).
4. **Get notified.** In the Actor's (or the task's) *Integrations* tab, add:
   - **Slack**: post a message to a channel when a run succeeds ([docs](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/slack));
   - **Email**: send yourself the run's results;
   - **Webhook**: call your own endpoint, Zapier, Make or n8n on `ACTOR.RUN.SUCCEEDED`; the payload carries `defaultDatasetId`, and the dataset holds only the drops ([docs](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/webhooks)).

Tip: save the input as a **Task** so the schedule and the integrations are attached to that watchlist.

### Input examples

**1. Watchlist of IDs and URLs, alert on any 5 % drop since the previous check**

```json
{
  "products": [
    "MCO27172677",
    "https://www.mercadolibre.com.co/p/MCO45520462",
    "MLM79503321"
  ],
  "compareTo": "lastObservation",
  "minDropPct": 5
}
```

IDs carry their country (`MCO` Colombia, `MLM` Mexico, …), so one watchlist can mix countries.

**2. Only new all-time lows, at least COP 100,000 cheaper**

```json
{
  "products": ["MCO27172677", "MCO27172667", "MCO27172678", "MCO45520462", "MCO52110390"],
  "compareTo": "lowestEver",
  "minDropPct": 3,
  "minDropAmount": 100000
}
```

**3. Watch the top results of a search, new items from official stores only**

```json
{
  "country": "MLC",
  "queries": ["iphone 15 128gb"],
  "maxProductsPerQuery": 10,
  "compareTo": "last7Days",
  "minDropPct": 5,
  "condition": "new",
  "officialStoresOnly": true,
  "includeOffers": true
}
```

#### Input fields

| Field | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
| `products` | – | Product IDs (`MCO27172677`) or product URLs (`…/p/MCO27172677`). Parent products are checked variant by variant. |
| `queries` | – | Optional search keywords; the top catalog products of each are checked. |
| `country` | `MCO` | Site used for `queries` (IDs use their own country). |
| `maxProductsPerQuery` | `10` | Products checked per keyword. Hits without offers are skipped and not charged. |
| `compareTo` | `last7Days` | `lastObservation`, `last7Days`, `last30Days` or `lowestEver` (see below). |
| `minDropPct` | `5` | Minimum drop in % of the reference price. `0` = any drop. |
| `minDropAmount` | – | Optional minimum drop in the product's currency. Both minimums must be met. |
| `condition` | `any` | `new`, `used`, `refurbished`: alert only when the cheapest offer behind the drop has this condition. |
| `officialStoresOnly` | `false` | Alert only when the cheapest offer behind the drop is from an official store. |
| `includeOffers` | `false` | Attach every offer matching your filters to each row. |

#### What is compared (`compareTo`)

| Value | Reference price | Alerts |
|---|---|---|
| `lastObservation` | Best price at the product's previous check (yours, another user's or our daily schedule) | Once per price change |
| `last7Days` | Best price in force 7 days ago (oldest recorded price if the history is shorter) | On every run while the price stays below |
| `last30Days` | Best price in force 30 days ago (same fallback) | On every run while the price stays below |
| `lowestEver` | Lowest best price recorded before this run | Only on new all-time lows |

The comparison always uses the shared series: the cheapest offer of the product (any seller, any condition) in its main currency. `condition` and `officialStoresOnly` do not change that series; they decide whether you want the alert: if the cheapest offer behind the drop does not match them, no alert is sent.

### Output

One row per product whose price dropped (`status: "drop"`) or that was registered for the first time (`status: "baseline"`).

Real baseline rows from example 3 (Chile, 13-nov-2026, `maxProductsPerQuery: 2`; one row shown, offers shortened):

```json
{
  "productId": "MLC27172678",
  "name": "Apple Iphone 15 128 Gb Rosa",
  "url": "https://www.mercadolibre.cl/p/MLC27172678",
  "thumbnail": "https://http2.mlstatic.com/D_NQ_NP_729317-MLA95935359515_102025-F.jpg",
  "currency": "CLP",
  "previousPrice": null,
  "previousPriceAt": null,
  "currentPrice": 659000,
  "dropAmount": null,
  "dropPct": null,
  "compareTo": "lastObservation",
  "lowestPriceSeen": 659000,
  "isNewLowest": false,
  "bestItemId": "MLC1902096403",
  "bestSellerId": "523057950",
  "offersCount": 3,
  "status": "baseline",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-11-13T14:39:54.958349Z",
  "offers": [
    { "itemId": "MLC1902096403", "sellerId": "523057950", "officialStoreId": null, "price": 659000,
      "originalPrice": null, "condition": "new", "freeShipping": true, "listingType": "gold_pro" }
  ]
}
```

A `drop` row has the same fields, with `previousPrice`, `previousPriceAt`, `dropAmount` and `dropPct` filled in. The run log explains every decision, e.g. from example 2 on 13-nov-2026 (no product had dropped, so the dataset stayed empty):

```
MCO45520462: current COP 2228253 vs lowestEver 2223459 at 2026-11-12T03:57:45.215074Z, change +0.22% -> no alert
MCO27172677: current COP 2182895 vs lowestEver 2182895 at 2026-11-13T03:10:11.829919Z, change 0% -> no alert
Done: 5 product(s) checked, 0 price drop alert(s), 0 baseline(s), 0 error(s)
```

#### Output fields

| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| `productId` | Catalog product ID, e.g. `MCO27172677`. |
| `name`, `url`, `thumbnail` | Product name, MercadoLibre page and image. |
| `currency` | Currency of every price in the row. |
| `previousPrice` | Reference price (see `compareTo`). Null for a baseline. |
| `previousPriceAt` | When the reference applied: previous check, start of the 7/30-day window, first recorded price, or date of the lowest price. |
| `currentPrice` | Cheapest current offer matching your filters. |
| `dropAmount` | `previousPrice − currentPrice`. |
| `dropPct` | Drop in % of `previousPrice` (2 decimals). |
| `compareTo` | Reference used for this row. |
| `lowestPriceSeen` | Lowest best price ever recorded, including this run. |
| `isNewLowest` | `true` when the current price is below every price recorded before. |
| `bestItemId`, `bestSellerId` | Listing and seller of the current price. |
| `offersCount` | Offers matching your filters. |
| `status` | `drop` or `baseline`. |
| `scrapedAt` | When the product was checked (UTC). |
| `offers` | Only with `includeOffers`: offers matching your filters, cheapest first. |

### How much does it cost?

Pay per event, no subscription. Platform usage is included.

| Event | Price |
|---|---|
| `product-checked`: every product checked, with or without a drop (baselines included) | $0.001 |
| `price-drop-alert`: extra for every row with `status: "drop"` | $0.004 |
| Actor start (charged by Apify on every run) | $0.00005 per GB of memory (default 1 GB) |

Example: 50 products checked every 6 hours for 30 days = 6,000 checks = $6.00, plus $0.004 per alert. Products that cannot be checked (not found, database unavailable) and keyword hits without offers are not charged. Set a maximum cost per run in the run options; the Actor stops cleanly when it is reached.

### Use it from AI agents (Apify MCP server)

The Actor is available as a tool through the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/mcp), so Claude, Cursor, VS Code or any MCP client can check your watchlist. Add this to your MCP client configuration (OAuth sign-in opens in your browser on first use):

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mercadolibre-price-drop-alerts": {
      "url": "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=pricelatam/mercadolibre-price-drop-alerts"
    }
  }
}
```

If your client does not support OAuth, send your token instead with `"headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer <YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>" }`.

Then ask, for example: *"Did any of MCO27172677, MCO45520462 or MCO52110390 hit a new all-time low price on MercadoLibre?"*

From code, call it like any Actor (`pip install apify-client`, then `client.actor("pricelatam/mercadolibre-price-drop-alerts").call(run_input={...})`) and iterate the default dataset.

### FAQ

**Why did my first run return only `baseline` rows?**
Those products had never been recorded, so there was nothing to compare with. They are stored now; the next run compares them. Popular products in MCO, MLM, MLA and MLB are usually already in the database thanks to our daily schedules, so they are compared from the first run.

**Why is the dataset empty?**
No product dropped by at least `minDropPct` (and `minDropAmount`) against the chosen reference. The run log shows the comparison for every product.

**Which `compareTo` should I use?**
`lastObservation` for "tell me once when the price goes down". `lowestEver` for "only real record lows". `last7Days` / `last30Days` for "cheaper than a week / month ago", which keeps alerting while the lower price lasts.

**Does "last observation" mean my last run?**
It means the last time anybody recorded the product: your runs, other users' runs or our schedules. That is what makes the comparison meaningful even if you run rarely.

**Am I charged when there is no drop?**
Yes, `product-checked` ($0.001) for each product actually checked. The `price-drop-alert` fee applies only to rows with `status: "drop"`.

**Do `condition` and `officialStoresOnly` create a separate price series?**
No. The history is shared and covers all offers. The filters only suppress alerts whose cheapest offer does not match them, and limit `currentPrice`, `offersCount` and `offers` to matching offers.

**What happens with products that have variants (colors, memory)?**
A parent product is expanded and each variant is checked (and charged) separately, because each variant has its own price.

**Do prices include shipping?**
No, item price only. With `includeOffers`, each offer tells you whether shipping is free.

**Which countries are supported?**
All 18 MercadoLibre sites: Argentina, Brazil (Mercado Livre), Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Peru, Uruguay, Ecuador, Venezuela, Bolivia, Paraguay, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Panama.

**Something does not work. Where do I report it?**
Open an issue in the Actor's **Issues** tab with the run ID and the input you used.

### Independence notice

This Actor is an independent tool. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by MercadoLibre. "MercadoLibre" and "Mercado Livre" are trademarks of their owners and are used only to describe the data source. Prices are the ones published through the official MercadoLibre API at the time of each run.

***

### En español

**MercadoLibre Price Drop Alerts** vigila tu lista de productos de MercadoLibre (IDs, URLs `/p/MCO…` o búsquedas) en 18 países y devuelve solo los que **bajaron de precio**: frente a la última observación, a hace 7 o 30 días, o al mínimo histórico, con un umbral en % y opcionalmente en moneda local. Cada consulta se guarda en la misma base de historial compartida del [MercadoLibre Price Tracker](https://apify.com/pricelatam/mercadolibre-price-tracker); un producto nunca visto se registra y se devuelve una vez como `baseline`. Prográmalo cada pocas horas y conecta la integración de email, Slack o webhook de Apify para recibir las bajadas. Se cobra $0.001 por producto consultado y $0.004 adicionales por alerta. Herramienta independiente, sin relación con MercadoLibre.

# Actor input Schema

## `products` (type: `array`):

Your watchlist: catalog product IDs (the ID after /p/ in a product URL, e.g. MCO27172677) or full product URLs such as https://www.mercadolibre.com.co/.../p/MCO27172677. A parent product with variants is checked variant by variant. The country is taken from each ID, so you can mix countries.

## `queries` (type: `array`):

Optional searches to watch, one per line, e.g. 'iphone 15 128gb'. The top catalog products of each search (up to 'Max products per keyword') are checked like the products above. Write keywords as people search in that country.

## `country` (type: `string`):

MercadoLibre site used for the search keywords. Product IDs and URLs always use their own country. Brazil is Mercado Livre.

## `maxProductsPerQuery` (type: `integer`):

How many catalog products of each search keyword are checked. Products without any offer are skipped and not charged.

## `compareTo` (type: `string`):

Reference for a drop. 'Last observation': the best price at the product's previous check (by you, other users or our daily schedules); you get one alert per price change. 'Price 7 / 30 days ago': the best price in force that many days ago (the oldest recorded price if the history is shorter); the alert repeats on every run while the drop holds. 'Lowest price ever': only new all-time lows.

## `minDropPct` (type: `number`):

Alert only when the best price is at least this many percent below the reference. 0 alerts on any drop.

## `minDropAmount` (type: `number`):

Optional: also require the drop to be at least this amount in the product's currency (e.g. 50000 for COP 50,000). Both minimums must be met.

## `condition` (type: `string`):

Alert only when the cheapest offer behind the drop is in this condition. The shared price history always covers all offers.

## `officialStoresOnly` (type: `boolean`):

Alert only when the cheapest offer behind the drop comes from a MercadoLibre official store.

## `includeOffers` (type: `boolean`):

Attach the list of offers (seller, price, shipping, condition) matching your filters to each alert row.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "products": [
    "MCO27172677"
  ],
  "country": "MCO",
  "maxProductsPerQuery": 10,
  "compareTo": "last7Days",
  "minDropPct": 5,
  "condition": "any",
  "officialStoresOnly": false,
  "includeOffers": false
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `alerts` (type: `string`):

All items of the run's default dataset: rows with status 'drop' (price alerts) and 'baseline' (products registered for the first time).

# 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 = {
    "products": [
        "MCO27172677"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("pricelatam/mercadolibre-price-drop-alerts").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 = { "products": ["MCO27172677"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("pricelatam/mercadolibre-price-drop-alerts").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 '{
  "products": [
    "MCO27172677"
  ]
}' |
apify call pricelatam/mercadolibre-price-drop-alerts --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,pricelatam/mercadolibre-price-drop-alerts"
        }
    }
}
```

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/DTmq1HItKcmR2m6nM/builds/NNKZT6cgtQlpjCulY/openapi.json