# 💰 Price Drop Monitor - Any Shop, No Selector Needed (`that_red_bird/price-drop-monitor`) Actor

⚡ ~$0.002/check. Track competitor prices across any shops and get alerted on drops. ✅ Price detected automatically from JSON-LD, microdata or the page itself. ✅ Percentage thresholds, target-price alerts, multi-currency, built-in price history.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/that\_red\_bird/price-drop-monitor.md
- **Developed by:** [mohamed alaya](https://apify.com/that_red_bird) (community)
- **Categories:** E-commerce, Automation, Business
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

Pay per event

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/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
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.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## 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.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## Competitor Price Drop Monitor

Track prices across any shops and get alerted when they move. **No CSS selector needed** — the price
is found automatically.

### How the price is detected

In order, stopping at the first hit:

1. **JSON-LD** `Product` / `Offer` → `offers.price` (what most modern shops publish)
2. **Microdata / OpenGraph** — `product:price:amount`, `itemprop="price"`
3. **Known price containers**, skipping struck-through "was / list / RRP" prices
4. **Text scan** for the first currency-shaped string

Supply `priceSelector` to override it for a stubborn shop.

Handles `$1,299.00`, `1.299,00 €`, `£9.99`, `USD 45` — comma and dot decimals both.

### Alerting

| Setting | Effect |
|---|---|
| `alertOn: "drop"` | only when the price falls (default) |
| `alertOn: "rise"` | only when it climbs |
| `alertOn: "any"` | every movement |
| `minChangePercent` | ignore movements smaller than this |
| `targetPrice` | alert whenever the price is at or below your number, even with no change this run |

Because prices are compared as **numbers**, every alert carries a real delta and percentage — not
just "the text changed".

### Input

```json
{
  "products": [
    "https://shop.example/product/123",
    { "url": "https://other.example/p/9", "label": "rival-sku-9", "priceSelector": ".now-price" }
  ],
  "alertOn": "drop",
  "minChangePercent": 5,
  "webhookUrl": "https://hooks.slack.com/services/XXX"
}
```

### Output

`price`, `previousPrice`, `changePercent`, `direction` (`DROP`/`RISE`), `currency`, `title`,
`availability`, `belowTargetPrice`, `alert`.

### Who uses it

E-commerce sellers watching rivals · dropshippers repricing · buyers waiting for a deal ·
agencies reporting on a client's competitive set · anyone who currently checks tabs by hand.

# Actor input Schema

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

Product pages to watch. Plain URLs, or objects like {"url":"https://…","label":"nike-air-42","priceSelector":".price"}.

## `priceSelector` (type: `string`):

Leave empty and the price is detected automatically from JSON-LD, microdata or common price containers.

## `alertOn` (type: `string`):

Which direction of price movement should raise an alert.

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

Ignore movements smaller than this. 0 = report every change.

## `targetPrice` (type: `integer`):

Alert whenever the price is at or below this number, even if it did not change this run.

## `onlyAlerts` (type: `boolean`):

Push only rows that triggered an alert (plus repeatedly broken pages). Recommended when tracking hundreds of products.

## `keepHistory` (type: `integer`):

How many past prices to keep per product. The output includes priceHistory, lowestSeen and highestSeen so you can chart trends without your own database.

## `alertOnErrorAfter` (type: `integer`):

Flags a product whose page keeps failing — delisted, blocked, or restructured. 0 disables it.

## `resetBaseline` (type: `boolean`):

Forget stored prices and start fresh. Use after changing the price selector.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Hard cap on dataset rows per run. 0 = no cap.

## `renderJs` (type: `boolean`):

Only needed for shops that build the price in the browser. Slower and more expensive.

## `waitForSelector` (type: `string`):

With Render JavaScript on: wait until this element appears before reading the price.

## `customHeaders` (type: `object`):

Extra request headers, e.g. a Cookie header for region-locked or logged-in pricing.

## `concurrency` (type: `integer`):

How many product pages to check in parallel.

## `webhookUrl` (type: `string`):

POSTed when an alert fires. Slack/Discord/Zapier compatible.

## `stateStoreName` (type: `string`):

Named key-value store holding the last seen prices. Use different names to keep separate watch lists.

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

Optional Apify proxy configuration for shops that block datacenter traffic.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "products": [
    "https://books.toscrape.com/catalogue/a-light-in-the-attic_1000/index.html"
  ],
  "alertOn": "drop",
  "minChangePercent": 0,
  "onlyAlerts": false,
  "keepHistory": 30,
  "alertOnErrorAfter": 3,
  "resetBaseline": false,
  "maxItems": 0,
  "renderJs": false,
  "concurrency": 5,
  "stateStoreName": "price-drop-monitor-state"
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `prices` (type: `string`):

No description

## `downloadCsv` (type: `string`):

No description

## `summary` (type: `string`):

No description

## `productsChecked` (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 = {
    "products": [
        "https://books.toscrape.com/catalogue/a-light-in-the-attic_1000/index.html"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("that_red_bird/price-drop-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 = { "products": ["https://books.toscrape.com/catalogue/a-light-in-the-attic_1000/index.html"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("that_red_bird/price-drop-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 '{
  "products": [
    "https://books.toscrape.com/catalogue/a-light-in-the-attic_1000/index.html"
  ]
}' |
apify call that_red_bird/price-drop-monitor --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,that_red_bird/price-drop-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/MThWKVlK11lYMqvN1/builds/zsGJo7C1QX3f4lLNJ/openapi.json