# Competitor Price Monitor (`ulitron34/competitor-price-monitor`) Actor

Monitor authorized product pages, normalize prices and detect price increases or decreases against previous datasets. Configurable selectors and strict limits.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/ulitron34/competitor-price-monitor.md
- **Developed by:** [ulises salgado diaz](https://apify.com/ulitron34) (community)
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $3.00 / 1,000 results

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 price changes on product pages you are authorized to monitor. The Actor extracts current prices, normalizes currencies and numeric formats, compares them with a previous dataset when provided, and stores structured results in an Apify dataset.

### What it does

- Monitors multiple product URLs in one run
- Uses configurable CSS selectors for title and price
- Normalizes common price formats and currencies
- Detects increases, decreases, unchanged prices, and first observations
- Applies strict limits so runs remain predictable
- Produces export-ready JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, and RSS through Apify datasets

### Input

Provide a list of products with a URL and the CSS selectors used on that page. Only monitor pages you own or are authorized to access.

Example:

```json
{
  "products": [
    {
      "url": "https://example.com/product/widget",
      "name": "Example widget",
      "priceSelector": ".price",
      "titleSelector": "h1"
    }
  ],
  "maxProducts": 20
}
```

For change detection, supply the previous dataset or previous observations using the fields exposed in the input form.

### Output

Each dataset item includes the requested URL, product name or page title, raw price text, normalized numeric price, currency when detected, previous price when available, absolute and percentage change, status, timestamp, and any extraction error.

Example result:

```json
{
  "url": "https://example.com/product/widget",
  "name": "Example widget",
  "price": 89.99,
  "currency": "USD",
  "previousPrice": 99.99,
  "change": -10,
  "changePercent": -10.0,
  "status": "decreased",
  "checkedAt": "2026-10-21T12:00:00.000Z"
}
```

### Typical uses

- Competitor price tracking for authorized public pages
- MAP and catalog monitoring
- Promotion and discount verification
- Scheduled price-change reports
- Feeding dashboards, spreadsheets, webhooks, or automation workflows

### Scheduling

Run the Actor manually, through the API, or on an Apify schedule. For continuous monitoring, save a task with your selectors and run it at an interval appropriate for the target websites.

### Responsible use

Respect website terms, robots policies, rate limits, privacy, intellectual-property rights, and applicable law. This Actor does not bypass authentication, paywalls, CAPTCHAs, or access controls. Website markup can change; update selectors when extraction stops matching the page.

### Support

If a supported page structure fails, open an issue with a redacted example URL, the selectors used, and the run ID. Do not include credentials or private data.

# Actor input Schema

## `startUrls` (type: `array`):

Public product pages you are authorized to monitor.

## `selectors` (type: `object`):

Selectors matching product fields on the target page.

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

Hard dataset and cost limit.

## `previousDatasetId` (type: `string`):

Optional previous dataset used for price-change comparison.

## `currency` (type: `string`):

Currency code applied to normalized prices.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "startUrls": [],
  "selectors": {
    "item": "body",
    "name": "h1",
    "price": "[data-price], .price",
    "availability": "[data-stock], .availability",
    "sku": "[data-sku]"
  },
  "maxItems": 25,
  "currency": "USD"
}
```

# Actor output Schema

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

Normalized prices and detected changes.

# 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 = {};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("ulitron34/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 = {}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("ulitron34/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 '{}' |
apify call ulitron34/competitor-price-monitor --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,ulitron34/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/If4AH0eGWzkEoSHIC/builds/R7nJ1SCyVxpOUFA72/openapi.json