What Google Alerts Does and How to Start One

Google Alerts watches the internet for you and sends you an email whenever new content matches a topic you choose. You give Google a search term — a person's name, a company, a product, a news story — and it monitors search results across news sites, blogs, forums, and other pages. When something new appears that matches your term, Google emails you a link to it.

You do not need to pay for Google Alerts or install anything. It works through your Google account, which you already have if you use Gmail, YouTube, or Google Drive. The whole setup takes about two minutes.

Key Takeaways

  • Google Alerts sends you an email whenever new content matches a search term you choose, and you control how often you receive emails.
  • You create alerts by going to google.com/alerts, signing in with your Google account, typing a search term, and clicking Create Alert.
  • You can narrow alerts to specific news sources, languages, regions, and content types so you only get emails about what matters to you.
  • Alerts work best for tracking people's names, company announcements, product launches, and breaking news in specific industries.

How to Create Your First Alert in Four Steps

Open your web browser and go to google.com/alerts. You will see a search box at the top of the page that says "Create an alert about...". This is where you type the topic you want to track.

Type your search term into that box. This can be a person's name, a company name, a product, a phrase, or anything else you want to monitor. For example, you might type "Tesla stock price" or "Sarah Chen author" or "best espresso machines". Google will show you a preview of what results it would send you for that term.

Click the Create Alert button. Google will ask you to sign in with your Google account if you are not already signed in. Use the same email address you check regularly, because that is where your alerts will arrive.

After you click Create Alert, you are done. Google will now send you emails whenever it finds new content that matches your search term. The first alert may take a few hours to arrive, depending on how active the topic is online.

Controlling How Often You Get Emails

By default, Google sends you an email every time it finds something new. If your topic is popular, this could mean multiple emails per day. You can change this by adjusting your alert frequency.

Go back to google.com/alerts and sign in. You will see a list of all your active alerts. Click the pencil icon next to any alert to edit it. Near the bottom of the edit window, you will see a dropdown that says "How often" with options like "As-it-happens", "At most once a day", or "At most once a week". Choose the frequency that works for you, then click Update Alert.

"As-it-happens" means you get an email the moment Google finds something new. "At most once a day" bundles all the results from that day into a single email sent in the evening. "At most once a week" does the same but sends one email per week. If your topic is very active and you only care about the biggest stories, the weekly option keeps your inbox cleaner.

Narrowing Alerts to Get Only What You Need

Google Alerts searches the entire internet by default, which can mean you get results that are not quite what you wanted. You can make your alerts more specific by filtering them.

When you create or edit an alert, click on the dropdown that says "Show options". This reveals several filters. The Sources dropdown lets you choose whether to search news sites only, blogs only, or everything. If you are tracking a company announcement, choosing "News" will filter out random blog posts and forum discussions. The Language dropdown narrows results to a specific language. The Region dropdown focuses on a specific country or area. The How often dropdown controls email frequency, as described above.

The most useful filter for most people is Sources. Choosing "News" instead of "Everything" cuts down on spam and irrelevant results. If you are tracking a person's name and want to avoid false matches, you can also make your search term more specific — for example, searching for "John Smith author" instead of just "John Smith" will filter out results about other people with the same name.

Managing and Deleting Alerts You No Longer Need

Your alerts stay active until you delete them. Over time, you may create alerts for topics that no longer matter to you, and they will keep sending emails.

Go to google.com/alerts and sign in. You will see your list of active alerts. To edit an alert, click the pencil icon. To delete an alert, click the trash icon next to it. Google will ask you to confirm the deletion. Once you confirm, that alert stops immediately and you will not receive any more emails for it.

Check your alerts list once every few months and delete any you are no longer using. This keeps your inbox from filling up with emails you do not read.

What Works Well With Google Alerts

Google Alerts works best for topics that generate regular new content online. Tracking a person's name, a company, a breaking news story, or a product launch usually produces good results because news sites, blogs, and forums write about these things regularly.

Alerts work less well for very niche topics, very common words, or topics that rarely appear in written form. If you search for something that appears in thousands of results every day, you may get too many emails to be useful. If you search for something that almost never appears online, you may never get an alert at all. Experiment with your search term — if you are getting too many irrelevant results, try making your term more specific. If you are getting nothing, try broadening it or removing filters.

Many people use Google Alerts to track job postings in their field, monitor mentions of their own name or business, follow news about a hobby or interest, or watch for price drops on products they want to buy. The tool is flexible enough to work for almost any topic you want to monitor.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I create alerts for multiple search terms at once?

No, each alert tracks one search term. You can create as many separate alerts as you want, though. If you want to track both "Python programming" and "JavaScript programming", create two alerts instead of one.

What if I am not getting any alerts for a topic I created?

Google only sends alerts when new content appears that matches your search term. If your topic is very niche or rarely discussed online, you may not get alerts for weeks or months. Try broadening your search term or removing filters like "News only" to cast a wider net. You can also check the preview Google shows you when you create the alert to see whether results exist at all.

Can I get alerts on my phone instead of email?

Google Alerts only sends emails, not push notifications or text messages. However, you can set up your email account to forward alerts to your phone, or you can check your email on your phone's mail app. Some email providers also let you create rules that send notifications when emails from google-alerts@google.com arrive.

Do I need a Gmail address to use Google Alerts?

You need a Google account, but it does not have to be a Gmail address. If you have a YouTube account, Google Drive account, or any other Google service, you already have a Google account. You can use any email address you want to receive the alerts — it does not have to be a Google email.

How long does Google keep my alert history?

Google does not store a searchable history of past alerts you received. Each alert email is just a regular email in your inbox, so you can search your email to find old alerts if you need them. If you delete an alert, Google stops sending new ones, but your past emails remain in your inbox.