How to set up Google Alerts in five steps, and when to use AyeWatch

Here is how to set up Google Alerts: open google.com/alerts while signed in to your Google account, type the words you want to follow, click Show options to pick how often and from which sources, then click Create Alert. Google then emails you when new search results match. If you want alerts that judge meaning, watch one page, or reach you outside your inbox, AyeWatch is the tool we recommend, and the last part of this guide shows the same setup there.

Step 1: open the page on the right account

Go to Google Alerts and look at the account shown in the top corner. Alerts go to the account you are signed in with, so switch now if you want them in a work inbox rather than a personal one.

Step 2: write the query and test it

Type a topic in the box at the top. It behaves like a Google search, and the page shows a preview of recent matches under the box. Use that preview before you save:

• Quotes match an exact phrase: "acme robotics".
• A minus sign drops a word that keeps showing up: acme -cartoon.
• site: keeps results on one domain: site:example.com pricing.

Google documents these operators for Search in its guide to refining searches. If the preview is full of the wrong pages, fix the words now. The emails will not be better than the preview.

Step 3: pick the options

Click Show options. As of November 2026 the form offers these choices:

Keep as-it-happens for the rare topic where hours matter. For everything else, a daily email is easier to read.

Step 4: create it and check the first email

Click Create Alert and the alert joins your list on the same page. If nothing arrives when you expect it, Google's Create an alert help page lists the usual fixes: confirm you are on the right account, click Enable if a message says your alerts were disabled, make sure your inbox is not full, and look in spam. In Gmail, adding googlealerts-noreply@google.com to your contacts helps.

Step 5: edit or delete later

Click Edit next to an alert to change its query or options, then Update Alert. The Settings button on the alerts page changes how you get alerts in general. To stop one, click Delete next to it, or use the Unsubscribe link at the bottom of any alert email.

What a Google alert cannot do

An alert is a saved search. It reports new pages that contain your words, nothing more. It cannot tell a product launch from a job ad that uses the same words, it does not follow edits on one specific page, and Google's help page describes email as the way alerts arrive.

The same watch in AyeWatch

AyeWatch is a separate service, not a Google add-on. Instead of a query you write a rule in plain English and add the conditions that matter, for example: "New product launches from Acme. Skip hiring posts and partnership rumors." AI reads each new item against that rule and sends a short summary with links to the sources when something fits. You can also paste a URL to watch a pricing page or a careers site, or follow public accounts on X, Reddit, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram and TikTok.

Push notifications and the in-app feed come with every plan; email, Slack, Discord, webhooks and the API come with paid plans. There is a free preview with no card, and paid plans start at $9 a month, billed in monitoring credits. Details are on the AyeWatch pricing page.

Google Alerts is still the better fit when a free email about a rare word, such as your own name or a product code name, is all you need.