How to get notified of new listings on Facebook Marketplace

Set up Marketplace alerts in the app

The app is where Facebook’s own alerts work best. On iPhone or Android:

1. Open Marketplace in the Facebook app.
2. Search for the item. Be specific: “dining table” beats “table”, and “Trek Marlin” beats “bike”.
3. Set your filters. A maximum price, a radius and Delivery method: Local pickup keep the alerts to things you would really buy.
4. Save the search. Tap Notify me, or the save (bookmark) icon at the top of the results, depending on your version.
5. Turn notifications on for that saved search in the box that opens.
6. Allow notifications from Facebook if your phone asks.

You can find your saved searches again from your Marketplace profile (the person icon at the top of Marketplace), where each one has its own notification switch.

Manage Marketplace notification settings

Marketplace notifications have their own page in Facebook’s settings.

• In the app: go to Marketplace, tap the person icon, then Settings, then Manage notifications.
• On a computer: click your profile picture, then Settings & privacy, Settings, Notifications, and choose Marketplace.

From there you can choose which kinds of Marketplace notification you get (saved searches, messages from sellers and buyers, updates on items you saved) and where they go: push, email or text. What you can’t choose is timing. There is no setting for how often Facebook checks, or how fast it tells you.

What about the desktop site?

This is where Facebook’s alerts are weakest. How-To Geek’s walkthrough shows a Notify me button under the Marketplace search box on facebook.com: it opens a box where you set a price range and radius, then Create alert, and you can change it later with Edit alert.

But an alert set up on a computer doesn’t ping your computer. DealHunter, which makes an alert tool, reports that the desktop site doesn’t support push notifications for saved searches, so you have to check by hand. In practice the alert shows up in Facebook’s notification list, and on your phone if the app is installed. If you do your Marketplace hunting on a laptop, that is the gap.

Notifications not working? Fixes

1. Check the saved search. Open it and make sure its notifications are on. Changing the search terms creates a different search with its own switch.
2. Check your phone. On iPhone, Settings, Notifications, Facebook, Allow Notifications. On Android, Settings, Apps, Facebook, Notifications.
3. Check Facebook’s Marketplace settings (the paths above), with push turned on for saved searches.
4. Check Focus and battery saving. On iPhone, a Focus mode can hold notifications back. On Android, set the Facebook app’s battery use to unrestricted, or the phone may put it to sleep.
5. Re-create the search. Delete the saved search and save it again. DealHunter also reports trouble once you pass 20 to 30 saved searches, so clear out ones you no longer need.
6. Update the app, then sign out and back in.

Some delays aren’t on your side at all. Facebook doesn’t publish how quickly alerts go out. Alert-tool makers report that Facebook batches them, with DealHunter describing alerts arriving 15 to 30 minutes after a listing goes up. Treat those as reports rather than rules: timing varies by region and app version.

Make alerts useful

An alert is only as good as the search behind it.

• Narrow it. Brand and model beat categories: “Kallax 4x4” gets you shelves, “shelf” gets you everything.
• Cap the price. Set a maximum a little under what you’d pay, so the alert means “act now”.
• Cover the synonyms. Save separate searches for “sofa”, “couch” and “sectional”, and for common misspellings like “dinning table”. Sellers write listings, not search engines.
• Keep it local. Local pickup stops shipped listings from filling your alerts.
• Move fast. When a good alert lands, open it and send a clear message with a pickup time. Our guide on finding deals on Marketplace covers what to say.
• Have a back-up. A search sorted newest first, checked a few times a day, catches what alerts miss.

Alert apps and bots: what to check

Paid alert apps and bots exist because Facebook’s alerts are unreliable. Some are fine. Before you sign up for one, ask:

• Does it want your Facebook login? Don’t hand it over. Meta’s terms say not to share your password or give anyone else access to your account, and a server logging in as you from somewhere else is exactly what Facebook’s security checks look for.
• What does it cost? Many charge monthly, and the free tier is often slow.
• Where does it run? A cloud service checks from its own computers and can reach your phone when your laptop is off. A browser tool runs on your computer and needs it on.
• What leaves your device? Read the privacy policy for what is stored, and where.

For named tools side by side, see our dated comparison of Facebook Marketplace extensions.

Desktop alerts with Sift

Sift is a free browser extension for Facebook Marketplace and Kijiji, and new-listing alerts are where it fills the clearest gap on a computer. On any Marketplace search, switch on Watch this search. Sift then checks that search in the background, every 30 or 60 minutes for Facebook (as often as every 15 minutes for Kijiji), for up to 10 searches.

New listings go through your Sift filters before you hear about them, so blocked words, your distance limit, sold items and sponsored posts never reach you. Each check sends one notification, such as “3 new · dining table, Toronto (GTA)” with the first listings underneath (“CA$400 · Skogsta dining table”). Click it and the search opens with the new ones marked. Quiet hours keep it silent overnight, and alerts only run while you’re at the computer.

There is nothing to log into. Sift loads the search the way your browser would if you opened it in a tab, and no one else ever sees your Facebook account. Chrome, Edge or Brave needs to be running, which is the honest limit of a tool that lives in your browser. More on how Sift’s alerts work.

Kijiji alerts

Kijiji has saved-search alerts too, but its help page says they arrive once a day on the website, and daily or weekly in the app. That is slow for anything priced to sell. Our guide to faster Kijiji alerts covers setting them up, fixing them, and getting new ads in minutes instead of a day.