How to find the best deals on Kijiji

Set your area and distance first

Most bad Kijiji searches start with the wrong location. Kijiji searches around a point with a distance you choose, so set both before you type anything.

1. Click the location field in the search bar (in the app, tap your location on the home screen).
2. Type a postal code, city or province, and pick it from the suggestions. Kijiji won’t apply a location you don’t select from the list.
3. Move the Distance slider to how far you will actually drive. In the app you can type a custom distance.
4. Click Apply (in the app, Set Location).

A postal code is more precise than a city name, especially in big regions such as the GTA or Metro Vancouver, where a city search can mean an hour’s drive.

How to search all of Canada on Kijiji

Type All of Canada in the location field and select it. This is worth doing for things you would travel or pay shipping for: a specific car, a rare part, collectibles, a vintage synth. It isn’t worth it for a couch. Once you see where the good ads are, set your location to that province or city and sort again.

Sort by Most Recent, and look past the Top Ads

Kijiji lets you sort by Best Match, Most Recent, Least Recent, Lowest Price or Highest Price. For deals, use Most Recent: the best-priced ads go in hours, and Best Match mixes old ads in with new ones.

There is a catch. Kijiji’s own help page says listings in the Top Ads section “are not affected by sort settings”. Top Ads are a paid upgrade: a copy of a seller’s ad shown in its own block near the top of the results, up to six at a time, rotating. So even sorted by newest, the first thing you see is whoever paid. Scroll past that block to where the real Most Recent list starts.

Least Recent is the underused one. Ads that have been up for weeks belong to sellers who haven’t had a buyer at their price, and they are the most open to an offer.

Then use the filters on the left (or under Filters in the app): category, price range, and the category-specific ones such as condition, or private seller versus dealer in the car section.

Get to new ads first

On Kijiji, like everywhere, the first reasonable message usually gets the item. Two ways to be first:

• Save a search alert. Set up the search with your location and filters, then click Notify me when new ads are posted on the website, or tap the ribbon icon at the top of the results in the app. On the website you get new matches once a day; in the app you choose daily or weekly.
• Check Most Recent yourself. For anything that sells fast, a daily email is too slow. Bookmark the sorted search and look at it a few times a day.

Our guide to Kijiji alerts covers both, and the faster options.

Check the price before you message

A Kijiji asking price is a starting point. A quick check tells you whether it is fair:

1. Find the exact model from the title or photos. Google Lens on a photo helps.
2. Look up eBay sold prices for that model on ebay.ca (tick Sold items). Take the middle of three to five recent sales.
3. Search the same item on Facebook Marketplace. The two sites often price the same thing differently, and some sellers list on both.
4. Adjust for condition, missing parts and the drive to get it.

The full method, with a worked example, is in how to tell if a price is fair. A price far below everything else is a warning, not a find: the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre’s rule is that if a price is too good to be true, it is.

Negotiate the Kijiji way

Kijiji sellers get a lot of messages that say only “still available?” and a lot of lowball offers. You stand out by being specific and easy:

Hi, I can come Saturday morning with cash. Would you take CA$120? I noticed the ad has been up a few weeks.

• Ask one real question about the item, and give a time.
• Make one offer with a reason: sold prices, a fault, how long the ad has been up.
• Pay at pickup, once you have seen it. Cash or an Interac e-Transfer sent in person are the usual ways.
• If the ad says firm, pay the price or move on.

More scripts and etiquette in how to negotiate on Facebook Marketplace; everything there works on Kijiji.

Is Kijiji still worth using?

Yes, as one of two places you search. In our own searches, Facebook Marketplace usually has more listings in big cities, especially furniture and household things. Kijiji earns its place in a few ways:

• No Facebook account needed. Some sellers aren’t on Facebook at all and list only on Kijiji.
• Cars. The car section is large and lets you split dealers from private sellers.
• Quebec and smaller towns, where plenty of sellers still post on Kijiji first.

For a side-by-side look, see Facebook Marketplace vs Kijiji, and for other sites worth a look, alternatives to Facebook Marketplace.

Stay safe

The rules on Kijiji are the same as anywhere: see it before you pay, meet in a public place, and don’t send money to hold an item. Kijiji warns about third-party websites that ask buyers to pay for “shipping, insurance, vehicle reports, or buyer verification”, and about fake payment confirmation pages. If a seller sends you a link to pay somewhere else, stop. Our Kijiji scams guide has the full list.

Do it all faster with Sift

Sift is a free browser extension for Kijiji and Facebook Marketplace. On a computer, in Chrome, Edge or Brave, it changes Kijiji search pages as they load:

• Hides Top Ads, so Most Recent really starts with the most recent ad. It can also force newest-first on every search.
• Hides what you have dealt with: ads you already opened, sold ads, ads beyond the radius you set from your home, ads with words you block, dealers and wanted ads.
• Marks price drops with a badge on the photo and a dated history, and marks reposted ads with when they first appeared and at what price.
• Rates each price Below typical, Typical or Above typical against the page, and opens eBay sold prices or the same search on Facebook Marketplace in one click.
• Watches up to 10 searches and checks them as often as every 15 minutes, sending one notification per check with the new ads that pass your filters.

It needs no account and keeps everything in your browser. It doesn’t run in the Kijiji app or on a phone.