Price drop alerts on Facebook Marketplace

Does Facebook tell you when a saved listing’s price drops?

Here is what Facebook documents, and what it does not, at the time of writing (September 2026).

What Facebook’s Help Centre covers:

• Saving a listing. Open the listing and tap Save. To see saved items on a computer, open Marketplace, click Buying in the left menu, then Saved. You can also group saved items into collections.
• Marketplace notifications. You can switch Marketplace notification categories on or off in Marketplace settings. Facebook’s examples are “updates, saved searches, tips for sellers”.

What it does not cover: a price-drop alert for items you have saved. We could not find one described anywhere in the Help Centre.

What other guides say. Guides for sellers commonly say that when a seller lowers the price, people who saved the item are told. How-To Geek, for example, wrote in December 2023 that lowering a price “will notify others who have saved the item of the price drop”. So you may well get one. Just treat it as a bonus rather than a feature you can depend on.

How reliable is Facebook’s price-drop notice?

Because Facebook does not document it, there is no promise about whether or when one arrives, and it could change without notice. A few limits follow from how it works:

• It only covers listings you saved. A cheaper listing from a different seller is a new listing, not a price drop.
• A delete and relist is a new listing. Some sellers take a listing down and post it again, sometimes at a lower price. Your saved copy just disappears, so there is no saved item left to tell you about.
• It depends on your settings. Facebook’s Marketplace notifications and your phone’s notification settings both have to allow it. Our guide to notifications that are not working lists what to check on iPhone and Android.
• It is a nudge, not a record. Even when a notice arrives, you have no running history of how often the price has changed or how long the listing has sat. Keeping that is up to you.

If a listing really matters to you, check it yourself as well.

Why are price drops worth watching?

A price cut is information. It usually means the listing has not sold at the old price and the seller is more ready to deal. That is a good moment to make a reasonable offer with a firm pickup time, especially if the new price is close to your own number.

It does not mean the price will keep falling, or that the new price is fair. Check it the same way you would any price; our guide to checking a fair price walks through it. And if a cut takes a listing well below everything similar, slow down and check harder, not faster.

Ask why the price dropped

Many cuts are simple: the listing has sat, and the seller wants it gone. Some are not. A car cut after another buyer’s inspection may have a fault that buyer found. A phone cut sharply may be locked or have a hidden repair. It costs nothing to ask: “Has anything come up since you listed it?” A straight answer is a good sign. A vague one tells you which checks to do first.

How big a cut is worth acting on?

Prices in this guide are in Australian dollars and are illustrative. Use your own local prices.

Small tweaks are noise. A seller who moves an A$200 item to A$195 is not signalling much. A cut of a few per cent on a big-ticket item is real money, though: 3% of an A$13,900 car is about A$420. As a rough rule, act when the new price reaches your own target, whatever the percentage, and ignore cuts that still leave the item above what similar ones sell for.

How to track Marketplace prices yourself

A simple log beats relying on notifications for the few listings you care about.

1. Save the listing on Facebook so you can find it again.
2. Write down the price and the date the first time you see it. A note on your phone or a small spreadsheet is enough.
3. Check at set times, such as each evening, and log any change.
4. Set your target price before you start, and message when the listing reaches it or gets close.
5. Watch for relists. If a saved listing vanishes, search for it again. A relist may use the same photos and title.

A log for one car might look like this:

Date	Listing	Asking price	Notes
1 Sept	2016 Corolla Ascent, 142,000 km	A$13,900	Listed 2 days ago
8 Sept	Same listing	A$13,900	No change
14 Sept	Same listing	A$13,400	First cut, about 4%
16 Sept	Same car, new listing	A$12,990	Deleted and relisted, same photos

That last row is the one notifications would not catch. It is also useful when you negotiate: the seller has now cut twice in a fortnight.

How does Zoopy handle price drops?

Zoopy tracks prices on the listings your hunts catch, and tells you when one falls. The details are in the box below, including the limits.

Using a price drop when you buy

When an alert or your log shows a cut:

• Check the new price against your fair range before you message.
• Make one clear offer with a pickup time: “Hi, I saw the price has come down. I can collect tomorrow at 10 and pay $X on inspection. Does that work?”
• Mention history only if it helps. “It’s been listed a few weeks” is fair; lecturing the seller about their price is not.
• Be ready to walk away. A cut is a signal, not a promise that the seller will take less.

For the searches that find new listings in the first place, see our Marketplace alerts guide and saved searches guide.

Sources

1. See your saved items on Facebook Marketplace, Facebook Help Centre
2. Save items on Marketplace, Facebook Help Centre
3. Turn your Marketplace notifications on or off, Facebook Help Centre
4. Edit your Facebook Marketplace listing, Facebook Help Centre
5. Don’t make these mistakes when selling on Facebook Marketplace, How-To Geek, 7 December 2023