Auto Refresh Web - Monitor
Built and maintained by us
Reload any tab on a timer and get alerted the moment a word appears, disappears or the page changes.
Installs come straight from the Chrome Web Store and Edge Add-ons — we never host extension files ourselves.
What it does
Auto Refresh Web reloads a tab for you on a schedule, and watches the page while it does. Set an interval, press start, and the tab keeps refreshing in the background. Add a keyword and the extension tells you the moment it shows up — or disappears — with a notification, a sound, or an email.
It is built for the pages you would otherwise sit and reload by hand: a stock or ticket drop, an order status, an appointment calendar, a dashboard that does not update on its own, a listing waiting for a reply.
Refresh on your schedule
The interval is set in days, hours, minutes and seconds, with tenths of a second available when you need them. A countdown on the toolbar badge, and an optional timer on the page, show when the next reload happens.
A random interval picks a new delay between a minimum and a maximum before every reload, so the refreshes do not land on a perfectly regular beat. You can also:
- stop after a set number of refreshes;
- bypass the cache so every reload fetches a fresh copy;
- pause or restart the timer when you interact with the page, so it does not reload under you while you type;
- run a countdown to a specific time or date instead of a repeating interval.
Settings are remembered per site, and refreshing tabs can be restarted when the browser opens.
Monitor a page for changes
Refreshing is half of the job. The other half is noticing what changed. Add one or more keywords and choose what you want to hear about:
- Found — the word appears on the page.
- Lost — the word is no longer there (“Sold out” disappearing is usually the interesting event).
- Any change — something on the page is different from the last check.
The check can run on the visible text or on the page source, and it can be case-sensitive. To avoid false alarms from a ticker, an ad or a clock, limit it to one area of the page with the built-in element picker.
When there is a match, the extension can highlight it and scroll to it, click it for you (optionally opening the link in a new tab), and either stop or keep monitoring.
Alerts that reach you
- Desktop notifications.
- Sound alerts, with four built-in sounds or your own file, optionally repeating until you stop them (there is a hotkey for that).
- Switching to the window and tab where the match happened.
- Email alerts, for when you are not in front of the browser. These are opt-in; see the permissions section below for what that involves.
Rules and schedules
Rules start the work without you. Match a URL or a keyword and the extension starts refreshing as soon as that page opens, or run it at a set time on the days of the week you choose. Hotkeys and a right-click menu item cover start, stop and countdown.
Permissions, and why it needs them
The extension does not ask for access to every website when you install it. Site access is requested one site at a time, the first time you use it there, and the list of allowed sites can be reviewed and revoked from Options → Permissions.
Tab access is what lets it reload a tab and switch to it on a match. Notifications, the offscreen document and alarms are what make alerts and timers work while the tab is in the background. Storage keeps your intervals, keywords and rules between sessions.
Monitoring happens in your browser: the page is read and compared on your device. Two things leave it:
- Email alerts, if you turn them on. To send the email, your address, the keyword, the type of alert and the page URL go to our server. Nothing is sent while email alerts are off.
- Anonymous usage statistics. Events such as install, update and which features are used are sent to Google Analytics with a random ID, along with browser, operating system and extension version. Not the pages you visit or what you monitor.
The full details are in the privacy policy for this extension.
Things to know
Reloading a site very often can trigger its rate limits or anti-bot protection, and some sites forbid automated access in their terms. Use the longest interval that does the job, and check the rules of the site you are monitoring.
Browser-internal pages — settings, the extensions page, the web store — cannot be refreshed or monitored by any extension.
Pages that log you out after a while, or show a challenge page, will be refreshed as they are; the monitor can only see what the page actually shows.
Auto Refresh Web is built and maintained by us. If something here does not match what you see after installing it, that is a bug in this page and we want to hear about it.
FAQ
Questions about Auto Refresh Web - Monitor
Something missing? Ask us directly — we answer in English and Spanish.
How short can the refresh interval be?
You set it in days, hours, minutes and seconds, down to tenths of a second. The default is 10 seconds. Very short intervals work, but many sites rate-limit or block clients that reload too often, so use the longest interval that still does the job.
What is a random interval for?
Instead of reloading every N seconds exactly, the extension picks a new delay between a minimum and a maximum before each refresh. That makes the reloads look less mechanical and spreads the load on the site.
How does page monitoring work?
Add one or more keywords and choose whether you want an alert when the word is found, when it is lost, or on any change to the page. The check can run on the visible text or on the page source, can be case-sensitive, and can be limited to one area of the page that you pick with the element picker.
Which alerts can I get?
A desktop notification, a sound (four built-in sounds or your own, optionally repeating), switching to the tab where the match happened, and an optional email. The matched text can also be highlighted and scrolled into view.
Does it keep refreshing when the tab is in the background?
Yes. Timers run from the extension background, so tabs keep refreshing while you work in another tab. Settings are kept per site, and the extension can restart your refreshing tabs when the browser starts again.
Can it start automatically on certain sites or at a certain time?
Yes. Rules can start refreshing when a matching URL or keyword is opened, or at a set time on the days of the week you choose.
Why does it ask for permission on each site?
The extension does not get access to every website at install time. It asks for access to a site the first time you use it there, and you can review or revoke those sites at any time from Options → Permissions.
Do you see the pages I monitor?
No. Refreshing and keyword checks happen inside your browser. The only time a site address leaves your device is when you turn on email alerts: the alert email has to say which page matched, so the URL, the keyword and your email address are sent to our server to deliver it.
Is it free?
Yes, the extension is free to install and the core refresh and monitoring features are free to use. Some advanced options may be marked as Premium; when they are, what they unlock is shown in the extension before you pay for anything.
Why did the refresh stop?
The usual reasons are: a stop condition you set was reached (number of refreshes, a match with "restart monitoring" off, or interaction with the page when "stop on interaction" is on), the site permission was removed, or the tab was closed. Browser pages such as settings and the web store cannot be refreshed by any extension.