Crypto price alerts: set them up and know their limits

A price alert watches one rule for you and tells you when it comes true. This guide covers every condition, how each is checked, and which alerts keep working when the app is closed, plan by plan. The short version is the Help Center's alerts article.

What a price alert is, and what it is not

An alert is a stored rule: a market, a condition and a value. AlertaChart compares each new price with it and notifies you on a match; it never places a trade. It knows only its own market: BTC USDT (spot) and BTC USDT.P (the perpetual future) are separate, so an alert on one does not fire for the other.

How each condition is checked

The Condition menu of the Create Alert window lists the first three conditions; the rest appear under Show more.

Three details matter. Crossing and channel-entry conditions need a real move: the first price only arms them, so a level already passed waits for the price to come back. Greater Than and Less Than are states and fire at once if already true. Moving conditions measure from the price at saving, whatever the chart's timeframe.

Only Once or Every Time

Under Trigger, Only Once fires one time and moves the alert to the Log tab of the Alerts panel, with its time and price. Every Time keeps it active, but a price alert notifies at most once a minute, so a price hovering around a level cannot flood your phone; Greater Than with Every Time reminds you every minute while it stays true. Technical alerts repeat once per closed bar instead.

Set your first alert, step by step

There are two ways in: a quick alert that saves in one click, and the full window.

Quick alert at a price

1. Open a chart, for example BTC/USDT.
2. Right-click the chart at the price you care about and choose Set price alert, or press the 🔔 next to the price scale.
3. The alert is saved straight away, without a window: Crossing Up when the level is above the current price, Crossing Down when it is below, Only Once, with the default notifications.
4. To change it, press its edit button in the Alerts panel; that opens the alert window.

Full window on the web or desktop

1. Press the Alert button in the toolbar above the chart, press Alt+A, or open Alerts on the right-hand toolbar and press +.
2. The Create Alert window opens with the current price; type your level. Under Condition, leave the source on Price and pick a condition.
3. Set Trigger to Only Once or Every Time. Expiration starts at Never expires; click it to pick a date.
4. In Message, name the alert; {{ticker}}, {{price}}, {{interval}} and {{time}} are filled in when it fires. In Notifications, choose In-app, Toasts (a pop-up) and Sound (five tones, 1 to 30 seconds). Webhook is for Pro and Elite.
5. Read the note at the bottom of the window (see below) and press Create, or Ctrl+Enter / ⌘+Enter.

On the phone

1. Open the symbol in the Chart tab and allow notifications when asked; without that, alerts cannot reach your lock screen.
2. Quick alert: tap the 🔔 next to the price scale; it turns amber, and a second tap within about two seconds saves the same Crossing Up or Down, Only Once alert as on desktop.
3. Full window: tap ⋯ (Analysis centre) on the bottom bar, choose Alerts and tap +.

On Pro and Elite there is one more route: Add alert in a watchlist row. Alerts made there count toward the watchlist-alert allowance (2 on Pro, 15 on Elite), not toward your price alerts.

Which condition fits which setup

Three common situations; the levels are yours, the examples only show how to phrase the rule.

• Breakout. Level on the resistance, Crossing Up, Only Once: you hear about the first move through it. A quick alert above the current price has exactly these settings.
• Retest. To catch a pullback to a broken resistance, use Crossing Down with the level a little above the line: a pullback that only touches the line from above never crosses it.
• Range. For a sideways market, choose Exiting Channel with the floor as Lower and the ceiling as Upper; one alert covers a break either way. Save it while the price is inside the band, since leaving the band is the event it waits for.

Which alerts keep working when the app is closed

On paid plans, alerts on Binance spot and perpetual pairs quoted in USDT, USDC or USD are watched on AlertaChart's servers around the clock and reach your phone with the app closed. So is the same pair on a Bybit, OKX or Coinbase chart, against the Binance price. Some Binance spot pairs that are refreshed less often, such as TRY pairs, are watched too, but can fire late. Everything else, EUR pairs for example, is checked by the app itself, so it works only while AlertaChart is open on one of your devices.

On paid plans the alert window tells you which case you are in before you save. Device-based alert means app-open only; a line about firing up to 30 minutes late marks a slowly refreshed pair; Monitored 24/7 using Binance pricing appears when your chart shows another exchange, whose price can differ slightly. On the Free plan every alert needs the app open, whatever the window shows.

Alert limits by plan

Current prices and the full comparison are on the pricing page.

Beyond price: the other alert types

• Technical alerts (Pro and Elite) watch an indicator instead of the price: RSI, MACD, Stochastic, Stoch RSI, CCI, Williams %R and ATR. The technical alerts guide covers them in detail.
• Trendline alerts (Pro and Elite): select a trend line, ray or extended line and choose Add alert in its toolbar or right-click menu; the alert follows the sloped line.
• Alerta Pro Alerts in Settings (Pro and Elite): percentage-change, volume-spike and funding-rate alerts. For live funding context, see the funding rates table.
• Automatic notifications: a twice-daily market summary on every plan; BTC, ETH, SOL and BNB level and move alerts and new listings from Starter; liquidations of 1 million dollars or more on mobile with Pro.

Common mistakes

• Crossing at a level already passed. It waits for the price to return and cross. If you want to hear about it now, use Greater Than or Less Than.
• Expecting the bell to open the window. Set price alert and the 🔔 save a crossing alert at once; use the Alert button or Alt+A to choose the condition first.
• Spot alert, perpetual trade. An alert on BTC USDT does not fire for BTC USDT.P.
• Free alerts with the app closed. On the Free plan nothing is watched once AlertaChart is closed.
• Phone settings. Notifications blocked for the app, a Focus mode or battery saving can hold alerts back. Check the troubleshooting article and your phone maker's guides for iPhone Focus and Android notifications.

Method and limitations

This guide follows the AlertaChart Help Center and the alert code: the condition evaluator the app shares with the server, the routing between server and device, and the plan limits, read on 5 October 2026. Limits can change; the pricing page is the reference.

• Prices are checked at short intervals, not trade by trade, so a spike that reverses within moments may be missed.
• Slowly refreshed Binance pairs can fire up to 30 minutes late.
• Delivery depends on your phone's settings and connection, which AlertaChart cannot control.
• An alert describes the market; it does not predict it and never executes a trade.

Related guides and help

• Technical alerts: RSI, MACD and more
• Bar Replay: practise on past charts
• Using AlertaChart on your phone
• Plans: Free, Starter, Trader, Pro and Elite

Open the AlertaChart charts and set an alert →