# Watch a website

> Add a website to up4 in about two minutes and get an email when it stops answering.

Source: https://upfour.io/docs/watch-a-website

Afterwards up4 checks your website around the clock and emails you when it stops answering.

- **Who:** Any role except **Viewer**
- **Time:** About two minutes
- **Cost:** About €0.13 a month from your credit

The amount is for a website checked every three minutes.

**In up4:** Monitoring › New monitor · [Open in up4](https://app.upfour.io/monitors/new)

## Steps

### 1. [Enter the address](https://upfour.io/docs/watch-a-website#address)

Type the address of the page you want to watch, for example `example.com`. up4 adds `https://` for you.

If another monitor already watches that address, up4 names it and warns that a second one doubles the cost and opens two incidents for one outage. The button then reads **Create anyway**.

[![](https://upfour.io/docs/images/walk/en/watch-a-website-address.webp)](https://upfour.io/docs/images/walk/en/watch-a-website-address.webp)

### 2. [Choose how often up4 checks](https://upfour.io/docs/watch-a-website#interval)

Pick a value under **How often**. Shorter intervals notice an outage sooner and cost more:

- Every three minutes, the default: about €0.13 a month.
- Every minute: about €0.39 a month.
- Every ten seconds: about €2.33 a month.

[![](https://upfour.io/docs/images/walk/en/watch-a-website-interval.webp)](https://upfour.io/docs/images/walk/en/watch-a-website-interval.webp)

### 3. [Choose who gets alerted](https://upfour.io/docs/watch-a-website#recipients)

Under **Who gets alerted**, choose who hears about an outage. The first time, select **Email me at your address**: up4 sets up an email channel for your own address and selects it. Once that channel exists, it is selected for you.

Add a colleague or another [alert channel](https://upfour.io/docs/receive-alerts.md) if someone else should hear about outages too. Without a recipient the monitor still runs, but nobody is alerted.

[![](https://upfour.io/docs/images/walk/en/watch-a-website-recipients.webp)](https://upfour.io/docs/images/walk/en/watch-a-website-recipients.webp)

### 4. [Check the summary and create the monitor](https://upfour.io/docs/watch-a-website#create)

The box **In plain words** repeats what will run, who is alerted and what it costs. If it reads right, select **Create monitor**.

[![](https://upfour.io/docs/images/walk/en/watch-a-website-create.webp)](https://upfour.io/docs/images/walk/en/watch-a-website-create.webp)

## How you know it worked

up4 confirms with **We're watching example.com.** and adds “If it goes down, we'll alert the channel you picked.”

Select **See monitor details**. The monitor page shows **Pending** until the first result arrives, usually within a minute, then **Up**.

To see an alert arrive without waiting for an outage, select **Send test alert** in the green banner “Monitor was successfully created.” The banner only appears right after you create the monitor. Later, open the monitor, press ⌘ K (Ctrl K on Windows and Linux) and choose **Send test alert**.

## If something is off

The address is refused.

Enter a domain with its ending, such as `example.com`, without spaces.

The monitor shows “Down” although the site works for you.

A firewall may block up4's checkers. Allow the addresses listed under [where checks come from](https://upfour.io/ips).

No test email arrives.

Look in your spam folder, then check the address in your [alert channels](https://upfour.io/docs/receive-alerts.md).

## What up4 does not do here

- This form checks from one region, your default. Choose more regions with **Use advanced setup**.
- A website counts as up when it answers without an error. To make sure a page shows the right content, [check for a keyword](https://upfour.io/docs/check-page-content.md).
- up4 does not sign in to pages behind a login form.
- A status change needs 3 matching results, so a single failed check does not alert you. How fast the email arrives depends on your interval and your mail provider. [When you get alerted](https://upfour.io/docs/how/when-you-get-alerted.md).

[Per API POST /v1/monitors](https://upfour.io/docs/api/monitors#post_monitors)

| In the app | API field |
| --- | --- |
| URL to watch · The address up4 requests. A missing https:// is added for you. | `url` |
| Name · The name shown in lists and alerts. | `name` |
| Check every · How often up4 checks. Shorter intervals notice an outage sooner and cost more. | `interval_seconds` |

[Full reference](https://upfour.io/docs/api/monitors#post_monitors)