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The Monitor API lets you continuously track the web for changes relevant to a query, on a schedule you control. Create a monitor with a natural-language query, choose a cadence (hourly, daily, weekly), and receive webhook notifications.
Alpha Notice: The Monitor API is currently in public alpha. Endpoints and request/response formats are subject to change.

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Features and Use Cases

The Monitor API can be used to automate continuous research for any topic, including companies, products, or regulatory areas— without building complicated web monitoring infrastructure. Define a query once along with the desired schedule, and the service will detect relevant changes and deliver concise updates (with source links) to your systems via webhooks.
  • News tracking: Alert when there’s notable news about a company or product you’re interested in
  • Competitive monitoring: Detect when competitors launch new features or pricing changes
  • Regulatory updates: Track new rules or guidance impacting your industry
  • Deal/research watchlists: Surface events about entities you care about
  • Tracking products: Track modifications to a product listing
Monitor currently supports the following features:
  • Scheduling: Set update cadence to Hourly, Daily, or Weekly
  • Webhooks: Receive updates when events are detected or when monitors finish a scheduled run
  • Events history: Retrieve updates from recent runs or via a lookback window (e.g., 10d)
  • Lifecycle management: Update cadence, webhook, or metadata; delete to stop future runs

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Getting Started

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Prerequisites

Generate your API key on Platform, then set it in your shell: 
export PARALLEL_API_KEY="PARALLEL_API_KEY"

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Step 1. Create a monitor

Create a monitor that gathers daily AI news: Request: 
curl --request POST \
  --url https://api.parallel.ai/v1alpha/monitors \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --header "x-api-key: $PARALLEL_API_KEY" \
  --data '{
    "query": "Extract recent news about quantum in AI",
    "cadence": "daily",
    "webhook": {
      "url": "https://example.com/webhook",
      "event_types": ["monitor.event.detected"]
    },
    "metadata": { "key": "value" }
  }'
Response: 
{
  "monitor_id": "monitor_b0079f70195e4258a3b982c1b6d8bd3a",
  "query": "Extract recent news about AI",
  "status": "active",
  "cadence": "daily",
  "metadata": { "key": "value" },
  "webhook": {
    "url": "https://example.com/webhook",
    "event_types": ["monitor.event.detected"]
  },
  "created_at": "2025-04-23T20:21:48.037943Z"
}

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Step 2. Detecting and retrieving events via webhooks

When a change is detected, your webhook receives: 
{
  "type": "monitor.event.detected",
  "timestamp": "2025-12-10T19:00:36.199543+00:00",
  "data": {
    "event": {
      "event_group_id": "mevtgrp_35ab7d16b00f412b9d6b6c0eff1f49733b5cf0b02056a29c"
    },
    "metadata": { "key": "value" },
    "monitor_id": "monitor_35ab7d16b00f412bbc4d6accbe0fdb41"
  }
}
  • Use data.event.event_group_id with the GET endpoint in Step 2 to fetch the full events.
  • data.monitor_id tells you which monitor fired.
  • data.metadata echoes what you set at creation, so you can route the webhook (e.g., to a Slack thread or ticket).
After you receive a webhook with an event_group_id (for a detected change), fetch the full set of related events for that group: Request: 
curl --request GET \
  --url "https://api.parallel.ai/v1alpha/monitors/<monitor_id>/event_groups/<event_group_id>" \
  --header "x-api-key: $PARALLEL_API_KEY"
Response: 
{
  "events": [
    {
      "type": "event",
      "event_group_id": "mevtgrp_b0079f70195e4258eab1e7284340f1a9ec3a8033ed236a24",
      "output": "New product launch announced",
      "event_date": "2025-01-15",
      "source_urls": ["https://example.com/news"]
    }
  ]
}
To learn about the full event model, alternative ways to access events (including listing all events), and best practices, see the Events page.

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Lifecycle

The Monitor API follows a straightforward lifecycle:
  1. Create: Define your query, cadence, and optional webhook and metadata.
  2. Update: Change cadence, webhook, or metadata.
  3. Delete: Delete a monitor and stop future executions.
At any point, you can retrieve the list of events for a monitor or events within a specific event group.
See Pricing for a detailed scheduled of rates.

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Best Practices

  1. Scope your query: Clear queries with explicit instructions lead to higher-quality event detection.
  2. Choose the right cadence: Use hourly for fast-moving topics, daily for most news, weekly for slower changes.
  3. Use webhooks: Prefer webhooks to avoid unnecessary polling and reduce latency to updates.
  4. Manage lifecycle: Cancel monitors you no longer need to reduce your usage bills.

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Next Steps

  • Events: Understand events, when they are emitted and how to access them.
  • Webhooks: Information on setting up webhooks and listening for push notifications.
  • API Reference: Complete endpoint documentation

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Rate Limits

See Rate Limits for default quotas and how to request higher limits.