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Twitter Keyword Alerts: Get Email or Slack Pings (2026)

X has no keyword alerts, only account bells. Set up Twitter keyword alerts with a scheduled search and a webhook to email or Slack, with the monthly cost.


Published · Updated · 7 min read

Cover image: Alerts X won't send you

Twitter keyword alerts aren't built into X, so you need a search that runs on a schedule and sends new posts to email or Slack.

This guide is for brands, founders and job hunters who want to know when a word is posted on X (Twitter). You get what X's own notifications cover, then a monitor that does the rest. We run Weir, the tool in the steps.

Create a daily keyword alert in one call:

curl -X POST https://api.weirapp.io/v1/monitors \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $WEIR_API_KEY" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"name": "Acme mentions", "schedule": "daily",
       "target": {"kind": "search", "sources": ["x"],
                  "query": "\"acme app\" -filter:nativeretweets lang:en"}}'
  1. Write the searchTest your words and operators first.
  2. Add a webhookZapier or Make turns posts into email or Slack.
  3. Create the monitorA search target on X, daily or hourly.
  4. Tune the scheduleKeep each run under about 20 new posts.

Does Twitter have keyword notifications?

No. X's Help Center lists notifications about your own account and the accounts you choose, but none for a word.

Here is what X offers, from its Help Center pages, checked 22 October 2026:

X feature What it tells you about Keywords?
The bell on a profile New posts from that account No
Notifications tab Likes, reposts, replies to you No
Mentions Posts that tag your @username Only your @name
Email notifications Activity on your own account No
Saved searches Nothing: a shortcut in the app No
X Pro search column A live search, Premium+ only No alert listed

The closest X gets is a mention. You hear about posts that tag your @username, but not posts that type your brand name without the @.

X will even mute a word in your notifications. It just won't alert you to one.

Step 1: Write the search you want alerts for

A keyword monitor runs an ordinary X search, so build your query first. These operators keep alerts useful:

  • Exact phrase: "acme app" matches the words side by side.
  • No reposts: -filter:nativeretweets drops them, since X search returns reposts by default.
  • No replies: -filter:replies keeps original posts only.
  • One language: lang:en drops posts X tagged as another language.
  • Not you: -from:acmeapp leaves out your own account.

Our X advanced search builder writes these from a form. For a tag, put it in the query; our hashtag tracker guide also counts posts per hour.

We tested a query through Weir's MCP server on 22 October 2026, kept to one brand account. It returned two posts for 3 credits:

→ search_x {"query": "Copilot from:github -filter:nativeretweets -filter:replies", "limit": 2}
← 2 posts · 3 credits (1 + 2 × 1)
  2026-10-17  @github  503 likes  "...now directly integrated with the GitHub Copilot app."
  2026-10-16  @github  622 likes  "https://t.co/otZg9dIh7u has fully moved off CSS-in-JS..."

The second post's text never says Copilot. It carries an X Article, and X's search matched it anyway.

So expect a few alerts where the word isn't visible. If that costs you, check each post's text before you send it on.

Step 2: Add a webhook for email or Slack

A webhook is a web address that Weir sends each run's new posts to. Choose where yours lands:

  • Zapier: a Catch Raw Hook trigger, then a Slack or email step. Our Zapier guide has the signature check.
  • Make: a Custom webhook, then a Router to Slack. Our Make guide builds it.
  • Your own server: our brand mention monitor tutorial has a signed receiver in Python.

Register the address with Weir:

curl -X POST https://api.weirapp.io/v1/webhooks \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $WEIR_API_KEY" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"name": "Keyword alerts", "url": "https://hooks.zapier.com/hooks/catch/123456/abcdef/"}'

The reply holds the webhook's id and its signing secret. Copy the secret now, because it's shown once.

Step 3: Create the keyword monitor

Point a search monitor at X and add your webhook's id. It's the call at the top of this page, plus one field:

{
  "name": "Acme mentions",
  "target": {
    "kind": "search",
    "query": "\"acme app\" -filter:nativeretweets lang:en",
    "sources": ["x"]
  },
  "schedule": "daily",
  "webhookId": "<webhook id>"
}

What the monitor does with it, from Weir's docs:

  • Each run reads about 20 X posts, one page of the newest matches.
  • "New" means new content. Weir dedupes on a hash of each post's content, not its id, so a post you've seen isn't sent again.
  • The free tier holds 1 monitor and 1 webhook, on a daily or weekly schedule.
  • Hourly runs need any $5 pack, which also raises you to 10 monitors.

To test, trigger a run with POST /v1/monitors/{id}/run. It runs in the background and is billed like any run, so read /runs for the outcome.

How much do Twitter keyword alerts cost?

A run costs 1 credit, plus 1 for each new X post it finds. Reading results and webhook deliveries are free.

Credits a month for one keyword (30 days)
Daily, 5 new a day180
Daily, 20 new a day630
Hourly, nothing new720
Hourly, 5 new an hour4,320
Hourly, 20 new an hour15,120

Weir's 5,000 free monthly credits cover any daily keyword alert.

Hourly runs need a $5 pack first. Five new posts an hour still fits inside the free credits. The busiest case goes about 10,000 credits past them, or about $2 a month at the $5 pack's rate.

If your keyword alerts miss posts

  • More than about 20 new posts between runs. The oldest are lost, so switch to hourly or narrow the query.
  • Reposts fill the run. Add -filter:nativeretweets, because X search includes them by default.
  • Protected accounts never show. X's Help Center says only their followers can search their posts.
  • No delivery came. Weir sends one only when a run finds something new, so read the monitor's /runs.
  • Deliveries stopped. Weir turns off a webhook after 20 failures in a row, and one success resets it.

When not to use Weir

  • You follow a few accounts closely. X's bell is free and alerts you to every post from them.
  • You need posts within seconds. X's docs say its filtered stream delivers matches in near real time, on pay-per-use.
  • Price per post is all that matters. TwitterAPI.io lists $0.15 per 1,000 tweets, as of October 2026.
  • You want a guarantee. Weir isn't licensed by X, so access can change.

Weir reads public data only and can't post or reply for you.

FAQ

Can you get notified when a keyword is tweeted?

Not inside X. X notifies you about your own account and accounts you turn the bell on for, not words. A scheduled search does the job: a Weir monitor runs your query daily or hourly and sends new posts to a webhook.

Did Twitter ever have keyword alerts?

Not as a feature we could find in X's Help Center. In June 2022, GIGAZINE reported Twitter testing "Search Subscribe," which pushed an alert when a keyword was posted. X's notification pages list no such option today.

How do I get an X keyword alert by email?

Point your monitor's webhook at a Zapier Catch Raw Hook, then add Email by Zapier's Send Outbound Email step. You'll need a paid Zapier plan for webhooks. Keep the query narrow, because that step sends up to 10 emails an hour.

Are there free Twitter keyword alerts?

Partly. Weir's free tier runs one daily keyword monitor inside its 5,000 free monthly credits. The delivery step may cost money, since Zapier's webhooks need a paid plan, so check your tool's plan before you build.

Sources

All checked on 22 October 2026. X's Help Center blocks our reader, so we read its Wayback Machine copies.

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