Check frequency and limits
How often rules check
What a rule reads decides when it runs.
| The rule reads | It checks |
|---|---|
| Bot requests and renders | Every 5 minutes, 15 minutes, hour, or day, depending on the alert |
| Search Console | When Search Console publishes a complete day, which runs about three days behind |
| A crawl | When a crawl finishes |
Rules that read bot requests are checked a few minutes after each window closes, over the pages fetched or pre-cached inside it.
How bot traffic shapes detection speed
Rules that read bot traffic work from real observations, so a page reports as soon as a bot fetches it or the pre-cache daemon re-renders it. Detection therefore tracks real crawl demand: the pages search engines return to most often are the ones covered most closely.
A "Pages changed" rule reports within minutes on a page Googlebot visits hourly, and at that page's own rhythm further down the long tail. Log Analyzer shows you how often bots reach each section, which is the best guide to the interval worth setting.
Choosing an interval
Ten of the built-in alerts let you set the cadence. The rest have nothing to choose: crawl alerts run when a crawl finishes, Search Console alerts when a day is published, and the remaining six are fixed at once a day.
| Alert | Default |
|---|---|
| Origin stopped answering | Every 5 minutes |
| Pages started answering 4xx | Every 15 minutes |
| Renders are failing | Every 15 minutes |
| Fake search-engine traffic | Every hour |
| Renders got slower | Every hour |
| Responses got slower | Every hour |
| JavaScript errors rose | Every hour |
| Sub-resources are failing to load | Every hour |
| Cache hit rate fell | Every hour |
| Pages changed | Every hour |
Pick the slowest interval that still catches the problem in time. An outage alert earns 5 minutes; a rendering regression rarely needs more than an hour.
Limits
| Limit | Value |
|---|---|
| Rules per website | 100 |
| Checks faster than once a day, per website | 5 |
| Delivery addresses per website | 20 |
Alerts that run once a day, when a crawl finishes, or when Search Console publishes a day do not count against the five.
If you reach the limit on faster checks, move a rule that does not need the speed to once a day.