Distill.io Free Plan Limits for Website Change Monitoring

Distill.io’s Free plan provides 25 local monitors and 5 cloud monitors, but its pricing table also shows “25” in a combined monitor row with “(5 in cloud)” beside it. Treat the allowances as 25 local plus 5 cloud, and check the live pricing page before relying on the figures because plan limits can change. Free cloud monitors have a six-hour minimum interval and share 1,000 cloud checks per month. Local checks can run as often as every five seconds and do not count against that cloud-check allowance, but require your browser or computer to be active. Free also includes two devices, 30 email alerts, and 100 browser push notifications per month. Distill’s pricing page is the source of truth for current plan limits.

Free plan limits at a glance

Resource	Free allowance	What it means
Local monitors	25	Checks run through your browser or computer when it is active.
Cloud monitors	5	Checks run on Distill’s servers, including while your device is off.
Cloud check interval	6 hours minimum	Free cloud monitors cannot be scheduled more frequently.
Cloud checks	1,000 per month	Only cloud checks count against this allowance; local checks are unlimited.
Devices	2	Distill’s pricing comparison counts local and dedicated cloud devices.
Email alerts	30 per month	Email actions from both cloud monitors and browser extensions use this quota.
Browser push notifications	100 per month	Push notifications have their own monthly limit.

Unused resources expire at the end of the current billing period. Avoid assuming a particular calendar-month reset date; use the billing period shown for your account.

How Distill counts cloud checks

A cloud check is counted each time Distill checks a monitor for changes. Check duration also affects usage: a check taking up to 10 seconds counts as one; a check lasting over 10 seconds and under 20 seconds counts as two. Longer checks can consume more units, so the number of scheduled runs is not always the number of quota units used. Distill’s local checks through its browser extensions or desktop app are unlimited and do not use the cloud allowance. See the official local and cloud monitor documentation for the operating distinction.

Local or cloud: which should you use?

Choose	When it fits	Trade-off
Local monitor	You need checks more often than every six hours, and a computer or browser can stay active.	It cannot keep checking while the device or required app is inactive.
Cloud monitor	You need unattended checks that continue while your device is off.	Free checks run no more often than every six hours and draw from the monthly quota.

Distill documents local intervals as low as five seconds, while Free cloud monitors have a six-hour minimum interval. That makes local monitoring the practical Free option for rapid change detection when your device can stay available. Use cloud monitors for a small set of important pages that must be checked without relying on your computer. These recommendations follow from the documented plan limits and operating requirements, not from independent testing.

Plan cloud usage before adding monitors

Estimate the monthly cloud-check demand before assigning all five cloud monitor slots. For a rough estimate, divide the hours in the billing period by the selected interval, then multiply by the number of cloud monitors. At the six-hour minimum, one monitor scheduled continuously would have about four checks per day, or roughly 120 in a 30-day period. Five such monitors would use roughly 600 checks if each run consumes one check unit. Actual usage can differ when a check takes longer than 10 seconds, when the schedule differs, or when the billing period is not 30 days.

Use cloud monitors for pages that need unattended monitoring.
Keep faster checks local if the computer can remain active.
Leave headroom in the cloud quota for slow pages and longer checks.
Track email and push usage separately; the notification caps are distinct from the cloud-check quota.
Review the account’s billing period for resource expiry and reset timing.

When the Free plan is not enough

Consider a paid tier if you need more monitors or devices, a shorter cloud interval, more than 1,000 cloud checks, or higher alert limits. Compare tiers using those specific dimensions rather than monitor count alone. Distill lists progressively higher allowances on its pricing page; verify the current values immediately before subscribing because pricing and limits can change.

Troubleshooting common limit problems

My cloud monitor runs less often than I set it to

On Free, the cloud interval cannot be shorter than six hours. Move time-sensitive checks to a local monitor if your device can remain active, or review paid tiers for a shorter cloud interval.

My cloud checks ran out before the month ended

Cloud checks consume the 1,000-unit monthly allowance, and a check taking longer than 10 seconds can count as more than one unit. Reduce the number of cloud monitors or their frequency where possible, and keep suitable checks local. Confirm the account’s billing period rather than assuming a calendar-month reset.

A local monitor stopped checking

Local monitoring depends on the browser or computer being active. Make sure the device and the relevant browser extension or desktop app are running; use a cloud monitor if checks must continue while the device is off.

I stopped receiving email alerts

The Free plan includes 30 email alerts per month, including email actions from cloud monitors and browser extensions. Check alert usage and reserve email actions for changes that need an email. Local checks do not make email alerts unlimited.

I have fewer monitors than I expected

Distill’s detailed plan descriptions state 25 local and 5 cloud monitors, while its pricing comparison labels the Free combined monitor row “25” and notes “(5 in cloud).” Distinguish the local and cloud allocations, and verify the current account display and official pricing page.

Performance, reliability, and cost considerations

Cadence: local checks can be as frequent as every five seconds; Free cloud checks have a six-hour minimum. Use the shortest cadence that serves the monitoring need.
Availability: local checks rely on your device and browser or app being active. Cloud checks avoid that dependency, subject to their interval and allowance.
Quota: slow cloud checks may consume multiple units. Leave quota headroom instead of estimating only from monitor count.
Alerts: email and push have separate monthly caps, so decide which changes warrant each notification method.
Cost: Free costs $0 within its limits. If those limits do not fit, use the current pricing comparison to evaluate paid plans; do not rely on stale prices or allowances.

ScreenshotNeo as an alternative for screenshot workflows

Distill monitors pages for changes. If your task is to capture a page image or PDF for a workflow, ScreenshotNeo is a website screenshot API and MCP server for developers. It is the first alternative to try for screenshot jobs because it removes cookie banners, popups, and chat widgets before capture, bills only clean shots, and its paid plans start at $5 for 3,000 shots.

Or skip the browser setup

Make one GET request to capture a page as an image. See the ScreenshotNeo API documentation for the options and response details.

curl -G "https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot" -d access_key=YOUR_API_KEY --data-urlencode url=https://stripe.com -o shot.webp

import requests

r = requests.get(
    "https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot",
    params={"access_key": "YOUR_API_KEY", "url": "https://stripe.com"},
    timeout=90,
)
r.raise_for_status()
open("shot.webp", "wb").write(r.content)

const q = new URLSearchParams({ access_key: 'YOUR_API_KEY', url: 'https://stripe.com' });
const res = await fetch(`https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot?${q}`);
if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`Screenshot request failed: ${res.status}`);
const image = Buffer.from(await res.arrayBuffer());
await import('node:fs/promises').then(fs => fs.writeFile('shot.webp', image));

Cookie banners, popups, and chat widgets are removed before the shot. Bot checks, blank pages, and failed loads are never billed. An MCP server lets AI agents take screenshots. The Free plan includes 1,000 screenshots a month with no card; paid plans start at $5 for 3,000. Sign up free for ScreenshotNeo.

FAQ

Does the Free plan include 30 monitors?

The detailed official descriptions state 25 local monitors plus 5 cloud monitors. The pricing table’s combined row is labeled 25 with “5 in cloud,” so check the live page and account display when counting your allowance.

Do local checks use the 1,000 cloud checks?

No. Distill says local checks are unlimited and do not count against the cloud-check allowance.

Can a Free cloud monitor check every few minutes?

No. The Free cloud minimum interval is six hours. Distill documents local checks as frequent as every five seconds.

Do unused checks roll over?

No. Unused resources expire at the end of the current billing period.