How to Tell If a Discount Is Actually a Good Price

There is a federal standard for a "was" price. The FTC's Guides Against Deceptive Pricing date to 1967, and they say a former price is a fair basis for comparison "if the former price is the actual, bona fide price at which the article was offered to the public on a regular basis for a reasonably substantial period of time."

That is a guide, not a number. It does not say how long "reasonably substantial" is. The Washington Post reported that the FTC stepped back from enforcing these guides in the 1970s and left the job to the states.

California is more specific. Its law says a former price cannot be advertised unless it was the prevailing market price "within three months next immediately preceding" the ad, or unless the ad clearly states when that price applied.

The gap between those two standards is where a shopper needs their own checks. The Post described a Consumers' Checkbook study that tracked more than 25 items at 24 major retailers for 33 weeks. At eight of them, more than half the items "were offered at false discounts every week or almost every week we checked." That is Checkbook's finding, and it is about the industry, which is why the checks below matter more than any one store. More of the shelf wears a sale tag than a year ago, and the average tag is worth less, as our read on 2026 sales shows.

Start here. The FTC's shopping advice is to note "the item's manufacturer or model number" and check comparison shopping sites.

Use the exact model number, not the product name. Two listings with the same name can be different products.

A price chart answers the real question in one look: is today's price lower than the usual price? Consumer Reports recommends Keepa and CamelCamelCamel for Amazon because they show "whether something is actually a better price than usual or the 'sale' price is what it usually costs."

For other stores, Google's price insights labels a price low, typical or high, based on "info from sellers across the web." The tools are compared in full further down.

If the struck-through price never shows up in the price history, it was not the normal price for the period the chart covers. The federal guide calls a comparison fictitious when the former price "was not maintained for a reasonable length of time, but was immediately reduced."

List prices get the same test. The guide says that when a list or suggested retail price does not match what "a substantial number of sales" actually happen at, advertising a reduction from it "may mislead the consumer." So "40% off MSRP" tells you about MSRP, not about the deal.

Consumer Reports describes the pattern: some sellers "will return items to their full prices a week or so before the sale, just to drop them back down to the same discount that's been available for weeks or months."

A price history catches this at once. You see a short spike, then the "sale" lands exactly where the price sat before the spike.

Around Black Friday, Consumer Reports warns about derivative models: products made for a sale event, with "different model numbers and potentially scaled-back features." The price can be low because the product is lesser.

If the model number turns up nowhere except at the store running the sale, compare the spec sheet before you compare the price.

For anything sold by weight, volume or count, the percentage off matters less than the cost per unit. NIST defines unit pricing as "the pricing of goods based on the cost per unit of measure," and cites Purdue research from 2024 finding that 82% of consumers use unit prices when they are shown.

A bigger pack at 20% off can still cost more per ounce than the regular small pack. Run the division.

Shipping, handling and fees can erase a discount. The FTC's advice is to "learn the total cost of the product, including shipping, handling, delivery, taxes, or other fees" before you buy.

Compare totals at checkout, not prices on the product page.

If the price is not good yet, most of the tools below will email you when it drops. The FTC notes that "some sites let you sign up to get price alerts when prices change."

Once you have bought, check the store's price-match policy. Consumer Reports says "almost all the major retailers have some form of a price-match policy," though the rules differ by store.

These are the tools that do check 2 for you. All were operating when I checked them on September 23, 2026.

Amazon only, across its international stores. Charts show new, used and Warehouse Deals prices, sales rank and the Buy Box. You can see charts without an account; a free account adds price watches and alerts. It has extensions for Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Opera, plus free mobile apps. Keepa GmbH, based in Germany, runs it, and it sells paid data plans to Amazon sellers.

Best for: the most detail on any Amazon listing.

Also Amazon only. It charts three price types: Amazon's own price, third-party new, and third-party used. It sends email alerts and calls itself "a free Amazon price tracker." The Camelizer browser add-on puts the chart on the Amazon page.

Best for: a simple Amazon chart and an email alert, with no setup.

Google's price insights "shows if a product's price is low, typical, or high, and how its price changed in recent months," using prices from sellers across the web. It is US only, and Google says plainly that it "doesn't predict how a price may change in the future." Price tracking with alerts works in the US, Canada, Australia, Japan and India when you are signed in. Chrome can show the same price history and range right in the browser if you are signed in with history sync on.

Best for: stores other than Amazon, and a quick low, typical or high read.

Edge's separate shopping tools were retired. Price comparison, price history charts, price tracking and cash back now live in the Copilot sidebar, with a Microsoft account sign-in.

Best for: people who already use Edge.

You save an item and set a price. Honey sends an email when the price drops below it. It works on select stores including Amazon, Macy's, Target and Walmart, and Amazon price history covers 30, 60, 90 or 120 days. It is free. Parts of Honey's help pages were last updated in 2023, so expect some of the details to have moved.

Best for: watching a few specific items across several big stores. How Honey compares on codes and cash back is in our RetailMeNot review.

Free, and you do not need to be a Capital One customer. It covers over 100,000 online stores, remembers items you viewed, and "may send you a notification when a price drops." It also compares prices on Amazon against other sellers. Its own pages do not say whether it shows a price history chart, so I would not count on one.

Best for: a price comparison at the moment you are about to buy.

An alert, not a tracker. You set a product, store, brand or category and a minimum deal rating, and Slickdeals notifies you by email, message, site notification, push or text when a matching deal is posted. There are no charts, though its editors check price history before a deal reaches the Frontpage.

Best for: waiting for a deal on a type of product rather than one exact item. For sites that post deals instead of tracking prices, see our Slickdeals alternatives comparison.

This is our site, so weigh this section accordingly.

Gazoobie is not a price tracker, and it will not replace the tools above. Where an affiliate feed gives both a reference price and a sale price, we check whether the claimed discount adds up, and the deals that pass are sorted by shopper type. Since August 7, 2026 we have saved a daily snapshot of prices for the offers that supply one. That record is weeks old, so we do not use it to claim a lowest-ever price.

Our method page walks through a 36-day price example for one listing, showing why a discount is not always a new price drop. It is the same thinking as check 3, applied to real data.