PriceGap

Is the store showing you a different price?

PriceGap is a free Chrome extension. On any product page it loads the same page again as a stranger, with no cookies and no login, and puts the two prices side by side.

Coming to the Chrome Web Store

Free. No account. Each result is shared anonymously (the store and the prices, never the link or you) so the wall below can exist; one switch turns that off.

You see

$22.64

Fresh visitor sees

$26.11

Your account gets $3.47 less (13.3%). Keep it.

A real check on a 10-pack of moving boxes. A business discount was doing the work. Sometimes it goes the other way.

How it works

Three steps, about ten seconds, nothing to sign up for.

STEP 1

Open a product page

Any store. Press the PriceGap button. It reads the price you are being shown, right off the page.

STEP 2

It visits the page as a stranger

The same address is loaded again with no cookies, no login and no history. Some stores block that, so it can also open the page in a private window and read the price there.

STEP 3

You see both prices

Same, cheaper for you, or dearer for you, with the percentage. If the stranger's price is lower, one button opens that page in a private window so you can buy at that price.

What makes a price yours

Most online prices are not one number. These are the things that change what you see, roughly in order of how often they do it, with what PriceGap can and cannot tell apart.

Your account or membership

Business accounts, Prime, Pro programmes, store cards and "member prices" all show a different number once you are logged in. Example: the same 10-pack of moving boxes read $22.64 on an Amazon Business account and $26.11 to a stranger; the account was getting a 7% business discount. This is exactly what PriceGap measures.

Where the store thinks you are

Big-box stores price per store, and the site guesses your store from your address or your network. Example: Home Depot priced one RYOBI kit for store #8119 in Phoenix and would price it differently for a store in Vail. PriceGap reads the store on both sides and says "location, not you" when they differ.

Coupons and offers tied to you

Clip-a-coupon, first-order codes, "we miss you" emails and cart-abandonment discounts change your price and nobody else's. Example: an Amazon coupon you clipped shows as a lower price on your page and a higher one to a stranger, in your favour. The wall counts these as "charged less".

Quantity tiers

Business accounts often see "2 for 9% off" that a stranger never sees. PriceGap compares the single-unit price on both sides, so a tier only you can see reads as the same price. An honest blind spot, on the list to fix.

Time and demand

Prices move by the hour on the biggest stores; Amazon changes millions a day. A sale that starts between your page load and the check reads as a gap that is really just time. Press Check again and it clears.

Device, browser and history

The most-repeated claim and the hardest to prove. Some travel sites have been documented showing different results by device; most retail stores have not been. A fresh visitor has no history and no device fingerprint the store recognises, so if the stranger's price is lower and nothing above explains it, this is what is left.

The Price Gap Wall

For each store: how many shared checks found the logged-in shopper paying more than a stranger, how many found them paying less (a member price or a discount doing its job), and how many found no difference. Ranked by charged-more. A store appears once it has ten checks.

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What it does and does not do

What it collects

One anonymous record per check: the store's domain, a one-way hash of the product, the two prices, the currency, and the extension version.
That is on by default, the popup tells you so the first time, and the switch under every result turns it off.
That is the whole list. See the privacy policy.

What it never collects

The page address. The hash cannot be turned back into it.
Who you are. There is no account, no login, no user id.
Your history, your cookies, your other tabs.
No ads, no affiliate links, no selling anything to anyone.

Honest limits

A gap is not always about you. Home Depot prices by store, so PriceGap reads the store on both sides and tells you when the gap is location rather than your account. Amazon Business accounts get a real, disclosed discount, which shows as a gap in your favour.
Some stores block every anonymous visit. The private-window check gets past most of that. When it cannot, the extension says so rather than guessing a number.
Prices move. A sale that starts between your page load and the check reads as a gap. Press Check again.
The wall is what people chose to share. People install this because they suspect something, so it leans toward stores with gaps. Treat it as a place to look, not a verdict.