How to Set Email Notification Alerts in Excel (2025 Step-by-Step Guide)

Have you ever needed to monitor something closely in excel? You may want Excel to send you an email alert you can see on your phone, wherever you are. For example, you may want to know when:

• A stock price goes above or below a certain level
• Your inventory drops below a critical threshold
• A budget, KPI, or project metric crosses a limit
• A deadline date is getting close or has passed

Whatever you’re tracking, you can set up automatic email notifications from Excel in just a few minutes using the Excel Text Alerts add-in. This lets you send email alerts without writing any VBA or messing with Outlook rules.

Below is a step-by-step guide, including how to buy and activate your license key.

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Step 1: Install the Spreadsheet Text Alerts add-in

First, install the Spreadsheet Text Alerts add-in. You can download it here.

• If you’re only using sound alerts, you can use the free version.
• To send email alerts (and text messages), you’ll need a paid plan which you can buy here.

Once installed, open Excel and confirm that you can see the Excel Text Alerts button in the Excel toolbar (ribbon).

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Step 2: Activate your license key inside Excel

After you have subscribed to your paid plan, you’ll need to enter your license key inside the add in. To do this, just click on the “Manage Alerts” button, then enter your license key in the bottom left hand corner.

Step 3: Create an email alert rule

With your license activated, you can now set up an email alert.

1. Choose the option to Add Rule.
2. Select the cell you want to monitor. This could be:
   • A stock price
   • An inventory level
   • A budget total
   • A date or deadline
3. Choose the condition, such as:
   • Greater than
   • Less than
   • Equal to
   • Greater than or equal to, etc.
4. Enter the trigger value (the number, amount, or date that should trigger the alert).
5. Under Alert Type, choose Email.
6. Enter in your email address, and select the cell which has the message you would like to send
7. Click OK to finish

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Step 4: Let Excel run and wait for your email alert

Now just let your spreadsheet do its thing. When the monitored cell meets your condition, the add-in will automatically send an email to the address you specified.

A few useful tips:

• The email is only sent once the condition becomes true, not just because it’s already true.
• For example, if your rule is “send an email when inventory is less than 10,” and the current value is already 5 when you create the rule, you will not get an alert until the value goes back above 10 and then drops below 10 again.
• Check your spam or promotions folders the first time, and mark the alert email as Not Spam or Important so future alerts go straight to your inbox.

Once it’s working, you can create multiple rules for different cells, different conditions, and different email addresses.