What the Pouncio extension is
Pouncio is an AI bot for people who flip on Vinted. You describe a product in one sentence, and a bot watches new listings on your country's Vinted, checks the seller, the text and the photos, and can buy the good deals within the limits you set. The extension is the part of Pouncio that lives in your browser.
When one of your bots decides to buy, the extension opens the checkout and completes the purchase in your signed-in Vinted tab, on your own internet connection. It is made by Pouncio, an independent service, and it is not made or endorsed by Vinted.
Why a bot should buy from your browser, not a data centre
Most Vinted bots buy from a server in a data centre, and Vinted can tell. A purchase from a data centre does not look like a person shopping.
With the extension, the purchase leaves from your device, over your home connection, with the Vinted session you signed in to yourself. To Vinted it looks like you buying, because it is your own browser doing it. That is how auto-buy on Vinted works in Pouncio: the AI decides, your browser buys.
Speed matters too. A good deal sells to someone else in about 4 minutes, and Pouncio goes from listing to paid in 4.3 seconds on average. If being first is what you are after, read how a Vinted sniper catches new listings.
What it does: four steps of a buy
- Check it's you. About once a minute it asks Vinted which account is signed in in its tab, so it never buys as somebody else.
- Reserve. When a bot decides to buy, it starts the purchase of that item, the way Vinted's own Buy now button does.
- Read the checkout. It reads the checkout Vinted builds, with the total, so Pouncio can hold it against your max price and daily budget.
- Pay. It pays with the card on your Vinted account. If your bank asks for 3DS, you confirm it in your bank app.
The same tab does a few jobs around buying: it reads Vinted's newest listings, so your bots see new items sooner, it sets the delivery at checkout, and it sends the offers you switched on. Each of these is a fixed function packaged inside the extension.
What it cannot do
- It only works on Vinted's own websites and on pouncio.com. It does not read your browsing history or any other site.
- It never sees your Vinted password or your card details, and it never sends your Vinted cookies to Pouncio.
- It runs no code from outside its package. Pouncio's server can only name one of the actions built into it, with data such as an item number, and the extension refuses anything else.
- It does not choose what to buy. Your bots decide, within your limits: never above a variation's max price or your daily budget, and never the same item twice.
- You can unpair it or remove it at any time.
What it can see: the permissions, one by one
This is everything the extension asks your browser for, and why.
| Permission | What it is for |
|---|---|
| Vinted's websites | Vinted's country sites are the only places it acts, in your own Vinted tab. |
| pouncio.com | Your Pouncio account, which tells the extension what to do and receives the result. On pouncio.com it also lets the app see that the extension is installed. |
| Tabs | Keeps one Vinted tab open for buying and checks that it is still on your Vinted site. |
| Scripting | Runs the extension's own functions inside that tab, so Vinted gets each request from your signed-in session. |
| Storage | Keeps the pairing key that links this browser to your Pouncio account, and the connection status. |
| Alarms | Wakes it once a minute so the connection to Pouncio stays up. |
| Power (Chrome) | Keeps the computer from going to sleep while the extension is paired. The screen can still turn off. |
| Background (Chrome) | Keeps its connection to Pouncio when every Chrome window is closed. |
| Tab groups (Chrome) | Puts its Vinted tab in a green tab group named Pouncio. |
| Notifications (optional) | Only if you turn them on: buys, finds and anything that needs you, as browser notifications. |
What it sends to Pouncio: which Vinted account is signed in (its user ID and username), the status of your Vinted orders and payments, never card numbers, and Vinted's answers to the listing and checkout requests it makes.
Install it and pair it
- Add it to your browser. In Chrome, add Pouncio from the Chrome Web Store. On Firefox, the extension guide in the Pouncio app gives you the Firefox copy.
- Sign in to Vinted in that browser. On Vinted's own page, as you always do.
- Pair it with your Pouncio account. Connect your Vinted account in the Pouncio app and the extension pairs in the same step. Already connected? Type the 8-character pairing code the app shows into the extension's popup. The popup then says Connected, with your Vinted username.
- Leave its Vinted tab alone. It keeps one Vinted tab for itself: in Chrome inside a green tab group named Pouncio, in Firefox pinned. A thin green strip and a small badge on that page show that Pouncio uses it.
Keep the browser open
Once a browser is paired, Pouncio's server never buys for that Vinted account: buying happens in your browser or not at all. If the browser is closed, buying pauses until it is back, and the app tells you. Alerts keep coming either way, in the app and on Telegram, Discord or email (see Vinted alerts).
So to buy automatically, keep the computer on with the browser open. In Chrome the extension asks the computer not to sleep while it is paired, and the screen can still turn off. Firefox has no such option, so set your computer not to sleep.
The extension also looks after its own tab:
- Tab closed, moved to another site or put to sleep by the browser? It opens or wakes it again by itself.
- Signed out of Vinted, or signed in as someone else? It does not buy from that tab, and it tells you what to fix.
- Vinted asks for a captcha in that tab? It shows you, and your bots buy nothing until you answer it.
- Vinted pauses the browser for a few minutes? It waits and starts again by itself.
Updates
A copy installed from the Chrome Web Store updates itself through the store, like any other extension. As soon as the store has a new version, the extension asks Chrome to fetch it, and it restarts into it only when no buy is under way. On Firefox, the toolbar icon shows UP when a newer version is out, and the popup tells you how to update.
Privacy, and the honest risk
You sign in on Vinted's own page, in your own browser. Pouncio never sees your Vinted password, and the extension never sees your card details: Vinted charges the card on your Vinted account at checkout. Purchases go through Vinted, so Vinted's buyer protection, returns and disputes apply as with any purchase.
Now the honest part. Automating Vinted is against Vinted's terms, and an account can get blocked. Buying from your own browser keeps the risk low, together with the rest of Pouncio's rules: every new bot starts in test mode and buys nothing until you switch it live, it never goes over your max price or daily budget, and one button pauses every bot on every account. The risk is low. It is never zero. For the longer answer, read whether a Vinted bot is legal.
What it costs
The extension is free to install. It matters once a bot buys for you: auto-buy and auto-offer come with Plus (€49.99 a month) and Pro (€129.99 a month). On Free, a bot alerts you and you buy by hand on Vinted. Compare the plans, or read how the Pouncio Vinted bot decides what to buy.