diff --git a/packages/api/src/entity/subscription.ts b/packages/api/src/entity/subscription.ts
index 90f7d593b..b63400d56 100644
--- a/packages/api/src/entity/subscription.ts
+++ b/packages/api/src/entity/subscription.ts
@@ -59,6 +59,9 @@ export class Subscription {
   @Column('timestamp', { nullable: true })
   lastFetchedAt?: Date | null
 
+  @Column('text', { nullable: true })
+  lastFetchedChecksum?: string | null
+
   @CreateDateColumn({ default: () => 'CURRENT_TIMESTAMP' })
   createdAt!: Date
 
diff --git a/packages/api/src/generated/graphql.ts b/packages/api/src/generated/graphql.ts
index f0f41ff68..0ad412b4f 100644
--- a/packages/api/src/generated/graphql.ts
+++ b/packages/api/src/generated/graphql.ts
@@ -2978,6 +2978,7 @@ export type UpdateSubscriptionInput = {
   description?: InputMaybe<Scalars['String']>;
   id: Scalars['ID'];
   lastFetchedAt?: InputMaybe<Scalars['Date']>;
+  lastFetchedChecksum?: InputMaybe<Scalars['String']>;
   name?: InputMaybe<Scalars['String']>;
   status?: InputMaybe<SubscriptionStatus>;
 };
diff --git a/packages/api/src/generated/schema.graphql b/packages/api/src/generated/schema.graphql
index 3ef33f886..af9064bee 100644
--- a/packages/api/src/generated/schema.graphql
+++ b/packages/api/src/generated/schema.graphql
@@ -2391,6 +2391,7 @@ input UpdateSubscriptionInput {
   description: String
   id: ID!
   lastFetchedAt: Date
+  lastFetchedChecksum: String
   name: String
   status: SubscriptionStatus
 }
diff --git a/packages/api/src/resolvers/subscriptions/index.ts b/packages/api/src/resolvers/subscriptions/index.ts
index 74375441d..430347654 100644
--- a/packages/api/src/resolvers/subscriptions/index.ts
+++ b/packages/api/src/resolvers/subscriptions/index.ts
@@ -290,6 +290,7 @@ export const updateSubscriptionResolver = authorized<
         lastFetchedAt: input.lastFetchedAt
           ? new Date(input.lastFetchedAt)
           : undefined,
+        lastFetchedChecksum: input.lastFetchedChecksum || undefined,
         status: input.status || undefined,
       })
 
diff --git a/packages/api/src/routers/svc/rss_feed.ts b/packages/api/src/routers/svc/rss_feed.ts
index 0834e5025..c06ec9f71 100644
--- a/packages/api/src/routers/svc/rss_feed.ts
+++ b/packages/api/src/routers/svc/rss_feed.ts
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ export function rssFeedRouter() {
 
       // get all active rss feed subscriptions
       const subscriptions = await getRepository(Subscription).find({
-        select: ['id', 'url', 'user', 'lastFetchedAt'],
+        select: ['id', 'url', 'user', 'lastFetchedAt', 'lastFetchedChecksum'],
         where: {
           type: SubscriptionType.Rss,
           status: SubscriptionStatus.Active,
diff --git a/packages/api/src/schema.ts b/packages/api/src/schema.ts
index e3b2b3442..2cc4e8b58 100755
--- a/packages/api/src/schema.ts
+++ b/packages/api/src/schema.ts
@@ -2548,6 +2548,7 @@ const schema = gql`
     name: String
     description: String
     lastFetchedAt: Date
+    lastFetchedChecksum: String
     status: SubscriptionStatus
   }
 
diff --git a/packages/api/src/utils/createTask.ts b/packages/api/src/utils/createTask.ts
index bb3457e00..483921bc9 100644
--- a/packages/api/src/utils/createTask.ts
+++ b/packages/api/src/utils/createTask.ts
@@ -601,6 +601,7 @@ export const enqueueRssFeedFetch = async (
     subscriptionId: rssFeedSubscription.id,
     feedUrl: rssFeedSubscription.url,
     lastFetchedAt: rssFeedSubscription.lastFetchedAt?.getTime() || 0, // unix timestamp in milliseconds
+    lastFetchedChecksum: rssFeedSubscription.lastFetchedChecksum || null,
   }
 
   const headers = {
diff --git a/packages/db/migrations/0138.do.add_checksum_to_subscriptions_table.sql b/packages/db/migrations/0138.do.add_checksum_to_subscriptions_table.sql
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..dfc37edfe
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/db/migrations/0138.do.add_checksum_to_subscriptions_table.sql
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+-- Type: DO
+-- Name: add_checksum_to_subscriptions_table
+-- Description: Add a last fetched checksum field to the subscriptions table
+
+BEGIN;
+
+ALTER TABLE omnivore.subscriptions ADD COLUMN last_fetched_checksum TEXT ;
+
+COMMIT;
diff --git a/packages/db/migrations/0138.undo.add_checksum_to_subscriptions_table.sql b/packages/db/migrations/0138.undo.add_checksum_to_subscriptions_table.sql
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..e138d501a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/db/migrations/0138.undo.add_checksum_to_subscriptions_table.sql
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+-- Type: UNDO
+-- Name: add_checksum_to_subscriptions_table
+-- Description: Add a last fetched checksum field to the subscriptions table
+
+BEGIN;
+
+ALTER TABLE omnivore.subscriptions DROP COLUMN last_fetched_checksum ;
+
+COMMIT;
diff --git a/packages/rss-handler/package.json b/packages/rss-handler/package.json
index 2a6d40851..0db5d93fd 100644
--- a/packages/rss-handler/package.json
+++ b/packages/rss-handler/package.json
@@ -17,7 +17,8 @@
   "devDependencies": {
     "chai": "^4.3.6",
     "eslint-plugin-prettier": "^4.0.0",
-    "mocha": "^10.0.0"
+    "mocha": "^10.0.0",
+    "nock": "^13.3.4"
   },
   "dependencies": {
     "@google-cloud/functions-framework": "3.1.2",
diff --git a/packages/rss-handler/src/index.ts b/packages/rss-handler/src/index.ts
index 60e789e73..ca6afb04b 100644
--- a/packages/rss-handler/src/index.ts
+++ b/packages/rss-handler/src/index.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 import * as Sentry from '@sentry/serverless'
 import axios from 'axios'
+import crypto from 'crypto'
 import * as dotenv from 'dotenv' // see https://github.com/motdotla/dotenv#how-do-i-use-dotenv-with-import
 import * as jwt from 'jsonwebtoken'
 import Parser, { Item } from 'rss-parser'
@@ -10,6 +11,7 @@ interface RssFeedRequest {
   subscriptionId: string
   feedUrl: string
   lastFetchedAt: number // unix timestamp in milliseconds
+  lastFetchedChecksum: string | undefined
 }
 
 // link can be a string or an object
@@ -21,10 +23,37 @@ function isRssFeedRequest(body: any): body is RssFeedRequest {
   )
 }
 
+export const fetchAndChecksum = async (url: string) => {
+  try {
+    const response = await axios.get(url, {
+      responseType: 'arraybuffer',
+      timeout: 60_000,
+      maxRedirects: 10,
+      headers: {
+        'User-Agent':
+          'Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/116.0.0.0 Safari/537.36',
+        Accept:
+          'application/rss+xml, application/rdf+xml;q=0.8, application/atom+xml;q=0.6, application/xml;q=0.4, text/xml;q=0.4',
+      },
+    })
+
+    const hash = crypto.createHash('sha256')
+    hash.update(response.data as Buffer)
+
+    const dataStr = (response.data as Buffer).toString()
+
+    return { url, content: dataStr, checksum: hash.digest('hex') }
+  } catch (error) {
+    console.log(error)
+    throw new Error(`Failed to fetch or hash content from ${url}.`)
+  }
+}
+
 const sendUpdateSubscriptionMutation = async (
   userId: string,
   subscriptionId: string,
-  lastFetchedAt: Date
+  lastFetchedAt: Date,
+  lastFetchedChecksum: string
 ) => {
   const JWT_SECRET = process.env.JWT_SECRET
   const REST_BACKEND_ENDPOINT = process.env.REST_BACKEND_ENDPOINT
@@ -51,6 +80,7 @@ const sendUpdateSubscriptionMutation = async (
       input: {
         id: subscriptionId,
         lastFetchedAt,
+        lastFetchedChecksum,
       },
     },
   })
@@ -118,19 +148,15 @@ Sentry.GCPFunction.init({
 
 const signToken = promisify(jwt.sign)
 const parser = new Parser({
-  timeout: 60000, // 60 seconds
-  maxRedirects: 10,
   customFields: {
-    item: [['link', 'links', { keepArray: true }], 'published', 'updated'],
+    item: [
+      ['link', 'links', { keepArray: true }],
+      'published',
+      'updated',
+      'created',
+    ],
     feed: ['dc:date', 'lastBuildDate', 'pubDate'],
   },
-  headers: {
-    // some rss feeds require user agent
-    'User-Agent':
-      'Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/116.0.0.0 Safari/537.36',
-    Accept:
-      'application/rss+xml, application/rdf+xml;q=0.8, application/atom+xml;q=0.6, application/xml;q=0.4, text/xml;q=0.4',
-  },
 })
 
 // get link following the order of preference: via, alternate, self
@@ -190,16 +216,24 @@ export const rssHandler = Sentry.GCPFunction.wrapHttpFunction(
         return res.status(400).send('INVALID_REQUEST_BODY')
       }
 
-      const { feedUrl, subscriptionId, lastFetchedAt } = req.body
+      const { feedUrl, subscriptionId, lastFetchedAt, lastFetchedChecksum } =
+        req.body
       console.log('Processing feed', feedUrl, lastFetchedAt)
 
       let lastItemFetchedAt: Date | null = null
       let lastValidItem: Item | null = null
 
+      const fetchResult = await fetchAndChecksum(feedUrl)
+      if (fetchResult.checksum === lastFetchedChecksum) {
+        console.log('feed has not been updated', feedUrl, lastFetchedChecksum)
+        return res.status(200)
+      }
+      const updatedLastFetchedChecksum = fetchResult.checksum
+
       // fetch feed
       let itemCount = 0
-      const feed = await parser.parseURL(feedUrl)
-      console.log('Fetched feed', feed, new Date())
+      const feed = await parser.parseString(fetchResult.content)
+      console.log('Fetched feed', feed.title, new Date())
 
       const feedPubDate = (feed['dc:date'] ||
         feed.pubDate ||
@@ -214,7 +248,10 @@ export const rssHandler = Sentry.GCPFunction.wrapHttpFunction(
       for (const item of feed.items) {
         // use published or updated if isoDate is not available for atom feeds
         item.isoDate =
-          item.isoDate || (item.published as string) || (item.updated as string)
+          item.isoDate ||
+          (item.published as string) ||
+          (item.updated as string) ||
+          (item.created as string)
         console.log('Processing feed item', item.links, item.isoDate)
 
         if (!item.links || item.links.length === 0) {
@@ -299,7 +336,8 @@ export const rssHandler = Sentry.GCPFunction.wrapHttpFunction(
       const updatedSubscription = await sendUpdateSubscriptionMutation(
         userId,
         subscriptionId,
-        lastItemFetchedAt
+        lastItemFetchedAt,
+        updatedLastFetchedChecksum
       )
       console.log('Updated subscription', updatedSubscription)
 
diff --git a/packages/rss-handler/test/checksum.test.ts b/packages/rss-handler/test/checksum.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..24eee7a0b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/rss-handler/test/checksum.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+import 'mocha'
+import nock from 'nock'
+import { expect } from 'chai'
+import { fetchAndChecksum } from '../src/index'
+
+describe('fetchAndChecksum', () => {
+  it('should hash the content available', async () => {
+    nock('https://fake.com', {}).get('/rss.xml').reply(200, 'i am some content')
+    const result = await fetchAndChecksum('https://fake.com/rss.xml')
+    expect(result.checksum).to.eq(
+      'd6bc10faec048d999d0cf4b2f7103d84557fb9cd94c3bccd17884b1288949375'
+    )
+  })
+})
diff --git a/packages/rss-handler/test/stub.test.ts b/packages/rss-handler/test/stub.test.ts
deleted file mode 100644
index 24ad25c8f..000000000
--- a/packages/rss-handler/test/stub.test.ts
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,8 +0,0 @@
-import 'mocha'
-import { expect } from 'chai'
-
-describe('stub test', () => {
-  it('should pass', () => {
-    expect(true).to.be.true
-  })
-})