High-mass X-ray binaries are bright X-ray sources. The high-energy emission is caused by the accretion of matter from the massive companion onto a neutron star. The accreting material comes from either the strong stellar wind in binaries with supergiant companions or the circumstellar disk in Be/X-ray binaries. In either case, the H{alpha} line stands out as the main source of information about the state of the accreting material. We present the results of our monitoring program to study the long-term variability of the H{alpha} line in high-mass X-ray binaries. Our aim is to characterise the optical variability timescales and study the interaction between the neutron star and the accreting material. We fitted the H{alpha} line with Gaussian profiles and obtained the line parameters and equivalent width. The peak separation in split profiles was used to determine the disk velocity law and estimate the disk radius. The relative intensity of the two peaks (V/R ratio) allowed us to investigate the distribution of gas particles in the disk. The equivalent width was used to characterise the degree of variability of the systems. We also studied the variability of the H{alpha} line in correlation with the X-ray activity.