The Meta Ad Library API question, answered: what it covers, who gets it, what to use instead
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Maintained by Datapika · We publish this product under the openclawai account on Apify. Product reference
The Meta Ad Library API exists, but it returns only ads about social issues, elections or politics plus ads delivered to the EU, and it requires a Facebook account with confirmed identity and location, a developer app and an access token (transparency.meta.com and developers.facebook.com, checked September 7, 2026). It does not return an ordinary commercial ad shown in the US. For those, the working route is a scraper of the public library: Apify listings range from $0.30 to $10 per 1,000 ads, and Datapika's actor charges $5 per 1,000 with every creative field and no token.
Does Meta have an Ad Library API in 2026?
Yes, and it is narrower than its name suggests. The ads_archive endpoint of the Graph API takes an ad_type of ALL or POLITICAL_AND_ISSUE_ADS and an ad_reached_countries filter, but Meta's own transparency documentation states that the API serves ads about social issues, elections or politics, as well as ads that deliver to the EU and associated territories (checked September 7, 2026). A commercial ad that ran only in the United States, Canada, Australia or the UK is visible on the library website and absent from the API.
Several fields are political-only even inside that scope: bylines, delivery_by_region, estimated_audience_size_min and estimated_audience_size_max are documented as available only for POLITICAL_AND_ISSUE_ADS. Spend and impression ranges follow the same rule on the website. The API is a compliance tool for researchers and regulators; it was never designed to answer what a competitor is running this week.
- Endpoint: Graph API ads_archive, parameters ad_type (ALL or POLITICAL_AND_ISSUE_ADS) and ad_reached_countries (ALL or ISO code)
- Coverage: political, issue and election ads, plus ads delivered to the EU and associated territories
- Missing: commercial ads shown outside the EU, whatever the ad_type value
- Political-only fields: bylines, delivery_by_region, estimated_audience_size_min and _max, spend and impression ranges
- Access: confirmed identity and location on a Facebook account, a developer app and an access token
How do you get Meta Ad Library API access?
Start at facebook.com/ads/library/api, confirm your identity and location through Meta's ID verification flow, create an app in the developer portal and generate a user access token; the ads_archive calls then run against graph.facebook.com with that token. There is no fee. Expect the process to take days rather than minutes because the identity confirmation is manual, and expect the same answer for commercial ads whichever token you hold: they are not in the API's scope.
If what you need is commercial coverage, skip the application and read the library the way a browser does. Datapika's actor sends the library's public search queries through residential proxies, walks results in parallel and returns one row per ad; no Facebook account, cookie or token is involved. Other Apify actors in the table take the same approach at different prices and field depths.
- Official route: ID verification, developer app, access token, free, political and EU ads only
- Scraper route: public library search, residential proxy, every country, commercial ads included
- Datapika input: keywords, page URLs or page IDs; country; active status; ad type; media formats; platforms
- No Meta credential of any kind is used by the scraper
Meta Ad Library API alternatives compared: price per 1,000, users, rating
Six Apify listings cover the public-library route, and the table records their store figures as of September 7, 2026. The largest, curious_coder with 39,881 users, lists $0.75 per 1,000 ads; Apify's own actor, with 34,953 users, lists $3.40. igolaizola is the cheapest at $0.30 per 1,000 results, whoareyouanas the most expensive at $10. automation-lab adds a $0.005 start fee per run to $0.575 per 1,000 ads. Datapika, published in September 2026, charges $5 per 1,000 ads as a single event with the residential proxy included, all countries in one run, every creative variation, days_active and the disclosure fields on the same row.
A price per 1,000 is only half of the choice. Check whether a listing returns every creative variation or only the first, whether it computes how long an ad has been live, whether it needs a proxy you pay for separately, and what its 30-day failure rate is on the store page.
- Cheapest listed: igolaizola, $0.30 per 1,000 results
- Largest: curious_coder, $0.75 per 1,000 ads, 108 reviews
- Datapika: $5 per 1,000 ads, proxy included, no start fee, published September 2026
- Read the store page's 30-day success rate before a large paid run; it is public for every actor
| Option | Price | Covers commercial ads? | Needs | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Meta Ad Library API (official) | Free | No, political, issue and EU-delivered ads only | Facebook account with confirmed identity, developer app, access token | Compliance tool; political-only fields for spend, reach, demographics |
| Meta Ads Library website | Free | Yes, while active | Nothing | No export, no bulk download |
| Datapika Meta Ad Library Scraper | $5 / 1,000 ads | Yes, any country or ALL | Apify account | Single event, proxy included, every creative variation, days_active |
| curious_coder/facebook-ads-library-scraper | $0.75 / 1,000 ads | Yes | Apify account | 39,881 users, 4.76 rating (108) |
| apify/facebook-ads-scraper | $3.40 / 1,000 ads | Yes | Apify account | 34,953 users, 4.19 rating (57) |
| igolaizola/facebook-ad-library-scraper | $0.30 / 1,000 results | Yes | Apify account | 2,512 users, 4.96 rating (9) |
| whoareyouanas/meta-ad-scraper | $10 / 1,000 ads | Yes | Apify account | 3,366 users, 4.71 rating (9) |
Sources you can inspect
Product documentation and implementation references. These references describe supported options and billing, not independent proof of performance. Confirm current details before running; examples and estimates are not guarantees.
How to do it
- 1.Decide what you need: political or EU ad disclosure with spend and reach, or commercial creatives. Only the first is in the official API.
- 2.For the official API, confirm identity at facebook.com/ads/library/api, create a developer app, and call graph.facebook.com ads_archive with ad_type and ad_reached_countries.
- 3.For commercial ads, open https://apify.com/openclawai/meta-ad-library-scraper, paste keywords or page URLs into queries, set country and maxAdsPerQuery, and run.
- 4.Export the dataset as JSON or CSV, or connect the actor through MCP so an agent can query the library on demand.
Questions, answered
Is the Meta Ad Library API free?
Yes. Meta charges nothing for the API; the cost is the identity confirmation and app setup, and the limit is scope: political, issue and EU-delivered ads only. Scrapers of the public library charge per ad row, from $0.30 to $10 per 1,000 on the Apify Store as of September 7, 2026.
Can the Ad Library API return Instagram ads?
Ads in scope carry a publisher_platforms field that lists facebook, instagram, messenger and audience_network, so Instagram placements are included for political, issue and EU-delivered ads. Commercial Instagram ads outside the EU are not in the API; the scraper returns them with the same publisher_platforms field.
Why do most scraped ads have no spend or impressions?
Because Meta discloses those ranges only for ads about social issues, elections or politics, and reach per country only for EU-delivered ads. A commercial ad shows creative, dates and platforms, on the website and in every scraper. Use days_active and creative_count as proxies for investment.
What is the cheapest way to export Facebook ads at scale?
On the Apify Store, igolaizola lists $0.30 per 1,000 results and curious_coder $0.75 per 1,000 ads as of September 7, 2026. Datapika costs $5 per 1,000 and bundles the residential proxy, every creative variation and the disclosure fields; the right choice depends on whether the cheaper listing returns the fields your workflow needs.
Is scraping the Meta Ads Library allowed?
The library is a public transparency database that anyone can read without logging in, and the scraper only reads it; it never touches a Facebook account. How you store and reuse creatives is governed by your jurisdiction and Meta's terms, so review your own compliance requirements before redistributing ad content.