What the library shows
For any ad running right now, Meta publishes the creative, the copy, the page paying for it, the start date and the platforms it runs on.
For ads delivered in the European Union the law requires more: total reach, a breakdown by age, gender and country, the targeting parameters used, and who pays and who benefits. That is not a tool's estimate, it is a number Meta publishes itself.
Ads about social issues, elections and politics stay archived for seven years. Commercial ads disappear from the library when they stop.
What it does not show, and that is where it hurts
It does not tell you how many ads use the same creative. An advertiser who duplicated the same video 300 times shows up as 300 separate results, and the one thing worth knowing, the number 300, is nowhere.
It cannot be sorted. There is no "most scaled", no "longest running". You see whatever order Meta decides.
It does not connect the ad to a store or a product. You see the ad, not what is being sold or for how much.
It keeps no commercial history. When an ad stops, it is gone. There is no way to know it ran for 90 days and stopped yesterday.
How to search the official library
Pick a country and the "All ads" category, type a brand or a word, and the library returns what is running. You can filter by platform, language and start date.
Search matches the ad text or the page name. There is no search by product, by destination domain or by scale.
For EU ads, click "See ad targeting details" on any ad: that is where the reach and demographics required by the DSA appear.
What we add on top of the same library
The data is the same and it is public. The difference is what happens to it once collected.
| Meta ad library | Ads Bench | |
|---|---|---|
| Copies of the same creative | Not shown | Counted and sortable |
| Sort by scale or time on air | No | Yes |
| Store and product behind the ad | No | Yes, with price |
| Supplier price | No | AliExpress image search |
| Official EU reach | Yes, ad by ad | Yes, aggregated and comparable |
| History of ads that already stopped | No | Yes |
| Price | Free | Free preview, 29 €/month |
Frequently asked questions
Is the Facebook Ad Library free?
Yes. It is public, needs no account and costs nothing. What costs time is using it at scale: with no deduplication and no sorting, seeing a thousand ads means opening a thousand pages.
Can I see a competitor's ads?
You can. Search their page name and you will see what is running at that moment. What you will not see is how many copies of each creative they run, or what already stopped.
Is the reach figure real or estimated?
In the European Union it is real and published by Meta, as required by the Digital Services Act. Outside the EU the library shows no reach at all.
How long are ads kept?
Social and political ads stay for seven years. Commercial ads leave the library when they stop running, which is exactly why keeping your own history matters.