Is there a Facebook Ad Library API?

Meta's official Ad Library API is mainly for political and social-issue ads. /v1/facebook/adlibrary/search/ads and /v1/facebook/adlibrary/company/ads return any ad shown in the public Ad Library, with spend and reach where Meta publishes them.

Can I scrape Facebook Marketplace with an API?

Yes. /v1/facebook/marketplace/search finds listings by keyword near a location, and /v1/facebook/marketplace/item returns one listing in full. Use /v1/facebook/marketplace/location/search to turn a city name into a location.

How much does a Facebook API call cost?

A page profile is 10 credits, and so is a page of post comments. Page posts and search are metered: each quotes a range and charges what the call read. Calls that fail or return nothing are free.

Do I need a Facebook developer account?

No. There is no Facebook app, OAuth flow or review. One API key in the x-api-key header works for Facebook and the other 24 platforms.

Is there a free tier?

Yes. Your first 10 calls priced at 100 credits or less are free, and the free plan includes 500 credits every month. No credit card is needed to get a key.

What are the Facebook API rate limits?

60 requests a minute and 10 requests in flight at once, per API key. Going over either returns a 429 with a Retry-After header, and a rejected request costs nothing. There is no daily quota: past those two limits, your credit balance is what bounds volume.

How does pagination work on Facebook list endpoints?

List endpoints return rows in data.items and a pagination object with next_cursor and has_more. Send next_cursor back unchanged as the cursor parameter for the next page, and stop when has_more is false. A handful of endpoints page with their own parameter instead; their reference pages name it.

Am I charged for failed calls?

No. A call that errors or finds nothing costs 0 credits. A live fetch costs the endpoint's price, or for a metered endpoint what it actually read. An answer served from the shared cache costs 2 credits. Repeating a call is charged like the first time, because it can return newer data.

How fresh is the Facebook data?

A call fetches live unless a recent copy is in the shared cache, and every response says which with the cached field; a cached answer costs 2 credits. Add fresh=1 or send Cache-Control: no-cache to skip the cache; that call is charged at the normal price.

Is it legal to scrape Facebook?

Collecting publicly available data is generally treated differently from accessing private data, but the answer depends on your jurisdiction, Facebook's terms and what you do with personal data afterwards. The API reads public data only. Talk to a lawyer for anything commercial.

Facebook scraper API

The Facebook scraper API for public pages, posts, comments, groups and Marketplace, as JSON, plus the Meta Ad Library. No Page Public Content Access review.

Get a free API key Facebook API docs

29 endpoints · from 10 credits a call · 10 free calls up to 100 credits each · no credit card

curl "https://api.insightsocial.app/v1/facebook/profile?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FExampleBakery" \
-H "x-api-key: $INSIGHTSOCIAL_API_KEY"

200 OKJSON

{
"success": true,
"platform": "facebook",
"endpoint": "/v1/facebook/profile",
"schema_version": "2",
"data": {
"author": {
"id": "100000000000001",
"username": "ExampleBakery",
"display_name": "Example Bakery",
"avatar_url": "https://cdn.example.com/avatars/example_bakery.jpg",
"bio": "Sourdough, pastries and coffee. Open daily from 7am.",
"verified": null,
"followers": 12000,
"followers_approximate": true,
"following": null,
"posts_count": null,
"likes_count": 11905,
"url": "https://www.facebook.com/ExampleBakery",
"location": "Portland, OR",
"external_url": null,
"private": null,
"joined_at": "2014-05-02T00:00:00.000Z",
"last_post_at": null,
"ext": {
"business_category": "Bakery",
"website": "https://example.com",
"public_email": "hello@example.com",
"rating": "4.8",
"rating_count": 312
}
}
},
"unavailable": [],
"credits_used": 0,
"charge_reason": "miss",
"free_call": true
}

What Facebook data can you get?

Public Facebook data only, returned in the same JSON envelope as every other platform.

Pages and profiles

Name, bio, followers and page likes, and for businesses the address, rating and opening hours where the page lists them.

Posts, reels and comments

A page's posts and reels with reactions, comments and shares, and the full comment thread under any public post.

Groups, events and Marketplace

Posts in public groups, events by page or search, and Marketplace listings by keyword and location.

Meta Ad Library

Ads a company is running, ad search by keyword, and the spoken text of video ads.

Facebook API endpoints

All 29 Facebook endpoints and their price in credits. 8 are metered: they show a range and charge what the call actually read.

Endpoint	Credits	What it returns
/profile	10	Returns a Facebook page's public profile: page id, display name, profile image, bio, follower count, and page-like count.
/profile/posts	10–40	Returns recent posts from a Facebook page or profile, each with the post text, like and comment counts, the per-reaction breakdown, media, and publish time.
/post	10	Returns one Facebook post in full: the post text, like, comment and share counts, a reactions breakdown, media attachments, and author info.
/post/comments	10	Returns comments on a Facebook post, each with the commenter's name, comment text, like count, reply count, and creation time.
/group/posts	10	Returns posts from a Facebook group, 3 to 4 per page, each with the post text, reaction count, comment count, the per-reaction breakdown, and author info.
/group	10	Returns a Facebook group's public record: name, description, member count, privacy, visibility, and creation date.
/post/transcript	100	Returns the spoken words of a Facebook video post as a transcript, using Facebook's auto-generated captions.
/profile/photos	10–90	Returns a page or profile's photos, each with a photo id, permalink, full-size image URL, thumbnail, and accessibility caption when available.
/profile/reels	10	Returns a page or profile's reels, each with a reel id, description, thumbnail, permalink, publish time, and a rounded public view count.
/adlibrary/ad	50	Returns one ad from the Facebook Ad Library: creative, CTA and link, run dates, display format, and the advertiser's page URL, likes and categories.
/adlibrary/company/ads	50–350	Returns the ads one company or page is running in the Facebook Ad Library, each with its creative, status, spend, and targeting info.
/adlibrary/search/ads	50	Returns Facebook Ad Library ads matching a keyword, each with its creative text, images, sponsor info, and running status.
/adlibrary/search/companies	50	Returns advertiser pages in the Facebook Ad Library matching a name, each with its page id, name, handle, verification badge and follower count.
/profile/events	10–90	Returns a Facebook page's upcoming and past events, each with a title, link, the start time, the venue, the city, the rendered time line, and the cancelled, past and online flags.
/post/comment/replies	10	Returns the replies under a single Facebook comment, each with the author name, reply text, like count, and creation time.
/marketplace/location/search	10	Returns Facebook Marketplace locations and cities matching a search term, each with its lat and lng coordinates.
/marketplace/search	10	Returns Facebook Marketplace listings near a lat/lng, each with title, price, location, photo, delivery types, and sold or live flags.
/marketplace/item	10	Returns one Facebook Marketplace listing: title, description, price, location, condition, photos, seller, and availability flags.
/events/search	10	Returns public Facebook events matching a keyword, each with name, date sentence, venue, cover photo, interested and going counts, and online and past flags.
/events	10–130	Returns the events listed on a Facebook city or region events page, each with a title, link, cover image, the start time, the venue, and the going and interested counts.
/event/details	10	Returns one Facebook event in full: title, description, start and end time, location, host, cover image, and RSVP counts when shown.
/adlibrary/ad/transcript	100	Returns the spoken words of a Facebook Ad Library video ad, from Facebook's captions when available or transcribed from the video itself.
/profile/full	50	Returns a page's profile plus its latest 3 posts in one call.
/profile/reels/full	50–250	Returns a page's reels with exact per-reel engagement merged in: views, likes, comments, and shares, plus each reel's id, thumbnail, and link.
/search/posts	10–50	Returns public Facebook posts matching a keyword, each with text, permalink, publish time, like count, comment count, and author.
/search/pages	10	Returns Facebook pages matching a keyword, each with page id, display name, permalink, avatar, and verified flag.
/search/people	10	Returns Facebook people matching a keyword, each with profile id, display name, permalink, avatar, and verified flag.
/search/videos	10	Returns public Facebook videos matching a keyword, each with video id, caption, permalink, thumbnail, and author.
/search/groups	10–110	Returns public Facebook groups matching your keywords, one row per group, with the group's name, id and URL in the same shape the group endpoints take.

Parameters, response fields and examples for each endpoint are in the Facebook API reference.

InsightSocial vs the official Facebook API

The Facebook Graph API reads pages you manage. Public page content needs the Page Public Content Access feature and app review, and Meta retired the Groups API in 2024.

	InsightSocial API	Official Facebook API
Public pages	Any public page	Page Public Content Access, after app review
Groups	Posts in public groups	Groups API retired in 2024
Marketplace	Listings by keyword and location	Not offered
Approval	None. Sign in and copy a key	Meta app review and business verification
Cost per call	10 credits	No per-call price; access is gated by Meta app review

The official API is the right tool for posting, messaging or managing accounts you own. This one is read-only public data.

How much does the Facebook API cost?

Facebook calls start at 10 credits. Every endpoint's price is in the table above and in the free GET /v1/endpoints catalogue, so you know the cost before you call. Pro's 10,000 monthly credits cover about 1,000 pages at 10 credits each.

Failed calls are free
A call that errors or finds nothing costs 0 credits.
Retries are free
Resend a request with the same Idempotency-Key and the replay costs 0. Repeating a call without one is charged like the first time, because it can return newer data.
One balance
API calls and Chrome extension exports share the same credits. The free plan includes 500 a month.

See plans and credit packs How credits work

Not writing code?

Connect InsightSocial to Claude or ChatGPT and ask for Facebook data in plain English. Same account, same credits.

Use it from Claude or ChatGPT

Facebook API: frequently asked questions

Yes, for public groups. /v1/facebook/group/posts returns a group's posts page by page. Meta removed its own Groups API in 2024, so there is no official route. Private groups need a member's session: the InsightSocial Chrome extension reads them from your own logged-in browser.

Facebook API guides

Does Facebook have an API?