Meta Ad Library vs Google Ads Transparency Center

AdLibraryGuide editorial team · checked 8 October 2026

Meta Ad Library and Google Ads Transparency Center are free and need no account. Meta’s library searches any keyword across Facebook and Instagram but drops ordinary non-EU/UK ads when they stop; Google’s searches only by advertiser or website across Search and YouTube and keeps commercial ads one year.

	Meta Ad Library	Google Ads Transparency Center
What it covers	all active ads; political ads active or inactive	ads of verified advertisers worldwide; unverified ones in Europe and Türkiye
Platforms	Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, Audience Network, Threads	Search, YouTube, Play, Maps, Shopping
Countries	243 countries and territories; extra data for the EU and UK	worldwide; extra data for the EEA and Türkiye
Political only or all ads	all ads	all ads; election ads in a separate report
Search by	any keyword, advertiser or Page	advertiser name or website only
Ordinary ads kept after they stop	EU/UK: 1 year; elsewhere: not kept	1 year after last shown
Political ads kept	7 years	up to 7 years
Impressions or reach	political ads: ranges; EU/UK ads: reach by location, age, gender	EEA and Türkiye ads: ranges by platform, 90-day delay, none before 1 March 2023
Spend	political ads only, as a range	election ads only, as a range
Filters	language, advertiser, platform, media type, active status, dates	date, region, platform, format
Export and API	API for political ads and EU/UK ads; downloads need login	API and BigQuery for EEA ads; JSON download
Login needed	no, except downloads and gambling or alcohol ads	no, except age-restricted ads
Price	free	free, for information or research use

Data on 8 October 2026, from Meta’s and Google’s help pages and our sessions. Full guides: Meta Ad Library and Google Ads Transparency Center.

Search: any keyword or a known advertiser

The Meta Ad Library accepts any search term, advertiser name or Page, so it answers “who is advertising running shoes”. Our search for “running shoes” in the United States on 8 October 2026 returned about 35,000 active ads.

Meta Ad Library, search "running shoes", United States, all ads: about 35,000 results, active ads only by default. Our session, 8 October 2026.

Google Ads Transparency Center accepts only an advertiser name or a website, and Google’s help describes no search inside ad text. Our search for Nike on 8 October 2026 opened one advertiser page with about 8,000 ads.

Google Ads Transparency Center, advertiser "Nike, Inc.", United States: about 8,000 ads across several accounts with similar names. Our session, 8 October 2026.

Verdict: Use the Meta Ad Library when you know the topic but not the advertisers; use Google Ads Transparency Center when you already know the brand name or website.

Platforms and countries

The Meta Ad Library covers Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, Audience Network and Threads, and Meta offers its transparency tools in 243 countries and territories. Extra data covers only ads shown in the EU, its associated territories and the UK.

Google Ads Transparency Center covers Google Search, YouTube, Google Play, Google Maps and Google Shopping. It lists verified advertisers worldwide and adds unverified ones only in the EEA and Türkiye.

Verdict: Use the Meta Ad Library for social and messaging placements; use Google Ads Transparency Center for search, video, app-store, map and shopping placements.

Meta Ad Library vs Google Ads Transparency Center retention

Google Ads Transparency Center keeps every commercial ad for one year from the date it was last shown, in any country. Election ads stay up to seven years where Google allows political advertising.

The Meta Ad Library keeps an ordinary commercial ad only while it is active, unless it was shown in the EU or UK; those ads stay for one year after their last impression. Ads about social issues, elections or politics stay for seven years.

Verdict: Use Google Ads Transparency Center to look back at stopped ads; use the Meta Ad Library for ads running now or shown in the EU or UK in the past year.

EU ads: reach on Meta, impressions on Google

For an ad shown in the EU, the Meta Ad Library reports total reach broken down by location, age and gender, the targeting, and the advertiser and payer. One Nike ad shown in France reached 7,842,253 accounts in the EU.

Meta Ad Library, Nike ad, country France: EU reach 7,842,253 accounts with a breakdown by location, age and gender. Our session, 8 October 2026.

For an ad shown in the EEA or Türkiye, Google Ads Transparency Center reports a times-shown range with a 90-day delay, the targeting categories used and a topic label. A Nike video ad shown in France was shown 350K–400K times between 17 June and 10 July 2026.

Google Ads Transparency Center, Nike video ad, region France: times shown 350K–400K and the targeting categories, marked included or excluded. Our session, 8 October 2026.

Verdict: Use the Meta Ad Library to see who an EU ad reached by age, gender and country; use Google Ads Transparency Center to see how often an EU ad was shown on each Google platform.

Spend: political ads only, in both

Neither library publishes spend for an ordinary commercial ad. The Meta Ad Library shows amount spent, as a range, only for ads about social issues, elections or politics. Google Ads Transparency Center shows it, as a range, only in its Political Advertising Transparency Report.

Verdict: Use either library for political spend ranges; use neither for a commercial competitor’s spend, because neither publishes it.

API and data export

The Meta Ad Library API returns political ads from anywhere for the past seven years and any ad shown in the EU or UK in the past year. It requires identity and location confirmation and a Meta for Developers app.

Google offers API access only for EEA ads. The same data is a public BigQuery dataset for advertisers that served ads in the EEA or Türkiye, within the free 1 TB a month, and a JSON download from Google Cloud Storage.

Verdict: Use the Meta Ad Library API for political ads worldwide; use Google’s BigQuery dataset for bulk EEA ad data.

Which one to use

Each library shows only ads on its own platforms, and neither shows commercial spend. This comparison is published by the team behind Spytrend, an ad-intelligence tool; neither library is scored here, and our checks are described on the methodology page.

Verdict: Use the Meta Ad Library to find who is advertising a topic on Facebook and Instagram today; use Google Ads Transparency Center to see a year of one advertiser’s ads on Search and YouTube.

FAQ

Meta Ad Library vs Google Ads Transparency Center retention period

Google Ads Transparency Center keeps a commercial ad for one year after it was last shown. The Meta Ad Library keeps an ordinary ad for one year only if it was shown in the EU or UK; elsewhere it disappears when it stops. Both keep political ads up to seven years.

Google vs Meta DSA ad repository

For ads shown in the EU, the Meta Ad Library adds total reach by location, age and gender, the targeting and the payer. Google Ads Transparency Center adds an impressions range with a 90-day delay, the targeting categories used and a topic label. Neither shows spend for commercial ads.

Google Ads Transparency Center vs Facebook Ad Library

The Facebook Ad Library, now called the Meta Ad Library, searches any keyword across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Threads ads. Google Ads Transparency Center searches only by advertiser name or website and covers Search, YouTube, Play, Maps and Shopping. Both are free.

Is Google Ads Transparency Center free for everyone?

Yes. Google Ads Transparency Center is free and needs no account; sign-in is required only for age-restricted ads, and the terms allow information and research use only. The Meta Ad Library is also free, but downloading its results requires a Facebook login.

Is the Google Ads Transparency Center the same as the Meta Ad Library?

No. Google Ads Transparency Center is run by Google and covers Google Search, YouTube, Play, Maps and Shopping. The Meta Ad Library, also called the Facebook Ad Library, is run by Meta and covers Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, Audience Network and Threads.