Ad libraries for every platform: Meta, TikTok, Google, LinkedIn, Pinterest, X and Snapchat

Every very large online platform and search engine that sells ads in the European Union must keep a public ad library, because the Digital Services Act requires one. They differ a lot: some show who paid and how many people saw an ad in each country, others little more than the ad. This guide covers what each one shows, how to search it and its limits, checked against each platform’s own pages in October 2026.

The short answer

• Meta (Facebook, Instagram): the Meta Ad Library. Every active ad worldwide; in the EU, also inactive ads, who paid, and reach by age, gender and country.
• TikTok: the Commercial Content Library. Ads shown in the EEA, Switzerland and the UK, with an estimated reach range.
• Google (Search, YouTube, Display): the Ads Transparency Center. Search by advertiser or website; in the EEA, targeting and total reach.
• LinkedIn: the LinkedIn Ad Library. Search by advertiser, payer or keyword; for EU ads, impressions by country and B2B targeting.
• Pinterest: the Ads Repository. Ads shown in the EU in the last 12 months, with targeting and reach in bands of 10,000.
• X: the Ads Repository, linked from X’s ads transparency page. EU ads by account, country and dates, as a CSV file.
• Snapchat: the Ads Gallery. Ads shown in the EU in the last 12 months, with impressions per country, searchable only by the name of whoever paid. Metrice indexes it by brand.

Why every platform has one now

Article 39 of the EU Digital Services Act requires very large online platforms that show ads to keep a public, searchable repository of them, also available through an API. Each entry must show the ad and its brand or product, on whose behalf it ran and who paid, when it ran, whether it targeted specific groups and how, and how many people it reached, per Member State where groups were targeted. Ads stay in the repository while they run and for one year after they were last shown. Source: Regulation (EU) 2022/2065, Article 39.

The platforms with this duty are on the European Commission’s list of very large online platforms, among them Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Snapchat, X, Google Search, Bing, Amazon, the App Store, AliExpress, Temu, Shein and Zalando.

Meta Ad Library (Facebook and Instagram)

The Meta Ad Library shows every ad currently running on Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and the Audience Network, anywhere in the world. Ads that reach the EU go further: they stay for a year after their last impression, and each shows who it ran for and who paid, its targeting by age, gender and location, and its reach split by age, gender and country (Meta, API reference).

• Search: keywords (matched in the ad’s text, the text in its image and its audio) or a Page; filter by country, active or inactive, dates and media type.
• API: yes, after Facebook identity confirmation and a developer account (Ad Library API).
• Limits: outside the EU, only active ads appear, without reach or targeting. Spend is shown for political and social-issue ads only, and Meta stopped those in the EU in October 2025 (Meta).

TikTok Commercial Content Library

The Commercial Content Library covers paid ads and other commercial content shown to users in the EEA, Switzerland and the UK, kept for a year after an ad was last shown (TikTok). Each ad shows who paid for it, when it ran, a summary of its targeting and an estimated range of unique users who saw it.

• Search: advertiser name or keyword; filter by country and dates.
• API: for approved applicants (Commercial Content API).
• Changes coming: in December 2025 TikTok committed to the European Commission to add each ad’s full content and link, updates within 24 hours, targeting criteria, reach by gender, age group and Member State, and better search (European Commission).
• Not the same as Top Ads: the Creative Center’s Top Ads shows only ads their advertisers agreed to feature, with likes and indexed performance, not impressions or spend.

Google Ads Transparency Center

The Ads Transparency Center covers ads on Google Search, YouTube, Display and Google’s other surfaces. It shows each ad, its format, when it was last shown and where, and the advertiser’s name and location, with a badge when Google has verified them. For ads shown in the EEA it adds targeting information and the total number of people reached (Google).

• Search: advertiser or website name; filter by region and date. There is no search by the words in the ads.
• Bulk data: the EEA data is published as a public BigQuery dataset (Google Cloud).

LinkedIn Ad Library

The LinkedIn Ad Library includes ads that ran after 1 June 2023, for a year after their last impression (LinkedIn). For ads aimed at the EU it shows total impressions with the share per country, the dates, and the main targeting parameters, such as job, company, education or location, each marked as included, excluded or both (LinkedIn).

• Search: advertiser, payer or keyword; filter by country and dates, and for EU ads by impressions and targeting.
• What stands out: it is the one library that shows B2B targeting, and searching by payer finds an agency’s clients.

Pinterest Ads Repository

The Pinterest Ads Repository holds the ads Pinterest showed to users in the EU in the last 12 months. Each shows the advertiser, the dates and category, the age, gender, language and location targeting, whether keywords or an audience list were used, and the number of EU users reached in bands of 10,000 (Pinterest).

X (Twitter) Ads Repository

X’s repository covers ads served in the EU, including halted ones, with the advertiser, the main targeting parameters, impressions and reach. A search by account, country and date range returns a CSV file (X). In December 2025 the European Commission fined X €120 million, in part because its repository was hard to access, with long delays, and was missing ads’ content, topic and payer; X’s plan to fix it, with an API, was accepted in July 2026 (fine, plan).

Snapchat Ads Gallery

Snapchat’s Ads Gallery holds the ads delivered in the EU in the last 12 months, plus commercial content that is live now (Snap developer docs). Each ad shows the creative, who paid, how long it ran, its targeting and its impressions in each EU country (Snap). Its public API needs no login.

The catch is search. The gallery finds ads only by the name of whoever paid, and the payer is often an agency, a reseller or a billing company rather than the brand. Researchers at AI Forensics confirmed in May 2026 that it can be searched by advertiser name only (AI Forensics). To see one brand’s Snapchat ads you need to know every company that pays for them. Snapchat also keeps a separate political ads library, downloadable by year; Snap stopped political ads in the EU in October 2025.

Also in the EU: Bing and the App Store

• Microsoft Advertising (Bing): an ad library of ads with impressions in the EU and EEA, with a public API that needs no account (Microsoft).
• Apple App Store: an ad repository of App Store ads shown in the EU, searched by app or developer (Apple).

How to see a competitor’s ads on every platform

1. Meta: search the brand’s Facebook Page in the Meta Ad Library, choose the country, and include inactive ads for the EU.
2. TikTok: search the brand name in the Commercial Content Library, with the country and dates.
3. Google: search the brand’s website in the Ads Transparency Center.
4. LinkedIn: search the company name, and its agency as payer.
5. Snapchat: find out who pays for the brand’s ads, often an agency, or search the brand on Metrice, where the payers are already grouped.

The libraries show what ran and, in the EU, how often it was seen. None shows what a commercial ad cost: spend is published for political ads only.

Questions