How to see how long a Facebook or Instagram ad has been running

Where the start date appears

Every listing in the Meta Ad Library has a short header above the creative. When we opened the library without logging in on 9 October 2026, the header of an active ad read, from top to bottom: a status of Active, a Library ID, the line Started running on with a date, and a row of Platforms icons.

Meta's Help Centre article describes that date as the day the ad first appeared on Meta's apps. So the run length of an active ad is simply today minus that date. The library does not do the subtraction for you.

The date is close to the real one. The library's front page says an ad appears within 24 hours of its first impression, and that changes to an ad are reflected within 24 hours too. The same page says dates and times for ads about social issues, elections or politics are recorded in Pacific Time; it does not state a time zone for other ads, so allow a day either way.

If you have not used the library before, the Meta Ad Library guide covers searching and filters in full. This post is only about run length.

Active, inactive and the status filter

The Filters panel has an Active status setting with three choices: active and inactive, active ads, and inactive ads. Next to it is Impressions by date, which takes an exact date or a range and narrows the results to ads that were shown in that period.

An inactive listing looks slightly different. The status reads Inactive, and in place of the "Started running on" line there is a date range, the first day and the last. That gives you the full run of an ad that has ended.

Whether you can see an ad after it stops depends on what it is and where it was shown.

Meta's Business Help Centre page adds that for EU and UK ads the library only displays and archives information that relates to those regions. In our check, inactive listings also appeared with Australia selected as the country, some carrying an EU transparency label. Meta's pages do not explain this; the likely reason is that those ads were also delivered in the EU or UK. Do not expect a stopped ad from a brand that advertises in one non-European country to be there.

What the version and grouping labels mean

Two labels on a listing change how you should read its start date.

• "N ads use this creative and text". The library has grouped several separate ads that share one image or video and one piece of copy. Selecting See summary details opens a panel whose own explanation says advertisers often reuse the same creative and text in ads with different start dates, locations or budgets, and that any filters you applied to the search also apply to the group. Each ad in the group has its own Library ID and its own start date.
• "This ad has multiple versions". One ad holds several variations. Selecting See ad details opens the ad with a counter, such as 1 of 6, to step through them. The header still carries a single start date for the ad as a whole.

The grouping matters for run length. The date on the card is the date of one ad in the group, so the idea itself may be older than it looks. Open the summary and read the earliest start date among the ads listed. Bear in mind that with the status filter set to active, ads in the group that have already ended are not counted.

How to open the library for one Page

Run length is most useful when you can see all of one advertiser's ads together and compare their dates. There are three routes we could confirm.

1. 01

   Search for the advertiser in the library

   Choose a country, set the ad category to All ads, type the advertiser's name and pick the Page. Meta's Help Centre says results for all ads are grouped by Page, because Pages are what run ads.
2. 02

   Go from the Facebook Page's transparency section

   On the Page, open About, then Page transparency, then See all. The panel has a heading "Ads from this Page", a line saying whether the Page is currently running ads, and a Go to Ad Library button that opens the library already set to that Page. We checked this logged out, on Meta's own Page. Meta's Page transparency article describes reaching the section by clicking the Page's name under the cover photo, so the exact path can differ by device.
3. 03

   Go from an Instagram profile

   Instagram's Help Centre says to open the profile, tap the menu, choose About This Account, and look under Active Ads, which opens the account's ads in the Meta Ad Library. You need to be logged in to Instagram to see About This Account; the library itself needs no login. More on this in how to find competitor ads on Instagram.

To keep a single ad, use the menu on its listing and choose Copy Ad Link. The link contains the Library ID and opens that ad directly, which is how you check next month whether it is still running.

What a long run does and does not tell you

The start date records one thing: an advertiser has chosen to keep this ad switched on since then. For a commercial ad the library shows no spend, impressions, clicks or sales, as set out in does the Meta Ad Library show ad spend? So an active listing could be receiving most of an account's budget or almost none of it, and you cannot tell which.

What follows is our reasoning, not something Meta publishes. A long run is a fair signal because most businesses eventually stop paying for ads that lose money. It is not proof, for reasons that cut both ways.

A few habits make the date more useful:

• Compare within one advertiser. An ad that has outlasted most of the others on the same Page says more than a raw number of days.
• Read it with the grouping label. A long run plus several ads or versions built on the same idea is a stronger sign of investment than either alone.
• Treat anything started in the past few weeks as a test that has not been judged yet.
• Check again later. An ad still active a month after you first saw it has passed one more review.

Then test the idea yourself. A competitor's run length tells you what is worth trying, and your own results tell you what to keep.

Sources

All pages were opened and read on 9 October 2026. Labels quoted from the Ad Library and from a Facebook Page are as they appeared that day in English (UK), logged out.

• Meta, Ad Library front page, search results and FAQ (undated)
• Meta Help Centre, What is the Meta Ad Library and how do I search it? (undated)
• Meta Business Help Centre, About the Meta Ad Library (undated)
• Meta Help Centre, About Page transparency (undated)
• Instagram Help Centre, How do I view an account's active ads on Instagram? (undated)
• Instagram Help Centre, What is "About this account" on Instagram and Threads (undated)
• Meta Transparency Centre, Meta Ad Library tools (last updated 24 August 2023)