Ad Previews

Updated: Jun 16, 2026

Preview existing ads and generate previews of ads you want to create. Generated previews are based on your ad creative. For ad preview provide a user access token, not a Page access token. For example, preview existing ad creative:

curl -X GET \
  -d 'ad_format="DESKTOP_FEED_STANDARD"' \
  -d 'access_token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
https://graph.facebook.com/v25.0/<CREATIVE_ID>/previews

Or preview using creative spec for a domain ad for an external website:

curl -X GET \
  -d 'creative="<CREATIVE_SPEC>"' \
  -d 'ad_format="<AD_FORMAT>"' \
  -d 'access_token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
https://graph.facebook.com/v25.0/act_<AD_ACCOUNT_ID>/generatepreviews

Generating previews

There are a few ways to generate a preview, using:

• Ad ID
• Ad Creative ID
• Supplying a creative spec

To use an ad ID for an existing ad, use ad's previews.

https://graph.facebook.com/<API_VERSION>/<AD_ID>/previews

To use an existing ad creative's ID, use the ad creative's previews.

https://graph.facebook.com/<API_VERSION>/<AD_CREATIVE_ID>/previews

To use an ad creative spec, you have two endpoint options:

• /act_<AD_ACCOUNT_ID>/generatepreviews, or
• /generatepreviews — The creative passed in this call should not be associated with a specific ad account.

For Advantage+ catalog ads, pass the entire object_story_spec into the /generatepreviews endpoint, and also use product_item_ids described in Advantage+ Catalog Ads, Preview.

Previews from an ad account are only visible to people who have a role on the ad account. Previews generated using generatepreviews edge are visible to anyone.

https://graph.facebook.com/<API_VERSION>/act_<AD_ACCOUNT_ID>/generatepreviews
https://graph.facebook.com/<API_VERSION>/generatepreviews

Each of these endpoints returns an ad preview object.

Examples

Create a preview using object_story_spec:

curl -G \
  --data-urlencode 'creative={
    "object_story_spec": {
      "link_data": {
        "call_to_action": {"type":"SIGN_UP","value":{"link":"<URL>"}​},
        "description": "Description",
        "link": "<URL>",
        "message": "Message",
        "name": "Name"
      },
      "page_id": "<PAGE_ID>"
    }
  }' \
  -d 'ad_format=DESKTOP_FEED_STANDARD' \
  -d 'access_token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
https://graph.facebook.com/v25.0/act_<AD_ACCOUNT_ID>/generatepreviews

Create a multi-product ad preview using object_story_id. To get object_story_id, first create a Multi-Product Ad.

curl -X GET \
  -d 'creative={
       "object_story_id": "<PAGE_ID>_<POST_ID>"
     }' \
  -d 'ad_format="DESKTOP_FEED_STANDARD"' \
  -d 'access_token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
https://graph.facebook.com/v25.0/act_<AD_ACCOUNT_ID>/generatepreviews

Create an app ad preview using object_story_spec. This is the only way to generate a preview for an app ad.

curl -X GET \
  -d 'creative={
       "object_story_spec": {
         "link_data": {
           "call_to_action": {
             "type": "USE_APP",
             "value": {
               "link": "<URL>"
             }
           },
           "description": "Description",
           "link": "<URL>",
           "message": "Message",
           "name": "Name",
           "picture": "<IMAGE_URL>"
         },
         "page_id": "<PAGE_ID>"
       }
     }' \
  -d 'ad_format="MOBILE_FEED_STANDARD"' \
  -d 'access_token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
https://graph.facebook.com/v25.0/act_<AD_ACCOUNT_ID>/generatepreviews

Instagram Explore home Ad Previews using INSTAGRAM_EXPLORE_GRID_HOME ad format

curl -X GET \
  -d 'ad_format="INSTAGRAM_EXPLORE_GRID_HOME"' \
  -d 'access_token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
  https://graph.facebook.com/v25.0/<AD_ID>/previews

The request returns a response similar to the following:

{  
  "data": [  
    {  
      "body": "<iframe src=\"https://www.facebook.com/ads/api/preview_iframe.php?d=AQKuwYcWpyFgVKLORPWQi52_uTud4v8PpMoDtyBfntL65i0iFtgkiXWN5S4JMBhq-UMKQmvxXFexVxu-5l5Xbf4WWRP48sCAtn3ArQAXwbdrD5qH0EL2z34K-gAgYyENd80cOGAdhVreKGJZvPkLbjDS3iDkdqdNNJQ6yaAFTmUpaz__cjgmhVVCUW68wU3UOZwqlv376mkijYR57Sm2OlyES4U6ivMPNGDx4xnZEd5d8kWyagDD-lPbCaGEk0nnQF5mnyeV9pFqdByhq-IqN6n0ZhSWjCPXZQa84wu5GNQ70YR2w7QxEYoiWCgI2WP0Z2OPeUMiNOf9bhYB-TBZJZ7G6HylsOnzzII9FQ8-0K-b_Q&t=AQJws9t-TtIGrKoFtCM\" width=\"274\" height=\"213\" scrolling=\"yes\" style=\"border: none;\"></iframe>"  
    }  
  ]  
}

Instagram search results Ad Previews using INSTAGRAM_SEARCH_CHAIN ad format

curl -X GET \
  -d 'ad_format="INSTAGRAM_SEARCH_CHAIN"' \
  -d 'access_token=<ACCESS_TOKEN>' \
  https://graph.facebook.com/v25.0/<AD_ID>/previews

The request returns a response similar to the following:

{  
  "data": [  
    {  
      "body": "<iframe src=\"https://www.facebook.com/ads/api/preview_iframe.php?d=AQKVMPdwuorP3mliXRaOi0TCSvsGRfucEzBTnB4jghArle84f8kBjvJmX3gmdjniUjohKA3GUppDZqljStZwxxRRxkQl9Y4R1o5wV4zRGE3xO3NHf1_qBbFM_uEIGAnAvptMWo_DLpbiIqIYFMjxbXNELzmZQsR0gnbBjaXM9i6gkI29dnHPqnm4xGvPxo2w8RWeXfWvmik2C96_2PrhrRhh4NKL3SOmFC9JDVsTp9Z6SYDlLVcLJWwpRKmciAZqEMOnMEFgepVTZ39yJ4ZiAMRo76RK9XNVGcornsUBtxI8cZHKtdW7nmj3ivq09_NGGUnFiJdJaPm-Mk-obM3K0QyOvgHKwnmLn7wvMiizJeXPEWAcSBa4DPUFLAO1mSuaKla0VQ6tzAM4BqFU9LJOG1-zZmPec7wKxQGDcrXoCOKfv2xkLyzECc-oDS0JJgvxxlo&t=AQI8ECKvkemIoVDaDrs\" width=\"274\" height=\"213\" scrolling=\"yes\" style=\"border: none;\"></iframe>"  
    }  
  ],  
  "__www_request_id__": "AzCC2RoeSL0rMbSPTYDyDHa"  
}