# Amazon Ads API vs Meta Marketing API

> Meta Marketing API scores 67.7 (B) on agent readiness against Amazon Ads API's 59 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Amazon Ads API leads on payments & pricing and transparency & trust. Both do ads reporting. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-ads-api-vs-meta-marketing-api
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-ads-api-vs-meta-marketing-api.md (~2,200 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-ads-api-vs-meta-marketing-api.min.md (~780 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-ads-api-vs-meta-marketing-api.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-08

Meta Marketing API scores 67.7 (B) on agent readiness against Amazon Ads API's 59 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Amazon Ads API leads on payments & pricing and transparency & trust. Both do ads reporting.

- Amazon Ads API: grade C, 59/100, rank #439 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/amazon-ads-api.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/amazon-ads-api.json
- Meta Marketing API: grade B, 67.7/100, rank #201 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/meta-marketing-api.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/meta-marketing-api.json

## Which one, for what

### Amazon Ads API (C)

Good for: Agents managing sponsored ads and Amazon DSP for an advertiser or agency that already has API approval, and teams that want a vendor-run MCP server.

Ahead on:
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 30
- Transparency & trust, 73 against 68

Watch for: Access needs an approved application (review may take up to one business day) and an advertiser's consent in a browser

### Meta Marketing API (B)

Good for: The direct route to Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp and Threads advertising for reporting, campaign and budget changes, audiences and creatives.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 80 against 45
- Agent ergonomics, 77 against 62
- Maintenance & community, 74 against 65

Watch for: Default Limited access allows a score of 60 per ad account (read 1, write 3) and blocks for 300 seconds at the limit


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Amazon Ads API | Meta Marketing API | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 45 | 80 | Meta Marketing API +35 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 76 | 76 | even |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 62 | 77 | Meta Marketing API +15 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 60 | 61 | Meta Marketing API +1 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 30 | Amazon Ads API +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 65 | 74 | Meta Marketing API +9 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 73 | 68 | Amazon Ads API +5 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **59 · C** | **67.7 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Amazon Ads API | Meta Marketing API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Amazon | Meta Platforms, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://advertising-api.amazon.com` | `https://graph.facebook.com` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth | OAuth |
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under the Amazon Advertising API Licence Agreement. The Postman collections and samples in amzn/ads-advanced-tools-docs are MIT-0 | Proprietary service under the Meta Platform Terms. The Business SDKs and the codegen specs on GitHub carry Meta's own platform licence, which allows use only with Meta's APIs |
| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-05 | 2026-09-21 |
| Terms last updated | couldn't be read | 2026-02-03 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-06-30 | couldn't be read |
| Customer content may train models | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Popularity | none | 1.6k stars, 501k npm/wk, 1.1M PyPI/wk |

## Verdicts

**Amazon Ads API.** Public OpenAPI specifications, test accounts that serve no ads and a six-month shutoff notice policy support agent use. Access needs an approved application and an advertiser's OAuth consent, rate limits are dynamic with no published numbers, and the status feed shows three reporting disruptions since July 2026. The MCP server is in open beta.

**Meta Marketing API.** Reporting, campaign, budget, audience and creative endpoints sit behind `ads_read` and `ads_management` scopes, with a `validate_only` option and sandbox ad accounts for checking a change before it spends. New apps are held to a score of 60 per ad account, with a 300-second block at the limit, and the documented requests pass the access token as a parameter.

## Before you call either

### Amazon Ads API

1. Send Amazon-Advertising-API-ClientId and a Bearer access token on every call, and Amazon-Advertising-API-Scope with a profile ID from GET /v2/profiles on most
2. Call the host for the advertiser's region. advertising-api.amazon.com is North America, advertising-api-eu Europe and advertising-api-fe Far East
3. Refresh the access token every 60 minutes. Refresh tokens issued from 30 July 2026 expire 365 days after consent
4. On 429, wait the Retry-After seconds and back off exponentially. Request an export instead of listing every entity
5. Rehearse writes in a test account, or create campaigns in the PAUSED state, before anything can spend
6. For MCP, prefer https://advertising-ai.amazon.com/mcp/lite and disable delete tools in the client configuration

### Meta Marketing API

1. Put a version in every path, such as /v26.0/act_<AD_ACCOUNT_ID>/campaigns. Unversioned Marketing API calls fail
2. Create campaigns, ad sets and ads with `status=PAUSED`, and send `execution_options=["validate_only"]` first to test a write without making it
3. Ask for `ads_read` alone when the task is reporting. `ads_management` can change budgets and activate spend
4. Read `X-Business-Use-Case-Usage` and `X-Ad-Account-Usage` after each call and wait for `estimated_time_to_regain_access` on errors 17, 613 and 80004
5. Change an ad set budget at most four times an hour and an account spending limit at most ten times a day

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Amazon Ads API or Meta Marketing API?

Meta Marketing API scores 67.7 (B) on agent readiness against Amazon Ads API's 59 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Amazon Ads API leads on payments & pricing and transparency & trust.

### Do Amazon Ads API and Meta Marketing API need an API key?

Both use an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Amazon Ads API and Meta Marketing API without installing anything?

Yes. Amazon Ads API has a hosted endpoint at https://advertising-api.amazon.com and Meta Marketing API at https://graph.facebook.com.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-ads-api-vs-meta-marketing-api.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-ads-api-vs-meta-marketing-api.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "amazon-ads-api", "b": "meta-marketing-api"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare amazon-ads-api meta-marketing-api`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/amazon-ads-api.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/meta-marketing-api.json

## Other comparisons with Amazon Ads API or Meta Marketing API

- [Amazon Ads API vs Google Ads API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amazon-ads-api-vs-google-ads-api.md)
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