Head to head · Ad reporting · October 2026 research run

Apple Ads Platform API vs Meta Marketing API

Meta Marketing API scores 67.7 (B) on agent readiness against Apple Ads Platform API's 53.8 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Apple Ads Platform API leads on security & auth. Both do ad reporting.

Best advertising platform APIs for AI agents · All 28 advertising comparisons

Which one, for what

Apple Ads Platform API D

Good for An agent that manages or reports on App Store search campaigns, or Apple Maps campaigns, for an advertiser whose administrator can grant an API role.

Ahead on

  • Security & auth, 68 against 61

Watch for

The Platform API was first released in August 2026 and its changelog has one entry. The Campaign Management API 5 it replaces is sunset on 26 January 2027

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 35
  • Schema & documentation, 76 against 69
  • Agent ergonomics, 77 against 69
  • Payments & pricing, 30 against 20
  • Maintenance & community, 74 against 48

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

CategoryWeight this runApple Ads Platform APIMeta Marketing APIEdge
Reliability16%203580Meta Marketing API +45
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.26976Meta Marketing API +7
Agent ergonomics13%16.26977Meta Marketing API +8
Security & auth14%17.56861Apple Ads Platform API +7
Payments & pricing10%12.52030Meta Marketing API +10
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.84874Meta Marketing API +26
Transparency & trust7%8.86668Meta Marketing API +2
Negative events≤1500
Total53.8 · D67.7 · B

Facts side by side

FactApple Ads Platform APIMeta Marketing API
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorAppleMeta Platforms, Inc.
Hosted endpointhttps://api.ads.apple.com/v1https://graph.facebook.com
TransportsHTTPHTTP
AuthOAuthOAuth
PricingFreeFree
x402nono
LicenceProprietary service under the Apple Advertising Services Terms of Service. The client libraries are MITProprietary 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 documentednoyes
llms.txtnoyes
Last release2026-08-142026-09-21
Terms last updatedno date given2026-02-03
Privacy policy last updatedcouldn't be readcouldn't be read
Customer content may train modelsyesnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the textnot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the textnot found in the text
Popularitynone1.6k stars, 501k npm/wk, 1.1M PyPI/wk

Verdicts

Apple Ads Platform API

Every response carries RateLimit-* headers and a 429 carries Retry-After, Apple maintains MIT client libraries in four languages, and read-only API roles exist. The API was first released in August 2026. No status page, SLA, published OpenAPI file, idempotency key or test account was found, and a person must create the credentials in the Apple Ads interface.

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

Apple Ads Platform API

  1. Send Authorization: Bearer {access_token} and X-AP-Context: adAccountId={adAccountId} on every ad account call. Get the account id from GET /v1/acls
  2. Request a new access token every 3,600 seconds from https://appleid.apple.com/auth/oauth2/token with scope searchadsorg. The signed client secret lasts at most 180 days
  3. Read RateLimit-Remaining on each response. On a 429 wait the Retry-After seconds, then double the wait up to 16 seconds
  4. List and filter with POST to a /query endpoint, not GET with query parameters. Deleted entities return only when a filter asks for them
  5. On PUT send only the fields to change, and send the complete desired array for any array field. Create campaigns with "status": "PAUSED" before review

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, Apple Ads Platform API or Meta Marketing API?

Meta Marketing API scores 67.7 (B) on agent readiness against Apple Ads Platform API's 53.8 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Apple Ads Platform API leads on security & auth.

Do Apple Ads Platform API and Meta Marketing API need an API key?

Both use an OAuth sign-in.

Can an agent call Apple Ads Platform API and Meta Marketing API without installing anything?

Yes. Apple Ads Platform API has a hosted endpoint at https://api.ads.apple.com/v1 and Meta Marketing API at https://graph.facebook.com.

Other comparisons with Apple Ads Platform API or Meta Marketing API

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