Ad library Chrome extensions, checked for privacy

An ad library Chrome extension adds research features on top of Meta's Ad Library: saving ads to boards, one-click downloads of the image or video, and extra details on each ad card, such as days active or, for EU ads, reach. The most-installed are AdLibNote (100,000 users) and Ad Library Cloud (50,000) for downloading, Denote (40,000), Foreplay and Swipekit (20,000 each) for saving, and Ad Library Insights for filtering. Several ask for access to every website you visit, so the permissions matter as much as the features.

Every extension below was checked on the Chrome Web Store on 4 October 2026. User counts and ratings are the store's own. Permissions were read from each extension's published manifest, the file that declares what it can access. Prices below were read from each vendor's own pricing page on 4 October 2026, or from the store listing where the extension is sold on its own.

What the library already gives you

Meta's Ad Library shows all ads currently running across its apps, plus ads that ran in the EU in the past year, UK ads from the past year, and political and social issue ads for seven years. For EU and UK ads it adds reach and targeting. Our Meta Ad Library guide covers the filters, and the list of every public ad library covers Google, TikTok and the rest.

What it is not built for is a research workflow: there is nowhere to keep ads, and outside Europe, no trace of an ad once it stops. That gap is what these extensions fill.

Ad library Chrome extensions compared

For saving ads: swipe file extensions

Foreplay

Foreplay's extension, published by Foreplay Ventures Inc, saves ads from the Meta Ad Library, TikTok's Creative Center, the LinkedIn Ad Library, Instagram and YouTube Shorts into boards you can share and download as MP4. It has the best rating here, 4.9 from 254 ratings, and was updated on 26 August 2026.

The extension is free to install but saves into a Foreplay account: Basic is $59 a month, or $49 a month billed annually, with a 7 day trial and $20 per extra user.

Permissions. It reads tabs and navigation, and one of its scripts runs on every website, which the listing explains as "real-time brand insights on supported domains". That is a broad grant for a saving tool.

Swipekit

Swipekit's extension is listed as "Ad Library downloader", from a trader named Shashwat Gopinath Amin. It saves into Swipekit from the Meta Ad Library, TikTok's Creative Center and ad library, the Google Ads Transparency Center, and the LinkedIn and Pinterest libraries. Swipekit is $26 a month with a 14 day trial and no card; the listing says plainly that it is a paid product.

Permissions. The narrowest of the saving tools: it only runs on those ad library and social sites, plus Swipekit's own.

Denote

Denote saves ads from the Meta Ad Library, TikTok and Instagram into a shared team library. It has 40,000 users and was updated on 30 September 2026. Lite is $19 a month; annual plans are on a promotional discount at the time of checking.

Permissions. It requests the webRequest permission, which lets an extension observe network traffic, and access to all http and https sites. Its privacy panel says it does not collect or use your data, but that is the developer's own declaration.

For downloading creatives

AdLibNote

The most-installed extension in this category, with 100,000 users and 4.6 from 547 ratings. It adds a download button to Meta Ad Library cards, handles carousel and dynamic creative ads, needs no login and, per its listing, is free.

Permissions. It runs across all of facebook.com, not just the library, and requests the webRequest permission.

Ad Library Cloud

From CPA.RIP, with 50,000 users. It downloads creatives in HD, opens ads in a new tab, shows impressions and spend figures for EU ads only, and can strip your Facebook feed down to ads. The listing warns that features sometimes break after Meta updates the library.

Permissions. Limited to Facebook and its image servers. No price is stated on the listing.

For filtering and sorting

Ad Library Insights for Facebook

Adds each ad's days active, landing page domain, call-to-action type and page likes to the card, with quick filters for ads active for two days up to three weeks. Long-running ads are the ones an advertiser keeps paying for, so that filter is the useful part. It is a subscription with a free trial.

Permissions. Access to every http and https site, which is more than a library filter needs.

Ad Library Accelerator

This one, from a German developer, sorts EU-delivered ads by reach, estimates spend from CPM and frequency figures you supply, and exports ads as PDFs. Only 510 users and 10 ratings, so there is little feedback yet. Its privacy panel lists personal, payment, authentication and activity data, and it has access to its own cloud servers and to Amplitude, an analytics service.

The privacy caution

An extension that runs on all websites can read and change any page you open, including your inbox and your own Meta Ads Manager. Chrome warns about this at install with "Read and change all your data on all websites", and Chrome's permissions reference lists "Read your browsing history" as the warning for the tabs permission. Broad access is not proof of misuse; it is proof of capability.

Three habits help:

• Restrict site access after installing. In chrome://extensions, open Details and set Site access to "On click" or "On specific sites".
• Check the publisher and the Updated date. Several clones share names. There are at least three listings named Turbo Ad Finder or Turbo Ad Finder 2.0, one last updated in October 2022.
• Remove what you stop using. An idle extension still updates itself and keeps its permissions.

Who should pick what

• A creative team building a shared swipe file: Foreplay, or Swipekit if you want narrower permissions and a lower price.
• You only need to download a few ads: AdLibNote.
• You research EU campaigns: Ad Library Cloud for impressions.
• You want long-running ads first: Ad Library Insights.
• Your rivals mostly advertise on TikTok: a dedicated tool from the TikTok ad spy roundup will do more than an extension.

If what you need is to know when specific competitors launch new ads rather than to browse, an extension is the wrong shape. Our own tool, Figo, reads the Meta Ad Library, the Google Ads Transparency Center and TikTok's library for each tracked competitor once a week and emails new ads, with nothing installed in your browser; Starter is $49 a month. For paid tools with larger ad databases, see the ad spy tools roundup.