The 5 Best Ad Library and Swipe File Tools in 2026

Key takeaways

• Foreplay is the best ad library tool for most teams. It saves ads from Meta, TikTok and LinkedIn, transcribes them, and turns a board into a brief, from $49 a month billed annually.

• Atria suits bigger brand teams. Its library sorts ads by how long they've run, and its cheapest plan includes five seats at $129 a month billed annually.

• Swipekit is the cheapest paid option. Five seats cost $26 a month, with a 14-day trial and no card.

• Meta Ad Library and TikTok's Top Ads are free. Use them to check what a competitor is running today, then save the good ones somewhere you can find them again.

• MagicBrief is gone. It shut down on July 31, 2026, so teams still on it need a new home for their boards.

Why a swipe file is worth paying for

Most creative strategists keep a swipe file somewhere, often a Notion page or a Slack channel nobody can search. The trouble starts when a client asks for "that UGC ad with the split screen we saw in March" and the ad has stopped running, so it's vanished from the public libraries.

A paid tool keeps a copy of an ad after the brand turns it off, lets you search beyond your own saves, and puts everything on boards the whole team and the client can see. When the brief gets written, everyone is looking at the same references.

How we ranked

We looked at where each tool saves ads from, how much you can search beyond your own saves, how boards are shared with a team and with clients, whether it helps you get from references to a brief, and what a small team pays per month.

The five tools compared

1. Foreplay - Best overall

Foreplay is an ad research and briefing platform built around saving ads, organizing them into boards and writing briefs from them.

What works: A free Chrome extension saves ads from the Meta, TikTok and LinkedIn ad libraries, and a mobile app saves from anywhere else. Saved video ads are transcribed automatically, so you can search them by what's said in the hook. Discovery, its search engine, holds over 100 million ads by Foreplay's count, with filters to narrow them down. Boards, reports and briefs can be shared with anyone, clients included. The brief builder has a storyboard and script tool and brand profiles, and one brief can go out to several creators with their work coming back to one place. Basic costs $59 a month, or $49 billed annually, for one seat.

What doesn't: There's no free plan, and the seven-day trial asks for a card. Spyder, which tracks competitor brands around the clock, starts on the $175 Workflow plan (five seats), so solo users on Basic don't get competitor tracking. Extra seats cost $20 each on every plan.

Best for: Agencies and in-house teams that want one tool from swipe file to creator brief.

2. Atria - Best for longevity-sorted inspiration

Atria is an ad inspiration library with boards, aimed at brand and agency teams working on Meta and TikTok.

What works: You can save ads from its library, a Chrome extension or Instagram on your phone, and sort them into boards several levels deep. Search filters cover themes, formats, industries and languages, and you can sort by the longest-running ads and see which are still active. Running time is the closest thing the public libraries give you to a performance signal, since brands rarely keep a losing ad live for months. Guests can view boards and leave comments. Core includes five seats and up to 50 followed brands for $129 a month billed annually.

What doesn't: The pricing page lists annual billing only, and plans are capped by the ad accounts and monthly ad spend you connect, so the price climbs fast for big spenders. Plus costs $479 a month and Business $959. It's more than a solo strategist needs.

Best for: Mid-size brands and agencies that want a large, searchable library and a five-seat starting plan.

3. Swipekit - Best for small teams on a budget

Swipekit is a low-cost team swipe file with a small shared library on the side.

What works: It saves from the Meta Ad Library, Instagram, TikTok (including the Creative Center and TikTok Ad Library) and the LinkedIn Ad Library. Each save keeps the creative, copy, call to action and a link back to the source, and video ads can get transcripts. You can filter by brand, niche, network and asset type, track competitor brands and share boards through white-label links on every plan. Basic costs $26 a month for five seats and five tracked brands, and the 14-day trial doesn't ask for a card. API access comes with every plan.

What doesn't: It works best for keeping your own saves, since its shared library is far smaller than Foreplay's. There are no refunds, so use the trial before you pay.

Best for: Freelancers and small teams who mostly need somewhere better than a screenshot folder.

4. Meta Ad Library - Best free check on Meta

Meta Ad Library is Meta's public database of ads running across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and its other apps.

What works: It's free, and every active ad on Meta's apps is searchable by advertiser or keyword, which makes it the fastest way to see what a competitor is running right now. Ads about social issues, elections or politics stay in the library whether they're active or not, with spend, reach and who paid for them, for seven years. Ads delivered in the EU carry extra detail and stay in the library for a year after they last ran. Meta also offers an Ad Library API for those ad types.

What doesn't: Ordinary commercial ads only show while they're running, with no spend or impression numbers outside the EU, so a brand's best ad can disappear the day they switch it off. There are no boards, saves, transcripts or team seats. Most teams use it to find ads and a tool from this list to keep them.

Best for: A free, accurate look at what a competitor is running on Meta today.

5. TikTok Top Ads - Best free TikTok performance signals

TikTok's Creative Center has a free Top Ads dashboard of high-performing ads.

What works: You can filter by region, industry and campaign objective, and each ad comes with a second-by-second engagement graph that shows where viewers stayed and where they dropped off. That's engagement data Meta's library doesn't show, and it's useful for studying hooks in your category.

What doesn't: Only ads whose advertisers opted in appear, so treat it as a sample. Ads are watermarked and can't be downloaded, and there are no boards or sharing, so you'll need a swipe file tool to keep what you find.

Best for: Creative teams who want to see which TikTok ads hold attention in their industry.

Free library or paid tool?

Start free if you brief a handful of ads a month. Meta Ad Library and TikTok Top Ads show you what's running, and a shared folder will hold what you find. Pay for a tool once two or more people are pulling references, or once clients need to see them. That's the point where losing an ad because a brand turned it off, or briefing from a screenshot with no source link, starts costing more than $26 to $49 a month.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best ad library tool?

Foreplay, for most teams. It saves from Meta, TikTok and LinkedIn, transcribes video ads and turns boards into briefs, from $49 a month billed annually. Swipekit is the cheaper pick at $26 a month for five seats.

Is Meta Ad Library free?

Yes. Meta Ad Library is free to search, and it shows every active ad on Facebook, Instagram and Meta's other apps.

Can you see a competitor's ad spend on Facebook?

Not for ordinary commercial ads. Meta Ad Library shows spend and reach for ads about social issues, elections and politics, and extra detail for ads delivered in the EU. For everything else, how long an ad has been running is the best signal you'll get.

What is a swipe file?

A swipe file is a saved collection of ads, copy and creative you reference when writing new work. Marketing teams use it to brief designers, editors and creators with real examples.

What happened to MagicBrief?

MagicBrief shut down on July 31, 2026, and stopped billing customers. Teams that used it for saving ads can move to Foreplay, Atria or Swipekit, which all save from Meta and TikTok and share boards with clients.