What Is a Facebook Post ID and How to Find It
A Facebook Post ID is the unique number identifying a published post. Find it in the post URL, Meta Business Suite or Ads Manager — and why your ads need it.
A Facebook Post ID is the unique numeric identifier attached to every published post or ad creative on a Facebook Page. It’s the address Facebook uses to know which exact post an ad should show — and because likes, comments, shares and reactions are stored against that ID, the Post ID is also what determines whether an ad inherits social proof or starts at zero.
The quickest way to find it: open the post and look at the URL — the long number after /posts/ (or the fbid / story_fbid value) is the Post ID.
Key takeaways
- A Post ID uniquely identifies one published post or ad creative on a Page.
- It usually looks like
PAGEID_POSTID, e.g.1234567890_9876543210. - Find it fastest in the post URL; also in Meta Business Suite, Ads Manager previews, or Business Settings → Page Posts.
- You need it to reuse a post in a new ad so it keeps its likes and comments.
What a Post ID looks like
A full Post ID usually appears in two parts joined by an underscore:
1234567890_9876543210
└── Page ID ──┘ └── Post/story ID ──┘- The number before the underscore is your Page ID.
- The number after the underscore is the individual post (story) ID.
Depending on where you read it, you might see the whole PAGEID_POSTID string or just the post portion. When in doubt, copy the entire string — tools and Meta’s API are strict about the exact format.
4 ways to find a Facebook Post ID
1. From the post URL (fastest)
Open the post on your Page and look at the address bar. You’ll see something like:
https://www.facebook.com/YourPage/posts/9876543210The trailing digits (9876543210) are the post ID. On some links it appears as ?story_fbid=9876543210&id=1234567890 — combine them as 1234567890_9876543210 for the full ID.
2. From Meta Business Suite
Go to Meta Business Suite → Content, open the post, and the Post ID is shown in the post details (or in the URL of the opened post). This is the cleanest method for organic posts on your timeline.
3. From Ads Manager (for ads, including dark posts)
For ads built inside Ads Manager — including unpublished “dark” posts that never hit your timeline:
- Open the ad and click the preview dropdown.
- Choose Facebook Post with comments.
- The post opens in a new tab; read the Post ID from that URL.
4. From Business Settings → Page Posts
For a full inventory of every post (organic and ad-only), open Business Settings → Accounts → Pages → [your Page] → Page Posts, or use the Ads Posts tab. Each entry lists its Post ID — handy when the post was never published publicly.
Where to find each Post ID type
| Post type | Visible on timeline? | Best place to find the ID |
|---|---|---|
| Organic published post | Yes | Post URL or Meta Business Suite → Content |
| Boosted post | Yes | Same as organic |
| Unpublished / dark post | No | Ads Manager ad preview, or Business Settings → Page Posts |
Post ID vs. other Facebook IDs (don’t mix them up)
Facebook has several ID types, and pasting the wrong one into “Use Existing Post” will fail. Here’s how to tell them apart:
| ID type | What it identifies | Looks like | Used for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Post ID | A published post / ad creative | PAGEID_POSTID | Reusing a post to keep social proof |
| Page ID | Your Facebook Page | A single long number | Account/asset references |
| Video ID | An uploaded video file | A single long number | Building a creative from raw media |
| Ad ID | An ad object in Ads Manager | A long number | Reporting / editing one ad |
| Creative ID | An ad creative object | A long number | API creative reuse |
The one you want for preserving likes and comments is the Post ID. A Video ID is a common mix-up — it points at the raw media file, not the published post, so it carries no engagement.
API note: when you reuse a post, Meta exposes it on the ad as
effective_object_story_id— that’s the canonical Post ID all the engagement is attached to.
Why the Post ID matters
The reason most people search for this term is that they want to duplicate an ad without losing its likes and comments. That’s only possible if you can grab the original Post ID and reuse it — every ad that references the same ID shares one growing pool of engagement.
Once you’ve found your Post ID, the next step is putting it to work: see How to Duplicate a Facebook Ad Without Losing Likes and Comments for the exact “Use Existing Post” workflow, including how to apply one ID across many ad sets without resetting your social proof.