Facebook ads cost calculator

How the calculator works

Meta usually charges you for the impressions your ads get, unless you pick something else when you create the ad (Meta Help Center). So the calculator starts from your CPM, the cost of 1,000 impressions, and walks down to one purchase.

In the other direction, the purchases a budget pays for at the same rates are the budget divided by your cost per purchase. A month here is 365 ÷ 12 ≈ 30.4 days.

Where the example numbers come from

The pre-filled rates are medians for Meta ads (Facebook and Instagram together) published by Triple Whale on August 17, 2026: more than 40,000 brands that use its analytics tool, from August 1, 2025 to July 31, 2026 (Triple Whale). Over that period, the median CPM was $15.06 (+13.24% in a year), the median CTR 2.39%, the median conversion rate 1.53% and the median order value $73.36.

Keep three limits in mind. These brands use Triple Whale, so they are not a random sample of stores. Triple Whale doesn’t say which clicks its CTR and conversion rate count. And each median is taken on its own: chaining them gives a cost per purchase of $41.18, while Triple Whale’s median CPA, the cost to acquire one customer, is $38.99. Your own numbers will differ. By industry, from the same study:

Where to find your own numbers

• CPM. In Ads Manager, the CPM column: amount spent ÷ impressions × 1,000 (Meta Help Center).
• CTR. Link clicks ÷ impressions, from Ads Manager.
• Conversion rate. Purchases from your ads ÷ the same link clicks, over the same dates.
• Average order value. Revenue ÷ orders, in your Shopify analytics.

Use at least a few weeks of data: one day of results says little.

Worked example

The numbers pre-filled in the calculator, step by step.

That ROAS of 1.78 says nothing yet about profit. To know if $41.18 per purchase leaves you money, compare it with your margin in the ROAS calculator.

What this estimate leaves out

• Your rates stay fixed at any budget here. In a real account they move: each impression is sold in an auction, and the winner depends on the bid, the estimated action rates and the ad quality.
• The learning phase. Meta says an ad set usually leaves it after about 50 results in the week after its last significant edit, and that costs are usually higher before (Meta Help Center). The calculator shows your purchases per week to compare, for one ad set optimized for purchases.
• Minimum budgets. Meta doesn’t publish one minimum for everyone: it varies by country and objective, and Ads Manager warns you when a budget is too low. With a cost per result goal, Meta advises a daily budget of at least 5 times that goal (Meta Help Center).
• Fees on top. Meta may add location fees in some countries to cover digital services taxes (Meta Help Center).

Questions

How much do Facebook ads cost per month?

As much as you decide: Meta lets you set the budget and spending limits (Meta Help Center). The useful question is what budget your sales goal needs. With the example medians, 100 sales a month need about $4,118. The full answer is in our guide: How much do Facebook ads cost in 2026?

Do Instagram ads cost the same?

Instagram ads are bought with the same Meta tools, and one ad can run on both apps (Instagram Help Center). Triple Whale gives figures for Facebook and Instagram together. One extra fee: if you add funds from the Instagram iOS app, Apple may take a 30% service fee in most regions; Instagram advises boosting from instagram.com to avoid it.

What is a good CPM?

One that lets your cost per purchase stay under what an order leaves you. The median CPM in the Triple Whale study goes from $11.50 (Baby) to $21.80 (Health & Wellness): your CPM alone tells you little.

Why does my cost per purchase differ from the calculator?

The calculator holds each rate constant. In your account, rates vary from one ad, audience and day to the next.