Why Is Reach Missing From Old Breakdown Reports?

If a report pulled from Meta’s Insights API shows blank reach on a breakdown for old dates, the cause may be a rule Meta added in 2025, not a fault in your data. Meta’s Ads Insights limits and best practices page, updated 5 May 2026 and checked on 2 Oct 2026, describes the rule, the workaround and the error you see when the workaround runs out.

Why does reach disappear from older breakdowns?

Meta says that beginning June 10, 2025, to improve overall API performance, reach is no longer returned for standard queries that apply breakdowns and use a start_date more than 13 months old. Meta adds that responses to such requests omit reach and related fields, such as frequency and cpp.

The notice sits in Meta’s developer documentation for the Insights API. It does not say whether Ads Manager screens behave the same way, so check your own tool’s documentation if you report from there.

Which queries are affected?

Condition in your request	What Meta says happens
A standard query that applies breakdowns	Reach is not returned if the start date is more than 13 months old
A start_date more than 13 months old	The response omits reach, frequency and cpp
An asynchronous job for the same breakdown	Reach can still be retrieved, up to 10 requests per ad account per day

How do you still get older reach values?

Meta says to apply the breakdowns and use asynchronous jobs, which allow up to 10 requests per ad account per day. An asynchronous request is a POST job, and Meta says one can take up to an hour to complete, retries included. For how sync and async calls differ, see what Ads Insights API errors mean.

How do you know you hit the daily limit?

Meta gives two signals:

• The x-Fb-Ads-Insights-Reach-Throttle header, which Meta says to check to monitor how close you are to the limit.
• The error message “Reach-related metric breakdowns are unavailable due to rate limit threshold.”

Once the limit is breached, Meta says requests omit reach and related fields. The notice does not list an error code or subcode for this message. For the wider limits on Marketing API calls, see how Marketing API rate limits work.

What should you do when reach is blank?

1. Check whether the request applies breakdowns and uses a start date more than 13 months old.
2. Look for the reach-throttle header and the “unavailable due to rate limit threshold” message in the response.
3. Move that request to an asynchronous job.
4. Keep to 10 async requests per ad account per day for older reach with breakdowns.
5. Query reach for recent dates separately if you do not need the older range.

For what reach measures, see reach versus impressions. For the breakdowns themselves, see what Ads Manager breakdowns are.

FAQ

Is the reach data deleted after 13 months?

Meta does not say so. It says reach is no longer returned for those standard queries, and that you can use asynchronous jobs to retrieve reach values older than 13 months. It describes the change as one made to improve overall API performance.

Does the rule apply to queries without breakdowns?

Meta’s notice names standard queries that apply breakdowns and use a start date more than 13 months old. It does not describe queries without breakdowns. If you only need a total, test a query without breakdowns and check the response for reach.

Does the end date of the range matter?

Meta words the rule around the start_date being more than 13 months old and does not mention the end date. Check the response for reach, frequency and cpp rather than assuming they are present, and split the range if you need recent reach.