How to Withdraw Funds from Facebook Ad Account
Trying to get your remaining funds out of a Facebook ad account can be a surprisingly confusing process. You added money for a campaign, but plans changed, and now you just want that prepaid balance back. This tutorial will explain exactly how to retrieve your money by walking you through Meta's official process, what pitfalls to avoid, and how to preserve your valuable data before you begin.
The Direct Answer: Can You Actually "Withdraw" Funds?
Let's get straight to the point: No, you cannot simply "withdraw" money from your Facebook ad account like you would from a bank account. There is no button labeled "Withdraw Funds" or "Transfer to Bank."
Facebook treats your prepaid balance as an ad credit meant exclusively for running campaigns on its platform. However, this doesn't mean your money is gone forever if you don't use it. The official (and only) way to get your unused prepaid funds refunded is by permanently deactivating your ad account.
This sounds dramatic, but it's the required step to trigger a refund of your remaining balance to your original payment method. Below, we'll walk through exactly how to do this safely.
Before You Start: Critical Pre-flight Checks
Deactivating your ad account is a serious step with consequences. Before you click anything, you must understand a few key things to avoid headaches later.
1. All Outstanding Balances Must Be Paid
If you have any overdue or current outstanding payments, Facebook requires you to settle them before you can deactivate the account. The refund process is for your prepaid balance and can't begin until your account is paid in full.
Check your Billing & Payments section to ensure you have a $0.00 balance due.
2. Decide How Much Data You Need to Save
This is the most critical step that most people miss. When you deactivate an ad account, you lose active access to it. Your campaigns, ad sets, ads, historical performance data, and custom audiences associated with it will become inaccessible. For a marketer, this data is gold.
Before proceeding, ask yourself:
Do I need a record of my best-performing ad copy and creative?
Will I need to reference which audience segments delivered the highest ROI?
Is it important to have a historical record of my Cost Per Click (CPC) or Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) for future planning?
If the answer is yes, take the time to export your key performance reports. You can create custom reports inside Ads Manager and export them as CSV or Excel files. At a minimum, consider saving an "All Time" performance report broken down by campaign, ad set, and ad level.
3. Understand Your Billing Method (Prepaid vs. Postpaid)
This entire process only applies if you have unused prepaid funds. These are funds you added to your account manually or via a promotion before any ad spend occurred.
If your account operates on a credit card or other automatic payment method where you are charged after your ads run (postpaid), then there is no balance to refund. In that case, you can simply pause your campaigns and settle your final bill, but there will be no money coming back to you.
Step-by-Step Guide to Deactivating Your Ad Account to Get a Refund
Once you’ve paid any outstanding balances and saved your data, you’re ready to begin. The navigation within Meta Business Suite can be a bit tricky, so follow these steps carefully.
Note: You must be an admin of the ad account to perform this action.
Step 1: Navigate to Your Ad Account Settings
Go to your Meta Ads Manager. From the main lefthand navigation menu (the "hamburger" icon with three horizontal lines), select "Ad Account Settings."
Alternatively, you can get there via Meta Business Suite > Settings > Ad Account Settings.
Step 2: Access the Payment Settings
Within the Ad Account Settings page, you should see another menu on the left. Click on "Payment Settings." This is the central hub for your billing details, payment methods, and current balance.
Step 3: Find the Deactivate Ad Account Option
This part isn't always obvious. Look under your business name and ad account ID. You should see a line that says, "Deactivate Ad Account." It’s often easy to overlook. Click that text link.
Step 4: Confirm a Reason for Deactivation
Meta will present you with a pop-up window asking for a reason you're deactivating the account. This is for Meta's internal feedback, your choice won't affect your eligibility for a refund. Select a reason, add an optional comment, and then click the "Deactivate Ad Account" button to finalize the process.
What Happens Next? The Refund Process
After you finalize the deactivation, Facebook’s system goes to work. Here’s what you can expect:
Final Calculation: Meta will first calculate any final, lingering ad spend that occurred right before you deactivated. This amount will be deducted from your prepaid balance.
Refund Processing: The remaining balance will then be processed for a refund. Facebook states this will be sent back to the primary payment method used on the account (e.g., your PayPal account or the credit/debit card you used to add the funds).
Timeline: Patience is required here. The official timeline can vary widely, but it often takes several business days, and sometimes a few weeks, for the refund to appear in your bank account or on your credit card statement.
Once deactivated, the account will be listed as "inactive" in your Business Manager. It will no longer be available for running new ads.
Common Scenarios and Frequently Asked Questions
What if I accidentally funded the wrong ad account?
This is a very common mistake, especially for agencies managing multiple clients. Unfortunately, the process is the same. You cannot transfer funds between ad accounts. You must deactivate the wrongly funded account to initiate a refund and then add the funds to the correct account.
My ad account was disabled by Facebook. What happens to my money?
If Facebook disables your ad account and you have unused prepaid funds, you are generally supposed to receive an automatic refund. However, this process can be notoriously slow and dependent on their review of your account. If you believe your account was disabled in error, your first step should be to go through their appeals process. If the decision is final, the refund should eventually be processed. Keep an eye on your original payment method.
Can I just pause all my campaigns instead?
Yes, absolutely. If you think you might use your account again in the future, pausing your campaigns is a far better option than deactivating it. Pausing stops all ad spend immediately but preserves your account, your data, your pixel, and your audiences for future use. The prepaid funds will simply remain in the account, ready for when you decide to run ads again.
Can I reactivate an ad account later?
Usually, yes. You can commonly reactivate an account by updating your payment info if it goes into arrears from inactivity, which will restore its status and historical data. However, think of deactivation more as a permanent action, reactivation isn't a guaranteed, one-click process. You will also lose everything in the account for that time period and may need to rebuild or restore new assets on your pixel depending on how much time passes.
Final Thoughts
While you can’t directly "withdraw" funds from a Facebook ad account, you can confidently get your unused prepaid balance back. The only official method is to deactivate the ad account, a permanent step which triggers an automatic refund process. Just be sure to back up your priceless campaign data before you do.
Manually exporting all that valuable campaign history from Meta before you close an account can feel like a chore. At Graphed, we’ve built our platform to solve this constant cycle of platform-hopping and manual reporting. Instead of relying on static CSV files or losing access to historical data when you close an account, we help you connect all your ad platforms into one unified, real-time dashboard. This way, your performance data is always safe, accessible, and ready for analysis, regardless of an individual account's status.