Spyglass (spyglass.so) sells itself as a creative search engine. It monitors brands and creators across Meta Ads, Instagram and TikTok, then lets you ask an AI about what it finds. For a lot of teams, that is a fresh way to do research.
It also changes how you pay for research. The AI work runs on monthly credits, your MCP and API calls draw from the same pool, and an index of millions of brands and creators is a lot of ground to cover when you only need to brief next week's ad.
That is why more teams are looking for a Spyglass alternative. In this guide, we compare the 6 best Spyglass alternatives on features, pricing and who each one is built for.
Why teams are looking for a Spyglass alternative
The AI research runs on credits
Every Spyglass plan comes with a monthly credit allowance. Creator gives you 5,000 credits, Pro gives you 10,000 and Ultra gives you 20,000. Spyglass says every task burns credits in proportion to how complex it is.
Its own pricing page puts deep research at 100 to 250 credits and extended workflows at 250 to 500. At the top of that range, Creator covers about 20 deep research tasks a month. A busy launch week can use that up fast.
Chat, MCP and API all share one pool
Spyglass labels its allowance "MCP, API, and chat credits." So the questions you ask in the app and the calls your AI agents make all come out of the same balance.
That matters if you want to plug ad data into Claude or your own tools. The more you automate, the faster you climb toward Ultra at $80/month.
Creators, organic posts and ads in one index
Spyglass covers brands, creators, campaigns and landing pages in one place. That breadth is great for open-ended market research and for finding creators.
It is less useful when your job is narrow: find the paid ads that are winning in your niche right now and brief from them. More surface area means more to sort through before you get to the ads that matter.
Spyglass alternatives at a glance
Here is how the top Spyglass alternatives compare on price, focus and usage limits.
| Tool | Best for | Starting price | Limits on the entry plan | Free trial |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adspo | Finding winning ads and tracking competitors | $19/mo yearly, $29/mo monthly | No credits, unlimited brand tracking | 7 days (14 on yearly) |
| Spyglass | AI research across ads and creators | $20/mo ($10 first month) | 5,000 MCP, API and chat credits | None listed (first month discounted) |
| Atria | AI creative strategy plus your own ad analytics | $129/mo yearly, $159/mo monthly | 4,000 AI credits, 50 brands | 1,000 free credits |
| Foreplay.co | Saving ads and writing briefs | $49/mo yearly, $59/mo monthly | No brand tracking below $175/mo | 7 days |
| PiPiAds | TikTok ad research | $34.30/mo yearly, $49/mo monthly | 30,000 credits, 2 ad trackers | 500 free credits |
| Modash | Finding and managing creators | $199/mo yearly | 300 opened profiles a month | 14 days, no card |
| Meta Ad Library | Quick free lookups | Free | No saving or tracking | Free |
The 6 best Spyglass alternatives in 2026
Spyglass tries to cover ads, AI research and creators in one tool. Adspo and Foreplay.co cover ad research, Atria covers AI strategy, PiPiAds covers TikTok, Modash covers creators and the Meta Ad Library is the free fallback.
1. Adspo: the best Spyglass alternative for finding winning ads
Adspo is an ad library and creative intelligence platform built for creative teams, media buyers and agencies. It gives you a curated gallery of winning ads from 10,000+ verified brands, with no duplicates and no low quality ads in the way.
Every creative is ranked by impressions. The #1 ad is the one with the most impressions, so you see what a brand is putting real spend behind without asking an AI and waiting for an answer.
Adspo homepage showing winning ad creatives from top brands
Key features:
- Impression ranking and history. See which creatives brands are scaling right now and spot momentum early.
- Full creative context. Hooks, transcripts, ad copy, landing pages, target countries, creators and runtime for every ad.
- Browse by visual format. Filter for founder stories, demos, memes, before and afters, social proof and more.
- Unlimited brand tracking. Follow any brand and get alerted the moment a new ad goes live or a creative starts scaling.
- AI search. Ask for "beauty ads live for 90+ days with lots of impressions" and get the ads back instantly.
- MCP and API access. Pull creative data into Claude or build your own tools on top of Adspo, with no credit pool to manage.
- Boards, workspaces and sharing. Organize ads by angle, format or product, give each client their own workspace and share any board with a public link.
Pricing and value:
Adspo has one plan with every feature included. It costs $29/month, or $19/month billed yearly. Extra team seats are $15/month ($10/month yearly). Every plan starts with a 7-day free trial, or 14 days on yearly.
On yearly billing, Adspo costs less than Spyglass Creator's $20/month. And nothing is metered. Search, brand tracking, MCP and API access don't draw down credits, so you never have to ration research in your busiest week.
Who should use it?
- Creative strategists who need proven angles for next week's briefs.
- Media buyers who want to know what competitors are scaling right now.
- Agencies that need client workspaces and shareable boards.
Skip the credit math. Start with the ads that are already winning. See how the two compare on our Spyglass alternative page.
2. Atria: AI creative strategy for teams with bigger budgets
Atria calls itself a creative engine built by Meta ad experts. Like Spyglass, it leans on AI. The difference is that Atria also connects to your own ad accounts, so its agents can tell you what is working and what to make next.
Atria homepage
Key features:
- Radar, a 24/7 AI strategist that flags what is working in your ads.
- AI concepts, scripts, ad copy, image generation and review mining.
- Follow 50 brands on Core, with AI insights on higher plans.
- Connect your own ad accounts for creative analytics.
- MCP and REST API access on every plan.
Pricing and value:
- Core: $159/month ($129/month yearly), 5 seats, 4,000 AI credits a month, 600 MCP calls a month.
- Plus: $599/month ($479/month yearly), 8 seats, 10,000 AI credits, unlimited MCP.
- Business: $1,199/month ($959/month yearly), 15 seats, 25,000 AI credits.
Extra seats cost $20 each. You can start for free with 1,000 credits and no credit card.
Who should use it?
- Brands and agencies spending enough on Meta to justify AI analysis of their own accounts.
Atria goes deeper than Spyglass on your own performance data. It also runs on credits and starts at 8 times the price. Our Atria alternatives guide covers cheaper options.
3. Foreplay.co: saving ads and writing briefs
Foreplay.co is one of the best known tools for saving ads and turning them into briefs. Where Spyglass starts with a question to an AI, Foreplay.co starts with a swipe file your team builds over time.
Foreplay.co homepage
Key features:
- Swipe File to save ads, with a Chrome extension.
- Discovery, a library of 200M+ ads.
- Briefs on every plan.
- Spyder for brand tracking and Lens for analytics on higher plans.
Pricing and value:
- Basic: $59/month ($49/month yearly), 1 user, no brand tracking.
- Workflow: $175/month ($149/month yearly), 5 users, Spyder for 10+ brands and Lens for 1 brand.
- Agency: $459/month ($389/month yearly), 10 users, Spyder for 50+ brands.
Extra users cost $20/month. Every plan has a 7-day free trial.
Who should use it?
- Teams that mainly want to save ads and turn them into briefs.
Foreplay.co has a strong brief workflow, but competitor tracking starts at $175/month. See our full list of Foreplay.co alternatives if that is a dealbreaker.
4. PiPiAds: TikTok ad research
TikTok is one of the main channels Spyglass covers. If TikTok is the part you care about most, PiPiAds goes deeper on it. It started as a TikTok ads spy tool and now covers Facebook and Instagram ads too.
PiPiAds homepage
Key features:
- TikTok, Facebook and Instagram ad search.
- TikTok Shop data and "TikTok Made Me Buy It" research.
- Top product, new product and top store rankings.
- Ad trackers and ad downloads.
Pricing and value:
- Basic: $49/month ($34.30/month billed yearly), 30,000 credits, 1 user, 2 ad trackers.
- Advanced: $99/month ($69.30/month yearly), 100,000 credits, 10 ad trackers.
- Enterprise: $900/month ($630/month yearly), 1,000,000 credits, 10 users, 100 ad trackers.
Monthly prices were flash sale prices when we checked. Basic lists at $69/month. Every list result costs 1 credit, every ad detail view costs 20, and new users get 500 free trial credits.
Who should use it?
- Advertisers and dropshippers whose main channel is TikTok.
PiPiAds is the pick if TikTok matters most. It runs on credits too, and they are spent on browsing, so costs are hard to predict.
5. Modash: finding and managing creators
Creator discovery is one of Spyglass's headline features. If that is what you use it for, Modash is a dedicated tool for the job. It is an influencer marketing platform for finding creators, managing partnerships and paying them.
Modash homepage
Key features:
- Search 380M+ creators with over 1K followers on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.
- AI search in plain language, plus image search and 37 filters.
- An influencer CRM with Gmail and Outlook inbox integration.
- Automatic content and metrics tracking for campaigns.
- Creator payouts and a Shopify integration for gifting.
Pricing and value:
- Essentials: $199/month billed yearly ($2,388/year), 2 team members, 300 opened profiles and 100 tracked creators a month.
- Performance: $499/month billed yearly ($5,988/year), 5 team members, 800 opened profiles, affiliate management.
- Enterprise: from $14,700/year.
Modash says annual billing saves $100/month on Essentials and Performance. There is a 14-day free trial with no credit card required.
Who should use it?
- Brands running influencer or UGC programs that need to find, contact and pay creators.
Modash is the best tool here for creators. It does not show you paid ads, so pair it with an ad library for the creative side.
6. Meta Ad Library: the free option
The Meta Ad Library is Meta's own transparency tool. It lets you search all the ads currently running across Meta's apps for free.
Meta Ad Library homepage
Key features:
- Search any advertiser or keyword for free.
- See every active ad, plus social issue and political ads from the past 7 years.
- Extra detail for ads that ran in the EU and UK in the past year.
- New ads appear within 24 hours of their first impression.
Pricing and value:
Completely free.
Who should use it?
- Anyone doing a quick one off check on a competitor.
The catch is everything around the search. You cannot save ads, rank them by performance or track a brand, and the same creative shows up again for every placement. See our Facebook Ad Library alternatives guide for what fills those gaps.
Key criteria when choosing a Spyglass alternative
You are not just buying software. You are buying the speed to know what to make next.
Focus on these four things.
Signal you can see at a glance
AI answers are useful, but you still want to see the ads themselves, sorted by what is working. Look for ranking by real signals, like impressions, runtime and how many variations a brand is running.
Adspo ranks every creative by impressions, so the ads getting the most delivery rise to the top before you type a single prompt.
Pricing that does not move with usage
Credits make a tool look cheap on the pricing page. Then a busy month arrives and you are choosing between upgrading and waiting for the reset.
Check what uses credits before you sign up, including MCP and API calls. Adspo has no credits at all. One plan covers everything, and you can see it in our pricing section.
Competitor tracking without limits
Your competitors launch new ads every week. Check how many brands you can follow on the plan you can afford.
Some tools cap you at 2, 10 or 50 brands. Adspo lets you track unlimited brands on every plan.
The right tool for the job
Ad research and creator discovery are different jobs. A tool that tries to do both can leave you paying for half a product.
If your job is paid creative, pick a tool built around ads. If you also run an influencer program, add a dedicated creator tool on top.
Final verdict: which Spyglass alternative is right for you?
There is no single best tool for everyone. It depends on which part of Spyglass you rely on.
- Creative strategists and media buyers: You need to know which ads are winning right now. Adspo gives you ranked, curated ads and unlimited competitor tracking from $19/month billed yearly, with no credits.
- Brands with big Meta budgets: Atria pairs AI strategy with analytics on your own ad accounts.
- Teams that live on briefs: Foreplay.co has the strongest swipe file and brief workflow.
- TikTok advertisers: PiPiAds goes deeper on TikTok ads and TikTok Shop.
- Influencer and UGC teams: Modash is built to find, manage and pay creators.
- Quick, free lookups: The Meta Ad Library works for one off checks.
For most creative teams, the answer is simple. Pick the tool that shows you what is working, lets you track every competitor and does not meter your research with credits.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best Spyglass alternative in 2026?
Adspo is the best Spyglass alternative for teams that want to find winning ads and track competitors without a credit meter. It gives you a curated library of winning ads from 10,000+ verified brands, ranks every creative by impressions and includes unlimited brand tracking, AI search, and MCP and API access in one plan, from $19/month billed yearly. If you mainly use Spyglass to find creators, Modash is a closer fit.
How much does Spyglass cost?
As of October 2026, Spyglass (spyglass.so) Creator costs $20/month after a $10 first month, with 5,000 MCP, API and chat credits. Pro costs $40/month after a $28 first month, with 10,000 credits. Ultra costs $80/month with 20,000 credits. Every plan includes unlimited team seats, boards, alerts and tracked brands.
Does Spyglass use credits?
Yes. Spyglass says every task burns credits in proportion to its complexity. Its pricing page puts deep research at 100 to 250 credits and extended workflows at 250 to 500 credits. Chat, MCP and API use all share the same monthly allowance. Adspo has no credits at all.
Is there a free Spyglass alternative?
The Meta Ad Library is free and shows every ad running across Meta's apps, but it cannot rank ads, save them or track brands. Atria gives you 1,000 free credits with no credit card, and PiPiAds gives new users 500 free trial credits. Adspo has a 7-day free trial (14 days on yearly plans) with every feature included.
What is the best Spyglass alternative for finding creators?
Modash is the strongest pick for creator discovery. It searches 380M+ creators with over 1K followers on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, and adds an influencer CRM, content tracking and payouts. Essentials starts at $199/month billed yearly, with a 14-day free trial and no credit card required.
Spyglass vs Adspo: what is the difference?
Spyglass is an AI research tool that monitors brands and creators across Meta Ads, Instagram and TikTok, and meters chat, MCP and API use with monthly credits. Adspo is a curated ad library of winning ads from 10,000+ verified brands, with every creative ranked by impressions, unlimited brand tracking and no credits. Spyglass starts at $20/month. Adspo starts at $29/month, or $19/month billed yearly.
Wrapping it up
Spyglass covers a lot of ground with its AI research. But credits, a shared MCP and API pool and an index built for everything at once slow you down when you just need to know which ads are winning.
Adspo gives you everything in one simple plan:
- A curated library of winning ads from 10,000+ verified brands
- Creatives ranked by impressions
- Unlimited brand tracking and alerts
- AI search, MCP and API access, workspaces and boards
No credits, no brand caps. Try Adspo free for 7 days and start briefing from proven ads.