Meta's November 20, 2026 Terms Update: What the New Business and Ad Terms Say

On November 20, 2026, updated versions of Meta's Commercial Terms and Self-Serve Ad Terms take effect. Meta's announcement describes the update as reducing overlap between its agreements: the Product Catalog Terms are incorporated into the Commercial Terms, and the Ad Creative Generative AI Terms are incorporated into the Self-Serve Ad Terms.

Read side by side, the current and updated text show changes that go beyond moving provisions from one document to another. The comparison below works clause by clause and quotes Meta's own language.

The Indemnity Now Begins “If you or anyone brings a claim”

In the current Commercial Terms, the indemnity sits under the heading “Third Party Claims” and begins “If anyone brings a claim, cause of action, or dispute against us.” The business agrees to “indemnify and hold us harmless” for losses tied to such a claim.

In the updated Commercial Terms, section 6.a is retitled “Indemnification” and begins “If you or anyone brings a claim.” It also adds the qualifier “to the extent permitted by law.”

The heading no longer says “Third Party Claims,” and the trigger now names “you” alongside “anyone,” so the clause as written covers claims the business itself brings against Meta, not only claims brought by others. How a clause like this operates in a given dispute varies by jurisdiction and by the facts. Indemnities that reach first-party claims are among the provisions commercial counsel commonly examine. For background on how indemnity clauses work generally, see what indemnification means.

A New AI Features Clause Puts the Risk of AI Output on the Business

The updated Commercial Terms add a section 5, “AI Features.” It states that AI features “may make mistakes and may not always produce accurate, complete, or suitable results,” and then allocates the risk:

The same section prohibits altering or removing any watermark or content-authenticating metadata generated by AI, and makes the business “solely responsible for the acts or omissions of any third-party software or service” it uses or authorizes. The updated Self-Serve Ad Terms carry a parallel clause in section 14, written for ad creative and orders.

Automated Campaign Features Are No Longer Described as Optional

The current Self-Serve Ad Terms, in section 2, describe automated selection of audience, placements, and objectives, then say: “These features are optional, and you may choose to ‘opt in’ or ‘opt out’ of them, as applicable.”

That sentence does not appear in the updated text. The updated section 2 describes automated features that assist with “the formatting, selection and generation of Ad Creative” as well as campaign setup. The updated section 3 keeps the advertiser solely responsible for the order, creative, targeting, and placements, and now adds “including for reviewing, approving or removing them, even when you use our automated features.”

Meta's Delivery Commitment Moves From “Best Efforts” to “Commercially Reasonable Efforts”

In section 1 of the Self-Serve Ad Terms, Meta describes how it serves ads “to the audience you specify or to achieve the outcome you select.” The current text says Meta uses “best efforts” to do that. The updated text says “commercially reasonable efforts.” The same sentence also changes from “we cannot guarantee” to “we do not guarantee” that an ad will reach its intended target.

Contract drafters commonly use the two phrases to signal different levels of commitment. Whether, and how much, they differ in a dispute depends on the jurisdiction and the rest of the contract.

New Disclaimers Cover Results and the Accuracy of Meta's Reporting

The current section 7 of the Self-Serve Ad Terms says Meta does not guarantee “the reach or performance” of ads. The updated section 7 is broader. It states that ad selection is “primarily determined by our ad auction,” and that Meta does not guarantee “any specific results” from use of its products, “including with respect to ad delivery, targeting accuracy, reach, engagement, impressions, or conversions.” It then adds a sentence with no counterpart in the current text:

The Commercial Terms gain a general warranty disclaimer as well. The current Commercial Terms already point to the “Limits on liability” section of Meta's Terms of Service; the update puts a disclaimer in the Commercial Terms themselves. Their section 4, retitled from “Limits on Liability” to “No Warranties; Limits on Liability,” now states that the products are provided “AS-IS” and, to the extent permitted by law, disclaims “ALL WARRANTIES, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.” The click-fraud language in section 8 of the Self-Serve Ad Terms is unchanged.

Website Crawling Is No Longer Tied to Placing an Order

The current Self-Serve Ad Terms already contain a crawling permission in section 6. It is triggered “By placing an Order” and covers uses including “research and training.”

The updated text appears in both agreements (Commercial Terms section 1, Self-Serve Ad Terms section 6) and is not tied to an order. It authorizes Meta to use automated software and to “create test credentials” to crawl domains and URLs “that are associated with your products or services, or that are made available through your or users' use of Meta Company Products and services,” and to “periodically pull updates” from them. The purpose language drops the word “training” and now reads “provide, develop, improve, research, and maintain advertising and business products.”

The Content License Is Spelled Out, and Ad Creative Is Brought Under It

The updated Commercial Terms state that Meta may use business content “to provide, develop, improve, research, and maintain Meta Company Products.” The business's undertaking about rights changes from “You also will ensure” to “You represent and warrant” that it owns or has secured the necessary rights. The list of permissions now includes the right to “create derivative works,” and the business also represents that its content will comply with Meta's product policies.

The updated Self-Serve Ad Terms add, in section 9, that “Ad Creative and any content or data you share or create with Self-Serve Ad Interfaces are deemed ‘Content’ under the Commercial Terms,” which brings ad creative under that license.

The Two Absorbed Agreements Map Onto New Provisions, Mostly

The Product Catalog Terms (last modified February 13, 2015) let Meta modify uploaded catalog content to “create, modify and run advertisements,” pull updates from a provided URL, and discontinue the catalog feature. In the updated Commercial Terms, those points correspond to the content license, the crawling clause, and a new general clause reserving Meta's right to “modify, limit, suspend, or discontinue any commercial products, services, and features at any time without prior notice or liability.”

The Ad Creative Generative AI Terms (effective May 6, 2024) carry over in part. The watermark prohibition and the restrictions on using outputs to build competing models or on reverse engineering appear in Self-Serve sections 14 and 15. Several provisions of the standalone terms do not appear in the updated Self-Serve text:

• the “perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, fully paid and royalty-free license” to inputs (the updated text instead treats content and data shared with the ad tools as “Content” under the Commercial Terms, as described above);
• the statement that use or publication of output outside Meta's platforms is “unauthorized”;
• Meta's retention of the rights it otherwise possesses in output;
• the representation that no personal information is shared as part of inputs;
• the prohibition on misrepresenting output as human-generated.

Other Meta terms may still address some of these subjects. Updated Self-Serve section 15 cross-references the Acceptable Uses in the Meta AIs Terms of Service.

The Liability Cap, Arbitration, and Click-Fraud Terms Stay the Same in Substance

• Liability cap. Meta's aggregate liability remains capped at “the greater of one hundred dollars ($100) or the amount you have paid us in the past twelve months.” The updated text adds “To the extent permitted by law” in front. It stays in Commercial Terms section 4. For context on caps like this one, see limitation of liability explained.
• U.S. arbitration. Individual arbitration, the class and jury waivers, the AAA Commercial Arbitration Rules, Meta paying filing, administrative, and arbitrator fees for non-frivolous claims that do not exceed $75,000, and the 30-day opt-out window all carry over. The provision moves from section 5.c to 6.c, and the notice address changes from 1 Meta Way to 1601 Willow Rd., Menlo Park.
• Click fraud. The click-fraud provision in section 8 of the Self-Serve Ad Terms is word for word the same.

Smaller Changes Run Through Both Agreements

• The Commercial Terms name more activities as business use, including marketing messages, listing products, creating or using a product catalog, and using Ads Manager or Meta Business Suite. They also state that the Instagram Terms of Use apply alongside the Meta Terms of Service.
• Five sets of supplemental terms are incorporated by reference: the Self-Serve Ad Terms, Business Tools Terms, Seller Agreement, Meta Business Agents and Platform Terms of Service, and Meta AI Business Assistant Supplemental Terms.
• The general severability clause now provides that an unenforceable portion will be “deemed amended to the minimum extent necessary to make it enforceable” before it is severed.
• Prepaid balances drop the name “Advertiser Balance” and are called only “Service Credits.” The current text lets them be used “at any time.” The updated text sets a window of three years from purchase or the minimum period required by applicable law, whichever is later.
• WhatsApp and Threads join the list of ad placements, and Meta's testing language now includes ad creative.
• The Self-Serve clause listing which sections survive termination is removed.

Side by Side

How Businesses Commonly Handle a Terms Update Like This

Businesses that track platform terms commonly archive the current and updated versions with capture dates, map provisions from any absorbed agreement to their new location, and note which internal processes (creative approval, agency authority, measurement) the changed clauses touch. Agencies placing ads for clients commonly confirm that their client agreements account for the representations the agency makes on a client's behalf.

The same reading applies to any platform agreement a business accepts with a click. The SaaS contract red flags guide covers the unilateral-change and arbitration patterns that recur across them. The legal judgment about what to do with that information is yours.

Sources

All quotations are from the following Meta pages, retrieved October 23, 2026.

• Meta Business Help Center announcement (update takes effect November 20, 2026)
• Meta Commercial Terms, effective November 20, 2026 (preview)
• Meta Commercial Terms, effective March 6, 2024 (current until November 20, 2026)
• Self-Serve Ad Terms, effective November 20, 2026 (preview)
• Self-Serve Ad Terms, effective August 22, 2025 (current until November 20, 2026)
• Product Catalog Terms, last modified February 13, 2015
• Ad Creative Generative AI Terms, effective May 6, 2024