Where do I find my Threads User ID?

The Threads User ID is the one field in uplads you cannot look up by clicking through Meta. Ads Manager does not show it, Business Suite does not show it, and it is not on your Threads profile. It exists only in Meta's API.

This article shows how to get it anyway, and why you may not need it at all.

What this field actually changes

Not whether you reach Threads. Your ads run on Threads either way if the ad set uses Advantage+ placements or has Threads selected.

What it changes is which profile your ad appears under on Threads:

• Field filled: the ad runs under the brand's own Threads profile.
• Field empty: the ad runs on Threads under the Instagram profile instead.

So fill this in if the brand has its own Threads presence and you want ads to carry that identity. If the Instagram profile is the face of the brand anyway, leaving it empty is a perfectly good answer.

One constraint from Meta: the Instagram account used for the ad must be the one that Threads account belongs to. A Threads ID from one brand paired with another brand's Instagram identity is not a valid combination, so keep the Threads User ID and the ad account's default Instagram account in sync.

The id in Business settings is the wrong one

Meta's Business settings list your Threads profile under Accounts > Threads accounts, with an ID printed right next to the name. That is the obvious place to look, and it is the wrong number: it identifies the account as a business asset, and Meta's own ads API rejects it with "Param threads_user_id must be a valid Threads account id".

The value this field wants starts with 17841 and only exists in the API. If the id you found is a 15- or 16-digit number that does not start with 17841, it came from Business settings and will not work.

Which ID you need depends on the account type

Threads accounts come in three flavours, and each has its own source. Check which one applies before you start.

You can tell them apart afterwards by shape: IDs from the first two start with 17841, the Page-backed one looks like a regular Page ID.

Reading the ID with the Graph API Explorer

Meta's Graph API Explorer is a free tool in the developer portal. You do not need your own app and you do not need to write code.

1. Open developers.facebook.com/tools/explorer and sign in with the Facebook account that manages the ad account.

2. In the right-hand panel, leave the app set to Graph API Explorer and the token type to User Token.

3. Under Permissions, add instagram_basic, pages_read_engagement and threads_business_basic, then click Generate Access Token and confirm the dialog.

4. Run this query to list your Pages and their Instagram accounts:

   me/accounts?fields=id,name,instagram_business_account{id,username}
   

   Find the row for your brand and copy the instagram_business_account.id. It starts with 17841.

5. Run this query with that Instagram ID:

   17841xxxxxxxxxxx/connected_threads_user
   

   The response contains the Threads User ID. That is the value for uplads.

If step 5 comes back empty, the Threads account is not connected to that Instagram account. Try instagram_backed_threads_user instead, and if that is empty too, the account is Page-backed: query your Page with ?fields=page_backed_threads_account_id.

Then paste it into uplads

Go to Settings, pick the ad account, and paste the value into Threads User ID. It is stored per ad account, so every launch on that account picks it up automatically. You only do this once.

If none of this works

Two things worth checking before you give up:

• The brand has no Threads account. Threads profiles are created from the Instagram app, not from Business Manager. If nobody ever opened Threads for this brand, there is no ID to find.
• You do not manage the Instagram account. The queries above only return accounts your Facebook user actually has a role on. Ask whoever administers the brand's Instagram to run them.

You can also leave the field empty and simply launch. Your ads still run on Threads, just under the Instagram profile.