Facebook API: Post to a Page with the Graph API

To post to a Facebook Page through the API, you call Meta's Graph API with a Page access token: POST /{page-id}/feed for text and links, and POST /{page-id}/photos for images. The token needs pages_manage_posts and must belong to someone who can create content on the Page. The calls below come straight from Meta's docs, along with the multi-photo flow and the places the API can't post to.

For what the Graph API is and how access works, start with our Facebook Graph API guide. Video and Reels have their own upload flow, covered in the Facebook video upload API guide.

Can you post to Facebook through the API?#

Yes, to Facebook Pages. Meta's Pages API posts guide covers creating, updating, and deleting Page posts. Personal profiles and Groups are off the table:

If your product promised "post to Facebook" to users who only have a personal profile, the answer for them is a Page. There's no API workaround.

What do you need before you start?#

You need four things before the first post goes through:

• A Facebook Page the user can act on. Meta requires the CREATE_CONTENT task on the Page, and its posts guide asks for CREATE_CONTENT, MANAGE, and MODERATE.
• A Meta app with Facebook Login. The user logs in and grants your permissions on Meta's consent screen.
• The permissions: pages_show_list (list the user's Pages), pages_read_engagement, and pages_manage_posts (publish). These are the three Meta's Page photos reference lists for publishing.
• A Page access token for that Page, not the user's token.

Standard Access only works for people with a role on your app. Your own test Pages will work, then the first customer without a role gets an error. Serving customers needs Advanced Access through App Review. See how long Meta app review takes for the timeline.

Step 1: Get the Page ID and Page access token#

Call the accounts edge with the user's token. It returns every Page the user manages, each with its ID and its own token:

curl "https://graph.facebook.com/v26.0/me/accounts?access_token=$USER_TOKEN"

Store the id and access_token for the Page the user picks. If you exchange the user token for a long-lived one first, the Page token you get has no expiration date. Our Facebook Page access token guide walks through that exchange and the ways the token still gets invalidated.

Step 2: Publish a text or link post to /feed#

Send message, and optionally link, to the Page's feed edge. This is the call from Meta's posts guide:

curl -X POST "https://graph.facebook.com/v26.0/$PAGE_ID/feed" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"message":"We shipped it.","link":"https://example.com/changelog","access_token":"'"$PAGE_TOKEN"'"}'

The response is the new post's ID:

{ "id": "page_post_id" }

The post's URL is https://www.facebook.com/ plus that ID. The same edge takes a few more parameters:

Meta says passing access_token as a parameter is fine for testing. In production, send it from your server and never expose a Page token to the browser.

Step 3: Post an image with /photos#

POST the image's public URL to the Page's photos edge. Meta fetches the file from url, or you can upload the bytes as multipart/form-data instead:

curl -X POST "https://graph.facebook.com/v26.0/$PAGE_ID/photos" \
  -F "url=https://www.example.com/images/launch.jpg" \
  -F "caption=Launch day" \
  -F "access_token=$PAGE_TOKEN"

The response carries both IDs:

{ "id": "photo_id", "post_id": "page_post_id" }

From Meta's Page photos reference:

• Caption field: caption. The older message and name fields are deprecated for photos.
• File types: JPEG, BMP, PNG, GIF, and TIFF.
• Size: files can't exceed 10 MB. Meta recommends PNGs under 1 MB to avoid pixelation.
• Metadata: Facebook strips location data and resizes the image for different screens.

How do I post multiple photos in one Facebook post?#

Upload each photo unpublished, then attach them all to one feed post. It takes one call per photo plus one to publish:

1. Upload each photo to /{page-id}/photos with published=false. Each call returns a photo ID.
2. Create the post on /{page-id}/feed with the IDs in attached_media:

curl -X POST "https://graph.facebook.com/v26.0/$PAGE_ID/feed" \
  -F "message=Three photos, one post" \
  -F 'attached_media[0]={"media_fbid":"PHOTO_ID_1"}' \
  -F 'attached_media[1]={"media_fbid":"PHOTO_ID_2"}' \
  -F 'attached_media[2]={"media_fbid":"PHOTO_ID_3"}' \
  -F "access_token=$PAGE_TOKEN"

Unpublished photos are deleted after about 24 hours, per Meta's reference, so upload them right before you create the post.

How do you know it worked?#

A post ID in the response means it's live (unless you set published=false). Read it back with GET /{page-id}/feed to confirm. When it fails, the error code in the response tells you why. These are the ones a publishing integration sees most, from Meta's error handling guide:

Meta's docs also say an app can only update a Page post that the same app created, so posts made in the Facebook app or another tool can't be edited through yours.

Is there a faster way to post to a Facebook Page?#

Yes, if you'd rather not own the Meta app. The calls above are short. The work around them is the Meta app, Facebook Login, Business Verification, App Review for pages_manage_posts, and catching every Page token that gets invalidated after launch.

App review is usually the slowest part. When we went through Meta's review for Pages publishing, the screencast drew far more scrutiny than the written use case. Expect reviewers to want the full path on video: the login, the user granting the permission, picking the Page, and the post showing up live on Facebook.

Adeli's Facebook API removes that work. Adeli maintains the Facebook developer app, goes through Meta's review, and refreshes every connected Page's tokens, so your team holds one API key. Each of your users connects their own Facebook Page. A photo post is one request to POST /api/v1/posts:

curl -X POST "https://app.tryadeli.com/api/v1/posts" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ADELI_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "platform": "facebook",
    "accountId": "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000",
    "message": "Launch day",
    "image": { "contentType": "image/jpeg", "base64": "<base64 JPEG>" }
  }'

You send the image as base64 and Adeli stages it on its own media host, because Meta fetches media by URL. The 201 response is the finished post, with its permalink. Swap image for images to publish 2 to 10 photos as one multi-photo post, with no unpublished-photo step. Adeli caps each Facebook photo at 4 MiB decoded.

Facebook connections take one extra step, because the user has to choose a Page. Until they do, the account sits in pending_page_selection and every publish returns 409 page_not_selected, so your UI knows to prompt them.

The same posting API also publishes to Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, X, and Bluesky. On Adeli's pricing, your first 3 connected accounts are free, and one Facebook Page counts as one connected account.