How to Reset Instagram Ad Spending Limit

Did your Instagram ads suddenly stop running? Staring at a notification that you've hit your ad spending limit can be frustrating, especially when you know a campaign is performing well. Here’s the good news: this is usually a quick fix. This guide will walk you through exactly how to find, change, or reset your Instagram ad spending limit so you can get your campaigns back on track and in control of your budget.

What is an Instagram Ad Spending Limit?

Before we jump into the "how-to," it’s important to understand what we're dealing with. An Instagram ad spending limit is a cap you place on the total amount your ad account can spend across all campaigns. Think of it as a safety net for your entire advertising budget. Once this limit is reached, all your ads - for Instagram, Facebook, Messenger, and Meta's Audience Network - will pause until you either increase or remove the limit.

This is different from a campaign budget, which controls spending for a single campaign, or a daily budget, which controls spending per day. The account spending limit is the master control that overrides everything else.

Three Types of "Limits" to Know

People often get confused because Meta has a few different mechanisms that can stop your ad spend. Knowing which one you’re dealing with is half the battle.

• Account Spending Limit: This is the limit you set manually for your entire ad account. It’s a tool for total budget control, ensuring you never accidentally spend more than your monthly or total-campaign budget. You have full control to change, reset, or remove this.
• Campaign/Ad Set Budget: This is the budget you set at the individual campaign or ad set level. You might set a $20 daily budget for one campaign and a $500 lifetime budget for another. These control spending on a micro level, while the account limit controls the macro.
• Billing Threshold (or Payment Threshold): This is a limit set by Meta, not you. When you first start advertising, Meta gives you a low billing threshold (e.g., $25). Once your ad spend hits this amount, Meta charges your payment method. If the payment is successful, your ads continue running, and Meta will gradually increase your threshold. If it fails, your ads stop. You cannot manually change this, it increases automatically as you build a successful payment history.

For this guide, we'll focus primarily on the Account Spending Limit, as it’s the one you can directly control and "reset."

How to Change, Remove, or Reset Your Account Spending Limit

All Instagram ad management happens inside Meta Ads Manager. If you've been “boosting” posts directly from the Instagram app, you still have a Meta Ads Manager account associated with your profile. You'll need to log in from a desktop computer to get access to these settings.

Make sure you have Admin access to the ad account, as other roles like Analyst or Advertiser might not have permission to change billing and spending settings.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1: Go to Meta Ads Manager

Head over to https://adsmanager.facebook.com/ and sign in if you aren't already logged in. Select the correct ad account from the dropdown menu in the top left if you manage more than one.

Step 2: Navigate to Billing & Payment Settings

Click the "All Tools" hamburger menu (three horizontal lines) in the top-left corner of the screen. In the menu that appears, find the Billing section. From there, select Payment Settings.

Step 3: Locate the Account Spending Limit Section

On the Payment Settings page, scroll down until you see a section explicitly labeled “Account Spending Limit.” Here, you’ll see if a limit is currently set, along with a progress bar showing how much you’ve spent towards it.

If you don’t see this section, it means you’ve never set an account-wide limit, and your spending is likely paused for a different reason (like a failed payment at your billing threshold or a depleted campaign budget).

Step 4: Manage Your Limit

You have three options here: Change, Remove, or Reset.

• Change Limit: Click the three-dot menu icon on the right side of the box and select Change. Enter a new, higher amount that reflects your new budget and click Save. Your ads will be eligible to start running again almost immediately (though they may go through a brief review).
• Remove Limit: If you prefer to manage spending purely through campaign budgets and don't want an account-wide cap, you can remove it entirely. Click the three-dot menu icon, select Remove, and confirm your choice. Your ads will reactivate. Use this option with caution if you have multiple people running ads in your account to avoid accidental overspending.
• Reset Limit: In Meta's system, "resetting" an account spending limit means setting the amount spent toward your limit back to $0. You can force this by clicking the three-dot menu and choosing Reset. This only works if you've already spent some money against the limit. This starts a new "billing cycle" for your limit, but the limit amount itself remains the same unless you also change it. Typically, you'd do this when aligning your spend with a new month or a new quarter.

What if I Need to Just Pay My Bill?

If you suspect the issue is with your billing threshold, look for an outstanding balance notification at the top of the Payment Settings page. You'll see an amount due and a "Pay Now" button.

If a payment failed, Meta will pause your ads. Updating your payment method and paying the outstanding balance is often the quickest way to get things moving again. Just go to "Payment Methods" on the same page, add a new card or PayPal account, make it your primary method, and then clear the remaining balance.

Troubleshooting Common Spending Limit Scenarios

Even with step-by-step instructions, things can go wrong. Here are a few common problems and how to solve them.

“My Ads Are Paused but My Settings Say I Have No Account Limit”

If you find that you don't have an account limit set but your ads are still off, the culprit is almost always one of two things:

1. Payment Failure: You hit your billing threshold, Meta tried to charge your card, and the payment was declined. Check your primary payment method to make sure it's up-to-date and has available funds. Also, check your email (and spam folder) for any notifications from Meta about payment issues.
2. Reached Campaign Budget: You may have exhausted the specific budget you set for that campaign or ad set. Go to the main Campaigns tab in Ads Manager and check the "Budget" and "Amount Spent" columns to see if you've maxed them out. If so, you’ll need to edit the ad set or campaign to increase its budget.

"I Don't Have Permission to Change the Spending Limit"

If the options to change or remove the limit are grayed out, it's a permissions issue. Only users with "Ad Account Admin" access can modify billing details and account-wide spending limits. An "Advertiser" or "Analyst" role cannot make these changes.

You will need to ask an admin on the account to either grant you admin access or have them adjust the limit for you directly.

Why it’s Smart to Use Account Spending Limits

While a paused ad can be stressful, account spending limits are an incredibly useful financial tool for advertisers. Here's why you should consider using one even if you haven’t before:

• Prevents Costly Mistakes: It's easy to accidentally add an extra zero to a daily budget ($100 instead of $10). An account limit ensures that even if you make a mistake on a specific campaign, you won't blow your entire monthly marketing budget overnight.
• Simplifies Agency and Team Management: If you work with an agency or have multiple team members in one ad account, an account-level limit provides peace of mind. It sets clear budgetary guardrails that no single campaign can exceed in total.
• Aligns Spending with Financial Reporting: You can set the account spending limit to match your approved monthly or quarterly budget. This makes financial reconciliation much simpler, as you know your ad spend can never exceed the figure allocated by your finance department.

Final Thoughts

Managing your Instagram ad spending limit is a straightforward process once you know where to look within Meta Ads Manager. Using the account spending limit tool gives you critical control over your budget, serving as a valuable safety net to prevent overspending and align with your financial goals.

Once your budget is set, the real challenge is understanding if that money is delivering results. Juggling data from Facebook Ads, Google Analytics, your e-commerce platform, and your CRM can feel like a full-time job. To simplify this, we built Graphed to be your AI data analyst. You connect your data sources in seconds, then simply ask questions in plain English like, “show me a dashboard of my Instagram ad spend vs. Shopify revenue this month.” We instantly create real-time reports, saving you a few more hours of report-building so you have an accurate picture of the numbers needed to make changes in your ad strategy.