---
title: "How this works | Politics Computer"
description: "Where Politics Computer's numbers come from, and what they can and can't tell you."
url: "https://politics.computer/about"
---

# How this works

Politics Computer follows 913 Australian parties, politicians, unions and interest groupsthat advertise on Facebook and Instagram. Every Sunday it checks Meta's Ad Library for each of them and saves every political ad they're running: the ad itself, who it says paid for it, and Meta's figures for spend and reach.

We've been checking since 31 Aug 2026\. The last check was 11 Nov 2026.

## Why every number is a range

Meta doesn't publish exact spend. For each ad it gives a band, like $1,000 to $1,499\. We add up the bottoms of those bands and the tops, so a total such as "$40K–$57K" means at least $40K and at most $57K was spent. In the charts the solid part of a bar is the "at least" figure and the striped part runs up to the "at most" figure.

## What counts as one ad

Advertisers often run the same design many times, aimed at different audiences. We group identical designs together, show each once, and add up the spend of every copy.

## What's not here

Only Facebook and Instagram ads from the advertisers we follow. Not TV, radio, print, Google, YouTube or TikTok, and not advertisers we haven't added yet. Spend covers an ad's whole life up to the last check, and ads from before we started tracking are only counted if they were still running then.

Interest groups and unions are grouped by what they are, not who they support. Politicians and candidates are grouped by their party.

## Promises

The [promises](https://politics.computer/promises) pages quote what parties and candidates promise in their own ads. An AI model reads each ad's text and, for videos, what's said, and pulls out promises word for word along with what they're about. We then group the same promise across ads, keep the clearest quote, and link every one to the ad it came from. Only what's advertised shows up: a party's full platform is on its own website.

## The quiz

The [quiz](https://politics.computer/quiz) compares your answers with each party's stated position on the same questions. Every position is sourced to something the party said or did (its website, a media release, Hansard, or a news report) and linked. Where we couldn't find a clear position on the record, the party isn't scored on that question. Your answers are added up in your browser and never sent to us.

## Checking a figure

Every ad page links to the same ad in Meta's Ad Library, where you can see Meta's own numbers. If something here looks wrong, the Ad Library is the source of truth.

## Using this data

Software and AI agents can read everything here through a[JSON API, an MCP server and Markdown versions of every page](https://politics.computer/developers).

---

Ads and spend from Meta's Ad Library, checked every Sunday, last on 11 Nov 2026\. Meta reports spend as a range for each ad, so every total here is a range too.

[Search](https://politics.computer/search) [Promises](https://politics.computer/promises) [How MPs voted](https://politics.computer/votes) [Which party matches you?](https://politics.computer/quiz) [Who's spending](https://politics.computer/who) [Federal divisions](https://politics.computer/seats/federal) [Senators](https://politics.computer/mps/senate) [How this works](https://politics.computer/about)

For AI agents: [site guide (llms.txt)](https://politics.computer/llms.txt), [sitemap](https://politics.computer/sitemap.xml), [developer guide](https://politics.computer/developers.md). Every page is available as Markdown: send `Accept: text/markdown` or add `.md` to the path.