Threads counts over 400 million users and displays ads worldwide

Meta Platforms has announced that it will display ads in the Threads timeline worldwide starting next week. Previously, the microblogging service had only experimented with advertising, showing it to a small percentage of users. At the same time, the data company announced that Threads now has more than 400 million monthly active users. This milestone was actually reached in August 2025 but has not yet been officially confirmed.

As early as the end of January 2025, Threads had more than 320 million users active at least once a month, according to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg according to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Over 100 million even used the app daily. However, at that time, more than a million people were also creating an account per day, so the growth seemed unbroken. This puts microblogging services in a head-to-head race between Threads and Elon Musk's X, formerly Twitter. Competitors like Bluesky or Mastodon are growing much more slowly and recently counted 41 million and 15 million registered users, respectively, who are also less active.

More users are expected to generate more revenue

Threads now wants to monetize its increased user numbers with advertising, even though the platform was originally intended to remain ad-free according to Zuckerberg's initial plans, as long as one billion people were not active there. But about a year ago, Meta began testing ads in Threads in the USA and Japan, just as the service had surpassed the 300 million active users per month mark. In April 2025, the test with ads in the timeline was extended worldwide, but the company wanted to “continue to test and learn,” so only a few users saw ads.

This will change shortly, as Meta Platforms now announces. Starting next week, ads will be rolled out in Threads worldwide, so all users will see ads in their timeline, not just in some regions. According to Meta, this will be a gradual process. Initially, only a few ads will be delivered until advertising is displayed everywhere in the coming months.

Threads advertising like on other Meta platforms

Advertisers can place ads like on other Meta platforms Facebook and Instagram via manual campaigns or through Meta's Advantage+. The latter uses artificial intelligence for appropriate placement within the service. Threads supports the same ad formats as Facebook and Instagram, including images, videos, and carousel ads; however, 4:5 format ads are new. Advertisers can manage ads for Threads within the usual Meta Platforms settings, which should facilitate simultaneous ad placement on Meta's other online services.

Meta Platforms has not yet explained how often users will see ads in the Threads timeline. However, the data company states that “ad delivery will remain low initially” as advertising is rolled out worldwide.

(fds)