How to Find a Facebook Post URL

Copying a Facebook post's link sounds like it should take one tap, and usually it does, once you know where the button hides. But Facebook tucks the option in slightly different places on desktop and in the app, and the link you grab quickly sometimes isn't the one you actually need. If you're running a giveaway, that direct post URL is the single most important thing you'll copy, because it's what a comment picker uses to pull your entries.

This guide walks through every reliable way to get a post URL on both desktop and the mobile app, what a proper post URL looks like, and how to fix the most common problems, like a link that simply won't work when you paste it into a tool.

What a Facebook post URL is

A post URL is the direct web address of one specific post, as opposed to the address of a whole profile or page. Open it in any browser and it takes you straight to that post and its comments. A typical one looks something like facebook.com/[page name]/posts/... followed by a long string, or a permalink address for group posts. The exact shape varies, and recent Facebook URLs include a long token that starts with pfbid, but the important thing is that it points to one post, not to your timeline.

That distinction matters. A page URL won't work in a comment picker, because there's no single set of comments attached to it. You need the URL of the actual giveaway post.

How to find a post URL on desktop

On a computer, you have three easy methods. Any of them works; pick whichever you'll remember.

The timestamp method is the classic. Under the name of whoever posted, there's a small date or time, "3h," "Yesterday," or an actual date. Click it. The post opens on its own page, and the address bar at the top of your browser now shows that post's direct URL. Click into the address bar, select the whole link, and copy it.

The three-dot method is just as quick. In the top-right corner of the post, click the three dots (the "…" menu). In the menu that opens, choose "Copy link." The post URL is now on your clipboard, ready to paste.

The share method is the fallback if you don't see the others. Click "Share" beneath the post, and in the options that appear choose "Copy link." Same result.

All three give you the same direct post URL. The three-dot "Copy link" is usually fastest, while the timestamp method is handy because it lets you see and verify the URL in the address bar before you copy it.

How to find a post URL in the mobile app

In the Facebook app, the process is the same on iPhone and Android, which makes life easier.

Find the post you want, then tap the three dots in its top-right corner. A menu slides up, and near the top you'll see "Copy link." Tap it, and the URL is copied to your clipboard, ready to paste into a message, a notes app, or a comment picker.

Some versions of the app also show a "Copy" option directly at the bottom of the post, which does the same thing in one tap. And if for some reason you don't see "Copy link" in the three-dot menu, tap "Share" instead and choose "Copy link" from there. One of those three will always be available, whatever version of the app you're running.

To check you copied it correctly, paste it into your phone's browser address bar or a notes app. You should see a long Facebook link that opens the specific post.

Reels, videos, and group posts

The same logic applies across post types, with tiny differences.

For a Reel or a video, open it, tap the share icon or the three-dot menu, and choose "Copy link." That gives you the Reel's or video's direct URL, which works in a picker just like a normal post link.

For a group post, use the three-dot menu on the post and choose "Copy link," or click the post's timestamp on desktop to open its permalink and copy from the address bar. One caveat: links from private groups generally won't work in external tools, because those tools can't read private group content. Public group and page posts are the ones that behave predictably.

When the link won't work

If you paste a post URL into a tool and nothing loads, it's almost always one of these.

The post is private. Comment pickers and other tools can only read public posts. If the post's audience is set to "Friends" or anything other than "Public," the link won't open the comments for a tool, even though it works for you while you're logged in. Set the post to public before you run a giveaway you'll need to draw from.

You copied a page link, not a post link. Double-check that the URL points to a single post (it'll have /posts/, /videos/, a permalink, or a pfbid token in it) rather than just your page name.

You used a shortened or redirecting link. Facebook links sometimes start on one address and redirect to the canonical www.facebook.com version. After the post fully loads in your browser, copy the final URL from the address bar, that redirected version is the one tools read most reliably.

It's a story or an ephemeral post. Stories disappear after 24 hours and don't have a stable, shareable post URL the way feed posts do.

Work through those four and the vast majority of "my link won't work" problems disappear.

Using the post URL in a comment picker

Once you have the URL, putting it to work is the easy part. A comment picker like FB Picker is built around this exact link: you paste the post URL, and it automatically pulls in every comment on that post. From there you can set conditions, remove duplicate commenters, and run a draw. Because the whole process starts from the URL you just copied, getting that link right is the one step that makes everything after it smooth. If you're picking a giveaway winner, a random comment picker for giveaways needs nothing more than this public post URL to do its job.

Finding the URL of someone else's post

Everything above works the same whether the post is yours or someone else's, as long as it's public. If you're running a giveaway on a brand page you manage, or grabbing the link to a public post for any legitimate reason, the three-dot "Copy link" and timestamp methods both behave identically. The only real difference is access: you can only get a usable, tool-ready URL from a public post. If a post is restricted to the author's friends or lives in a private group, the "Copy link" option may still appear, but the resulting link won't open for anyone outside that audience, including comment-picker tools. So before you build a giveaway around a post, confirm it's set to public.

Saving and organizing your post URLs

If you run giveaways regularly, a little organization saves real time. The moment you publish a giveaway post, copy its URL and drop it into a notes app, a spreadsheet, or wherever you track campaigns, alongside the closing date and the prize. That way, when it's time to draw, you're not scrolling your timeline hunting for the right post under a deadline. It also leaves you a clean record of which post each giveaway ran on, which helps if you ever need to revisit the entries or show which post you drew from. When the closing time arrives, you paste that saved URL into your picker and draw a single winner, or pick multiple winners and backups in one pass, all from the link you set aside days earlier.

A few practical tips

Grab your post URL right after you publish a giveaway and paste it somewhere safe, so you're not hunting for it under a deadline later. Make sure the post is public from the start if you intend to draw from it. When you copy, prefer the version of the link that you can see in the address bar, so you know exactly what you've got. And keep it simple, the three-dot "Copy link" works the same on desktop and mobile, so it's the one method worth memorizing. When you're ready to draw, the best free Facebook comment picker turns that URL into a fair winner in under a minute, and you can select the winner at random straight from the comments.

Once you've copied a working public post URL, the hard part is over. Everything downstream, pulling the comments, filtering them, drawing a winner, runs off that single link. So the one habit worth building is getting the URL right the first time: use the three-dot "Copy link" on either device, confirm the post is public, and paste the link somewhere safe until you need it. Master that, and the rest of your giveaway workflow becomes almost effortless, because every tool you'll touch starts from exactly the link you just learned to grab.