Brazilian media buyer's "ad-mining" extension SpyX: hit 1,000 in the group, then stalled
What it is A Brazilian Portuguese Chrome extension that, in the Meta Ad Library, one-click filters out ads that have run long and in many versions, lets you download creatives, and generates ChatGPT rewrite prompts. The free version is enough; Pro is R$67.90/month.
Why it took off The founder is a low-ticket media buyer himself. He launched it first in his own WhatsApp membership group and asked group members to leave five-star reviews. After 10 days it reached 1,000 users; later creator posts and SEO brought no further growth.
CHow you could follow Don't build another one for Brazil or Spanish-speaking markets. If you're in a different media-buying scene that has no local ad-mining tool yet, build one with local jargon and a local, unique "being sold" data source, launch it in the group first, then keep acquiring users through courses and creator partnerships.
1,000 users · rating 5.0 (9)
SpyX is a Brazilian Portuguese Chrome extension. Once installed, the Meta Ad Library gains a "Raio-X" (X-ray) button that helps low-ticket media buyers pick the few "scaling" ads out of hundreds. It launched in Sep 28, relied on the founder's own WhatsApp membership group, reached 10 users in 1,000 days, and then stayed flat for over three weeks. It's well made, but the category already has a dozen peers in Brazil, and it's the late entrant. What's worth studying is its playbook, and where that playbook hits its ceiling.
Two five-star reviews, one group
On Oct 5 of 2026, a user named Caio Nóia gave SpyX five stars on the Chrome Web Store: "Ferramenta muito completa, intuitiva e muito funcional!" (very complete, intuitive and very functional). The next day Lucas Layon wrote: "Muito bom super recomendo!" (very good, highly recommend). By Nov 7, SpyX had 9 ratings, all 5 stars, and every visible review clusters on Oct 5 and 6 (Chrome Web Store reviews page, 11-06).
The site itself says where these people came from. The heading of its user-testimonials section is "Quem já está minerando com o Spy X — Do grupo de membros, no WhatsApp", meaning "Who is already mining with Spy X — From the members group on WhatsApp." Founder Gabriel Martins wrote on the site: "It was born inside a low-ticket Meta ads project, and every feature comes from the daily grind of mining ads." The developer registered on the store is a small personal company under his name; his GitHub bio says "Junior full-stack developer" and shows only this one project.
What it is
Brazil has a large community of low-ticket media buyers: they sell e-books, courses and small products for R$20–30 and scale them with Meta ads. Their daily routine is called "minerar ofertas" (mining offers): they browse the public Meta ad library to see which ads have run for a long time and have many versions of the same creative, which usually means they're making money; then they "modelar" (model), rewriting the ad and running their own version.
The Meta Ad Library is free, but it has no sorting and no signal for "this one is scaling", so you have to scroll through ads one by one. SpyX adds a layer on top:
- Raio-X: one click keeps only ads with long run times and many active versions, and hides big brands' pages. The site demo shows "963 ads become 11";
- Each card shows "days running" directly; creatives download in one click and save to Swipe (a favorites folder);
- Modelar oferta: with that ad's info, one click opens ChatGPT with a ready-made rewrite prompt;
- Preset keyword lists (Portuguese, Spanish, English), and "check WhatsApp" to surface the advertiser's public number;
- Pro-only: Hard Spy, which uses complaint volume on the Brazilian complaints site Reclame Aqui to judge who is actually selling right now; video archives for ads after they're taken down; speech-to-text for video narration.
The copy is restrained. The site has a dedicated section on "the difference between modelar and copiar" (model vs. copy), saying run days and version counts "are only leads, not proof of sales." In a category full of "spy" and "hack" wording, that's rare.
Where the money comes from
The free version has no time limit and no sign-up: the core search, Raio-X, filters, downloads and Modelar all work. "Scaling this week" shows only 3 ads, and favorites are capped at 10. Pro is R$67.90 a month (about US$12), unlocking all rankings, unlimited favorites, video archives, transcription and Hard Spy, with a full refund within 7 days if you're not satisfied (site, 11-06). The store also lists in-app purchases.
The price was almost certainly set against the peer SpyROI (whose Pro is R$67). No public numbers on how many people pay or how much was collected. With just over 1,000 users, and a free version that already covers most needs, the number of paying users is likely only a few dozen (estimate).
Where users came from, and why it stopped
User growth went like this (October data from a third-party extension stats site, November from the Chrome Web Store daily figures):
| Date | users | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| 09-28 | 0 | Launched |
| 10-05 ~ 06 | — | Group members left 5 five-star reviews together |
| 10-07 | 434 | |
| 10-08 | 787 | 1.3.0 versions released |
| 10-13 | 1,000 | |
| 10-20 | 1,000 | Instagram creator post |
| 11-01 ~ 11-07 | 1,000 | The rating count stayed at 9 |
The Chrome Web Store only shows rating counts in bands after reaching 1,000, and "1,000" means between 1,000 and 1,999, so it could still rise slowly within that band. But the rating count has been 9 since early October, which suggests no new wave of users has arrived since.
The channels I could find are these:
- Membership WhatsApp group: the launch and the reviews. Most of the first two weeks' traffic came from here.
- Instagram creator "comment a keyword for the link" post: on Oct 20, e-commerce creator @brunoespositoo posted a set of screenshots captioned "SpyX added grouped search and filters to the Meta ad library… Reminder: run days and active counts are only leads, not proof of sales or profit… Comment Spy and I'll send you the link." The comments filled with "Spy". The copy matches the site's tone, which suggests it came from the developer. Whether it was a paid promotion hasn't been verified. User numbers didn't move after the post.
- SEO: On Oct 5 it published 4 Portuguese guides in one go, including a "2026 ad-mining extension comparison" that put itself next to Copycat Ads, SpyROI and others. It's a new site, and how much traffic that brought isn't visible.
- "Related extensions" on the store: it appears under the detail pages of peers like GGSPY.
It doesn't show up on TikTok or X, and there's no media coverage. Even the name "SpyX" in search results is pushed down by a phone-monitoring app with the same name.
The reason it stopped is simple: the personal circle ran out, there was no sustained acquisition after that, and what it does is something others were already doing.
Who it's competing with
| Product | Launched | Users (Chrome Web Store, 11-07) | Compared with SpyX |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adminer | 2020-02 | 60,000 | A long-running Brazilian tool that auto-scrapes ads from the Facebook feed |
| Copycat Ads | 2023-09 | 30,000 | Its features are nearly a superset of SpyX: auto-scrolling, sorting by scaling, ChatGPT, sharing to WhatsApp |
| GGSPY | 2026-02 | 9,000 | Its selling points nearly map one-to-one (filter by creative count, run days, three-language keyword lists, downloads, AI analysis), launched 7 months earlier, and free |
| Minera Ads | 2024-05 | 4,000 | The companion extension for the MineraROI platform |
| Spy ADS, Spy Guru, ADScale Library and others | 2023–2025 | 1,000–2,000 each | Many are only given to course members |
| SpyROI | 2026-05 | 501 | Web platform plus extension, Pro R$67/mo |
| Meta Ad Library | — | Free | No ranking, no scaling signal, and that gap is the reason all these extensions exist |
In the English-speaking world there are also AdSparo, Foreplay, and Denote, with tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of users. They save creatives and estimate spend. They don't use Brazil's "dig up winners, then rewrite" workflow.
From 11-01 to 11-07, GGSPY stayed at 9,000, and Copycat Ads stayed at 30,000 (daily Chrome Web Store numbers). The whole category has been flat.
SpyX is getting copied too. In October 6, 8 days after it, an extension called Cazador de Ofertas launched. Its store description reads "Encuentra las ofertas que están escalando en la Biblioteca de Anuncios de Meta — pensado para el mercado hispano," almost a word-for-word Spanish translation of SpyX's description, and its privacy policy sits on an AI-generated web page. It has 11-07 with 392 users. In November 3, Prospect Spy appeared with 0 users, selling the same points: days live plus the number of identical ads. Conversely, SpyX's trilingual glossary and WhatsApp lookup were already in the earlier GGSPY. This category copies itself.
What it actually has
Setting aside the parts that look like everyone else's, SpyX has two things others mostly don't:
- A local-only signal: it uses complaint volume on Reclame Aqui to judge who is really selling. If someone is complained about for their checkout page, people really paid them. Foreign tools can't get this data (whether similar tools have also skipped it was not checked one by one).
- Product built on jargon: minerar, escalar, modelar, low ticket. Button labels, landing pages, and FAQs use the buyers' own words and daily steps.
Unfortunately most of these are in Pro, and it no longer has new users coming in to convert.
If it were you
In one line: don't build another Portuguese or Spanish ad library extension. What's worth copying is the package of "jargon + local data source + first launch to a membership group," but be clear that it only gets you to the 1,000 tier.
Who it fits: someone already inside an ad buying scene in a particular country (markets like Vietnam, Indonesia, Turkey, or the Arabic-speaking world, where low ticket and COD e-commerce are active and no local winner-finding tool exists), who has a membership group or course students, and who knows what public data on "who is really selling" exists locally (complaint sites, shipping trackers, local marketplace sales).
Who it doesn't fit: outsiders, and anyone wanting to build yet another one for Brazil or the Spanish-speaking market. Brazil already has more than a dozen, with the leaders free; the Spanish version was copied in October.
How to do it: first confirm that buyers in that market also dig for offers in the Meta ad library and have their own slang. Build an extension that does one thing: one click to filter out scaling ads, hide big brands, and add a "currently selling" signal that only works locally. Give enough in the free version. Charge for archives, transcription, and local signals, priced below the existing local spy platforms.
How to get users: launch in groups and have members leave reviews. This step gets you the first few hundred. After that you need something sustained, such as partnering with local media-buying creators and courses, bundling the extension into courses as a tool, or posting a weekly "this week's top 10 scaling ads" to drive traffic. A handful of influencer posts were shown by SpyX not to be enough.
When to move before others: this category gets copied fast. The SpyX example took 8 days from a new market's first entrant to a translated copy. If you're going to do it, do it before a language has its first one.
Signs you got it wrong: if SpyX suddenly crosses 2,000 after November with a clear rise in ratings, that means there is a path beyond the initial warm-up, it found a sustained channel, and it's worth looking again. Or Meta changes the ad library page and restricts scraping, and the whole category breaks together.
Research notes: competitor table, acquisition evidence, full research report
- Competitors
Name Where Launched Scale How it differs from this one GGSPY Chrome 2026-02-13 9,000 users / 23 reviews Nearly identical selling points (filter by creative count, days running, 3 niche keywords by language, downloads, AI analysis), free and earlier. SpyX adds Raio-X one-click narrowing, Hard Spy, and the Pro subscription. Copycat Ads Chrome 2023-09-12 30,000 users Feature superset (auto-scroll, sort by most scaling, ChatGPT, share to WhatsApp/Telegram), the largest in the Portuguese market. SpyX adds hiding big-brand pages and the Reclame Aqui signal. Adminer Chrome 2020-02-08 60,000 users A long-running Brazilian product-spy extension that auto-captures in the feed. SpyX only works inside the ad library. SpyROI Web 2026-05-25 (extension) Extension 501 users Web platform plus extension that can analyze funnels and checkout pages, Pro R$67/mo. SpyX is extension-only, and its pricing was set against it. Minera Ads(MineraROI) Chrome 2024-05-30 4,000 users Companion extension for a platform, requires a platform account. ADScale Library, OfferMine, Low Spy Lite, Spy ADS, and others. Chrome 2023–2025 1,000–2,000 users each Most are only for course members or license holders. SpyX's free version needs no sign-up. AdSparo, AdLibNote, Foreplay, Denote, and other global ad library tools. Chrome 2022–2023 20k–100k users English-language. They save creatives and estimate spend. They don't run Brazil's low-ticket winner-hunting plus rewrite workflow. The Meta Ad Library itself Big-company features 2019 Full public data No ranking, no scaling signal. SpyX adds a layer on top. - Where users come from
- Confirmed The founder's own low-ticket WhatsApp membership group: the site says "Quem já está minerando com o Spy X — Do grupo de membros, no WhatsApp". The founder says it was built from hands-on low-ticket ad buying. Reviews cluster in 10/05–06.
- Confirmed Instagram creator "comment Spy to get the link" post: @brunoespositoo post instagram.com/p/Deto4rGFExv (around late October, a row of "Spy" comments). Other related posts were not verified and seem to date from the 1,000 tier onward.
- Confirmed SEO guides: 2026-10-05 published 4 Portuguese guides at once, including its own "winner-finding extensions 2026 comparison" at spyx.app.br/guias.
- Confirmed Store-related recommendations: appears in the related extensions on the GGSPY and unFunnelizer detail pages (chromestore related table).
- Inferred Meta / TikTok paid acquisition: our ad library doesn't track it, and nothing turned up on TikTok or X.
SpyX (spyx.app.br): why it got off the ground
Chrome extension oebaapciepihagbdpgdghaoemalkoepm, listed 2026-09-28, Brazilian Portuguese. Research date 2026-11-06.
One line
SpyX is a Meta ad library "winner-finding" extension for Brazilian low-ticket (cheap digital products and physical goods) media buyers. It adds a layer to the Meta Ads Library page called "Raio-X," which surfaces long-running, multi-version ads, hides big-brand pages, and lets you download creatives in one click and generate a ChatGPT "Modelar oferta" (rewrite) prompt. The free version has no time limit, and Pro is R$67.90/mo.
Verdict: it's not a product that broke out on its own. It's 1,000 users pushed in by a launch-period push. In the first two weeks it relied on the founder's own low-ticket circles (WhatsApp membership groups) plus Instagram creators' "comment a keyword for the link" posts, rising from 0 to the 1,000 tier. In the three weeks after, the user tier didn't move. In a Brazilian Portuguese niche that is already crowded, it ranks behind. GGSPY (2026-02,9,000 users) is nearly identical in features, launched earlier, and is 9 times bigger. SpyX's real strength is packaging: Raio-X's one-click narrowing, the Modelar prompt, Hard Spy (Reclame Aqui complaints = actively selling), a restrained landing page, and 4 SEO guides. All of this is tidy, but none of it is something others couldn't do.
1. Data
| Date | users | Score | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-09-28 | Launched | – | Store published |
| 2026-10-05~06 | – | All the visible Portuguese/English reviews fall in the last two days (Caio Nóia 10/05, Lucas Layon 10/06, ryan pricen 10/06). | Store reviews page |
| 2026-10-07 | 434 | – | extops.dev curve (recall card) |
| 2026-10-08 | 787 (released the same day 1.3.0) | – | Same as above |
| 2026-10-10 | 955 | – | Same as above |
| 2026-10-13 | 1,000 | – | Same as above |
| 2026-10-16 | Launched 1.5.0 | – | Store updated |
| 2026-11-01 / 11-05 / 11-07 | 1,000 | 9(5.0) | chromestore library item_snap |
Note: the Chrome Web Store shows user counts in tiers of 1,000 and up, so "1,000" only means somewhere between 1,000 and 1,999. The "flat for three weeks" reading could also be slow growth that never crossed into the next tier at 2,000. But the rating count has been 9 since early October through 11-07, and the reviews all sit between 10/05 and 06, which suggests no new wave of users came in after launch.
Pricing: the store lists in-app purchases. The site says Free (search, Raio-X, filters, downloads, Modelar, Top shows only 3 results, Swipe up to 10) / Pro R$67.90/mo (full Top, unlimited Swipe, video archive, transcription, Hard Spy), with a 7-day full refund. No public revenue.
2. Competitors (the same job: filter "currently scaling" ads in the Meta ad library)
Brazilian Portuguese circle (the real direct competitors, from the chromestore library):
| Product | Launched | users | How it differs from SpyX |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adminer | 2020-02 | 60,000 | A long-running Brazilian product/ad-spy extension that auto-captures in the Facebook feed, with in-app purchases. SpyX only works inside the ad library. |
| Copycat Ads | 2023-09 | 30,000 | Its features are nearly a superset of SpyX's (auto-scroll, sort by most scaling, HD downloads, ChatGPT integration, share to WhatsApp/Telegram). It's the largest in the Portuguese market. SpyX's own comparison article admits it's the main rival. |
| GGSPY(Guilherme Franklim) | 2026-02-13 | 9,000 | "Filter by live creative count, show days running, 3 preset niche keywords by language, downloads, AI analysis": nearly one-to-one with SpyX's selling points, 7 months earlier, free, and 9 times bigger. The same developer later released Aquece Ads (1,000 users, ad library plus WhatsApp lookup), 2026-09-04. |
| Minera Ads(MineraROI) | 2024-05 | 4,000 | A companion extension for the MineraROI platform. |
| Spy ADS / Spy Guru / Spy Wolf / Low Spy Lite / ADScale Library / Swipe Offers Spy | 2023–2025 | 1,000–2,000 each | Filtering + auto-scroll + downloads, some only for course members or license holders. |
| SpyROI | 2026-05 | 501 | Web platform plus extension, Pro also R$67/mo (SpyX's pricing was practically set against it). |
| Minera Zap / Anúncio Ninja / FlowSpy | 2026-07~08 | 284–874 | Launched in the same wave, each picking one small feature (WhatsApp lookup, API interception, funnel finding). |
English/global: AdSparo (100k), AdLibNote (90k+30k), Dropship.io (100k), Ad Library Cloud (50k), Denote (40k), Foreplay (20k), Swipekit (20k), Spendo/Adlens (2026-09~10, spend-estimate based), and others. They do "save creatives / estimate spend," not Brazil's low-ticket "dig up winners, then rewrite" workflow. Big-platform features: the Meta ad library itself is free and public, but it has no ranking and no scaling signal, which is the gap all these extensions exploit. Paid spy platforms (BigSpy, Minea, AdSpy, etc.) cost tens to hundreds of dollars a month, which low-budget buyers find too expensive, leaving room for free extensions.
Verdict: competitors are plentiful, and SpyX came in late to catch up.
3. Growth tactics (where users come from)
- The founder's own low-ticket circle / WhatsApp membership group (confirmed): the site says "Quem já está minerando com o Spy X — Do grupo de membros, no WhatsApp," and the founder says it "was born inside a low-ticket operation on Meta Ads." The first few 5-star reviews cluster in 10/05–06, which matches the timing of the first launch in the group.
- Instagram creator "comment a keyword for the link" posts (1 confirmed, others not verified): @brunoespositoo (Bruno Esposito | E-commerce) posted around late October: "A SpyX adiciona buscas em guias e filtros… Para conhecer: spyx.app.br… Comenta Spy que eu te mando o link," with a row of "Spy" comments (post). The tone is very restrained ("dias no ar… não comprovam vendas," "Confira as permissões antes de instalar"), matching the official site, so it looks like a script the developer supplied. It's likely paid or a reciprocal promotion, but unverified. Search results also link @escalonador (10/29) and andreyogeek posts to the same copy, but Jina's summaries mix in other posts, so those weren't checked one by one. These posts went up as the product moved into the 10/13–1,000 tier, and no user-tier change followed.
- SEO content (confirmed): 2026-10-05 published 4 Portuguese guides in one go (how to find scaling ads, how to use the ad library, "mine winning products, 2026 comparison", the difference between modelar and copying), and the comparison puts itself up against Copycat Ads, SpyROI, MP Miner, ADScale and OfferMine. Searching "spyx.app.br" returns it, but the new site has low authority and we don't know how much traffic it brought.
- Store search / related recommendations (partly confirmed): the store lists SpyX in the "related extensions" on the GGSPY and unFunnelizer detail pages (chromestore related table), picking up a bit of traffic from similar tools.
- Not found: TikTok (TikHub search for "spyx extensão" returns no related videos), X (not in x-radar), Reddit/HN, press coverage, Meta ads (our metaads library doesn't track it, so we can't tell).
4. Why it got going (reached the 1,000 tier)
- The audience and pain point are real: Brazilian low-ticket / infoproduto buyers spend every day in the ad library "minerar ofertas escaladas" (mining scaling offers). The library has no sorting, so checking ads one by one is slow. This is a whole Brazil-specific workflow and jargon (minerar, escalar, modelar, low ticket), and a large batch of Portuguese extensions are all doing this job.
- Cold start came from personal networks: the founder is a buyer himself. He posted in the members' WhatsApp group and asked members to leave reviews, and got to the 1,000 tier in 10 days.
- The free version is enough: the core Raio-X, filters and downloads work without signing up. Compared with ADScale / OfferMine, which require course membership, the barrier is low.
- Why it stalled: no ongoing acquisition channel afterward (influencer posts didn't move the tier again), and similar tools like GGSPY and Copycat are free, earlier and bigger. SpyX has no feature that is unique.
5. Differentiation
- "Raio-X" narrows results with one click (the website example goes from 963 listings to 11), and it quietly hides big-brand pages. Most other extensions only offer filter conditions; SpyX wraps this into a single button.
- Hard Spy: it uses complaint volume from Reclame Aqui (Brazil's consumer complaint platform) on checkout pages as a signal that something is "being sold". This is a local Brazilian data source, and I haven't seen rivals do it (not verified one by one).
- Modelar oferta: one click opens ChatGPT with the ad information to generate a rewrite prompt, and it frames "modelar ≠ copiar" (modeling is not copying) as its compliance line.
- Its compliant, restrained wording (it states plainly that "days are only a lead, not a sales figure", includes a privacy statement and a 7-day refund) looks professional in a category full of "espionage / hacking" hype.
- But none of this is why it took off: the 1,000 tier came from the founder's own circle; most differentiating features sit in Pro, and it has no acquisition engine to convert people.
6. Visibility and copycats
- Visibility: few people know about it yet. No press coverage, no discussion on X or TikTok, and no public revenue; just a couple of Instagram influencer posts and its own SEO pages. Even the name "SpyX" in search results is crowded out by the phone-monitoring app spyx.com.
- Copycats: Cazador de Ofertas (2026-10-06, launched 8 days after SpyX, developer Romildo, 356→392 users): its store description, "Encuentra las ofertas que están escalando en la Biblioteca de Anuncios de Meta — pensado para el mercado hispano", is nearly a word-for-word Spanish translation of SpyX's "Encontre as ofertas que estão escalando na Biblioteca de Anúncios da Meta". Its privacy policy is hosted on a claude.ai artifact, clearly a Spanish version quickly built with AI. Prospect Spy (2026-11-03,0 users, also has in-app purchases) uses the same "days + number of ads with the same creative" two-signal pitch in its description. Conversely, SpyX's own selling points, "3 languages of preset terms" and "look up WhatsApp", are also the same as earlier GGSPY / Aquece Ads. This category copies itself.
7. What others can learn
- A niche vertical community in a smaller language + local jargon: writing the product and landing page with the target audience's own workflow and terms (minerar / escalar / modelar) works far better than translating an English ad spy tool.
- A local-only data source as a signal (Reclame Aqui complaint volume = something is being sold). Global tools from outside can't replicate this, so it's a real moat.
- Cold-start sequence: launch in the members' group → get 5 five-star reviews from members → Instagram "comment keyword → get link by DM" (ManyChat-style) influencer posts → own comparison SEO. Low cost, but it only gets to the 1,000 tier; moving higher requires sustained influencer or paid acquisition.
- Copying it into the Spanish-language market is already happening (Cazador de Ofertas), so the window is small.
8. Uncertain
- How many are actually in the 1,000 tier (somewhere between 1,000 and 1,999), and whether it grew slowly in November.
- Paying users and revenue: no public data at all.
- Whether the Instagram influencer posts were paid and how many there were in total: only @brunoespositoo was verified.
- Whether it runs Meta ads: our ad library doesn't track it, and not finding anything doesn't mean it isn't running them.
- Whether Hard Spy is unique among its peers: I didn't check competitor features one by one.
Sources
- Store page / reviews: chromewebstore.google.com/detail/spyx/oebaapciepihagbdpgdgha… (review page hl=pt-BR, 2026-11-06 read)
- Website and guides: spyx.app.br/, spyx.app.br/guias, spyx.app.br/guias/extensoes-para-minerar-ofertas (2026-10-05)
- Founder GitHub: github.com/gbr-dev-web ("Desenvolvedor Full Stack Jr.", the README lists only the Spyx project)
- Instagram influencer post: www.instagram.com/p/Deto4rGFExv/
- Competitors and snapshots: chromestore library item / item_snap / related (2026-11-01~07)
- Copycat: chromewebstore.google.com/detail/dbakamdojinhmlgalfbbohnjgcd…
- extops curve: the reading from extops.dev noted in the recall card (there is no matching row in our extops_series table this time)