---
title: "Pause every creative that opens a survey"
method: POST
path: "/api/v3/creatives/pause"
tags: ["V3 Creatives"]
---

# Pause every creative that opens a survey

`POST /api/v3/creatives/pause`

## Request

- Base URL: `https://app.formbricks.com`
- URL: `https://app.formbricks.com/api/v3/creatives/pause`
- Auth: one of:
  - API key in cookie `next-auth.session-token`
  - API key in header `x-api-key`
  - HTTP bearer

Pauses, in one request, every creative whose Destination is `surveyId` and whose `status` is `inProgress`, however many there are. Each one's `status` becomes `paused`, set by its author, so it stays paused whatever the survey does until it is resumed; nothing else about it changes. Drafts, creatives already paused or closed, archived creatives and the creatives of other surveys are left as they are, and so is a creative whose schedule has ended (it shows as closed, and nothing brings it back). The survey screens call it before resuming a survey whose creatives the author keeps paused.

Read/write access to `workspaceId`, the same access pausing one creative needs; an unknown `surveyId`, or one in another workspace, answers **403**. Allowed in wind-down, like pausing one creative. A survey with nothing to pause answers **200** with `paused: 0`. Each paused creative is audited as an update of its `status`.

## Request body

- PauseCreativesRequest: The survey whose creatives to pause, and the workspace it belongs to. Unknown fields are rejected with **400**.
  - `workspaceId` string, cuid2, required: Workspace the survey belongs to. Requires read/write access.
  - `surveyId` string, cuid2, required: The survey whose creatives to pause, the ones whose Destination it is.

## Response `200`

The survey's In progress creatives are paused.

- object
  - `data` PausedCreatives, required: The creatives one `POST /api/v3/creatives/pause` paused.
    - `paused` integer, required: How many creatives this request paused.
    - `creativeIds` string[], required: The ids of the creatives this request paused, in no particular order.

## Other responses

- `400`: Bad Request — malformed JSON, invalid query/body/params, duplicate name, or unsupported field.
- `401`: Not authenticated (no valid session or API key).
- `403`: Forbidden, one of two codes. `forbidden`: the caller lacks the workspace access the operation needs, or the creative does not exist (404 is not used, so creative ids cannot be probed for existence). `creatives_not_entitled`: Creatives is not available on this instance (Formbricks Cloud, or a self-hosted license that does not include it). It is checked only after the caller's own access, so it says nothing about a workspace the caller cannot see. A workspace that still has creatives is in wind-down: listing, reading, stats, a PATCH that sets nothing but `status` to `paused` or `completed`, pausing a survey's creatives (`POST /api/v3/creatives/pause`), and DELETE keep working, and everything else answers this. A workspace without creatives answers it on every operation.
- `429`: Rate limit exceeded.
- `500`: Internal Server Error.

## Changes

- **2026-10-28** `84820a01e550`: 15 warning
  - added the new `chart_in_use` enum value to the `code` response property for the response status `400`
  - added the new `chart_in_use` enum value to the `code` response property for the response status `401`
  - added the new `chart_in_use` enum value to the `code` response property for the response status `403`
  - added the new `chart_in_use` enum value to the `code` response property for the response status `429`
  - …11 more
- **2026-10-27** `aad5dc1d8236`: 1 info
  - endpoint added

[Operation history](https://skmtc.dev/formbricks/apis/formbricks-api-v3/changes/api/v3/creatives/pause/post.md)

---

[API](https://skmtc.dev/formbricks/apis/formbricks-api-v3.md) - [All operations](https://skmtc.dev/formbricks/apis/formbricks-api-v3/llms.txt) - [OpenAPI document](https://skmtc.dev/formbricks/apis/formbricks-api-v3/revisions/25335c959a13?raw)