# FacebookBot: Meta Crawler User Agent and Status

> FacebookBot is not on Meta's current crawler list. What Meta documents now, which user agents to use in robots.txt, and how to block Meta crawlers.

FacebookBot is a Meta crawler name that is no longer on Meta's list of web crawlers. Meta's current crawler page names five other user agents and gives their robots.txt tokens. If you want to control Meta crawlers, write rules for those five names. A `FacebookBot` group does no harm, but Meta no longer documents what it covers.

## Status of FacebookBot

On October 22, 2026, the [Meta Web Crawlers](https://developers.facebook.com/docs/sharing/webmasters/web-crawlers/) page did not mention FacebookBot. The old Meta address for FacebookBot, `https://developers.facebook.com/docs/sharing/bot/`, redirects to that general page. The address in the old user agent string redirects there too. Meta gives no date and no reason for the change.

Third-party lists still describe the bot. [Known Agents](https://knownagents.com/agents/facebookbot) calls it a crawler that downloads training data for Meta's speech recognition technology. It gives this user agent and cites the old Meta page as its source:

```
Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; FacebookBot/1.0; +https://developers.facebook.com/docs/sharing/webmasters/facebookbot/)
```

Meta itself no longer confirms this string or this purpose.

## Meta crawlers that Meta documents

The Meta crawler page lists these user agents. Each one also has a short form without the part in parentheses, for example `meta-externalagent/1.1`.

| Crawler | Purpose, as Meta describes it | User agent |
|---|---|---|
| [FacebookExternalHit](/ai-crawler-bot/facebookexternalhit/) | Fetches shared links for previews on Facebook, Instagram and Messenger | `facebookexternalhit/1.1 (+http://www.facebook.com/externalhit_uatext.php)` |
| Meta-WebIndexer | Improves Meta AI search results, so Meta AI can cite and link to your content | `meta-webindexer/1.1 (+/documentation/sharing/webmasters/web-crawlers)` |
| Meta-ExternalAds | Improves advertising and other business products | `meta-externalads/1.1 (+/documentation/sharing/webmasters/web-crawlers)` |
| [Meta-ExternalAgent](/ai-crawler-bot/meta-externalagent/) | Trains foundation AI models, or indexes content to improve products | `meta-externalagent/1.1 (+/documentation/sharing/webmasters/web-crawlers)` |
| [Meta-ExternalFetcher](/ai-crawler-bot/meta-externalfetcher/) | Fetches single links at the request of a user, for agentic AI features | `meta-externalfetcher/1.1 (+/documentation/sharing/webmasters/web-crawlers)` |

## robots.txt rules for Meta crawlers

Meta says that you set your preferences for its crawlers in robots.txt. If you do not want Meta to crawl your pages for AI model training, block Meta-ExternalAgent. A FacebookBot group is optional, because Meta no longer documents that name:

```
User-agent: meta-externalagent
Disallow: /

User-agent: FacebookBot
Disallow: /
```

Meta notes two exceptions. Meta-ExternalFetcher can bypass robots.txt, because a user requested the fetch. FacebookExternalHit can bypass robots.txt when it does security or integrity checks. Meta says that a change to robots.txt can take up to 24 hours, because its crawlers can cache the file for that long.

## What a block changes

Each rule applies only to the crawler that it names. A block on Meta-ExternalAgent does not stop link previews, because FacebookExternalHit makes them. Meta says that if you allow Meta-WebIndexer, Meta AI can cite and link to your content in its answers. Rules for Meta crawlers do not change how Googlebot or Bingbot treat your site.

## Verify requests

The Meta crawler page publishes no IP list for any crawler. Meta calls an allow list by IP address more secure than an allow list by user agent. To learn if an address belongs to a Meta network, see [facebookexternalhit](/ai-crawler-bot/facebookexternalhit/). If you have questions, Meta gives the contact address webmasters@meta.com.

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