Meta · Other crawling
FacebookBot: what happened to it, and which Meta bots to manage now
FacebookBot is a Meta user-agent token that Meta's current Web Crawlers documentation no longer lists; its old documentation URLs now redirect to that general page. Meta doesn't say what it was for or whether it still runs. To control Meta's AI crawling today, write rules for Meta-ExternalAgent and Meta-WebIndexer, and keep a FacebookBot rule only as legacy coverage.
- robots.txt token
FacebookBot- User agent
- Not published by the operator
- Operator
- Meta
- Type
- Other crawling
- What it feeds
- Not documented by Meta any more; Meta's current crawlers are listed on its Web Crawlers page.
- Follows robots.txt
- Not documented. Meta's current documentation doesn't mention FacebookBot, so there is no first-party statement on whether it follows robots.txt. Meta's general guidance is to add a disallow for the relevant crawler.
- How to verify it
- No published method
Should you block FacebookBot?
A FacebookBot disallow is harmless to keep, but on its own it probably doesn't control anything Meta currently documents. To opt out of Meta's AI training, block Meta-ExternalAgent; to stay citable in Meta AI, allow Meta-WebIndexer.
User-agent: FacebookBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: FacebookBot
Allow: /
Add these lines to /robots.txt at your site root. A group naming FacebookBot replaces your User-agent: * rules for it, so repeat any paths you also want it to skip.
Live check
Is FacebookBot allowed on your site?
What changed
Meta used to document FacebookBot on its own developer pages. Today, Meta's Web Crawlers page lists five crawlers and FacebookBot is not one of them. The former FacebookBot documentation addresses (/docs/sharing/bot/ and /docs/sharing/webmasters/facebookbot/ on developers.facebook.com) now redirect to that general page instead of describing the bot.
Meta hasn't published a note explaining the change, so we can't tell you whether FacebookBot was shut down, renamed or simply dropped from the docs. Other directories describe what it used to do and quote user-agent strings for it, but those descriptions conflict with each other and none of them could be confirmed from Meta. This page leaves those claims out rather than repeating them.
The Meta crawlers to manage instead
These are the user agents Meta documents now:
| Token | What Meta says it does | robots.txt |
|---|---|---|
| Meta-ExternalAgent | Use cases such as training foundation AI models or improving products by indexing content directly | Follows a disallow |
| Meta-WebIndexer | Improving Meta AI search; helps Meta AI cite and link to you | Follows Meta's general guidance |
| Meta-ExternalAds | Advertising and other business products | Follows a disallow |
| Meta-ExternalFetcher | Fetching links a user asked for, including for agentic AI | May bypass robots.txt |
| FacebookExternalHit | Link previews for URLs shared in Meta's apps | May bypass robots.txt for security or integrity checks |
If your old robots.txt blocked FacebookBot to keep content out of Meta's AI, the current equivalent is a rule for Meta-ExternalAgent.
A robots.txt that covers old and new tokens
User-agent: FacebookBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: meta-externalagent
Disallow: /
User-agent: meta-webindexer
Allow: /
The first group is legacy coverage. The second opts out of training. The third keeps Meta AI able to cite you; change it to Disallow: / if you want none of Meta's AI crawlers. Meta says its crawlers may cache robots.txt for up to 24 hours. Paste your file into the robots.txt checker to see how each token is treated.
Verifying a visit
There's no documented way to verify FacebookBot, because Meta no longer documents it. For the current crawlers, Meta recommends allow-listing by user agent or IP address but publishes no IP list or reverse-DNS method, so a user agent is all you have to go on.
Questions
- Is FacebookBot still active?
- Meta doesn't say. Its current Web Crawlers page doesn't list FacebookBot, and the old FacebookBot documentation URLs redirect to that page, which suggests it was retired or is no longer documented.
- Should I remove FacebookBot from my robots.txt?
- There's no need. A rule for a token that never visits does no harm, and it covers you if the old crawler still appears. Just don't rely on it: add rules for Meta-ExternalAgent and Meta-WebIndexer, the tokens Meta documents today.
- What is the FacebookBot user agent string?
- Meta no longer publishes one. Third-party lists give conflicting strings, and we couldn't confirm any of them from Meta, so this page doesn't list a user agent.
- Is FacebookBot the same as FacebookExternalHit?
- No. FacebookExternalHit is a separate, currently documented crawler that builds link previews when a URL is shared on Facebook, Instagram or Messenger. Blocking FacebookBot doesn't affect it.
- Which Meta crawler replaced FacebookBot for AI training?
- Meta doesn't describe any crawler as a replacement. Its current page says Meta-ExternalAgent crawls for use cases such as training foundation AI models, so that is the token to block if training is your concern.
Related crawlers
Sources
Checked against these pages on 2026-10-18. Operators change their crawlers; check the source before relying on a detail.