01 · Operator
Who operates Facebot
- Company
- Meta (Facebook)
- Type
- Social preview bot
02 · Behavior
What Facebot does
Facebot identifies itself with the short user agent Facebot/1.0. Bot databases link it to Meta's former crawler documentation. Meta's current web crawler page no longer lists Facebot, so its present use is unclear.
03 · Impact
Why Facebot matters for your site
If you allow it
- Operated by Meta, a major platform
- May support how your content appears on Meta services
If you block it
- Purpose no longer documented by Meta
- No direct search visibility
04 · Allow
How to allow Facebot
robots.txt
User-agent: Facebot
Allow: /Cloudflare
# Security › WAF › Custom rules › Create rule
Expression: (http.user_agent contains "Facebot")
Action: Skip › All Super Bot Fight Mode rules
# Also check Security › Bots: "Block AI bots" can block it regardless of robots.txt.WordPress
# WordPress serves a virtual robots.txt. Edit it with your SEO plugin:
# Yoast: SEO › Tools › File editor · Rank Math: General Settings › Edit robots.txt
User-agent: Facebot
Allow: /nginx
# nginx serves every user agent by default.
# Make sure no rule like this blocks it:
# if ($http_user_agent ~* "Facebot") { return 403; }Apache
# Apache serves every user agent by default.
# Make sure .htaccess has no rule like this:
# RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Facebot [NC]
# RewriteRule .* - [F,L]05 · Block
How to block Facebot
Start with robots.txt. If Facebot keeps showing up in your logs, block it at your CDN or web server.
robots.txt
User-agent: Facebot
Disallow: /Cloudflare
# Security › WAF › Custom rules › Create rule
Expression: (http.user_agent contains "Facebot")
Action: BlockWordPress
# WordPress serves a virtual robots.txt. Edit it with your SEO plugin:
# Yoast: SEO › Tools › File editor · Rank Math: General Settings › Edit robots.txt
User-agent: Facebot
Disallow: /nginx
# In your server { } block:
if ($http_user_agent ~* "Facebot") {
return 403;
}Apache
# .htaccess
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Facebot [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]
</IfModule>06 · User agents
User agents we see for Facebot
The user agent published by the operator:
Facebot/1.007 · Verification
Is it really Facebot?
Facebot’s operator publishes no IP ranges or hostnames, so requests cannot be verified. Treat the user agent as a claim, and watch your logs for unusual request rates.
FAQ
Questions about Facebot
Who operates Facebot?
Facebot belongs to Meta (Facebook). Bot databases link it to Meta's developer documentation on sharing.
Is Facebot still documented by Meta?
Meta's current web crawler page lists FacebookExternalHit and the Meta-* crawlers, but not Facebot.
How do I block Facebot?
Add "User-agent: Facebot" followed by "Disallow: /" to your robots.txt, or block the user agent on your server.
Last reviewed Oct 8, 2026