[AI crawlers](https://www.crawlreadiness.com/crawlers) · Meta AI · Training only · Not scored

# FacebookBot

FacebookBot is Meta AI's training only crawler token. Blocking it costs nothing in the AI readiness score. 13.4% of the top 1,000 websites with a robots.txt block it.

Meta's current crawler page does not list it. Community lists say it gathered data for Meta's speech-recognition work. Kept so a robots.txt that names it is read correctly; it is not scored.

## Where this comes from

- **Community-listed; no vendor documentation.** Source: [developers.facebook.com](https://developers.facebook.com/docs/sharing/webmasters/web-crawlers/)
- **Honours robots.txt.**
- **Listed, not scored.** It cannot keep a site out of today's answers, so the check shows a block without deducting for it.

## In the top 1,000 websites

- **13.4% block it in robots.txt** (76 of the 569 sites with a robots.txt), as of 2026-10-12.
- Method, limits and the full data: [the October 2026 study of the top 1,000 websites](https://www.crawlreadiness.com/research/ai-crawler-access-october-2026).

## What blocking it costs

Nothing in today's answers, and nothing in the readiness score: FacebookBot only gathers training data, so blocking it is a policy choice about future models, not about being found. The check lists the block without deducting for it.

## The robots.txt lines

To let it in (a group that names the crawler replaces any wildcard rules for it, so this also lifts a `User-agent: *` block):

```
User-agent: FacebookBot
Allow: /
```

To keep it out:

```
User-agent: FacebookBot
Disallow: /
```

A rule in robots.txt is a request. Meta AI says this crawler honours it. The [robots.txt generator](https://www.crawlreadiness.com/tools/robots-txt) writes a whole file with the same split: block the training crawlers, keep the search and answer crawlers.

## Also from [Meta AI](https://www.crawlreadiness.com/crawlers/vendor/meta-ai)

- [`meta-externalagent`](https://www.crawlreadiness.com/crawlers/meta-externalagent) · AI answers
- [`meta-externalfetcher`](https://www.crawlreadiness.com/crawlers/meta-externalfetcher) · Fetches when a user asks

## Does FacebookBot get through on your site?

[Run the free check](https://www.crawlreadiness.com/): it reads your robots.txt against all 51 crawlers and tells you which ones can read you, and what to change.

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Source: https://www.crawlreadiness.com/crawlers/facebookbot