---
title: "Meta-ExternalAgent: user agent and token | Agent Ready Crawlers"
description: "Meta-ExternalAgent from Meta: exact user-agent string, robots.txt token meta-externalagent, training purpose and how to verify it. Read 2026-11-04."
canonical: https://agentreadycrawlers.com/crawlers/meta-externalagent
site: "Agent Ready Crawlers"
last_updated: 2026-11-04
section: "Crawlers"
---

# Meta-ExternalAgent: user agent and token | Agent Ready Crawlers

> Meta-ExternalAgent from Meta: exact user-agent string, robots.txt token meta-externalagent, training purpose and how to verify it. Read 2026-11-04.

Source: https://agentreadycrawlers.com/crawlers/meta-externalagent
Site: Agent Ready Crawlers
Last reviewed: 2026-11-04

Training crawler from Meta

# Meta-ExternalAgent

In short

Meta-ExternalAgent is Meta's training crawler. The token to write in robots.txt is meta-externalagent. The operator publishes nothing a site can check. 16.0 percent of 5,938 top-10,000 sites with a parsed robots.txt disallow it at the root (crawl of 2026-11-04). Meta documents blocking with a robots.txt disallow for the crawler; the file may be cached up to 24 hours.

Operator

[Meta](https://agentreadycrawlers.com/crawlers/operator/meta/) Vendor profile: [Meta](https://agentreadycrawlers.com/vendors/meta/)

Purpose

Training [All training rows](https://agentreadycrawlers.com/crawlers/purpose/training/). Collects content to train or tune a model. Refusing it is the training opt-out.

User-agent string

`meta-externalagent/1.1 (+https://developers.facebook.com/docs/sharing/webmasters/web-crawlers)`

robots.txt token

`meta-externalagent` Matched case-insensitively (RFC 9309). The token and the user-agent string are different things.

Respects robots.txt

Yes, per operator

Meta documents blocking with a robots.txt disallow for the crawler; robots.txt may be cached up to 24 hours. [Source](https://developers.facebook.com/docs/sharing/webmasters/web-crawlers/), read 2026-11-04.

Verification

Nothing published

The operator publishes no list, reverse DNS pattern or key directory a site owner can check. [Documentation](https://developers.facebook.com/docs/sharing/webmasters/web-crawlers/), read 2026-11-04.

IP ranges

Not published.

Rate behaviour

Not published.

Block rate

**16.0%** of 5,938 top-10,000 sites with a parsed robots.txt disallow `Meta-ExternalAgent` at the root (950 sites). 12.3% name it; 3.7% refuse it only through a \* group. Rank 6 of 31 tokens measured.

Across all 8,624 parsed robots.txt files in the crawl: 12.0% (9.4% named). Crawl of 2026-11-04; [report](https://agentreadycrawlers.com/block-rates/).

Documentation

[developers.facebook.com](https://developers.facebook.com/docs/sharing/webmasters/web-crawlers/), read 2026-11-04.

Note. Crawls for training foundation AI models or indexing content directly, per Meta. Meta publishes no IP list or reverse-DNS pattern on this page.

## Allow and refuse lines

### To allow meta-externalagent

User-agent: meta-externalagent
Allow: /

### To refuse meta-externalagent

User-agent: meta-externalagent
Disallow: /

Refusing or allowing in robots.txt states a preference. Enforcement of a refusal belongs in your WAF; see how to verify the identity above.

## Meta in the Verification Ledger

User agent strings only; the page recommends IP allowlisting but links no list. Publishes nothing for Muse. [All operators](https://agentreadycrawlers.com/verification/).

IP lists

publishes nothing

Reverse DNS

publishes nothing

Key directory

publishes nothing

Cloudflare

not checked

Visa TAP registry

no public operator-level registration found (checked 2026-11-04)

Mastercard Agent Pay

no public operator-level registration found (checked 2026-11-04)

## In the news

-   2026-10-15[DataDome Q3 report: 25 billion AI agent requests](https://agentreadycrawlers.com/news/2026-10-15-datadome-q3-report-25-billion-ai-agent-requests/)

## Other Meta rows

-   [Meta-ExternalFetcher](https://agentreadycrawlers.com/crawlers/meta-externalfetcher/) Live answer fetch token meta-externalfetcher
-   [Meta-WebIndexer](https://agentreadycrawlers.com/crawlers/meta-webindexer/) Search index token meta-webindexer
-   [Meta-ExternalAds](https://agentreadycrawlers.com/crawlers/meta-externalads/) Other token meta-externalads
-   [FacebookExternalHit](https://agentreadycrawlers.com/crawlers/facebookexternalhit/) Other token facebookexternalhit
-   [FacebookBot (legacy token)](https://agentreadycrawlers.com/crawlers/facebookbot/) Other token FacebookBot
-   [Muse (personal agent)](https://agentreadycrawlers.com/crawlers/meta-muse/) Shopping agent no token

## Sources

-   [Meta Web Crawlers](https://developers.facebook.com/docs/sharing/webmasters/web-crawlers/) read 2026-11-04

Last reviewed 2026-11-04