Meta-WebIndexer user agent
Operated by Meta
Meta-WebIndexer is Meta's crawler that indexes pages to improve the quality of Meta AI search results.
The Meta-WebIndexer bot at a glance
- Meta-WebIndexer is operated by Meta and indexes web pages so an AI search product can show and cite them in answers.
- The robots.txt token for Meta-WebIndexer is meta-webindexer.
- Blocking an AI search crawler has no effect on Google or Bing rankings.
- Meta-WebIndexer robots.txt support: Yes.
- Recommendation for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO): Allow.
What is Meta-WebIndexer?
Meta-WebIndexer navigates the web so Meta AI can find relevant, accurate pages when it searches for users.
Meta says allowing Meta-WebIndexer in robots.txt helps it cite and link to a site in Meta AI responses.
Should you block Meta-WebIndexer?
Allow Meta-WebIndexer unless it causes a measurable load problem.
| Effect on search rankings | Blocking an AI search crawler has no effect on Google or Bing rankings. |
|---|---|
| Effect on AI visibility | Blocking removes your pages from that AI search index, so its answers can no longer cite or link to your website. |
| Follows robots.txt | Yes |
| Recommendation | Allow |
How to block or allow Meta-WebIndexer
Put the robots.txt rule in the file at the root of every domain and subdomain, for example https://example.com/robots.txt. The token meta-webindexer is matched case-insensitively.
robots.txt: block
# Block Meta-WebIndexer
User-agent: meta-webindexer
Disallow: /robots.txt: allow
# Allow Meta-WebIndexer
User-agent: meta-webindexer
Allow: /robots.txt: partial
# Keep Meta-WebIndexer out of private areas only
User-agent: meta-webindexer
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Disallow: /cart/
Disallow: /checkout/
Disallow: /my-account/
Allow: /Nginx
# Nginx: return 403 to Meta-WebIndexer
if ($http_user_agent ~* "(meta\-webindexer)") {
return 403;
}Apache
# Apache .htaccess: return 403 to Meta-WebIndexer
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} (meta\-webindexer) [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F,L]Cloudflare WAF
# Cloudflare > Security > WAF > Custom rule, action: Block
(http.user_agent contains "meta-webindexer")How to verify real Meta-WebIndexer traffic
Meta publishes no IP list or reverse DNS pattern for Meta-WebIndexer, so the user agent cannot be verified. Anyone can send the same string. Rate-limit unusual volume instead of trusting the name.
How to find Meta-WebIndexer in your server logs
Search the web server access log for the token. The command below counts Meta-WebIndexer requests per URL on Nginx or Apache.
grep -i "meta-webindexer" access.log | awk '{print $7}' | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn | head -20For a full report per AI bot, upload the log to the AI Log File Analyzer, a free tool by Justin Hà.
Meta-WebIndexer user agent string
The full user agent Meta publishes for Meta-WebIndexer. Version numbers such as Chrome/W.X.Y.Z change over time, so match the token, not the whole string.
meta-webindexer/1.1Meta-WebIndexer FAQ
Meta-WebIndexer identifies itself with the robots.txt token "meta-webindexer". A typical request header reads: meta-webindexer/1.1
Yes. Meta states that Meta-WebIndexer follows robots.txt rules written for the "meta-webindexer" token.
Blocking an AI search crawler has no effect on Google or Bing rankings. Blocking removes your pages from that AI search index, so its answers can no longer cite or link to your website.
Add two lines to the robots.txt file at the root of each domain and subdomain: "User-agent: meta-webindexer" followed by "Disallow: /". The token is case-insensitive. Changes can take up to 24 hours to be picked up.
Not reliably. Meta publishes no IP list or reverse DNS pattern for Meta-WebIndexer, so anyone can send the same user agent. Rate-limit unusual volume instead of trusting the name.
Search your server access log for "meta-webindexer", for example with: grep -i "meta-webindexer" access.log. The AI Log File Analyzer by Justin Hà counts visits per AI bot from an uploaded log file.
Sources: Meta crawler documentation. Last reviewed by Justin Hà.
See which of these bots actually reach your website
The AI Log File Analyzer by Justin Hà counts visits from GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot and other AI crawlers in your server log, for free. The GEO Technical Package sets up robots.txt, llms.txt and crawler access for AI search.
