The Walled Web Newsletter

AI bots we track / AI search

Who blocks Meta-WebIndexer?

Meta-WebIndexer is Meta's bot for AI search. Blocking it usually means the site stops showing up as a source in that company's AI answers. Meta implies it obeys robots.txt: "Allowing Meta-WebIndexer in your robots.txt file helps us cite and link to your content in Meta AI's responses." Source

17of 159
sites block it from the whole site
6of 17
of those name it in robots.txt
1of 159
block it from part of the site
3of 159
name it and let it in

Out of the 159 tracked sites whose robots.txt we could read. Test any other name.

Share of sites blocking Meta-WebIndexer, Jan 2023 to now

The same 143 sites in every month. Before this bot existed, sites that block every bot they don't name already kept it out.

Meta-WebIndexer 10%
0%5%10%15%20%2023202420252026Meta-WebIndexer 10%0%5%10%15%20%'23'24'25'26
Table view
MonthMeta-WebIndexerSites with a file
Jan 20234%143
Feb 20234%143
Mar 20234%143
Apr 20234%143
May 20234%143
Jun 20234%143
Jul 20234%143
Aug 20234%143
Sep 20234%143
Oct 20234%143
Nov 20234%143
Dec 20234%143
Jan 20244%143
Feb 20244%143
Mar 20244%143
Apr 20245%143
May 20244%143
Jun 20244%143
Jul 20244%143
Aug 20244%143
Sep 20243%143
Oct 20243%143
Nov 20243%143
Dec 20244%143
Jan 20253%143
Feb 20253%143
Mar 20254%143
Apr 20254%143
May 20255%143
Jun 20255%143
Jul 20255%143
Aug 20254%143
Sep 20254%143
Oct 20256%143
Nov 20256%143
Dec 20256%143
Jan 20266%143
Feb 20266%143
Mar 20266%143
Apr 20267%143
May 20268%143
Jun 202610%143
Jul 202610%143
Aug 202610%143
Sep 202610%143
Oct 202610%143

Blocked by name (6)

AmazonThe New York TimesThe New YorkerUSA TodayWIREDX

Blocked by the general rules for all crawlers (11)

InstacartYelpNextdoorThe Wall Street JournalRedditFacebookInstagramLinkedInPinterestThreadsIMDb

Blocked from part of the site (1)

Quora

Named and allowed (3)

NordstromIndeedReuters

Recent changes

  • May to Sep 2026
    IMDb Now blocked: ClaudeBot, Applebot-Extended, Meta-ExternalAgent, Bytespider, MistralAI-Training, AI2Bot, OAI-SearchBot, Claude-SearchBot and 9 more.
    More blocking
  • Jun 2026
    Amazon Now blocked: Meta-WebIndexer.
    More blocking
  • Apr to Jun 2026
    USA Today Now blocked: Amzn-SearchBot, Meta-WebIndexer, Perplexity-User, Google-Agent and Amzn-User.
    More blocking
  • Jun 2026
    The Wall Street Journal Now blocked: MistralAI-Training, AI2Bot, Claude-SearchBot, Amazonbot, Amzn-SearchBot, DuckAssistBot, MistralAI-Index, Meta-WebIndexer and 5 more.
    More blocking
  • Feb to May 2026
    Pinterest Now blocked: MistralAI-Training, AI2Bot, OAI-SearchBot, Claude-SearchBot, Amazonbot, Amzn-SearchBot, MistralAI-Index, Meta-WebIndexer and 5 more.
    More blocking
  • Apr 2026
    The New York Times Now blocked: Meta-WebIndexer.
    More blocking
  • Feb 2026
    Reddit Now blocked: GPTBot, ClaudeBot, Google-Extended, Applebot-Extended, CCBot, Meta-ExternalAgent, Bytespider, MistralAI-Training and 17 more.
    More blocking
  • Oct 2025
    The New Yorker Now blocked: ClaudeBot, Claude-SearchBot, DuckAssistBot, Meta-WebIndexer, Claude-User, Perplexity-User, Meta-ExternalFetcher and MistralAI-User. Now allowed: anthropic-ai.
    Mixed
  • Oct 2025
    WIRED Now blocked: ClaudeBot, Claude-SearchBot, DuckAssistBot, Meta-WebIndexer, Claude-User, Perplexity-User, Meta-ExternalFetcher and MistralAI-User. Now allowed: anthropic-ai.
    Mixed
  • Jul to Sep 2025
    Reddit Now partly blocked: GPTBot, ClaudeBot, Google-Extended, Applebot-Extended, CCBot, Meta-ExternalAgent, Bytespider, MistralAI-Training and 17 more.
    Less blocking
  • Aug 2025
    OpenTable Now blocked: GPTBot, ClaudeBot, Google-Extended, Applebot-Extended, CCBot, Meta-ExternalAgent, Bytespider, MistralAI-Training and 10 more.
    More blocking
  • May 2025
    Reddit Now blocked: GPTBot, ClaudeBot, Google-Extended, Applebot-Extended, CCBot, Meta-ExternalAgent, Bytespider, MistralAI-Training and 17 more.
    More blocking