Facebook has started capping how many links a Page can post. Pages in Meta’s test get two posts or comments with a link per month for free. Past that, the post still goes up, but people in the test report that the web address turns into plain text: no preview, nothing to tap. Meta’s way around it is a paid plan called Meta One.
If you run a football club or a small business, the posts that carry a link are usually the ones that matter: registrations, tickets, bookings, the new blog post, the sponsor’s offer. So the Facebook link limit is worth ten minutes of your time, even if your Page hasn’t been hit yet.
What happened
Meta started this as “a limited test” in December 2025, tied to Meta Verified. On 15 September 2026 it launched Meta One, a range of paid plans for individuals, creators and businesses, and within days more Page managers were reporting the cap.
The rule now sits on Meta’s help page, “About links in organic Facebook Page posts and comments”. Pages in the test “can include links in up to 2 organic posts or comments per month.” The count resets on the 1st of each month and unused links don’t roll over.
The details that matter:
- Comments count. Putting the link in the first comment no longer gets around it.
- It counts posts, not URLs. A post with three links uses one of your two.
- Extra links in the comments of a post that already has a link don’t count.
- Links to Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads don’t count. Neither do links in ads.
The same help page says the limit “may not apply to all Pages”. Meta has never said which Pages are in the test, and it has not confirmed whether Australian Pages are included.
Who it hits
For most of Facebook, this barely registers. Meta’s own reporting for early 2026 found 98.7% of US post views had no external link in them.
The Pages that feel it are the ones whose link posts do the selling. A football club might post a fixture link, a ticket link, a registration link and a sponsor link in a single week. A conveyancer or a clinic might post every new article or booking page. Two a month doesn’t get you through the first week.
How to check your own Page
- Open the post composer on your Page and look for a small counter next to a link icon, or wording like “You can add links to 2 more posts this month.”
- Look for a Meta One row in your Professional dashboard.
- Open two or three recent link posts on your phone and tap the links. If they still show a preview and load the page, you’re clear for now.
Don’t rely on your scheduling tool telling you a post went out. Across the client Pages we manage, link posts kept publishing through our scheduler in October without a single error. That tells you less than you’d hope, because a capped post still publishes. The link just stops working. Meta also hasn’t said whether posts scheduled through third-party tools count the same way, so assume they do.
What to change for free
None of this costs anything, and it’s worth doing before your Page is capped.
Run a monthly hub post. One post with one link, pinned to the top of the Page, with every other link you need in its comments. Meta’s own rule allows this. It costs one of your two links and covers registrations, bookings, sponsors and the shop.
Move the destination off the caption. Use the website field in your Page intro and the action button under the cover photo (Book Now, Call, Get Quote). Put a short URL or a QR code in the graphic itself. Meta doesn’t list any of these as counting, though it hasn’t said they’re safe either.
Use Facebook’s own tools. A Facebook Event for a fixture, a function or a presentation night is a link to Facebook, which is exempt.
Spend your two links on purpose. Pick the posts that bring in money or sign-ups.
Put anything time-critical in an ad. Links in ads are exempt. Meta ads specialist Jon Loomer’s maths: an ad to your own followers at about US$10 a day likely does more than paying a monthly fee to post links organically, and those organic posts still aren’t guaranteed reach.
When paying makes sense
The cheapest plan that lifts the cap is Meta One Advanced, which takes you from two links to eight. Essential, the entry tier, gives you a verified badge and impersonation protection but leaves you at two.
| Plan | Reported price per month | Facebook link posts or comments per month |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 2 |
| Essential | A$22.99 | 2 |
| Advanced | A$76.99 | 8 |
| Expert | A$229 | 20 |
| Max | A$769 | Unlimited |
Before you weigh any of these, read the fine print below: each account is priced separately, verification starts automatically, and your name and category lock for the life of the plan.
The Australian prices are launch figures reported by Mediaweek and other trade press. No Australian Meta page shows them yet.
Advanced also brings scheduling, team access without shared passwords, deeper insights and one human support case a month. But a business posting two or three links a week is still capped at eight, and Meta’s own head of subscriptions has said the subscription “does not inherently give posts additional reach”.
What about Instagram, WhatsApp and the rest
Instagram. Links in posts and reels were never free and still aren’t. Advanced buys four post links and four reel links a month, Expert eight and eight, Max 12 and 12. Product links from a connected catalogue don’t count, and every tier comes with a bio link page holding up to 20 links. This is the one place paying can stack up, which we cover under Our position.
WhatsApp. WhatsApp Plus is a subscription for the personal app and means nothing for a business. WhatsApp Business under Meta One adds a verified badge, Meta’s AI Business Agent to answer customer messages after hours, broadcast credits from Advanced up, and more linked devices so several staff can run the number. Meta hasn’t added any restriction to WhatsApp, and click-to-chat links don’t count towards the Facebook cap.
Threads and Messenger. No tier of their own and no change. Links to Threads are exempt from the Facebook cap, and comment-to-DM automation that sends the link in a private reply is still allowed.
Edits. Meta has announced Edits Plus, with no price or date yet.
Instagram Plus and Facebook Plus. These consumer tiers are for individuals: story extras, custom icons, more pins. They do nothing for a Page.
One last catch: Meta says its paid benefits aren’t intended for government or political entities, so council-run facilities are out.
Our position
Our default for clients is to wait. The link cap can’t be waited out, which is why we’re changing how we post now, but the subscription can. Meta hasn’t confirmed Australian Pages are in the test. It has already changed the rules once since December (comments used to be exempt, now they count). And the fine print below makes signing up hard to undo.
There are two exceptions.
Essential, if you have an impersonation or badge problem right now. Fake accounts messaging your followers, scam ticket offers, someone running a copy of your Page. The badge and impersonation protection are the whole point of that tier.
Advanced, on Instagram only, if Instagram actually drives your bookings and you post links every week. For a business where Instagram is the booking channel, four post links and four reel links a month can pay for itself.
Nobody we work with should go near Expert or Max. At A$229 and A$769 a month per account, that money does more as ads or an email list.
The fine print that bites
Read this before anyone in your business taps subscribe. It all comes from the Meta One for Creators and Businesses Terms of Service and Meta’s own help pages.
It’s charged per asset. Each Facebook Page, each Instagram account and each WhatsApp Business number is its own subscription. A club that puts its Page and its Instagram on Advanced pays twice: about A$154 a month on the reported prices. The terms mention bundles but publish no bundle price. And the plan offered to each account depends on that account’s activity (profile visits, engagement, message volume), so your Page and your Instagram may not be offered the same thing.
Verification starts automatically, and here is what it involves. It starts automatically when you subscribe, and it can’t be skipped or paused.
- Pay the first month and subscribe in the app.
- Make sure the profile is complete: picture, cover photo, category, and enough activity to meet Meta’s minimum.
- Meta tries to verify you from your existing presence. If that fails, you prove the business one of four ways: a match against public records, uploaded business documents, government photo ID (front and back) for the person connected to the business, or a login to the business bank account.
- Confirm by email, SMS, phone call or a domain check through your web host.
- Wait up to three business days.
- Once it passes, your Business Portfolio is enrolled in Meta’s Advanced Protection, and every user on it has to enrol too, volunteers and agency staff included.
The badge only appears after verification passes.
The lock. Once you’re verified, your name, handle, bio and category are frozen for the life of the subscription. The only way to change any of them is to cancel, reapply, verify again and pay the initial fee again. A club changing its name, or a business rebranding or moving into a new category, starts the whole process over. If any of that is likely in the next year, wait.
Two more:
- No refunds. Cancel and you get nothing back, and any open support cases close with the subscription. Your rights under Australian Consumer Law still stand.
- Changing your business phone number revokes the whole subscription, including anything bundled with it.
What to do this week
- Check your Page for the counter, and tap through your last few link posts on a phone.
- Set up a pinned hub post for the rest of the month.
- Fill in the website field and the action button, and add a short URL or QR code to your graphic templates.
- Open Business Info in Meta Business Suite and check the Meta One management setting. Meta is emailing portfolio owners that from 31 October 2026 it turns on by itself, so anyone with access to your portfolio can buy a plan on your Page. Given the lock and the no-refund terms, decide who should be able to do that.
- If you’re tempted to pay, ask Meta Business Support in writing first, through the chat in Business Suite. Ask whether the cap is live on Australian Pages, whether posts from scheduling tools count, whether a boosted post uses an allowance, and whether the name and category lock applies to your Page.
Own the audience you can reach without asking
Your Facebook followers sit on Facebook’s platform, and Meta can change the price of reaching them whenever it likes.
An email list and an SMS list don’t come with a monthly link allowance. A club that collects emails at registration, or a business that asks for a mobile number at booking, can send the fixture, the ticket link or the offer straight to the people who asked for it. Build those lists alongside your socials, and use Facebook to grow them.
If you’d like us to check your Page and set up the free changes, get in touch.