Public Pages Hit By Meta Link Fees

Meta is charging $50 or more per month for Facebook links that public agencies and small charities have posted for free, and the company's own account says its systems should not be applying the limits to them. The company tested paid link sharing for nearly a year under Meta Verified, then moved the feature into Meta One, a subscription tier built around AI tools.

The subscription tiers set hard numbers on how many links a page can post. The $14.99 monthly plan includes no extra link sharing. Eight links cost $49.99 per month, 20 links cost $149.99, and unlimited links cost $499.99. A Meta spokesperson said in an October 23, 2026 update that a page must list "nonprofit" in its category section for Meta's systems to recognize it as such.

Daniel Starks, communications manager for Greenville, Texas, a city of about 35,000, runs close to a dozen city Facebook pages. The city library page received a notice capping it at two links per month, and both were already spent. Starks said more than half of the city's communication points residents to its website. He told staff to stop putting links in posts, move URLs into comments, and he made a graphic telling followers about the change. "When you have an official governmental entity that is trying to get out in some instances very, very, important information, and we're being paywalled by Facebook all because we're trying to post a link, that's a problem," he said.

Bethany English, co-president of East Side Pawject in Indianapolis, organized pet food pantries on a page with just under 1,000 followers. She found last week she could not add a website link to an event post because the two monthly links were spent. An "expert" plan with 20 links per month would cost $150. English is considering creating dedicated Facebook events or having board members post links from personal profiles, which remain exempt.

Jeff Bannister, marketing manager at SparkPoint, a North Carolina nonprofit serving Transylvania County, called $50 for eight links "crazy" and said the return on investment "seems almost negative." He is looking into ways for local nonprofits to share information with one another to depend less on Facebook, though he said much of the county remains on the platform.

David Diskin, president of California Freethought Day, an annual civic engagement event in Sacramento, was told of the limit earlier this month, days before the event. He was quoted $40 monthly for eight links, $119 for 20, or $399 for unlimited. The restriction was lifted this week without explanation. "It wasn't until after our big fundraiser had passed that they fixed the problem," he said.

A Meta spokesperson said the company has been "testing whether sharing links on Facebook should be part of the Meta One subscription" and will keep evolving the experience based on feedback. It remains unclear why organizations that state their status elsewhere, or that use Meta's fundraising tools, are not identified.