In a significant shift toward a "pay-to-play" model, Meta has begun testing a restrictive link-sharing cap on Facebook that targets professional accounts and business pages. The experiment, which surfaced in mid-December 2025, limits unverified users to just two organic posts containing external links per month. To bypass this limit and share more outbound content, Meta is prompting account holders to subscribe to Meta Verified, a monthly service that ranges in price from $14.99 for individuals to hundreds of dollars for large businesses.

The move was first spotted by social media consultants and later confirmed by Meta as a "limited test." According to a company spokesperson, the goal is to evaluate whether the ability to post a higher volume of links provides enough "added value" to make the Meta Verified subscription more attractive. By tying a core functional feature—sharing website traffic—to a paid tier, Meta is effectively placing a toll booth on the path between Facebook’s massive audience and the open web.

This strategy aligns with Meta’s long-standing effort to keep users within its own ecosystem. Recent company transparency reports indicate that posts containing external links account for less than 2% of all feed views in the United States, as the algorithm increasingly prioritizes native video and images. By restricting links, Meta not only incentivizes paid subscriptions but also reduces "leakage" to outside websites, ensuring that users spend more time consuming content and ads directly on the Facebook platform.

For small businesses and independent creators, the two-link limit presents a major hurdle for digital marketing. Many rely on Facebook to drive traffic to blogs, e-commerce stores, and event sign-up pages. While the restriction does not currently apply to links posted in the comments section or to links leading to other Meta-owned platforms like Instagram and WhatsApp, the friction created by the cap forces creators to either pay for the privilege of sharing or overhaul their entire content strategy.

As the test continues, industry experts are watching to see if the cap will expand to include major publishers, who are currently exempt. If the rollout becomes permanent and universal, it could fundamentally change the nature of Facebook from a discovery engine for the web into a walled garden where outbound traffic is a premium luxury. For now, unverified professional users must be highly selective, treating their two monthly link slots as high-value assets in an increasingly crowded and costly digital landscape.