# DataDome: Meta's crawlers drove half of Q3 AI agent traffic

Published: 2026-10-19T07:11:14.810Z · Source: Help Net Security (https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2026/10/19/datadome-ai-agent-traffic-report/)
Source date: 2026-10-19
Flags: DataDome study — vendor-published

AI agent traffic across DataDome's network grew 41.5% quarter over quarter to nearly 25 billion requests in Q3 2026, up from about 17.7 billion in Q2, per DataDome's Q3 AI Traffic Report covered by Help Net Security. Meta's Meta-ExternalAgent and Meta-WebIndexer crawlers combined for 12.4 billion of those requests — 49.7% of the total, down from 51.5% in Q2, as non-Meta agents grew traffic faster (47% quarter over quarter) than Meta's own crawlers did. Meta's new agentic browser, Muse, separately logged 29.1 million requests in its first 12 days of availability (Sept. 22–Oct. 3). DataDome's report does not break out how much of that traffic serves live AI-answer queries versus model training — a split Cloudflare data has drawn before, putting AI crawler traffic overall at 52% training versus 2.6% live answers as of June 2026.

Why it matters: Meta's crawlers still move more AI agent traffic than any rival, but DataDome's own count shows that lead narrowing as rivals' traffic grows faster than Meta's.

## What this answers

**Which company's AI bots generate the most traffic to websites?**

Meta's Meta-ExternalAgent and Meta-WebIndexer crawlers combined for 49.7% of all AI agent traffic across DataDome's network in Q3 2026 — 12.4 billion of nearly 25 billion requests, per DataDome's Q3 AI Traffic Report.

**Is Meta's share of AI bot traffic growing or shrinking?**

Shrinking, even as the raw volume climbs: DataDome found Meta's share slipped to 49.7% in Q3 from 51.5% in Q2, because non-Meta agents grew faster quarter over quarter (47%) than Meta's own crawlers did.


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