The Keyword Filter Limit on a Facebook Page

Method 1: Find out where you really are against the cap

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Before you decide you need more than 1,000 words, find out how many of the ones you have are earning their slot. This takes about ten minutes and almost always ends with a shorter list that catches more.

1. 1Open the list you already haveGo to your Page, then Settings, then Privacy, then Public Posts. Scroll to Content Moderation and click Edit. Copy everything in the box into a plain text file so you can see it all at once. The box is not built for reading a long list, only for adding to one.
2. 2Count what is actually in thereEntries are separated by commas, so paste the list somewhere that counts them rather than trusting your memory of it. Most people worried about the cap are between 100 and 400, and the surprise is how few of those are distinct ideas.
3. 3Delete every spelling variation you added by handThis is where the list shrinks. Facebook already hides common misspellings, plurals, abbreviations, and versions written with numbers or symbols, and none of those count toward your 1,000. So if you have the singular and the plural, keep the singular. If you have the word and the version with a zero in it, keep the word. Every pair like that was a slot you paid for and got nothing back.
4. 4Delete the words that were never the problemLook for the ones you added in a bad week. A competitor's name you have not seen in a year. A word from one argument. These are not catching anything, and each one is a slot and a small chance of hiding a customer.
5. 5Save, then get your real numberPaste the pruned list back in and save. Now you know your true count and how much room you have. If you are still near the cap after this, that is a real signal, and it is the one the last section of this guide is about.

Method 2: Make each of the 1,000 slots earn its place

A slot holds a word or a whole phrase for the same price. Once you know that, the way you write the list changes, and so does what it catches.

1. 1Spend slots on phrases, not on wordsAn entry can be several words long. "Message me on whatsapp" is one slot, and it catches a specific thing scammers do. The word "message" is also one slot, and it catches your customers asking a question. Same cost, opposite result. When a word feels too broad to add, the fix is almost never to skip it, it is to add the phrase you were actually worried about.
2. 2Add the root, not the familySince Facebook does plurals and misspellings for you, one entry per idea is enough. Adding the word, the plural, and the two spellings you have seen is four slots for one idea, and the last three were free anyway.
3. 3Test whether short words hide innocent onesThis is the trap worth ten minutes. Facebook does not publish whether a short entry matches inside a longer word, so find out on your own Page rather than guessing. Add one short entry, post a test comment containing an innocent longer word that has it inside, and look at what happens. If the innocent comment gets hidden, every short entry on your list is doing that quietly, and phrases are the fix.
4. 4Check the log instead of trusting the listA list nobody has checked in six months is not a filter, it is a guess that has never been marked. Read your activity log once a month and delete anything that only ever catches customers.

Why the cap is not the real limit

A thousand sounds like a lot until you notice what it is a thousand of. It is not a thousand rules or a thousand ideas. It is a thousand guesses about what someone will type next.

• The list is finite and the language is not

  That is the whole thing, in one line. There is no number Facebook could raise the cap to that would fix it, because the people writing the comments are inventing wording faster than you can enter it, and they only have to find one word you did not think of.

• Every entry is a bet, and losing bets stay on the list

  A word you added catches things forever or catches nothing forever, and the list never tells you which. So it fills with entries that once mattered, and only you can find them.

• The worst comments contain no keyword at all

  "Anyone else still waiting on their order?" has nothing to filter. No profanity, no link, no banned word. It sits under your best ad and does more damage than anything on your list, and no entry you can write would catch it without also catching real questions.

• Broad words cost you customers quietly

  The entries that catch the most are the short, common ones, and they are the same ones most likely to sit inside a word somebody innocent used. You never see that cost, because a wrongly hidden compliment does not complain.

• Somebody has to keep it current

  One list, per Page, forever, updated by whoever noticed the last thing that got through. That is usually you, at night, on your phone, adding word number 341.

None of this makes the list bad. It makes it what it is: a very good way to block wording you have already seen, on a Page where the wording changes every week.

When the list does not behave

• Why does the box not let me add another word?

  You are probably at the cap, and the fix is pruning rather than choosing what to sacrifice. Copy the list out, remove every plural, misspelling, and number or symbol version of a word you already have, since Facebook covers those for free, then paste it back. Most lists lose a third of their entries without losing a single thing they were catching.

• Why did adding one word hide comments that look fine?

  Almost always a short entry sitting inside longer, innocent words. Open your activity log, find what got hidden, and look at which entry could be inside it. Then replace that word with the phrase you actually meant, rather than discovering the cost in a month of quietly hidden compliments.

• Why is my list still missing the spam I added words for?

  Check that you saved in your Page's Settings under Privacy and Public Posts rather than in Meta Business Suite, which does not hold this setting. Then check the wording. The filter only knows the characters you typed and the obvious variations of them, so spam that reworded itself is new spam as far as the list is concerned.

• Why do my two Pages catch different things with the same list?

  The list is per Page and does not sync. If you built it on one Page and assumed it applied everywhere, the others are running whatever they had. Export the good list, upload it to each Page, and check the count matches on all of them.