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When to use

Add this to the top of the External links section whenever:

• There are too many links for this article. (Most editors object to more than about eight or sometimes ten links, but the best number for a given article depends on the specific circumstances, and may range from zero to more than a dozen.)
• One or more of the links present (regardless of number) are inappropriate for any reason.

If there are external links within the body of an article (which is almost always inappropriate), this tag should be placed at the top of the article instead.

Please consider fixing the problem yourself, rather than using this tag to ask someone else to do it. Don't forget to remove this template when the concerns appear to have been resolved.

Usage

Use:

{{External links|date=October 2026}} or

{{External links|section|date=October 2026}} to apply to a single section

This template will categorize tagged articles into Category:Wikipedia external links cleanup.

• This template is a self-reference.
• Please do not substitute this template.

If this is a perennial problem, consider using {{subst:No more links}} in the external links section.

TemplateData

This is the TemplateData for this template used by TemplateWizard, VisualEditor and other tools. See a monthly parameter usage report for Template:External links in articles based on its TemplateData.

TemplateData for External links

<templatedata> { "description": "Use this cleanup template to indicate that an article's use of external links may not follow Wikipedia's policies or guidelines.", "format": "inline", "params": { "1": { "label": "Affected area", "description": "Text to replace the word \"article\", usually \"section\"", "type": "line", "autovalue": "section", "example": "section" }, "date": { "label": "Month and year", "description": "The month and year that the template was placed (in full). \"{{subst:CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{subst:CURRENTYEAR}}\" inserts the current month and year automatically.", "type": "line", "autovalue": "{{subst:CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{subst:CURRENTYEAR}}", "example": "January 2026", "suggested": true } }, "paramOrder": [ "date", "1" ] } </templatedata>

See also

• Wikipedia:External links
• Wikipedia:Template index/Cleanup
• {{External links inline}} – inline template for tagging individual external links that may be inappropriate
• {{Advert}}
• {{No more links}} – a similar message is inserted as a <!-- comment -->
• {{Further reading cleanup}} – banner template for cleaning up non-website lists
• {{Overlinked}}
• {{Cite web}}
• {{Cleanup bare URLs}}

The above documentation is transcluded from Template:External links/doc. (edit | history)
Editors can experiment in this template's sandbox (create | mirror) and testcases (create) pages.
Add categories to the /doc subpage. Subpages of this template.