Facebook Access Tokens in a nutshell

Three different types of access tokens

APP access tokens

are used to get information that your app is privileged to access from the Facebook Graph API. And in some cases where publish_stream is granted from an app user, you can use it to post to that user's wall, without needing a USER access token.

USER access tokens

are given to your app and they relate to the permissions a specific app user has granted to your application so you app can act on their behalf when interacting with the Facebook Graph API.

PAGE access tokens

are given to page admins so they can act on behalf of the page. To go from a user access token to a page access token, call /me/accounts using the user access token to get a list of pages they admin along with each pages access tokens.

Useful tips

If you have an access token and you want to know more information about it, lint it at Facebook's URL and access token debugger.

For more information on access tokens see: Facebook's authentication documentation.