"To be clear, the core experience in our apps remains free," Instagram chief Adam Mosseri wrote in Threads on Tuesday, as Meta launched Meta One subscriptions globally.
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Meta One is a new subscription service spanning Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Meta AI, announced on September 15. It offers increased AI usage, additional expressive features, and professional tools for creators and businesses. Meta says it has launched more than 50 features and has logged 15 million subscriptions and trials to date.
"Subscriptions allow us to build things we otherwise couldn't, like features that are too niche or too expensive to bring to everyone, and provide them to the people who want them most," Mosseri wrote.
Meta launched plans for a product earlier this year, starting at $2.99 per month. These plans have seen strong retention, with WhatsApp Plus first appearing in testing in April.
The two plans for individuals are Core, at $7.99 per month, and Premium, at $19.99 per month. Both include features from Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp Plus, while adding more use of Meta’s more computationally intensive AI tools, including image and video creation and editing with Meta AI, powered by Muse models, and use of in-app tools like Restyle on Instagram. Premium offers the most scope for content creation with Meta AI.
Purchasing the three plans for individual apps separately costs about $11 per month. Meta began testing the $7.99 tier in May. The company declined to share exact usage limits for Core and Premium, noting that limits may vary by “country, surface, and system conditions.”
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Meta AI remains free for everyday use. In early testing, more than half of subscribers used both the AI and expression features in the packages. Restyle and voice effects on Instagram were among the top reasons people signed up.
Creator and business plans start at $14.99 per month, with pricing, benefits, and availability varying by region, app, and account. New features include an enhanced profile that displays a business’s website, locations, and reviews. Reels get a bold follow button, and people who interact with an account can receive automatic follow invitations.
Higher rankings in search results are also among the benefits. Meta plans to add Edits Plus, with more cloud storage and more use of the upcoming Edits assistant, and expand Meta One to its AI glasses.
Subscriptions help Meta diversify its revenue beyond digital advertising. The company averaged 3.60 billion daily active users on its apps earlier this year. BNP Paribas predicts the subscription push will add $13.5 billion to revenue by 2028, while Truist estimates it could add $20 billion by 2030.
The launch follows Muse, which Meta calls its first personal AI agent, which was released last week. In August, Meta also planned to price its Hatch agent at up to $199.99 per month.
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"They bring more features, more computing power, and more options for those who need them," wrote Rohan Shah, director of engineering for Meta One.
