Meta to charge for AI chatbots on WhatsApp in regulated regions

Meta announced on Wednesday that it will charge developers for running chatbots on WhatsApp in regions where regulators are forcing the company to allow them. The new pricing for non-template responses is scheduled to begin on February 16. Under this model, Meta plans to charge specific rates per message to developers for AI responses, which could include fees of $0.0691, €0.0572, or £0.0498 per message. These charges will apply to the WhatsApp Business API—the interface allowing businesses to integrate with WhatsApp. “Where we are legally required to provide AI chatbots through the WhatsApp business API, we are introducing pricing for the companies that choose to use our platform to provide those services,” a Meta spokesperson said.

This policy shift follows “anticompetitive probes” in the EU, Italy, and Brazil. The pricing is currently being introduced in Italy, where regulators forced the company to suspend its ban on third-party bots. The regulatory landscape remains fragmented; for instance, a court in Brazil recently overturned a preliminary order that had blocked Meta’s policy. Because of this court ruling, Meta is implementing these charges specifically where it is legally required to provide AI chatbot access, while continuing to restrict third-party bots in other jurisdictions.

Meta has defended the restrictions, which first began when the company announced in this past October that it would block third-party AI chatbots, a ban that took effect on January 15. According to Meta, its systems were not designed to handle responses from AI bots and were being strained by their emergence on the Business API. The company argued that WhatsApp is not a de facto app store, and that the route to market for AI companies should be traditional app stores, websites, and industry partnerships. Following the January 15 ban, developers have been forced to send pre-defined messages to redirect users to their own platforms. Major AI developers, including OpenAI, Perplexity, and Microsoft, had already announced last year that their WhatsApp bots would stop working after the ban took effect.

Why it matters

Meta’s move to monetize forced AI access in specific jurisdictions could set a precedent for how platforms handle regulatory mandates to open their ecosystems to third-party AI services.