Meta announced on Wednesday that it will charge developers for operating AI chatbots on WhatsApp in regions where regulators require the company to allow them. The policy targets Italy first, following a request from the country’s competition watchdog in December to suspend Meta’s chatbot ban for Italian phone numbers.
Meta’s ban on third-party AI chatbots using the WhatsApp Business API took effect on January 15. The company first revealed the block in October, stating its systems were not designed to handle AI responses and faced strain from them. Meta explained at the time: “The emergence of AI chatbots on our Business API put a strain on our systems that they were not designed to support. This logic assumes WhatsApp is somehow a de-facto app store. The route to market for AI companies is the app stores themselves, their websites, and industry partnerships; not the WhatsApp Business Platform.”
Pricing for non-template AI responses starts February 16. Developers will pay $0.0691, €0.0572 or £0.0498 per message. Developers could face high costs if users send thousands of queries daily. WhatsApp already charges for template messages, such as those for marketing, utility or authentication, including payment reminders and shipping updates.
Earlier this month, Meta notified developers of an exemption for Italian phone numbers, permitting AI chatbots to serve those customers without mentioning charges. A Meta spokesperson told TechCrunch: “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.”
In Brazil, the competition watchdog initially sought to suspend the policy, but a court ruled in Meta’s favor last week, overturning the preliminary order. Meta now instructs developers not to offer AI chatbots to Brazilian users. Instead, developers must send a pre-defined message redirecting users to their website or app.
Anticompetitive probes have emerged in regions including the EU, Italy and Brazil. Providers such as OpenAI, Perplexity and Microsoft stated last year that their WhatsApp bots would cease functioning after January 15, directing users to other platforms.
