Meta expands subscription push with new AI-focused plans

Meta has unveiled a new subscription service called Meta One, which provides users with enhanced AI usage and exclusive features across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. The service aims to monetize Meta's Muse AI models, following the company's $14.3 billion investment in Scale AI, which brought AI startup Alexandr Wang on board.

Meta's subscription plans come just months after it introduced tiered subscriptions for its flagship apps in March, which are already generating significant revenue. Instagram Plus, Facebook Plus, and WhatsApp Plus subscriptions, starting at $2.99, $3.99, and $2.99 per month, respectively, have already led to a 475% increase in Instagram's daily revenue and a 143% increase in Facebook's daily revenue.

Meta is now expanding its subscription offerings with two primary plans: the $7.99/month Core and $19.99/month Premium plans. Both plans provide access to AI tools like Muse Image and Muse Video for creating and editing images and videos, as well as the AI-powered Restyle tool for Instagram Stories. Subscribers can also enjoy more frequent access to voice effects and creative tools.

For businesses and creators, Meta offers several subscription tiers: Essential ($14.99/month and up), Advanced (starting at $49.99/month), Expert (starting at $149/month), and Max (starting at $499/month). Each tier provides different benefits, including profile customization, team member access to accounts, and more extensive business agent responses.

Meta plans to continue enhancing its subscription offerings, with plans to add Edits Plus for its content-creation app, Edits, which will include additional cloud storage and AI assistant usage. Despite the complexity of the new plans, this move could help Meta boost its top line and recoup some of its AI investments, potentially adding $13.5 billion in revenue by 2028 and $20 billion by 2030.