Meta today launched paid subscription plans for Instagram Plus, Facebook Plus and WhatsApp Plus priced at $2.99–$3.99 per month. The new plans were announced by Meta Head of Product Naomi Gleit this morning, days after WhatsApp Plus subscriptions began being offered to users in Malaysia for RM 3.50 per month.
Gleit said the plans are available to all global users, but we have yet to see Instagram Plus and Facebook Plus available in Malaysia at the time of writing. All three plans do not replace the Meta Verified plan, which continues to provide account holder identity verification, impersonation protection and additional support.
The Instagram Plus and Facebook Plus plans give subscribers access to features such as Super reactions, seeing how many people have rewatched a Story, creating unlimited audience lists for Stories, highlighting Stories once a week for additional views, extending Stories beyond 24 hours, seeing who is watching and more.
WhatsApp Plus also offers additional themes, custom ringtones, more pinnable chats, premium stickers and more. Meta says more exciting features will be added over time.
The Meta One plan is also being tested, targeting users who want to access Meta AI’s features more extensively. The Meta One Plus ($7.99/month) and Meta One Premium ($19.99/month) plans are initially offered. Premium offers higher computing capacity, a more immersive thinking mode, and more image and video generation capabilities. The Meta One plan will be tested in Singapore, Guatemala, and Bolivia first.
The professional plans for content creators and businesses, Meta One Essential ($14.99/month) and Meta One Advanced ($49.99/month), will also be tested in Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Thailand, and Bangladesh.
These two professional plans provide features such as Verified badges, identity masking protection, priority in Facebook & Instagram searches, deeper analytics tools, and more for influencers looking to grow their following.
As predicted, with the cost of using AI features and the barriers to using users' personal data introduced, Meta now needs to find new ways to generate revenue. Subscription plans to access premium features are already offered by OpenAI, Google, X, and Anthropic. Meta is simply following the trend where previously free services are now paid.
