Meta’s march toward paid social media began with modest add-ons. In March, it introduced separate Plus tiers for Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, offering features such as profile customisation, super reactions and story insights for a few dollars a month. The early returns were striking: Appfigures found Instagram’s daily worldwide revenue rose 475% in the week after the plans gained traction, while Facebook’s rose 143%.¹

Now Meta is extending that experiment. On Tuesday it launched Meta One, global subscription bundles that combine those app perks with expanded access to its Muse AI tools. The company says the “core experience” of its apps and Meta AI will remain free, but it is clearly reserving more image generation, video creation and editing capacity for paying users.²

For individuals, the choice is between Core at $7.99 a month and Premium at $19.99. Both package Facebook Plus, Instagram Plus and WhatsApp Plus; Premium buys more AI use. Meta has not disclosed firm usage limits, saying they can vary by country, product surface and system conditions.¹

The bigger commercial pitch is aimed at creators and businesses. Plans run from $14.99 to $499 monthly, adding verified badges, impersonation monitoring, customer-response capacity through Meta Business Agent, analytics and publishing tools. Higher tiers offer team access, more broadcast credits and deeper operational capacity.²

The strategy follows Meta’s $14.3 billion Scale AI investment in 2025 and its effort to monetise the Muse models now at the centre of the bundles. Meta also plans to fold in Edits, AI glasses and further agent capabilities over time. The proposition is simple, if increasingly crowded: social media stays free, but visibility, automation and serious AI output come with a bill.¹