Meta AI: Zuckerberg Unveils Plans for Premium Tier and Ads in Standalone App

Mark Zuckerberg is planning a premium tier and ads for Meta's AI app

Emma Roth is a news writer who covers the streaming wars, consumer tech, crypto, social media, and much more. Previously, she was a writer and editor at MUO. The Meta AI app could soon get a paid tier, similar to the ones offered by rivals like OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg described the plan during a Q1 2025 earnings call on Wednesday, saying there's an opportunity to offer a "premium service for people who want to unlock more compute or additional functionality" in Meta AI. As part of Meta's efforts to compete with ChatGPT, the company launched a standalone Meta AI app this week, allowing you to interact with the chatbot and generate images from within the app. The chatbot, which Meta says now has nearly 1 billion users, was previously only available within apps like Facebook, Messenger, and WhatsApp. OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google's Gemini, and Microsoft's Copilot all offer paid subscriptions that give users access to more advanced features and compute. Meta reported earning $42 billion in revenue over the past few months and revealed that it now expects to invest up to $72 billion on AI, rather than the up to $65 billion Zuckerberg announced previously. Additionally, Zuckerberg mentioned incorporating "product recommendations or ads" within Meta AI. It's not clear when ads, or a paid tier, might roll out, as Zuckerberg said, "I expect that we're going to be largely focused on scaling and deepening engagement for at least the next year before we'll really be ready to start building out the business."

Meta is a mulling ads and a 'premium' version of its AI assistant, Mark Zuckerberg says

The company will follow a similar playbook it used with Threads. One day after Meta rolled out its standalone AI app, Mark Zuckerberg has shared more about how the company plans to eventually monetize its generative AI assistant. During the company's first quarter earnings call, Zuckerberg said Meta AI could one day show ads and product recommendations. He also hinted at plans for a subscription component for those who want a more "premium" version of the assistant. "I think that there will be a large opportunity to show product recommendations or ads, as well as a premium service for people who want to unlock more compute for additional functionality or intelligence," Zuckerberg said. He added that for now the company is more focused on growing Meta AI's usage. (He announced yesterday that Meta Ai had reached "almost" 1 billion monthly users.) "I expect that we're going to be largely focused on scaling and deepening engagement for at least the next year before we'll really be ready to start building out the business here," he said. Zuckerberg's comments -- just one day after Meta introduced its standalone AI app -- underscores how important the assistant is to the company. The Facebook founder has repeatedly said he wants Meta AI to be the most used AI assistant in the world, and he said on Wednesday's call that a standalone app would be particularly important for attracting US users. Meta's strategy for monetizing the assistant in many ways mirrors its approach to Threads, which only just began its early experiments with ads this month long after it reached hundreds of millions of users. Speaking of Threads, Zuckerberg also shared some new milestones for Threads, saying that text-based app now has 350 million monthly active users and that time spent on the platform has increased 35 percent over the last six months thanks to improvements to the company's recommendations systems. Later in the call, Meta's CFO Susan Li shared that the company has also been testing its Llama model to power Threads' recommendations and that the addition of the large language model has led to a 4 percent increase in time spent. "It remains early here, but a big focus this year will be on exploring how we can deploy this for other content types, including photos and videos," she said.

Mark Zuckerberg to use Meta AI for taking advertising world head-on

Meta launched its AI assistant recently, signalling the entry of another rival with the likes of Google's Gemini, Open AI's ChatGPT, and Anthropic's Claude already leading the fray. "Our focus for this year is...making Meta AI the leading personal AI with an emphasis on personalisation, voice conversations, and entertainment," the Meta CEO said. "As AI unlocks more productivity in the economy, I expect that people will spend more of their time on entertainment and culture which will create an even larger opportunity to create more engaging experiences across all apps." The Meta AI app, launched in April, joins an already robust social media ecosystem including WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger. Currently, it's free for use across both iOS and Android devices. It comes with a Discover feed that allows users to share how they are using AI to generate results. This feature also signals an additional base for serving product recommendations or ads to users. "I think that there will be a large opportunity to show product recommendations or ads as well as a premium service for people who want to unlock more compute for additional functionality or intelligence," Zuckerberg said during the company's earnings call. However, he remained coy on finer details regarding when the subscription tiers will be released.

Mark Zuckerberg Touts A.I. Business Messaging as Future Revenue Focus

Business messaging is already popular in countries with low labor costs such as Thailand and Vietnam, said Zuckerberg. Meta beat analyst expectations in the first quarter, reporting $42.3 billion in revenue, up 16 percent from the year prior, and $16.6 billion in profit, up 35 percent. Advertising remained its dominant income source, generating $41.3 billion in the past quarter. While much of Meta's attention remains on advancing A.I., CEO Mark Zuckerberg emphasized a broader, longer-term vision: using A.I. to transform how businesses engage in commerce via messaging platforms. Sign Up For Our Daily Newsletter Sign Up Thank you for signing up! By clicking submit, you agree to our <a href="http://observermedia.com/terms">terms of service</a> and acknowledge we may use your information to send you emails, product samples, and promotions on this website and other properties. You can opt out anytime. See all of our newsletters "Business messaging should be the next pillar of our business," Zuckerberg told analysts on an earnings call yesterday (April 30). "Just like every business today has an email address, social media account and website, they'll also have an A.I. business agent that can do customer support and sales." Business messaging currently falls under Meta's "other" revenue segment, which rose 34 percent year-over-year to $510 million in the first quarter, driven largely by growth in WhatsApp sales. Business messaging is already popular in countries with low labor costs such as Thailand and Vietnam, said Zuckerberg, who said these two countries are among Meta's top nations by revenue, even though they rank much lower in global GDP. "This phenomenon hasn't yet spread to developed countries, because the cost of labor is too high to make this a profitable model before A.I. -- but A.I. should solve this," Zuckerberg said. Meta is already piloting A.I.-powered chatbots with select businesses on WhatsApp and Messenger, with plans to eventually roll them out more broadly. These assistants can handle customer inquiries and assist in sales, offering a scalable solution for companies looking to automate and personalize their communications. "We're already hearing positive feedback that our chatbots are saving businesses time and helping them identify what conversations to focus on," said Susan Li, Meta's chief financial officer, on yesterday's earnings call. Business messaging is just one of five downstream A.I. opportunities Zuckerberg outlined. Others include boosting advertising efficiency, enhancing content recommendations, popularizing personal A.I. devices like Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses, and further customizing the Meta AI assistant. To support this expansive vision, Meta is significantly increasing its A.I. infrastructure spend. After initially projecting 2024 capital expenditures between $60 billion and $65 billion, the company raised its estimate to a range of $64 billion to $72 billion, citing greater investments in data centers and hardware. Zuckerberg acknowledged that Meta doesn't need every A.I. initiative to succeed to justify this level of investment. "But if we do, then I think that we will be widely happy with the investments that we are making," he said.

Zuckerberg Outlines Paid Tier and Ads Are Coming to Meta AI App Soon

Meta AI already has over a billion users, and the company wants to invest $72 billion to further develop its AI model. It was earlier this week, when Meta launched their standalone Meta AI app for the public, following the likes of its biggest competitors like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot. Meta AI hasn't even started gaining traction, yet the company is already making plans to add a subscription tier and personalized ads and recommendations. In the Q1 2025 earnings report, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg talked about his plans for the future of Meta AI and where they want to take the app. He said, "premium service for people who want to unlock more compute or additional functionality". This is in line with other AI apps, which offer the latest models to users and priority service for those paying the subscription. Zuckerberg further talked about incorporating "product recommendations or ads" within Meta AI. Now, it isn't clear how this will work, or whether you need to pay to get rid of these ads or not. Plus, what can the AI suggest? But it is clear, his focus is on using the chatbot for business rather than innovation. Mark says that the chatbot already has a billion users, but it is unclear whether he is talking about people who engaged with Meta AI on Instagram, Facebook, or WhatsApp, or the standalone app itself. He also showed interest in investing over $72 billion in AI, which is a huge investment. Whether or not it actually pays off, only time will tell.

Meta AI may soon get ads and paid subscription tier with advanced features: Here's what we know

Meta's AI investment has increased to a massive $72 billion amid rising competition. After announcing a dedicated application, Facebook's parent company is now mulling over the introduction of a paid subscription tier for the Meta AI, to rival OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft. During the Q1 earning call, CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated that Meta is now considering a premium service for people who want to unlock more computing or additional functionality amid its rapidly expanding AI ecosystem. This comes after Meta introduced a standalone AI application for users globally that allows them to chat with AI, make pictures in the app, and position themselves against ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot. Till now, the Meta AI platform was available via Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Interestingly, the tech giant claimed that the chatbot has over 1 billion users. Also read: OnePlus 13s India launch soon: Expected price, features, specifications and more Mark Zuckerberg also stated that while monetisation is on the roadmap, the major focus still remains on the growing user base and engagement. "I expect that we're going to be largely focused on scaling and deepening engagement for at least the next year before we'll really be ready to start building out the business," he said as quoted by The Verge. The report stated that Meta is already laying the groundwork for potential monetization strategies, including a premium tier and even advertising or product recommendations integrated into the AI experience. However, the premiums, plans, and exact strategy behind it remain unknown at the time of writing this article. This comes after Meta increased its investment in artificial intelligence. As per the reports, the company has reported $42 billion in revenue in recent months and has now raised its AI investment target to as much as $72 billion. It is fair to assume that if Meta introduces a premium tier plan, the company will offer enhanced and new AI capabilities, much like its competitors. It remains to be seen when Meta will launch the new tiers and with what features.