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Instagram head Adam Mosseri confirmed the subscription shift as Meta starts passing AI infrastructure costs to consumers, changing how creators budget for production tools and ending the era of unlimited free generative features.
Instagram will start charging creators for AI features once they hit daily usage limits, Instagram head Adam Mosseri confirmed in a weekly Q&A on Instagram Stories. The company has already implemented restrictions on effects powered by its Muse image model, and when users reach the cap, they're prompted to subscribe to Meta to continue using the AI tools.
Meta introduced Meta One on September 15, the umbrella subscription service that bundles higher AI usage limits with paid features across Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp and Meta AI. Core costs $7.99 per month and includes Instagram Plus, Facebook Plus and WhatsApp Plus, along with more image and video generation through Meta AI, plus higher usage of Instagram features such as Restyle and voice effects. Premium costs $19.99 per month and includes everything in Core, with higher AI usage allowances.
The shift marks the first time Meta has charged directly for the generative tools creators use to produce content, rather than simply monetising the distribution of that content through ads.
Mosseri explained that AI models "are very expensive to run", and Meta would prefer to keep as many features free as possible, "but at some point it costs, the servers they add up too much, and we have to actually either throttle people or ask them to pay".
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