Meta Charges Consumers for Its First Personal AI Agent

Meta Platforms launched Muse on September 8, marking the company’s first personal AI agent. Available on iOS, Android, and WhatsApp, the secure virtual machine app handles autonomous tasks like sending emails and booking travel while introducing paid monthly tiers ranging from $20 to $100 for heavy users.

Meta Platforms has stepped into the consumer AI agent market with the September 8 launch of Muse, a tool built to handle complex, multi-step actions on behalf of everyday users. Unlike traditional chatbots that merely answer text prompts, the app is engineered to operate autonomously, opening browsers, filling out forms, and negotiating on your behalf. Built on the proprietary Muse Spark AI model, the platform is rolling out to U.S. users on iOS and Android, at muse.ai, and directly within WhatsApp.

Muse is designed around the way people already communicate, so talking to it works just like messaging another person. Once a person shares a goal with Muse, it helps them develop a personalized plan and coordinate their time and resources, then advances the work on its own. For tasks that take more time, Muse keeps working after people close the app, and comes back when something changes or when it needs approval, like before it sends an email or makes a purchase. It can turn a recipe reel saved on Instagram into a grocery list, suggest a menu for a dinner party, and remember friends’ dietary restrictions before sending invites.

While the agent offers a robust free tier, Meta is introducing paid subscription options for the first time on a personal AI product. Heavier users can select plans priced at $20 or $100 a month for more capacity. Meta has charged consumers before, including Meta Verified launched at $11.99 to $14.99 a month in 2023 and Meta One testing this spring at $7.99 and $19.99 a month, but Muse’s top plan costs five times as much as the priciest of those previous plans.

AI chief Alexandr Wang has said the vast majority of users should be able to do what they need within the free tier. The paid plans exist largely to cover computing costs for the heaviest users. Advertising made up about 98% of Meta’s $60.8 billion in second-quarter revenue. Every 1 million people paying $20 a month works out to about $240 million a year, while every 1 million on the $100 plan adds about $1.2 billion. Against an advertising business generating about $60 billion a quarter, even 5 million people on the $20 plan would amount to about half of 1% of annual revenue.

Raindrops Carry Tiny Electrical Charges That Corrode Car Surfaces

In the second quarter, the “other revenue” line in Meta’s family of apps segment topped $1 billion in a quarter for the first time, as chief financial officer Susan Li said on the July earnings call. That was 73% growth from the year-ago quarter’s $583 million, following about $884 million in this year’s first quarter. Meta’s capital expenditures are also high, with second-quarter capital expenditures reaching $31.1 billion and free cash flow shrinking to $784 million from $8.5 billion a year earlier, while full-year capital expenditures are expected to come in between $130 billion and $145 billion.

To handle sensitive actions like purchasing products or managing credentials, Muse runs on Muse Secure VM, a dedicated virtual machine that houses both the agent and a person’s data. Muse Secure VM has first-of-its-kind privacy, safety, and security protections engineered into it, running on its own dedicated computer in the cloud so no one else’s agent can reach it. A separate Sentinel agent runs on that same machine, kept apart from Muse at the system level. Nothing Muse does reaches the internet unless the Sentinel approves it, and it asks the person for permission when needed. Muse has no visibility into passwords or payment methods, and any credentials go into secure storage. People choose which apps Muse connects to, can view a complete audit trail of everything it has done and plans to do, can opt out of their interactions being used to train Meta’s AI models, and can disconnect a service whenever they want.

When executing commercial transactions, Muse can checkout with Link built by Stripe, becoming the first AI agent covered by Link’s purchase protections, which include free coverage for damaged or lost items, price drops, no-fee returns, and a return guarantee on eligible purchases. Link’s wallet for agents generates a one-time-use card so real card details stay hidden. Shop Pay is coming soon as another way to pay, along with 1Password support so Muse can use logins a person already has.

Financial analysis indicates that the new subscription plans will contribute a minimal share of overall revenue compared to Meta’s core advertising business. However, subscriptions are only the first way agents could make money.

Wang also told CNBC that Meta is exploring taking a cut of shopping transactions.