Meta’s AI Subscription Push Tests Whether It Can Earn Beyond Ads

CNBC reported Saturday that Meta is pushing aggressively into paid AI products as it tries to build a meaningful business outside digital advertising for the first time.

Meta Rolls Out Paid AI Tiers

The company announced this week it will pilot two paid subscription options for its Meta AI app. Pricing will sit at $7.99 and $19.99 per month, based on features available. Initial markets include Singapore, Guatemala, and Bolivia. Simultaneously, Meta launched premium subscription tiers across Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp. CEO Mark Zuckerberg also told shareholders at the company’s annual meeting that entering cloud computing is “definitely on the table.” That would place Meta in direct competition with Amazon, Microsoft, and Google. Analysts at Wolfe Research estimated the AI subscription push could generate up to $3 billion in 2027 revenue, scaling toward $16 billion by 2030.

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A Stubborn Ad Dependency Shapes the Challenge

Nearly 98% of Meta’s $56.3 billion in first-quarter revenue came from advertising. That figure reflects just how dominant — and entrenched — the company’s ad business remains. Meta and Google together hold an outsized share of U.S. digital advertising. The online ad market is currently performing strongly, with Meta posting its fastest quarterly growth since 2021. But the spread of AI-driven interfaces is raising longer-term questions. If users increasingly get information through conversational AI tools rather than traditional social feeds, ad exposure could eventually decline.

A History of Stumbles Outside Advertising

Meta’s record of monetizing anything beyond ads is, at best, mixed. The Portal video-calling device launched in 2018 and was pulled from shelves four years later. The $2 billion acquisition of VR startup Oculus in 2014 has yet to yield a breakout product. Meta’s Reality Labs unit has accumulated more than $80 billion in operating losses since late 2020. A cryptocurrency initiative launched in 2019 under the name Libra collapsed under regulatory pressure by 2022. Workplace, a business chat tool introduced in 2016, was also quietly wound down. The Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses represent a genuine bright spot, though they remain a niche product.

Also Read: Amazon AWS Revenue Climbs as Cloud Demand Holds Firm

Analysts See Promise, But Caution Applies

Some market observers believe the AI moment is genuinely different. Emarketer analyst Max Willens cautioned to CNBC that scaling a second business is rarely straightforward, noting it is hard enough to succeed in one. The subscription numbers, even under optimistic projections, remain small relative to Meta’s overall scale. Still, with the AI market expanding rapidly, investors sent the stock up nearly 4% on Wednesday following the announcement.

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