Social media users have pushed back against Instagram head Adam Mosseri after he promoted Meta One, Meta Platforms’ newly launched subscription service, with criticism on Threads focusing on the company charging for extra artificial intelligence and platform features despite its large profits.Mosseri announced the service on Threads this week, saying Meta One would bring “more features and more AI” across Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook and Meta AI. He stressed that the core experience in Meta’s apps would remain free and said subscriptions would allow the company to build specialised or computationally expensive features for people willing to pay for them.
The post drew a wave of hostile and sceptical replies, including complaints about the growing number of paid tiers across social platforms and objections to putting expanded AI tools behind subscriptions. A community note attached to the post also pointed users towards Meta’s financial performance, sharpening criticism that the company was seeking additional payments while generating tens of billions of dollars in quarterly revenue.
Meta reported revenue of $60.8 billion for the quarter ended June 30, up 28 per cent from a year earlier. Net income was $15.85 billion, while its Family of Apps business, which includes Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp, generated $60.37 billion in quarterly revenue. Advertising accounted for $59.36 billion of Meta’s total revenue.
The figures do not establish that paid services are unnecessary, however. Meta has substantially increased spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure and research, and executives have repeatedly argued that advanced generative AI services carry significant computing costs. Mosseri has previously said limits on free AI tools reflect the expense of running the underlying models and that subscriptions can provide heavier users with additional capacity.
Meta One, announced on September 15, combines paid offerings across Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp and Meta AI. The company says more than 50 features are available through the service and that its subscription products have accumulated 15 million subscriptions and trials during their phased rollout.
Meta has not disclosed how many of the 15 million are paying customers rather than trial users, nor broken the figure down by individual plan. That distinction matters because the company is presenting the total as evidence of demand while the service is still being introduced globally. Meta also says benefits differ by country, app and account, meaning users may see different prices or feature combinations during the continuing rollout in practice.
Individual plans include Instagram Plus, Facebook Plus and WhatsApp Plus, while broader Meta One bundles add increased access to image and video generation, Instagram’s AI-powered Restyle tools and other creative functions. Meta says single-product plans start at $2.99 a month, while the Core bundle for individuals starts at $7.99 and Premium costs $19.99, with prices and availability varying by market and account.
Creator and business subscriptions are considerably more expensive. The Essential tier starts at $14.99 a month and includes professional tools, verification-related features and greater access to Meta Business Agent. Advanced starts at $49.99, while Expert and Max begin at $149 and $499 respectively, offering higher usage limits and additional business features.
Some criticism on Threads targeted AI itself rather than the price. One widely circulated response joked that users should be paid to receive no AI at all, reflecting a strand of opposition from people who want fewer automated features integrated into social networks. Other users questioned whether functions that improve customisation, analytics or visibility should require recurring payments.
Meta’s position is that the free versions of its major apps are not being withdrawn or converted into paid products. The company says subscriptions are intended for specialised features, heavier AI usage and professional functions that go beyond what it provides to billions of users without charge.
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