WhatsApp will now pay for AI chatbots to work in Italy

Meta announced on Wednesday that it will pay developers of chatbots on WhatsApp in areas where regulators are forcing the company to allow them. The move comes after the company’s ban on third-party WhatsApp chatbots went into effect on January 15.

Meanwhile, Meta will pay producers in Italy, where the country is The competition watchdog asked the company to suspend its policy last December. The company said that the new pricing for non-template solutions will start on February 16. Meta plans to pay $0.0691 / €0.0572 / £0.0498 per message to AI solution developers. This can lead to higher bills for developers if users are exchanging thousands of questions with AI chatbots every day.

Earlier this month, Meta sent a notice to driver manufacturers to stop typing Italian phone numbers and let AI chatbots serve those customers. At the time, the company did not mention any plans to charge developers.

Currently, WhatsApp already pays companies for using its API for various template responses to customers, which include applications such as advertising, requirements, or authentication. This includes messages that users receive about payment reminders and shipping updates.

“Where we are legally required to provide AI chatbots through the WhatsApp business API, we are introducing pricing for companies that choose to use our platform to provide this,” a Meta spokesperson told TechCrunch. This could also be a model for other communities if Meta steps in and lets developers create their own chatbots.

Meta first announced it last October it would block all third-party AI chatbots from using WhatsApp via the WhatsApp Business API.

Meta said his system was not designed to handle feedback from AI bots and was being harassed.

“The appearance of AI chatbots on our Business API creates problems for our systems that were not designed to support them. This idea assumes that WhatsApp is a shopping center. The way to sell AI companies is to keep themselves, their websites, and company partnerships; not the WhatsApp Business Platform,” the company said at the time.

Since then, different areas, including EUItaly, and Brazil, have launched an antitrust investigation. Brazil manager first asked Meta to stop the process. However, the court in Brazil joined Meta last week is a violation of the first prohibition of the new policy. As a result, the company has asked developers not to offer their AI chatbots to users in Brazil, TechCrunch has learned.

Since the process started, developers are forced to send a predefined message to AI chatbot users on WhatsApp to direct them to their site or app. Providers like OpenAI, Perplexity, and Microsoft announced last year that their WhatsApp bots will not work after January 15, and encourage users to find them on other platforms.