Meta-owned chat app WhatsApp changed its commercial API policy this week to ban general-purpose chatbots from its platform. The move will likely affect WhatsApp-based assistants from companies like OpenAI, Perplexity, Khosla Ventures-backed Luzia, and General Catalyst-backed Poke.
The company added a new section to address “AI providers” in its business API terms, focusing on general-purpose chatbots. The terms, which will come into effect on January 15, 2026, state that Meta will not allow AI model providers to distribute their AI assistants on WhatsApp.
Providers and developers of artificial intelligence or machine learning technologies, including but not limited to large language models, generative artificial intelligence platforms, general purpose artificial intelligence assistants or similar technologies as determined by Meta in its sole discretion (“AI Providers”), are strictly prohibited from accessing or using the Solution. WhatsApp Business, whether directly or indirectly, for the purpose of providing, delivering, offering, selling or otherwise making available such technologies where such technologies constitute the primary (rather than incidental or incidental) functionality made available for use, as determined by Meta in its sole discretion.
Meta confirmed this transition to TechCrunch and clarified that the move does not affect companies that use AI to serve customers on WhatsApp. For example, a travel agency operating a customer service bot will not be excluded from the service.
The reason for the company’s move is that the WhatsApp Business API is designed for businesses serving customers rather than serving as a chatbot distribution platform. The company said that while it had built the API for these use cases, in recent months it had seen an unanticipated use case of serving general-purpose chatbots.
“The purpose of the WhatsApp Business API is to help businesses provide customer support and send relevant updates. Our goal is to support the tens of thousands of businesses building these experiences on WhatsApp,” a Meta spokesperson said in a comment to TechCrunch.
Meta said new chatbot use cases placed a significant load on its system with increased message volume and required a different type of support, which the company was not ready for. The company prohibits use cases that do not fit the “intended design and strategic direction” of the API.
This move will effectively make WhatsApp obsolete as a platform for distributing AI solutions such as assistants or agents. This also means that Meta AI is the only assistant available on the chat app.
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Last year, OpenAI launched ChatGPT on WhatsApp, and earlier this year, Perplexity launched its own bot on the chat app to tap into the user base of more than 3 billion people. Both robots could answer queries, understand media files, answer questions about them, respond to voice notes and generate images. This probably generated a lot of message volume.
However, there was a bigger problem for Meta. WhatsApp’s Business API is one of the main ways the chat app makes money. It charges businesses based on different message models such as marketing, usefulness, authentication, and support. As there was no provision for chatbots in this API design, WhatsApp could not charge for them.
During Meta’s Q1 2025 earnings calls, Mark Zuckerberg highlighted that business messaging is a big opportunity for the company to generate revenue.
“Right now, the vast majority of our business is advertising on Facebook and Instagram,” he said. “But WhatsApp now has more than 3 billion per month [active users]with more than 100 million people in the United States and growing rapidly there. Messenger is also used by more than a billion people each month, and there are now as many messages sent each day on Instagram as on Messenger. Business messaging should be the next pillar of our business.
