"For now, Meta will charge developers in Italy, where the country's competition watchdog asked the company to suspend its policy last December. The company said that the new pricing for non-template responses will begin on February 16. Meta plans to charge $0.0691/ €0.0572 / £0.0498 per message to developers for AI responses. This could result in steep bills for developers if users are exchanging thousands of queries with AI chatbots every day."
"Earlier this month, Meta sent notices to developers creating an exemption for Italian phone numbers and allowing AI chatbots to serve those customers. At that time, the company didn't mention any plans to charge developers. "Where we are legally required to provide AI chatbots through the WhatsApp business API, we are introducing pricing for the companies that choose to use our platform to provide those services," a Meta spokesperson told TechCrunch."
Meta will charge developers for AI chatbot responses on WhatsApp in regions where regulators force third-party bots to be allowed. The company will implement per-message pricing for non-template AI responses in Italy starting February 16, at $0.0691/€0.0572/£0.0498 per message. Earlier exemptions allowed Italian phone numbers to use chatbots without mention of fees. WhatsApp already charges for template business messages like marketing and shipping updates. Meta said its systems were strained by AI chatbot responses on the Business API and previously blocked third-party bots for that reason. The new fees could impose large costs for high-volume developers.
Read at TechCrunch
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