WhatsApp adjustments its phrases to bar general-purpose chatbots on its platform

Meta-owned chat app WhatsApp changed its commercial API policy this week to ban general-purpose chatbots from its platform. The change will possible have an effect on WhatsApp-based assistants from corporations like OpenAI, Khosla Ventures-backed Perplexity Luziaand supported by Basic Catalyst poke.

The corporate has added a brand new part to handle “AI suppliers” in its enterprise API phrases, with a give attention to general-purpose chatbots. The phrases, which is able to come into impact on January 15, 2026, say that Meta won’t enable AI mannequin suppliers to distribute their AI assistants on WhatsApp.

Suppliers and builders of synthetic intelligence or machine studying applied sciences, together with however not restricted to giant language fashions, generative synthetic intelligence platforms, common goal synthetic intelligence assistants, or comparable applied sciences, as decided by Meta in its sole discretion (“AI Suppliers”), are strictly prohibited from accessing or utilizing the WhatsApp Enterprise Resolution, straight or not directly, for the needs of offering, ship, provide, promote or in any other case make obtainable such applied sciences when such applied sciences are the first (quite than incidental or ancillary) performance made obtainable to be used, as decided by Meta in its sole discretion.

Meta confirmed this variation to TechCrunch and specified that this variation doesn’t have an effect on corporations that use AI to serve clients on WhatsApp. For instance, a journey firm that runs a customer support bot won’t be barred from service.

The corporate’s rationale behind this variation is that the WhatsApp Enterprise API was designed for companies that serve clients, quite than appearing as a platform for chatbot distribution. The corporate mentioned that whereas it constructed the API for these use instances, in current months it has seen an sudden use case of serving general-purpose chatbots.

“The purpose of the WhatsApp Enterprise API is to assist companies present buyer help and push related updates. Our focus is to help the tens of 1000’s of companies which are constructing these experiences on WhatsApp,” a Meta spokesperson mentioned in a remark to TechCrunch.

Meta mentioned the brand new chatbot use instances put numerous pressure on its system with elevated message quantity and required a special kind of help, which the corporate was not ready for. The corporate is prohibiting use instances that fall outdoors the “supposed design and strategic focus” of the API.

The transfer will successfully render WhatsApp moot as a platform for distributing AI options comparable to assistants or brokers. This additionally implies that Meta AI is the one assistant obtainable within the chat app.

Final 12 months, OpenAI launched ChatGPT on WhatsApp, and earlier this 12 months, Perplexity launched its own bot on the chat app to faucet into the person base of over 3 billion individuals. Each bots might reply questions, perceive media information, reply questions on them, reply to voice notes, and generate photographs. This possible generated a big quantity of messages.

Nevertheless, there was an even bigger downside for Meta. WhatsApp’s Enterprise API is without doubt one of the most important methods the chat app makes cash. It costs corporations based mostly on totally different messaging fashions comparable to advertising, utility, authentication, and help. As there was no provision for chatbots on this API design, WhatsApp was unable to cost for them.

Throughout Meta’s Q1 2025 earnings calls, Mark Zuckerberg pointed that enterprise messages are an awesome alternative for the corporate to generate income.

“Proper now, the overwhelming majority of our enterprise is promoting on Fb and Instagram feeds,” he mentioned. “However WhatsApp now has greater than 3 billion month-to-month [active users]with over 100 million individuals within the US and rising quickly there. Messenger can also be utilized by over a billion individuals each month, and there are actually as many messages despatched on daily basis on Instagram as there are on Messenger. Industrial messaging have to be the following pillar of our enterprise.”