Meta Platforms, Inc. is introducing paid subscription plans for its Meta AI chatbot, marking a significant move to develop its artificial intelligence business. This initiative is expected to help offset part of the company's substantial AI investments, which amount to hundreds of billions of dollars.

The new subscription service offers two tiers. According to a company spokesperson, the basic tier, named Meta One Plus, is priced at $7.99 per month. It is designed for users who frequently utilize Meta AI for generating images and videos or rely on it for complex reasoning tasks.

The spokesperson added that a higher-tier option, Meta One Premium, costs $19.99 per month. This plan includes all the features of Meta One Plus but provides significantly higher usage limits. The Meta AI subscription service will initially launch in Singapore, Guatemala, and Bolivia, with plans to expand to more countries subsequently.

Users will still have access to the Meta AI chatbot for free for basic image and video generation, but frequent usage will be subject to caps. Meta has not disclosed the specific usage limits for each tier but indicated that the Premium version offers substantially higher allowances compared to the basic package.

Currently, subscription revenue constitutes a minor portion of Meta's overall income. In the first quarter, the company's "non-advertising revenue," which includes subscription fees as well as sales from hardware like Meta AI glasses and virtual reality headsets, totaled $1.29 billion. In contrast, its advertising business generated over $55 billion in revenue during the same period.