--- title: WhatsApp will now charge AI chatbots to operate in Italy description: Meta will charge developers $0.0691 per message for running AI chatbots on WhatsApp in Italy, starting February 16. This follows Italy's competition watchdog... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/whatsapp-will-now-charge-ai-chatbots-to-operate-in-italy-aonj33eci twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: WhatsApp will now charge AI chatbots to operate in Italy | daily.dev og:description: Meta will charge developers $0.0691 per message for running AI chatbots on WhatsApp in Italy, starting February 16. This follows Italy's competition watchdog... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/whatsapp-will-now-charge-ai-chatbots-to-operate-in-italy-aonj33eci og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/aonj33eCi.png og:image:alt: WhatsApp will now charge AI chatbots to operate in Italy og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # WhatsApp will now charge AI chatbots to operate in Italy **[TechCrunch](https://daily.dev/sources/tc)** · 4 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Meta will charge developers $0.0691 per message for running AI chatbots on WhatsApp in Italy, starting February 16. This follows Italy's competition watchdog forcing Meta to suspend its ban on third-party AI chatbots. The pricing applies to non-template responses and could result in significant costs for high-volume chatbot usage. Meta originally banned third-party AI chatbots in October 2025, citing system strain, but regulatory pressure from Italy, the EU, and Brazil has forced exceptions in some regions. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [After Europe, WhatsApp will let rival AI companies offer chatbots in Brazil](https://daily.dev/posts/after-europe-whatsapp-will-let-rival-ai-companies-offer-chatbots-in-brazil-jomtcoakl) · TechCrunch · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Meta offers rival AI chatbots a limited free pass into WhatsApp, on Brussels’ terms](https://daily.dev/posts/meta-offers-rival-ai-chatbots-a-limited-free-pass-into-whatsapp-on-brussels-terms-uzt01fctn) · The Next Web · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Italy tells Meta to suspend its policy that bans rival AI chatbots from WhatsApp](https://daily.dev/posts/italy-tells-meta-to-suspend-its-policy-that-bans-rival-ai-chatbots-from-whatsapp-vunpjmbi5) · TechCrunch · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [WhatsApp’s free lunch ends on 1 October](https://daily.dev/posts/whatsapp-s-free-lunch-ends-on-1-october-izslhlurn) · TechCentral · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#ai](https://daily.dev/tags/ai), [#bots](https://daily.dev/tags/bots) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/whatsapp-will-now-charge-ai-chatbots-to-operate-in-italy-aonj33eci) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"WhatsApp will now charge AI chatbots to operate in Italy","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/whatsapp-will-now-charge-ai-chatbots-to-operate-in-italy-aonj33eci","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/whatsapp-will-now-charge-ai-chatbots-to-operate-in-italy-aonj33eci"},"datePublished":"2026-01-28T19:19:30.851Z","dateModified":"2026-01-28T19:19:57.019Z","description":"Meta will charge developers $0.0691 per message for running AI chatbots on WhatsApp in Italy, starting February 16. 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