WhatssApp changes its terms to bar general purpose chatbots from its platform

Meta owned chat app WhatsApp Changed its business API policy to ban general-purpose chatbots from its platform this week. The move will likely affect WhatsApp-based assistants from companies like OpenAI, Perplexity, etc. Khosla Ventures-backed Luziaand General Catalyst-supported poke.

The company has added a new category to its business API terms to address “AI providers,” 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 technology, 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”), use or directly use solutions or directly use WhatsApp to provide, provide, offer, sell, or distribute Otherwise making such technologies available when such technologies are being made available for primary (whether ancillary or non-ancillary) functional use, as determined by Meta in its sole discretion.

Meta confirmed the move to TechCrunch and specified that the move will not affect businesses that are using AI to serve customers on WhatsApp. For example, a travel agency running a bot for customer service will not be interrupted from service.

The company’s rationale behind the move is that the WhatsApp Business API is designed for businesses serving customers rather than serving as a platform for distributing chatbots. The company said that while it was developing APIs for these use cases, in recent months, it saw an unexpected 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 focus is to support the thousands of businesses that are building these experiences on WhatsApp,” a Meta spokesperson told TechCrunch in a comment.

Meta said using the new chatbot increased its message volume and burdened its systems and required a different type of support, which the company was not prepared for. The company is banning use cases that fall outside the “intended design and strategic focus” of the API.

This move will effectively make WhatsApp a platform for delivering AI solutions like assistants or agents. This means Meta AI is the only assistant available in the chat app.

last year, OpenAI introduced ChatGPT on WhatsAppAnd earlier this year, Confusion launched its own bot Chat app to tap user base of over 3 billion people. Both bots can answer questions, understand media files, answer questions about them, reply to voice notes and create images. This probably generated a lot of message volume.

However, there was one big problem for Meta. WhatsApp’s Business API is a primary way to monetize the chat app. It charges businesses based on different message templates like marketing, utility, authentication and support. Since there is no provision for chatbots in this API design, WhatsApp has not been able to charge them.

During the Matter Q1 2025 earnings call, Mark Zuckerberg indicated Business messaging is a great opportunity to bring in revenue for companies.

“Right now, the bulk of our business is advertising in feeds on Facebook and Instagram,” he said. “But WhatsApp now has more than 3 billion monthly users [active users]With over 100 million people in the US and growing rapidly there. Messenger is also used by more than a billion people every month and now more messages are sent on Messenger every day than on Instagram. Business messaging should be the next pillar of our business.”