WhatsApp is changing its terms to ban general-purpose chatbots from its platform

Meta-owned chat app WhatsApp changed its business API policy this week to ban general-purpose chatbots from its platform. The move is likely to impact WhatsApp-based assistants from companies like OpenAI, Perplexity, Khosla Ventures-backed Luzia, and General Catalyst-backed Poke.

The company has added a new section to address “AI providers” in its business API terminology, focusing on general-purpose chatbots. The terms, which will take effect on January 15, 2026, stipulate that Meta will not allow AI model providers to distribute their AI assistants on WhatsApp.

Providers and developers of artificial intelligence or machine learning technologies, including but not limited to large language models, generative AI platforms, general purpose AI assistants, or similar technologies as determined by Meta in its sole discretion (“AI Providers”), are strictly prohibited from accessing the WhatsApp Business Solution or Use it, whether directly or indirectly, for the purposes of providing, delivering, offering, selling or otherwise making available such technologies when such technologies are the primary (and not incidental or ancillary) functionality for which it is made available for use, as determined by Meta in its sole discretion.

Meta confirmed the move to TechCrunch and specified that the move does not impact companies using AI for customer service on WhatsApp. For example, a travel company operating a customer service bot would not be banned from service.

The company’s rationale behind the move is that the WhatsApp Business API is designed for businesses that serve customers rather than serving as a chatbot distribution platform. The company said that while it has built an API for these use cases, in recent months it has seen an unexpected use case for its general-purpose chatbot service.

“The purpose of the WhatsApp Business API is to help businesses provide customer support and send relevant updates. Our focus is on supporting the tens of thousands of businesses building these experiences on WhatsApp,” a Meta spokesperson said in a comment to TechCrunch.

Meta said the new chatbot use cases put a significant burden on its system as the volume of messages increased and required a different type of support, which the company was not prepared for. The company prohibits use cases that fall outside the API’s “intended design and strategic focus.”

This move will bring WhatsApp into effective discussion as a platform for distributing AI solutions such as assistants or agents. This also means that Meta AI is the only assistant available in the chat app.

Last year, OpenAI launched ChatGPT on WhatsApp, and earlier this year, Perplexity launched its own bot on the chat app to tap into its user base of over 3 billion people. Both bots can answer queries, understand media files, answer questions about them, respond to voice notes, and create images. This likely generated a significant amount of message volume.

However, there was a bigger problem for Meta. The WhatsApp Business API is one of the primary ways the chat app makes money. It charges businesses based on different message templates such as marketing, facilities, authentication, and support. Since there was no provision for chatbots in this API design, WhatsApp could not charge for them.

During Meta’s Q1 2025 earnings call, Mark Zuckerberg noted that commercial messaging represents a huge revenue opportunity for the company.

“Right now, the vast majority of our business is advertised on Facebook and Instagram feeds,” he said. “But WhatsApp now has more than 3 billion monthly [active users]with more than 100 million people in the United States and growing rapidly there. Messenger is also used by more than 1 billion people each month, and there are now as many messages sent daily on Instagram as there are on Messenger. Business messaging must be the next pillar of our business.”