Meta-owned chat app WhatsApp modified its enterprise API coverage this week to ban general-purpose chatbots from its platform. The transfer will doubtless have an effect on WhatsApp-based assistants of corporations like OpenAI, Perplexity, Khosla Ventures-backed Luzia, and Basic Catalyst-backed Poke.

The corporate has added a brand new part to handle “AI suppliers” in its enterprise API phrases, specializing in general-purpose chatbots. The phrases, which is able to go into impact on January 15, 2026, say that Meta gained’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 massive language fashions, generative synthetic intelligence platforms, general-purpose 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, whether or not instantly or not directly, for the needs of offering, delivering, providing, promoting, or in any other case making out there such applied sciences when such applied sciences are the first (slightly than incidental or ancillary) performance being made out there to be used, as decided by Meta in its sole discretion.

Meta confrimed this transfer to TechCrunch and specified that this transfer doesn’t have an effect on companies which might be utilizing AI to serve clients on WhatsApp. For example, a journey firm operating a bot for customer support gained’t be barred from the service.

The corporate’s rationale behind this transfer is that WhatsApp Enterprise API is designed for companies serving clients slightly 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 noticed an unanticipated use case of serving general-purpose chatbots.

“The aim of the WhatsApp Enterprise API is to assist companies present buyer assist and ship related updates. Our focus is on supporting the tens of 1000’s of companies who’re constructing these experiences on WhatsApp,” a Meta spokesperson mentioned in a remark to TechCrunch.

Meta mentioned that the brand new chatbot use instances put a whole lot of burden on its system with elevated message quantity and required a unique form of assist, which the corporate wasn’t prepared for. The corporate is banning use instances that falls exterior “the meant design and strategic focus” of the API.

The transfer will successfully make WhatsApp moot as a platform to distribute AI options like assistants or brokers. It additionally means Meta AI is the one assistant out there on the chat app.

Final yr, OpenAI launched ChatGPT on WhatsApp, and earlier this yr, Perplexity launched its personal bot on the chat app to faucet into the consumer base of greater than 3 billion individuals. Each of the bots may reply queries, perceive media information, reply questions on them, reply to voice notes, and generate photos. This doubtless generated a whole lot of message quantity.

Nonetheless, there was an even bigger difficulty for Meta. WhatsApp’s Enterprise API is among the major methods the chat app makes cash. It prices companies based mostly on totally different message templates like advertising, utility, authentication, and assist. As there wasn’t any provision for chatbots on this API design, WhatsApp wasn’t capable of cost them.

Throughout Meta’s Q1 2025 earnings calls, Mark Zuckerberg identified that enterprise messaging is a giant alternative for the corporate the herald income.

“Proper now, the overwhelming majority of our enterprise is promoting in feeds on Fb and Instagram,” he mentioned. “However WhatsApp now has greater than 3 billion month-to-month [active users], with greater than 100 million individuals within the US and rising rapidly there. Messenger can also be utilized by greater than a billion individuals every month, and there at the moment are as many messages despatched every day on Instagram as there are on Messenger. Enterprise messaging needs to be the following pillar of our enterprise.”