Meta to bar third-party general-purpose chatbots from WhatsApp API in 2026

Meta said it will bar third party general purpose chatbots from using WhatsApp’s Business API beginning January 15, 2026, a change that will prevent companies such as OpenAI, Perplexity and other AI providers from offering their assistants through the messaging app. The revision to WhatsApp’s commercial terms restricts access to the Business Solution for providers whose large language models or generative AI platforms are the primary functionality being delivered to users, while allowing businesses that use AI only for incidental customer service to continue operating.

Meta said the Business API was built to help businesses provide customer support and send relevant updates, and that recent deployments of general purpose chatbots represented an unanticipated use case. "The purpose of the WhatsApp Business API is to help businesses provide customer support and send relevant updates," a Meta spokesperson said. The company cited increased message volume and support demands from third party assistants as reasons for the policy change, and said the update aligns the API with its strategic focus on business-to-customer communications.

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