Meta built a giant business by giving its apps away for free. Now it wants you to pay for them.
Truist thinks that bet could work. It calls paid plans Meta's next $20 billion business by 2030.
This is not a wild idea. Google already proved it works.
Its YouTube and storage plans brought in more than $35 billion last year. That is the path Truist sees Meta copying.
Google turned free tools into paid habits. Truist thinks Meta can run the same play across its apps.
Meta is now rolling out paid "Plus" tiers. They cover Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
The Plus tiers add personal touches. Think more control over your feed and who sees your posts.
They also hand creators better audience tools. That means more reach and more control over their pages.
There is also a paid Meta AI helper. It adds extras like better image tools and a "thinking mode" for hard tasks.
The AI runs on a new Meta model called Muse Spark. It powers premium tiers named Meta One Premium and Meta OnePlus.
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Truist expects Instagram to do the heavy lifting. Its paid tier alone could reach about $10 billion a year by 2030.
The rest would come from Meta AI and the other apps. Each one adds a smaller slice.
Here is how Truist sees the $20 billion splitting by 2030:
The prices are small on purpose. Facebook Plus and Instagram Plus cost $3.99 a month, while WhatsApp Plus runs $2.99.
The AI plan ranges from $7.99 to $19.99. The pricier tiers unlock heavier use and farther-reaching tools.
The whole plan rests on scale. It needs high-margin revenue from a huge crowd of payers.
That money is steady and repeats each month. Investors tend to pay up for income like that.
Truist thinks Meta could sign up more than 360 million of them. By 2030, that haul would be about 5% of Meta's sales.
Wall Street is not sold yet. Meta stock is down about 11% this year.
That lag trails other big tech names in 2026. A fresh cash stream could change the story.
Truist still rates it a buy. Its $840 target would mean a 44% jump from Monday's price.
So the firm clearly sees room to run. It even expects paid features to reach Meta's smart glasses later on.
The glasses already have cameras. Paid add-ons could cover extra storage and longer recording.
The push also helps Meta lean less on ads. Ads still drive almost all of its money today.
Meta spent two decades teaching people its apps are free. The next chapter is convincing them to pay.
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