Facebook and Instagram users to be charged monthly subscription for ad-free versions

Ah... the endless doom scroll through Instagram. Celebrities posing in the gym, some girl who used to sit behind you in year nine announcing she’s pregnant (again) and that restaurant you want to go but never will showing off its new dish.

But as you pass through the photos or engagement announcements on Facebook, you always end up having to swerve obstacles – adverts.

I mean, maybe you do actually interact with them. Somehow those running shoes you were chatting to your mate about have made it to an ad on your feed so it’s a sign to buy them, obviously.

But those adverts can get rather annoying. And now Meta (the tech company that operates Instagram and Facebook) is going to offer a subscription model to get rid of them.

Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Yes, you can choose to part with your cash to use the social media sites.

Meta is going to offer users in the EU, EEA and Switzerland the choice to pay a monthly subscription to use them without adds.

Now, before you start panicking, it is a choice.

The company writes online: “We believe in a free, ad-supported internet – and will continue to offer people free access to our personalised products and services regardless of income.”

This new subscription will be up for offer in November and Meta adds: “While people are subscribed, their information will not be used for ads.”

Dependent on location throughout the EU, EEA and Switzerland, it’s going to cost €9.99 (£8.72) a month to use Facebook or Instagram on the web.

And then it raises to €12.99 (£11.35) to use it on iOS and Android.

This subscription price does apply to all linked Facebook and Instagram accounts though – rather than just the one app.

Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Meta assures: “If you choose to continue to use our products for free, your experience will stay the same – and that experience will continue to be supported by the tools and settings that we have created to empower people to control their ads experience.”

The subscription options will only be available for users aged 18 and over as Meta continues to ‘explore how to provide teens with a useful and responsible ad experience given this evolving regulatory landscape’.

So, you’ve got the choice, are you going to pay to see your mate’s mum re-share lost dogs from years ago without ads on Facebook?

Topics: Facebook, Instagram, Money, Social Media

Jess Battison

Jess is an Entertainment Journalist with a love of all things pop culture. Her main interests include keeping up with the Twitter girlies, waiting for a new series of The Traitors and losing her voice at a Beyoncé concert. She graduated with a first in Journalism from City, University of London in 2021 and has previously worked at MyLondon.

@jessbattison_