Facebook and Instagram parent Meta, has confirmed it will introduce ad-free subscriptions for those two social media platforms in the UK. The new offering will give users a clear choice between continuing to use the services for free with ads or paying a monthly fee to remove them entirely. The subscription model (described as a ‘pay or consent’ approach) requires users either to agree to their personal data being processed for advertising purposes or to pay to avoid ads. The new changes are set to roll out in the next few weeks.
The social media giant has highlighted that those who choose the subscription will not have their data used for targeted ads. For those who stick with the free version, ad tools like ‘Why am I seeing this ad?’ and Ad Preferences will remain available so users can manage the types of ads they encounter.
The Mark Zuckerberg-led company has decided to set the price of its new ad-free subscription at £2.99 a month for people who sign up through the web. However, if someone chooses to subscribe using the iOS or Android apps, the cost will be slightly higher at £3.99 a month. The company explained that this difference is because Apple and Google charge extra fees on purchases made through their app stores, so the higher price is meant to cover those costs rather than being an additional charge from Meta itself.
At the same time, if a user has multiple accounts linked through Meta’s Accounts Center, an additional fee will apply, with charges set at £2 per month on the web and £3 per month on mobile for each extra account. Notably, subscriptions will cover both Facebook and Instagram simultaneously for the main account chosen. Meanwhile, the firm states that the UK subscription option is also designed to protect its ad-funded model, noting that most users are expected to continue using the free version. It adds that its ads generated £65 billion in economic activity last year (2024) and supported over 357,000 UK jobs.
Importantly, the company has already tested a similar system in the European Union (EU), though the price there was considerably higher. According to the firm, the UK’s regulatory environment allows it to set lower subscription costs, describing the British approach as more ‘pro-growth and pro-innovation’ compared with rules in the EU. Notably, in the EU, regulators have pushed back on ‘pay or consent’, arguing that it risks pressuring people into giving up their data rather than offering a genuine choice.
The development comes as the social media behemoth faces major legal challenges in both the UK and the EU over its advertising model. In the UK, the firm faces a class-action lawsuit over alleged abuse of its market position on Facebook, with the CAT certifying proceedings in February 2024 for around 45 million users and £2.1–3.1 billion in claimed damages. Parallelly in the EU, the company faced scrutiny under the Digital Markets Act for its ‘pay or consent’ model. In April 2025, the European Commission fined the company €200 million for not offering users a genuine choice, and in June 2025, the commission also warned that daily fines could follow if compliance issues from November 2024 were not addressed.
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