Third-party chatbots will be banned from the platform as of Jan. 15, 2026, with Meta AI becoming the only remaining general-purpose chatbot available on WhatsApp.
If you’re one of the millions of people using the WhatsApp versions of tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, bad news—you’ll only have a few more months to enjoy the service.
Meta has banned general purpose chatbots from the platform, following a recent change to the terms and conditions of the WhatsApp Business API, first spotted by TechCrunch.
The move could impact the WhatsApp clients of tools like ChatGPT, which launched in December 2024, along with numerous other WhatsApp chatbots that have appeared over the past year. These include AI search engine Perplexity’s WhatsApp chatbot, which launched in April of this year, as well as lesser-known products like Latin America focused chatbot Luzia.
