Meta rolls out ad-free Facebook and Instagram in the UK. What if it comes to India next?

New Delhi: Meta is rolling out ad-free subscriptions for Facebook and Instagram in the UK, offering users a choice: keep using the apps for free with personalised ads, or pay a monthly fee to remove ads entirely. 

Prices are listed at £2.99/month on the web and £3.99/month on iOS/Android, with add-on fees for extra linked accounts. 

The UK’s data watchdog says the model gives users a “genuine choice,” while expecting Meta to monitor how people respond and stay compliant. 

Meta has already launched similar subscriptions across the EU, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland, and is now extending the option to the UK.

So what if Meta flips the same switch in India?

A new fork in the road: Keep ads (free) or subscribe for no ads. If UK pricing is any guide, an India plan would need to be sharply lower to gain traction in a price-sensitive market dominated by prepaid data and family-shared devices. 

Kids are a special case: India’s Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act places strict limits on tracking and targeted ads to minors, which could constrain how Meta presents choices to under-18 users. Detailed rules are still being finalised. 

India’s ad market is set to reach Rs 1.64 lakh crore in 2025, with digital growing approximately 11–12% and nearing Rs 1 lakh crore by some estimates. 

Meta is a leading performance channel in that mix. If even a small slice of heavy users pays to remove ads, the targetable audience shrinks, pushing CPMs up for sought-after cohorts and nudging advertisers toward broader optimisation (contextual, first-party audiences, creator content). 

Expect three near-term shifts:

1. Performance budgets concentrate on high-intent audiences that remain ad-addressable; SMBs, which rely heavily on Meta, face fiercer bidding for the same users.

2. Retail media and creator marketing benefit as brands diversify funnels to offset any reach loss on Meta.

3. Measurement resets: More ads-off users means more modelled conversions and incrementality testing to fill attribution gaps.

Could subscriptions meaningfully replace ad revenue in India?

India is Meta’s largest user base for both Facebook and Instagram (hundreds of millions of accounts), but subscription willingness is far lower than in Western markets. Even so, a tiny paid cohort can generate non-trivial revenue at scale. For example, if 1% of India’s combined Facebook/Instagram users paid a few hundred rupees a month, that’s a new eight-to-nine-figure monthly line, helpful but unlikely to rival ads, which make up around 98% of Meta’s global revenue.

What regulators will watch

Choice and fairness: The UK ICO explicitly asked Meta to set a fair price that preserves a real, non-coerced choice. India’s DPDP regime does not prohibit “consent or pay,” but consent must be free, specific and informed; children are carved out with tougher rules. 

Dark patterns: Any design that nudges users toward ads (or toward paying) could invite scrutiny under evolving consumer-protection and dark-pattern guidance.

Localisation and minors: Enforcement around minors’ data (no behavioural ads to under-18s) will shape Meta’s defaults for teen accounts. 

Who stands to gain and lose

Winners:

High-affluence users who value feed purity; creators/retail media networks that capture budgets rebalanced from Meta; and news and OTT that can pitch premium, brand-safe reach.

At risk:

  • SMBs and D2C brands that live on Meta’s precision at low CPMs; they may face higher costs per incremental sale.

  • Attribution workflows built on last-click or limited server-side integrations.