Meta licensing covers the terms under which Meta Platforms makes its software, models and business services available to organisations. For a software asset manager the portfolio falls into four groups with different licensing mechanics. The first is open-weight models such as Llama and the Segment Anything Model (SAM), which are downloaded and run by the licensee under royalty-free community licenses.[1][9] The second is hosted AI services on the Meta Model API, billed per unit consumed, and the Muse Code coding agent, sold as a monthly subscription.[5][7] The third is business messaging on the WhatsApp Business Platform, charged per delivered message.[10] The fourth is open source code such as React, released under the MIT License.[13] Meta’s workplace products, Workplace and Horizon managed services for Meta Quest, are no longer sold.[11][12]
None of these models uses the per-core, per-processor or named-user metrics common in enterprise software. Compliance work centres instead on license conditions (thresholds, attribution, acceptable use and territorial limits) for self-hosted models, and on usage metering and contractual restrictions for hosted services.
Product families
| Family | What is licensed | How it is licensed | Guide |
|---|---|---|---|
| Llama 2 to Llama 4 | Model weights, code and documentation (“Llama Materials”) | Versioned community license agreements, royalty-free, with a monthly active user threshold[1] | Meta Llama licensing |
| Meta Model API | Hosted inference for Muse Spark, Muse Image, Muse Voice Transcribe and SAM 3.1 | Pay-as-you-go per token, image, hour of audio, image or frame segmented[5] | Not yet covered |
| Muse Code | Coding agent for the terminal and CI, built for Muse Spark | Monthly subscription plans or pay-as-you-go API keys[7] | Not yet covered |
| Muse Glimmer | 30-billion-parameter open-weight multimodal model | Apache License 2.0[8] | Not yet covered |
| Segment Anything Model | SAM Materials: weights and code for image and video segmentation | SAM License (royalty-free) when self-hosted; per image or frame on the Model API[9][5] | This article |
| WhatsApp Business Platform | Business messaging API | Per delivered message by market and category[10] | This article |
| Open source projects | Source code, for example React | Standard open source licenses such as MIT[13] | This article |
Llama
Each Llama generation has its own agreement, from the Llama 2 Community License Agreement (release date 2023-07-18) to the Llama 4 Community License Agreement (release date 2025-04-05).[3][1] The grant is a “non-exclusive, worldwide, non-transferable and royalty-free limited license” to use, reproduce, distribute, copy, create derivative works of and modify the Llama Materials.[1] The license applies to anyone who uses or distributes the materials, whether or not they click to accept.[1] The Meta Llama licensing article compares the versions clause by clause.
Meta Model API, Muse models and Muse Code
The Meta Model API is Meta’s hosted inference platform. At retrieval its documentation listed Muse Spark (text and multimodal reasoning), Muse Image (image generation and editing), Muse Voice Transcribe (speech to text) and SAM 3.1 (segmentation). The same documentation describes Muse Code as a coding agent that runs on the same models, authentication and billing.[4] The Model API is governed by the Meta Model API Terms of Service, last updated 2026-09-18. Those terms state that they cover a limited preview period and that Meta may update them or issue new terms when the API becomes generally available.[6] At retrieval, the former Llama API documentation address redirected to the Meta Model API documentation.[4]
Open-weight models outside the Llama licenses
Meta publishes some models under licenses other than the Llama agreements. Muse Glimmer is described as a 30-billion-parameter open-weight model distilled from Muse Spark, and its weights “are released under the Apache License 2.0”.[8] SAM 3 is released under the SAM License, last updated 2025-11-19. Like the Llama agreements, it is a royalty-free, worldwide license to use, reproduce, distribute and modify the SAM Materials. It has no monthly active user threshold and no naming rule for derivatives. Instead it requires redistributors to pass on a copy of the agreement, requires research publications to acknowledge use of SAM Materials, and prohibits ITAR-controlled and certain military, nuclear, espionage and weapons end uses (rule).[9]
The Model API terms keep the two routes apart. A model that Meta also publishes under open source or open-weight terms is governed by the Model API Terms when it is used through the API. Rights to use it outside the API, for example self-hosted, come from the separate license and are not limited by the Model API Terms.[6] SAM 3.1, for example, can be self-hosted under the SAM License or called on the Model API at per-image and per-frame prices.[4][5]
Open source code
Meta also publishes source code under standard open source licenses. React, for example, is licensed under the MIT License, with the copyright notice “Copyright (c) Meta Platforms, Inc. and affiliates.”[13] These projects are handled like any other open source component: record the license text and keep the copyright notice.
Metrics
Meta’s catalog rows use the units Meta names. The definitions are in the linked rows.
| Metric | Where it applies | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly active users | Llama 2 to Llama 4 | License condition, not a price meter: more than 700 million in the calendar month before the version release date requires a separate license from Meta[1] |
| Token (Meta Model API) | Muse Spark | Priced per 1M input, cached input and output tokens[5] |
| Generated image | Muse Image | $0.01 per generated image[5] |
| Hour of audio processed | Muse Voice Transcribe | $0.18 per hour[5] |
| Segmented image and segmented video frame | SAM 3.1 on the Model API | $2.50 per 1,000 images; $0.20 per 1,000 frames[5] |
| Web search query | Web search grounding on text models | $2.50 per 1,000 queries, in addition to tokens[5] |
| Delivered message | WhatsApp Business Platform | Charged when a message is delivered, not when it is sent[10] |
Meta Model API rate limits apply per team, not per API key, so all keys in one team share the same request and token quota.[5]
Purchasing programs and agreements
- Community license agreements. Llama and SAM are licensed by acceptance or use, with no order form and no fee.[1][9] The only commercial instrument the Llama licenses name is the license a licensee must request above the monthly active user threshold, which Meta “may grant to you in its sole discretion” (program).[1]
- Meta Model API pay-as-you-go. “You pay only for what you use”, with “no minimums or upfront commitment”.[5] Models come in two tiers. Standard tier models such as muse-spark-1.3 cost $0.15 (cached input), $1.25 (input) and $4.25 (output) per million tokens. Contributor tier models cost $0.002, $0.10 and $0.20, “in exchange for permission to use your prompts and completions to train future Meta models”.[5] The terms allow non-invoiced billing, pre-payment (non-refundable except where the law requires) and invoice billing with a spending limit (rule).[6]
- Muse Code subscription. Three plans (Everyday Usage, High Usage and Power Usage) are sold at a flat monthly rate. Prices are shown during onboarding and are not listed on the documentation page. Subscriptions are subject to the Meta Subscription Terms of Service as well as the Model API terms.[7]
- WhatsApp Business Platform. Rates vary by market and message category. The four categories are marketing, utility, authentication and service. Service messages, and utility messages sent in reply to users, were not charged until 2026-09-30. From 2026-10-01 both are charged per message, with 1,000 free service messages per business phone number per month.[15] Utility and authentication messages have volume tiers (rule).[10]
The catalog records the published Model API prices and the Muse Code plans as SKU rows, for example Muse Spark Standard tier input tokens and the Muse Code Everyday Usage plan.
Support and maintenance
The community licenses include no support or maintenance entitlement. The SAM License says Meta “is under no obligation to provide any support services for the SAM Materials”, and that any support provided is “as is”.[9] The Llama and SAM materials are provided “as is”, without warranties.[1][9] For the Model API, the terms disclaim warranties “to the maximum extent permitted by applicable law”. The terms also allow Meta to add, change or remove functionality and to throttle, limit or suspend access at any time.[6] At retrieval the Model API documentation described no paid support tier.[4] Model versions are named explicitly, for example muse-spark-1.3, muse-spark-1.2 and muse-spark-1.1.[4]
Audit and compliance
Meta’s documents contain no customer license audit clause of the kind used for on-premises software. Compliance instead rests on license conditions, termination rights and monitoring:
- Llama. A licensee whose products had more than 700 million monthly active users in the month before a version’s release date may not exercise any rights until Meta grants a license. Meta may terminate the agreement for breach. If the licensee brings intellectual property litigation against Meta over the Llama Materials, its licenses terminate on the date the claim is filed.[1] Compliance with the Acceptable Use Policy is a license condition.[1][2]
- Attribution and naming. Distributors of Llama 4 materials or products containing them must include a copy of the agreement and prominently display “Built with Llama”. A model trained or improved with Llama materials or outputs must have a name that begins with “Llama”.[1]
- Meta Model API. Meta “may monitor, including through automated or manual (human) review”, the customer’s use to assess compliance, and may remove violating Content. The customer must tell Meta promptly if it knows or suspects a breach of the restrictions.[6] The restrictions prohibit resale or access through aggregators, gateways or proxies (rule). They also prohibit using Outputs to train competing models (rule) and exceeding or evading rate limits or usage quotas.[6] Users and End Users must be at least 18.[6] The Model API Acceptable Use Policy is incorporated by reference.[14]
For asset management, the practical controls are an inventory of which Llama versions and derivatives are deployed or distributed, evidence that the attribution and naming conditions are met, and a record of which Model API tier each workload uses.
Cloud, hosting and territorial rules
The self-hosted licenses set no hardware, core, virtual machine or cloud restriction. Llama and SAM may be run on any infrastructure the licensee chooses, subject to the license conditions.[1][9] Muse Glimmer is served by the customer through runtimes such as vLLM, SGLang, llama.cpp or ExecuTorch.[8]
The restrictions are territorial. For multimodal models in Llama 4, the Acceptable Use Policy does not grant the Section 1(a) rights to an individual domiciled in the European Union or a company with its principal place of business there. The restriction does not apply to end users of a product or service that incorporates those models.[2] The Model API may not be used in countries or areas that the Meta Model API Model Designation and Geographic Use Policy does not permit. Traffic from jurisdictions excluded from the Discounted (Contributor) models must use the Standard models (rule).[6]
The data-use terms differ by tier. Meta will not use Content from Standard Services to train Meta Models (rule). With Discounted Services Meta may use Content for training, and customers must not submit sensitive, confidential or personal information.[6]
Recent licensing changes
| Date | Change |
|---|---|
| 2025-04-05 | Llama 4 Community License Agreement released, with “Built with Llama” attribution and a “Llama” name prefix for derivatives.[1] |
| 2025-11-19 | SAM License last updated.[9] |
| 2026-01-15 | Meta announced it would stop selling Horizon managed services and commercial SKUs of Meta Quest from 2026-02-20. From that date HMS licenses were to be free, with access for Meta Quest 3 and 3S continuing until 2030-01-04.[12] |
| May 2026 | Workplace from Meta closed.[11] |
| 2026-09-18 | Meta Model API Terms of Service last updated, covering Standard and Discounted Services and the Coding Harness Subscription for Muse Code.[6] |
| 2026-10-01 | WhatsApp Business Platform service messages, and utility messages sent in reply to users, became chargeable per message, with 1,000 free service messages per business phone number per month; see WhatsApp Business Platform pricing.[15] |
Organisations that still hold Workplace or Horizon managed services records should mark those entitlements as discontinued rather than renewable.
Guides
| Article | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Meta Llama licensing | Llama 2 to Llama 4 community licenses: thresholds, attribution, derivative naming, acceptable use and the EU multimodal clause |
| WhatsApp Business Platform pricing | Message categories, per-message and Meta Business Agent per-token rates, service free tier, free entry points, volume tiers, pricing calendar, billing and AI Provider terms |
Out of scope
This article does not cover Meta’s consumer apps (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp Messenger and Meta AI), advertising products, Meta Quest consumer hardware, or the terms of individual WhatsApp Business Solution Providers. Negotiated licenses above the Llama monthly active user threshold, and Muse Code subscription prices, are not published and are not recorded.
Catalog rows
- Metrics: Monthly active users, Token (Meta Model API), Generated image, Hour of audio processed, Segmented image, Segmented video frame, Web search query (Meta Model API), Delivered message (WhatsApp Business Platform)
- Programs: Llama 4 Community License Agreement, License from Meta above the monthly active user threshold, Meta Model API pay-as-you-go, Muse Code subscription
- Rules: SAM License: royalty-free, with publication acknowledgement and Trade Controls conditions, Muse Glimmer weights released under the Apache License 2.0, WhatsApp Business Platform: service messages and free entry points not charged, Meta Model API Standard Services: Content not used to train Meta Models, Meta Model API Discounted Services: Content may be used for training; no confidential data