Meta generated $59.36 billion in advertising revenue in the second quarter of 2026. That was nearly all of its $60.80 billion in total revenue. For 20 years, the company has run almost entirely on ads.
Zuckerberg just said that’s about to change.
Speaking at Meta Connect in Menlo Park on Sept. 23, Zuckerberg laid out how the company plans to make money from Muse, its personal AI agent, according to Yahoo Finance.
Meta will take a small cut of transactions Muse completes on behalf of users. The fee will come from merchants, not from the users themselves.
Zuckerberg touts Muse revenue potential
“We believe that Muse will make you money,” Zuckerberg told a room full of developers. “We are standing behind this by making Muse free for a huge number of tokens with the expectation that over time we will profit by taking a small fee from transactions.”
Muse launched on Sept. 8. On the free tier, users get 100 million tokens per week. Meta also offers paid tiers at $20 a month for 500 million tokens and $100 a month for 3 billion tokens, according to Benzinga. More than 1,500 developers applied to build connectors for Muse within its first week.
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Muse is designed to run inside a dedicated cloud virtual machine with a visible browser window so users can watch it work. Meta’s Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang said the company is also developing an encrypted Muse mode targeting a rollout by December 2026 to wall off access to sensitive data.
Zuckerberg confirmed that Muse users will soon be able to create a distinct digital avatar for their agent and video chat with it in real time. The physical avatar is named Jolly, and the personalization push is part of Meta’s effort to make Muse feel more like a personal assistant and less like a search engine.
What Meta’s Muse AI agent can buy for you
Wang highlighted a wave of new retail integrations. Muse now supports PayPal and can shop at Walmart, Best Buy, Gap, Sephora, Wayfair, and American Eagle. For travel, it connects to Expedia. For groceries, it connects to Instacart.
The integrations mean users can describe what they want and let Muse search, compare options, and complete the purchase without opening individual apps or websites. Muse is also getting its own email address, allowing it to handle correspondence on a user’s behalf.
Mac computer control went live on Sept. 17, meaning Muse can now take over a Mac and operate any app on it. It also works with Box and GitHub for file management and code.
Wang said the agent is coming to Meta VR Glasses for on-the-go voice access. A dedicated handheld device called Muse Charm is in development for users who want access without a phone or glasses. Zuckerberg said it should be available before the holidays.
Why Muse offers Meta a different business model
Meta’s existing ad business works by charging companies to reach users on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
The transaction-fee model works differently. Meta earns money when Muse completes a purchase, not when it shows an ad. If Muse helps a user book a trip on Expedia, Meta takes a cut of that booking. If it buys groceries through Instacart, Meta takes a cut of that order.
Zuckerberg framed this as a model where Meta’s interests align with users’. If Muse actually saves people money or helps them buy things they wanted, Meta profits from the outcome. In contrast, the ad business gets paid regardless of whether the user does anything after seeing the ad.
How large that fee would be and how it would be calculated were not disclosed at the event. Meta has not explained the specific mechanics of how it collects from merchants or what share of a transaction it would keep.
Zuckerberg told investors in July that some agent products would adopt results-based pricing, whereby businesses pay when Meta produces an outcome.
The transaction-fee model on Muse extends that logic into consumer shopping. It represents a meaningful shift from an attention economy to a participation economy.
What investors are watching on Muse
Muse became the top app on both Apple’s App Store and Google Play shortly after launching on Sept. 8. Sensor Tower estimated it reached 560,000 daily active users after only 11 days.
Meta’s stock rose 11% on Monday, Sept. 21, following Muse’s launch, as investors assessed early numbers. Wells Fargo and KeyBanc Capital Markets both raised their Meta price targets on the back of that early adoption data.
The open question is whether those early users become habitual shoppers through the agent.
Buying something through a chatbot requires a level of trust that casual usage does not. Users must connect payment methods, grant Muse access to their accounts, and let it act on their behalf. That trust takes time to build, and one bad transaction can erode it fast.
Retailers are another variable. Walmart, Best Buy, and the other launch partners have agreed to the current integration. As Meta’s cut of transactions becomes clearer, some merchants may push back or negotiate.
Amazon, Google, and Apple each have their own commerce layers, and none of them will sit still while Meta builds a toll position between consumers and checkout.
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