Meta just did something it spent years telling everyone it wouldn’t do. The company launched Muse Spark, a closed, proprietary AI model, effectively reversing its long-standing commitment to open-weight AI development. The move comes with a planned paid API tier for developers, a first for a company that built its AI reputation on giving things away for free.
From open to closed, and free to paid
Muse Spark launched on April 8, 2026, as the first model from Meta’s new Muse series, built by Meta Superintelligence Labs. It powers the Meta AI app and website, with a focus on visual reasoning, tool usage, and agentic capabilities.
The model represents a clean break from Meta’s Llama series, the open-weight models released throughout 2024 and 2025 that anyone could download, modify, and deploy.
Meta provided a private API preview to select partners after launch, with plans to eventually open a public developer API with paid access tiers. By June 3, the company had delayed the public API rollout multiple times without committing to a firm release date. No specific pricing details or tier structures have been disclosed.
