Meta AI
Free
~8 min read
Updated · September 15, 2026
Meta Muse: the agent that keeps working after you close the app.
On September 8, 2026 Meta introduced Muse — not a new model, but a personal agent you talk to like a person, in a new Muse app or straight inside WhatsApp. Give it a goal and it plans, opens a browser, fills in forms, negotiates, and comes back only when it needs your yes. Under the hood it runs on Muse Spark, Meta's most capable model. Here is what it actually does, what it is allowed to touch, and what Meta hasn't said yet.
Availability, as of launch day: rolling out in the US on iOS, Android and muse.ai; AI glasses "coming soon." Meta says it is free for most of what people need, with a weekly usage limit. Update, September 15: the Meta Help Center now lists two paid plans — Power, $20/month (500M Muse tokens per week) and Maximum, $100/month (3B Muse tokens per week). Subscriptions are in limited testing and not offered in every location yet; you must be 18+ and sign in with a Meta account.
Assistant vs. agent — the one distinction that matters
Meta AI, the thing already in your WhatsApp and Instagram, answers. You ask, it replies, the turn ends. Muse is built for the other shape of work: you hand over a goal and walk away. Meta's own examples are deliberately mundane — sell a car for more than the first offer, get a bill lowered, keep a training plan updated as the rest of your week shifts, turn a recipe reel you saved on Instagram into a grocery list, plan a dinner party and remember which friend can't eat shellfish before the invites go out.
Two behaviours make that possible. First, it keeps going after you close the app: long tasks continue in the background and Muse messages you when something changed or when it needs approval. Second, it remembers — details you mentioned once, preferences, people — and uses them to suggest things unprompted. You can tell it to "forget" specific things at any time.
The announcement, decoded
Meta says
What it means for you
"Runs on Muse Secure VM"
Your agent gets its own dedicated computer in Meta's cloud. Your connected accounts, files and credentials live there — not in a shared model, and not on your phone.
"A separate Sentinel agent"
A second program on that same machine, walled off from Muse, that has to approve anything Muse sends to the internet — and asks you when it isn't sure. Think of it as a bouncer between the agent and the outside world.
"No visibility into passwords or payment methods"
Logins you connect go into secure storage; Muse can use them without reading them. That includes passwords you type into the browser yourself while it watches.
"Checkout with Link built by Stripe"
Purchases go through Stripe's Link wallet, which issues a one-time-use card per purchase. Muse is the first agent covered by Link's purchase protection (lost or damaged items, price drops, no-fee returns). Shop Pay and 1Password support are "coming soon."
"A complete audit trail"
You can see everything Muse has done and everything it plans to do. Sensitive actions — sending an email, spending money — stop and wait for you first.
"Muse Confidential VM, later this year"
A promised upgrade where the whole VM is encrypted with a key only you hold, so Meta itself can't read your data or conversations. Not shipped yet — treat it as a roadmap item.
What you control, per app
Connecting a service is not all-or-nothing. For email, for example, you choose whether Muse can only read your mail or can also send on your behalf, and you can dial that back or disconnect the service entirely whenever you like. Meta also states that Muse conversations and VM data are not shared with its ad systems, and that you can opt out of your interactions being used to train Meta's models. Our advice on day one: connect one low-stakes service, watch the audit trail for a week, then decide what else it earns.
Try it today — a 15-minute first run
If you are in the US, this is the sequence that teaches you the most while risking the least:
1. Install the Muse app (or open muse.ai) and set up nothing except the basics. 2. Give it a goal that needs no account access: "Find me three used-car listings under $12,000 within 30 miles that were posted this week, and tell me which one you'd negotiate on and why." Watch how it plans, browses and reports back. 3. Close the app deliberately. See whether it messages you when it is done. 4. Only then connect a single service — a calendar is a good first candidate — and set it to read-only. 5. Open the audit trail and read every step it took. That trail is the product; the chat is just the front door.
The honest part
"World's first personal AI agent" is marketing. OpenAI's
ChatGPT Work, Google's
Gemini Spark and the open-source
OpenClaw all already run goals in the background and act in a browser. What is new here is the
packaging: a consumer agent inside WhatsApp, with a dedicated VM, a separate approval agent, and purchase protection at checkout. Whether the Sentinel layer holds up against real prompt-injection attacks is exactly the kind of claim independent researchers will take weeks to test — nobody outside Meta has had time yet, including us. Paid tiers are $20 and $100 a month but still in limited testing, availability is US-only, and Meta's AI features have a track record of changing fast. Treat every capability on this page as Meta's description, verified against its September 8 announcement, not as tested behaviour.
Meta Muse — quick answers
What is Meta Muse?
A personal AI agent Meta launched on September 8, 2026. You message it in the Muse app or directly in WhatsApp, and it plans, browses, fills in forms, books and buys on your behalf — running on a dedicated cloud computer Meta calls the Muse Secure VM. It is powered by Muse Spark, Meta's most capable model.
Is Muse free?
Yes, with a weekly usage limit. Two paid plans raise the allowance: Power at $20 a month (500M Muse tokens per week) and Maximum at $100 a month (3B Muse tokens per week), per the Meta Help Center. Subscriptions are still in limited testing and not offered in every location yet.
Where can I get it?
Rolling out in the US on iOS, Android and muse.ai, with AI glasses support "coming soon." No date for other countries yet.
Can Muse spend my money?
Only after you approve. It checks with you before purchases and before sending email, and it pays through Link by Stripe using a one-time-use card so your real card number is never exposed to the merchant or to Muse. Shop Pay is listed as coming soon.
Does Muse see my passwords?
Meta says no — credentials go into secure storage on your VM and Muse uses them without viewing them, including passwords you type into the browser yourself. A separate Sentinel agent has to approve anything Muse sends to the internet.
How is Muse different from Meta AI?
Meta AI is the chat assistant inside WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger — it answers. Muse is an agent that takes on goals, keeps working after you close the app, and comes back when it needs a decision. Both run on the Muse Spark model family.