Why It's Not Worth Paying Meta to Not Show You Ads

Despite initially thinking that paying Meta not to show ads would improve my Instagram experience, I decided it wasn't worthwhile after a few months. The differences were minimal, and the extra "benefits" didn't appeal to me. Here's why I don't recommend subscribing if the subscription becomes available in your area.

1 You Can Avoid and Personalize Ads on Instagram

Since reintegrating social media after a long break, I've gotten very strict on my content consumption. I have muted most people's Stories and I'd rather go directly to a specific user's account than scroll on my home feed. Subsequently, I hardly saw Instagram ads (I know that you can see these on people's profiles, but ignoring them is easy).

Your mileage may vary if you use the home feed and Stories more, but I didn't see the point in hiding something I wasn't seeing anyway. To be honest, I also don't think that ads are a bad thing in and of themselves; I just dislike seeing irrelevant ones (I have YouTube Premium because I strongly dislike most YouTube ads).

You can also do several other things to hide ads you hate on Facebook and tweak your Instagram ad interests via your account settings. Changing my Instagram ad interests was enough to significantly improve my in-app experience. Start with this, especially if you have no option because you aren't based in the EEA or Switzerland. Later, if Meta rolls the subscription out to your region, you can subscribe if you deem it worthwhile.

2 The Additional Benefits Weren't Good Enough for Me

Signing up for a Meta subscription that doesn't include ads will give you a few other features, such as your information not being used for ads. You can also still see your favorite creators' posts, with the exception of their ads. While I don't think that €9.99 to €12.99 (about $10.90 to $14.15) is a huge amount of money, I didn't see enough value in the subscription to warrant a long-term commitment.

Another thing worth mentioning is that adding extra accounts means you have to pay more for your subscription. I only used the service on Instagram, but if you want to also stop seeing ads on Facebook, you may find having to pay extra frustrating.

3 Buying a Subscription Didn't Fix the Things I Dislike About Instagram and Facebook

I believe that you are the product if something is "free", and I always used to find those "why is this free?" memes amusing and somewhat misleading. Since Instagram is my favorite social media site, I'd happily get a subscription if it fixed what I disliked about the platform.

Credit: Poetra.RH / Shutterstock

The main things I hate about Instagram are:

• Not being able to set a "Friends Only" or chronological timeline as the default (you always have to change it after opening the app).
• No option to hide Reels or the Explore page.
• Too many accounts that I neither follow nor care about appearing on my home feed.

Besides in-app features, several things are fundamentally wrong with the Instagram and Facebook experience these days (this is one of many reasons why I deleted Facebook).

I'm personally tired of engagement bait, and in my opinion, an emphasis on viral content has led to users creating low-quality sludge and AI slop. Until these problems are fixed, I don't see any point in subscribing to a plan when the aim is to improve my in-app experience.

4 Your Data Is Still Used in Some Cases

While Meta won't use your data for ads if you subscribe to the ad-free plan, getting a paid subscription doesn't make you immune from AI data training. You will separately have to opt out of Facebook's AI training. Moreover, your information isn't permanently deleted; Meta will only stop using your information for ads while your subscription is active.

Credit: QubixStudio/Shutterstock

I don't know about you, but if I'm paying for a subscription of this kind, I would want my data not used altogether. Moreover, I'd like to think that my existing information—that was previously used for ads—would be deleted permanently. While you should protect your privacy in the era of AI, you need to understand what Meta will and won't continue to use when you subscribe.

I can see the value that some users might find by paying to not see ads on Facebook and Instagram, but it personally wasn't worthwhile for me. I hardly scroll on the app anymore, and the ads that I do see are largely relevant to my interests. Since you can also customize your ad settings, it's worth doing this first before you purchase anything.