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I Paid Meta €6 to Stop the Ads. They're Still Tracking Everything.

Snugg Team|February 8, 2026|12 min read
Screenshot of Meta's Premium subscription offer showing ad-free option


Two days ago, Meta offered me something I've wanted for years: Instagram and Facebook without ads. €5.99 per month.

I've been using these platforms since 2009 – seventeen years of watching them transform from connection tools into advertising delivery systems. I survey yachts in the Caribbean. My family's in Scotland, 4,000 miles away. For most of those years, social media was my lifeline.

Then it broke. Last year, I scrolled Instagram for one hour and counted 147 ads. Zero posts from actual friends or family. I clicked the X to hide content I didn't want. Instagram showed it to me again. And again. They didn't even pretend to care what I wanted anymore.

So when Meta said I could pay them to make the ads stop, I was genuinely curious. Maybe this was them finally offering users a real choice.

Then I read what you actually get for €5.99.

And then I kept reading – into Meta's subscription terms, their privacy policy, consumer protection complaints filed in Europe. What I found was worse than I expected.

You're not buying privacy. You're not buying control. You're not even buying a better experience.

You're buying the privilege of not seeing the ads Meta creates using the surveillance they're still running on you.

Here's What €5.99 Actually Buys

No ads on Instagram. No ads on Facebook. That's the entire feature list.

I checked Meta's official subscription page three times thinking I'd missed something. I searched for mentions of privacy improvements, chronological feeds, any kind of enhanced features. Nothing.

The subscription removes the ads. Full stop.

But surely paying Meta means they stop treating you like a product, right? Surely they stop the surveillance that creates those ads in the first place?

That's what I thought too.

The Surveillance Doesn't Stop

Here's the exact wording from Meta's official announcement about Premium:

"While people are subscribed, their information will not be used for ads."

Read that carefully. "Will not be used for ads."

Not "will not be collected." Not "will not be tracked." Not "will not be analysed."

Just won't be used to show you ads.

I went digging through Meta's privacy policy, consumer protection complaints filed in Europe, and tech journalism covering this. The surveillance infrastructure that Meta built to serve you those ads? It keeps running at full capacity.

Everything they collected before? Still collected. Everything they tracked before? Still tracked.

Your browsing history across websites using Meta's tracking pixels. How long you look at each post. What you search for. Who you message and how often. Your location data. Your contacts if you've synced them. Your behaviour patterns, your interests, your relationships. (I wrote a deep dive on exactly what Meta collects across all their apps if you want the full picture.)

All of it. Still harvested, still processed, still used to build detailed behavioural profiles.

They just don't show YOU the ads anymore.

But here's the part that genuinely shocked me: they're still training their AI on your data.

When I found this buried in tech coverage, I had to read it twice. Paying for Meta Premium removes ads. It doesn't opt you out of AI training. That's a separate setting you have to find and disable yourself.

Think about what that means. You pay Meta €6 per month. They still track everything you do. They still build profiles on your behaviour. They still train their AI models on your photos, your posts, your messages. They still use your data to "improve products" and provide "aggregated insights" to advertisers.

The only thing that changes is whether they show you the 147 ads per hour they're creating from that surveillance.

European consumer protection groups aren't happy about this. The BEUC (European Consumer Organisation) filed complaints stating Meta's subscription offers "an unfair and misleading choice" because users "cannot know how subscribing would change the way their information is processed."

Their research found Meta collects data to infer things like your sexual orientation, emotional state, and susceptibility to addiction. And paying for Premium doesn't stop that collection.

What Else Doesn't Change

A Chronological Feed? No.

Your feed is still controlled by an algorithm. You still don't see posts in the order they were posted.

Want to see what your friends posted today, in the order they posted it? That's not included in Premium.

No "Suggested Content"? No.

You still get "Suggested for you" posts from random accounts you don't follow.

In my tests over the past week (before I knew about Premium), roughly 70% of my Instagram feed was content from accounts I deliberately chose NOT to follow. Meta decided I should see it anyway.

Premium doesn't change this. You're still getting an algorithmically-curated feed of mostly strangers, mixed with occasional posts from friends.

End-to-End Encryption? No.

Only WhatsApp has this—and even then, "encrypted" doesn't mean "private". Your Instagram and Facebook messages can still be read by Meta. Your photos can still be analysed. Your comments are still monitored.

Opt-Out of Data Collection? No.

Remember that long list of what they still collect? You can't opt out of any of it as a Premium subscriber.

More Things That Don't Change

The algorithmic feed? Still there. You're still seeing posts from accounts you don't follow, reels from random creators, suggested content Meta decides you should see. TikTok made this worse for everyone by proving that algorithmic feeds boost engagement—now every platform copies it. No chronological feed option magically appears when you subscribe.

The encryption you might expect from a premium service? Not included. Your messages aren't end-to-end encrypted by default. Your posts aren't private. Your data isn't protected any better than it was when you were seeing 147 ads per hour.

The infinite scroll that's designed to keep you trapped? Still infinite. There's no "all caught up!" screen that would actually respect your time. You can still scroll forever, except now you're paying for the privilege.

And here's something that genuinely surprised me: your data is still shared. With Meta's family of companies (WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, Threads). With advertisers for "aggregated insights." With third-party data providers. With law enforcement when requested. With AI training systems.

The only difference is Meta won't show ads to YOU based on that data. They'll still use your data to target everyone else.

Let's Talk About That Price

Meta makes about $3.60 per month from showing you ads. That's based on their own financial reports - $134.9 billion in revenue divided by 3.15 billion users in 2024.

They're charging you €5.99 per month to remove those ads. That's roughly $6.50 at current exchange rates.

So you're paying them nearly twice what they make from you in ad revenue. An 80% markup. And in return, they:

  • Still track your behaviour

  • Still build advertising profiles (just not showing YOU the ads)

  • Still use your data for AI training

  • Still serve you algorithmic content you didn't ask for

  • Still don't give you chronological feed

  • Still don't give you actual privacy

  • Still don't give you control


You're not becoming a customer instead of a product. You're becoming a paying product.

How Every Other Platform Handles Premium (Better)

I wanted to understand if this was normal. So I looked at what other platforms give you when you pay to remove ads.

Spotify Premium costs $11/month. You get no ads, offline listening, better audio quality, and you can use private mode to stop tracking. They're only tracking what you listen to for recommendations. Clear value beyond "no ads."

YouTube Premium is $14/month. No ads, background play, downloaded videos, YouTube Music included. They still track you for recommendations, but you can pause that anytime. And you're getting actual features, not just absence-of-ads.

Netflix is $15.49/month for ad-free. No ads, only tracks viewing for recommendations, you can have separate profiles, download content. Clear value proposition.

X Premium is a mess, but at least at $16/month for the ad-free tier you get post editing, longer posts and videos, access to their AI, creator monetisation. Still has issues, but at least adds features beyond removing ads.

Reddit Premium is $6/month - similar price to Meta - but you get no ads, coins to award posts, exclusive avatar gear, and no tracking across the web because Reddit never tracked you there anyway.

Every single one of these offers actual features or actual privacy improvements beyond just "we'll stop showing you ads." Meta offers neither.

Everyone's Doing This Now

Meta isn't alone. In the past two years, nearly every major "free" social platform has introduced paid tiers to remove ads.

Meta started testing this in the EU at €9.99/month in late 2023. Then rolled out to the UK at £2.99/month last September. Now it's standardised at €5.99/month across Europe. They won't say how many people subscribed, which tells you something.

X offers three tiers. Basic at $3/month gets you editing and longer posts. Premium at $8/month gets you a checkmark and reduced ads (not even ad-free). Premium+ at $16/month finally removes ads completely. About 3.6 million people across all tiers have subscribed. That's less than 1% of X's 600 million users.

TikTok has been "testing" $4.99/month ad-free since October 2023. Still just a test in one market. Still no subscriber numbers. Still not actually launched.

YouTube Premium has been around since 2015 at $14/month. They have 80 million subscribers out of 2.6 billion users. That's 3% - and YouTube Premium actually adds features like background play and YouTube Music.

Snapchat has Snapchat+. Less than 1% subscribe.

See the pattern? Platforms built on "free with ads" are all pivoting to "free with ads OR pay to remove ads." And adoption is terrible. Even YouTube Premium, which adds real value, only converts 3% of users. X Premium converts less than 1%. Meta won't even disclose their numbers.

Why is this happening now? Three things converged.

First, EU regulations. GDPR and the Digital Markets Act are forcing platforms to get explicit consent for ad targeting. "Pay or consent" is their regulatory workaround.

Second, ad revenue pressure. Apple's App Tracking Transparency killed targeted advertising effectiveness. These platforms need new revenue streams.

Third, market testing. If even 1-3% of users pay, that's potentially billions in new revenue without changing the actual product.

But here's what bothers me: why aren't they offering "pay for actual privacy and control" instead of just "pay to remove ads"?

Because surveillance IS the product. Ads are just how they monetise that surveillance. (This is exactly why social media without ads requires a completely different business model—you can't just bolt "no ads" onto a surveillance machine.)

Removing ads while keeping the surveillance is like a restaurant charging you extra to eat your meal without listening to commercials while the staff still follows you home to see what you do there.

So Is It Worth It?

Probably not.

Look, if ads genuinely ruin your experience and you have €6/month to spare, maybe. If you spend hours daily on these platforms and the cost is negligible to you, fine.

But most people I've talked to thought paying Meta would give them something beyond "no ads." They thought it would mean privacy. Or control. Or a better experience. Or at least being treated like a customer instead of a product.

It doesn't.

You're still being tracked. The suggested content is still there. The algorithmic feed is still there. The surveillance continues exactly as before. You're just paying Meta while they do it.

If you subscribe hoping for privacy, you'll be disappointed. If you subscribe hoping to be "less of a product," you're now a paying product. If you subscribe hoping the actual experience improves, it barely does.

Here's what really gets me. Meta CAN make a better product. They just won't.

For €6/month, they could offer you chronological feed as the default. End-to-end encryption for all messages and posts. No tracking outside their platforms. Finite feeds that respect your time. Actual privacy controls that mean something.

They could make a subscription that transforms you from product to customer. That would be worth paying for.

Instead, they charge you to remove the symptom while keeping the disease.

What I'm Doing Instead

I'm not subscribing to Meta Premium. I decided to build what should exist instead.

It's called Snugg, and it's what social media would look like if it actually worked for users. For €5/month, you get what Meta should be offering: no ads, no tracking beyond what's needed to make posts work, chronological feed, only content from people you actually choose to follow, end-to-end encryption for everything, and a finite feed that lets you actually reach the end.

More importantly, you're a customer. Not a product. Not a data point. Not a resource to be extracted. A customer.

I'm not writing this to sell you on Snugg. I'm writing this because Meta Premium crystallises everything wrong with the current model. They make more money from you by removing ads (€6/month) than from showing you ads ($3.60/month). Yet they still won't give you privacy, control, or a better experience.

That tells you everything about whether they see you as a customer or a resource.

Here's What It Comes Down To

Meta Premium removes the most visible symptom of surveillance capitalism - the ads - while leaving the disease completely untouched. The surveillance keeps running. The behaviour tracking keeps running. The AI training keeps running. The data harvesting keeps running.

You're just paying them to hide the output.

It's like paying a restaurant to let you eat without listening to commercials while their staff still follows you home to catalogue everything you do there.

For €5.99/month, you're not buying a better product. You're buying a slightly less annoying version of the same extraction machine.

The ads aren't the problem. They never were. They're just how Meta monetises the actual problem: a business model that treats you as raw material to be processed and sold, whether you pay them or not.

I looked at Meta Premium hoping to find something worth paying for. What I found instead was confirmation that these platforms won't change because they CAN'T. Their entire business model depends on surveillance. Removing ads while keeping surveillance isn't a compromise. It's just a more profitable way to do the same thing. (If you're wondering how we got here, I traced the timeline—there were specific moments when these platforms chose ads over users.)

If you found this useful, share it. People deserve to know what they're actually paying for.

And if you want to see what €5/month should actually buy you - genuine privacy, actual control, a platform that works for you instead of against you - join the Snugg waitlist. I'm building the alternative because someone has to.

Related Reading

If this article was useful, you might also want to read:


Sources & Further Reading

This analysis is based on:

Meta Official Announcements:


Consumer Protection & Privacy:

Industry Context:

Competitor Pricing:

Regulations:

About the Author

I'm a yacht surveyor based in the Caribbean and the founder of Snugg. After 15 years watching social media platforms prioritise ads over genuine connection, I decided to build the alternative. I previously built and ran a successful sailing holiday business, topping Google search results for years before algorithm changes destroyed organic reach. I'm not a developer or privacy activist—just someone who got tired of platforms that forgot their purpose. When I'm not building Snugg or surveying yachts, I wish everyone had more time for sailing (or whatever brings them joy).

Connect: Twitter/X | LinkedIn | Email

About Snugg: I'm building the social media platform I wish existed. No ads. No tracking. No algorithms. No surveillance. Just you, your friends, and actual control over your digital life. Learn more

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