Meta launches Muse Code coding agent, undercutting rivals on price
Meta has released Muse Code, its first AI coding agent, in a bid to challenge Anthropic and OpenAI. The tool can plan changes, write code, and validate results across "a wide variety of use cases," AI chief Alexandr Wang said. It works alongside the company's latest model, Muse Spark 1.2, and is available as a preview.
The launch is the latest major release from Wang, who joined in June last year to lead Meta Superintelligence Labs and revamp chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg's AI strategy. It also comes as Meta looks to generate AI revenue amid heavy spending on data centres and computing infrastructure.
Like Anthropic's Claude and OpenAI's Codex, Muse Code lets people build apps within a single interface while managing fleets of AI agents. Wang said Meta is differentiating on price rather than capabilities.
Developers can access the agent through a pay-as-you-go option or a cheaper "contributor tier," which Wang said is "more than 10 times cheaper" but requires users to "opt-in to help improve the model." Meta is "also starting to accept requests for zero-data retention," a feature Wang called "a big enterprise feature that is important for folks."
Meta's shares tumbled last week after it issued a light revenue forecast and reported dwindling free cash flow in the second quarter. The company draws 98% of its revenue from online ads, a market it dominates through user data — a model that sits uneasily with enterprise demands for data privacy.
Meta is betting it can win developers on cost, positioning Muse Code and the Muse Spark models below Anthropic and OpenAI. Its newer model will also appear on OpenRouter, the platform hosting open-weight models from Chinese labs like DeepSeek and Z.ai — a sign of how crowded and competitive the AI coding market has become.
Read more: CNBC , The Wall Street Journal
Image credit: Generated with Gemini
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