Meta is planning to raise prices for its virtual reality devices, executives said in an internal memo seen by Business Insider.
Metaverse leaders Gabriel Aul and Ryan Cairns told employees that the company must “make a shift” in its business model to ensure long-term sustainability. This will include measures such as price increases, accounting for new costs like tariffs, and extending the replacement cycle of its in-market devices, per the memo.
“Our devices will be more premium in price going forward, but we’ll have a healthier business to anchor on and free ourselves from feeling existential about any singular device’s success,” Aul and Cairns wrote in the memo, shared with staff on December 4.
They also called for delivering high-quality software experiences to customers that can match the “excellence” of its devices, adding that this may mean “we ship new hardware at a slower cadence going forward.”
Meta did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s request for comment.
The company’s flagship virtual reality (VR) headset, the Meta Quest 3, retails for $499.99, while its entry-level model retails at $299.99.
The move comes as Meta pushed back the release of its new mixed reality glasses, codenamed “Phoenix,” from the second half of 2026 to the first half of 2027, as outlined in a product strategy note to staff that Business Insider previously reported.
The memo announcing the price increases from Aul and Cairns did not refer to its mixed reality glasses. The document outlined three major themes derived from a recent Reality Labs strategy meeting with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and CTO Andrew Bosworth. They included how Meta can build a sustainable VR business for the long term, how it can build “world-class” software experiences, and how it can accelerate its pace on mobile.
They also sought to reassure staffers that it remains focused on VR. Earlier this month, Bloomberg reported that Meta plans to make budget cuts of up to 30% to Reality Labs, the division responsible for Meta’s hardware.
“We’re committed to VR for the long-haul so we need to align our business model and roadmap to an approach that will make this possible,” they wrote in the memo. “We’ve been working hard to bend the curve and accelerate ahead of the category’s natural growth rate, which means running multiple programs in parallel as well as carrying costs like tariffs and subsidies for content, GTM, and devices.”
Facebook rebranded as Meta in 2021 “to reflect who we are and the future we hope to build,” Zuckerberg said at the time as the company outlined its vision for the metaverse. Since then, Meta’s Reality Labs division has lost more than $60 billion. The company doesn’t disclose headset sales publicly, but according to a 2023 report from The Verge, citing an internal presentation, Meta had sold nearly 20 million Quest headsets by that point.
Have a tip? Contact this reporter via email at jmann@businessinsider.com or Signal at jyotimann.11. Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here’s our guide to sharing information securely.
