Meta Cuts Smart Glasses to $299 to Outflank Snap and Apple

Meta on Tuesday launched a new line of smart glasses called Meta Glasses, priced from $299, undercutting its own Ray-Ban Meta line and redrawing the math of the AI wearables category in a single move. The glasses are made in partnership with EssilorLuxottica, the world’s largest eyewear group, but they drop the Ray-Ban and Oakley branding that defined earlier models. Three frame styles go on sale today across the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Australia.

Meta frames the new line as a play for “broader audiences,” in the words of its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg. The starting price lands at least $80 below the entry-level Ray-Ban Meta, per CNBC’s reporting on the launch. That gap now sits next to a stack of rivals whose strategies look more expensive: Snap’s Specs at $2,195, Google’s Android XR audio frames due this fall, and Apple’s smart glasses not expected before late 2027.

What Meta Just Put on the Shelf

Meta’s introduction of the new $299 glasses reads as a deliberate move down the price ladder. The company already sells three partner-branded tiers above this one: Ray-Ban Meta from $379, Oakley Meta from $399, and the Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses with an in-lens screen from $799. Adding a sub-$300 pair turns the portfolio into a four-tier stack aimed at every budget Meta can reach.

The motivation, in Meta’s telling, is reach rather than margin. Alex Himel, Meta’s vice president of wearables, said the company simply needed “a pair of glasses at a lower price point” and worked backward from there. The pricing language from EssilorLuxottica’s side ran in the same direction.

More price-sensitive consumers will have an opportunity to experience the power that wearables bring into their everyday lives.

Milleri, EssilorLuxottica’s chairman and CEO, said that in the joint press release with Meta. The market-share math gives Meta room to absorb thinner entry-level margins, and the partnership with the world’s largest eyewear maker gives Meta the manufacturing scale to do it.

Why $299 Is the Number That Matters

The price point matters less for the spec sheet and more for the comparison shoppers will draw this fall. A $299 Meta Glasses pair sits at least $80 below a Ray-Ban Meta, per the Meta and EssilorLuxottica 80% smart glasses market share report on the launch. Meta’s cheapest Oakley Meta pair starts at $399, and its Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses start at $799. Inside that range, Meta owns every rung the category currently exposes.

The same gap shows up on the demand side. The Meta and EssilorLuxottica partnership holds “estimated market share of more than 80%” of smart glasses, with millions of units sold since 2021. A $299 entry point lowers the cost of trying the category for the buyers who never quite committed at $379.

The pricing also reshapes the road Meta executives have been laying out in public. Meta executives have said lightweight glasses are a step toward display-equipped models with more computing inside. A sub-$300 base gives that long road a steady intake funnel: customers who start at $299 today are the upgrade pool for the $799 Display pair tomorrow. The strategy treats price not as a sacrifice but as an acquisition cost, and the 80% market share gives Meta room to absorb thinner margins on the entry level to defend that lead.

Meta’s Smart Glasses Price Ladder

The same logic shows up in the partnership structure. EssilorLuxottica already manufactures every tier above the new one and has the capacity to absorb a fourth. The new collection extends prescription support, including a wider power range through partner opticians. Meta gains volume at the bottom while keeping the partner’s premium brands untouched at the top.

The Three Frames and What Each One Does

Meta Glasses ship in three silhouettes, all built around the same Meta AI stack. Meta Adventurer is a rectangle in standard and large. Meta Fury is the bolder, thicker frame.

Meta Glasses by Kylie is a slim oval designed in collaboration with Kylie Jenner, her first venture into wearable tech. Together they cover 26 distinct color, lens, and frame combinations, including Transitions, polarized, and prescription-ready lenses. The full set goes on sale today through Meta.com, LensCrafters, Sunglass Hut, Best Buy, and Amazon.

The internals match the look. Each pair runs over eight hours of battery on a charge, with a foldable case that pushes total listening time to roughly 40 hours.

A new charging stand, also announced Tuesday, works across Meta’s displayless glasses line. Audio comes from open-ear speakers with a wind-reducing microphone array. A dedicated action button summons Meta AI on demand. The glasses pair over Bluetooth with a phone for data and connectivity.

Meta Glasses are the first AI glasses to launch with Muse Spark, the first model out of Meta Superintelligence Labs, built specifically for Meta’s products. Live translation now supports 14 new languages on top of the existing six, including Japanese, Chinese (Mandarin), Hindi, and Korean. Pedestrian navigation is rolling out to displayless glasses later this year.

Where Snap’s $2,195 Bet Now Stands

Snap picked its lane a week before Meta picked its price. On June 16 at the Augmented World Expo in Long Beach, CEO Evan Spiegel introduced Specs as the “successor to the smartphone,” opening Snap’s announcement of Specs at $2,195 for pre-orders at $2,195 with a $200 refundable deposit and shipping set for fall 2026 in the United States, United Kingdom, and France.

Specs are a fundamentally different device. The 47mm and 52mm frames weigh 132 grams and 136 grams and run on two Snapdragon processors, one for computer vision and one for running Lenses. The display delivers a 51-degree field of view and 16 million colors through proprietary liquid-crystal-on-silicon technology. Battery life tops out at four hours of mixed use, with the case adding four more charges for 20 total hours. Snap has filed more than 7,000 patents around the project.

The two products are not direct rivals, and Snap is not pretending they are. Meta’s displayless glasses read messages, take photos, and translate speech. Specs project digital objects onto the surrounding world through a transparent waveguide. But both are competing for the same shelf space at Best Buy and the same line in a buyer’s budget. Snap’s positioning now reads as a deliberate premium play in a category where Meta just reset the anchor for what “affordable” looks like.

What Apple Has Until Late 2027 to Reconsider

Apple’s smart glasses remain a 2027 story. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported in late May that Apple is now aiming to release its first smart glasses in “late 2027.” Apple’s Vision Products Group is also working on a second-generation Vision Pro, but the glasses are the priority.

The competitive gap is the issue. By the time Apple’s first pair ships, Meta will have sold four hardware generations across four price tiers, and Snap will have spent two falls shipping standalone AR to developers. Apple’s earlier Vision Pro headset launched at $3,499, and sales have been called lackluster by multiple outlets. A late-2027 entry at an unknown price would land in a category where the bottom rung is already at $299.

The Google Wildcard and the Wider Field

Google is the variable Meta’s pricing math does not yet capture. At Google I/O 2026, the company showed Android XR audio frames built with Warby Parker and Gentle Monster, powered by Gemini AI, with a launch slated for fall 2026. The first Android XR audio glasses are positioned as a screen-free, AI-first alternative to Meta’s displayless line, with directions, messaging, and photo capture built in. Pricing has not been disclosed.

The strategic difference is operating system. Meta owns its AI and its hardware stack from chip to app. Google’s pitch is to let multiple eyewear makers build on Android XR the way phone makers built on Android, while routing AI through Gemini. Pricing for Google’s first Warby Parker frames remains undisclosed.

Samsung is already in the same push as Google’s partner, framing its own intelligent eyewear effort as a Gemini-powered extension of the Android XR platform. If Google’s fall launch lands at a price near Meta’s $299 floor, the comparison shoppers Meta has been building toward will suddenly have a second option. If it lands closer to the Oakley Meta’s $399, Meta still owns the budget rung. Either way, Meta’s lead time shrinks the moment Android XR frames ship.

What the Price Floor Says About the Category

The category’s center of gravity has shifted. Meta now owns the sub-$300 entry point with a confirmed launch, and no other vendor has priced a comparable AI glasses line below the Oakley Meta’s $399. Snap’s premium play is the only other product with a confirmed launch window in the next year.

• 14: new languages added to Meta Glasses live translation, bringing the total to 20
• 80%: estimated smart glasses market share held by Meta and EssilorLuxottica
• 7,000+: patents Snap has filed around the Specs AR project
• 132 grams: weight of Snap’s smaller Specs frame, the 47mm model

Zuckerberg called the play in plain terms in the joint release. “Our partnership with EssilorLuxottica is about putting powerful AI into frames people actually want to wear,” he said. The categories Meta is now competing for, premium displays, standalone AR, and a late-2027 Apple entry, all read against that $299 floor.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much do Meta Glasses cost?

Three Meta Glasses silhouettes are available at $299 each: Meta Adventurer (a rectangle, standard and large), Meta Fury (a bolder frame), and Meta Glasses by Kylie (a slim oval designed with Kylie Jenner). Sales opened today at Meta.com, LensCrafters, Sunglass Hut, Best Buy, and Amazon.

What is the difference between Meta Glasses and Ray-Ban Meta?

Ray-Ban Meta glasses start at $379 with the Ray-Ban badge and the same AI feature set. Meta Glasses start at $299 with no Ray-Ban or Oakley branding. The Meta Ray-Ban Display pair, with an in-lens screen, starts at $799.

When will Snap’s Specs go on sale?

Snap opened pre-orders for Specs at AWE 2026 on June 16 at $2,195, with a $200 refundable deposit per pair. Shipping is set for fall 2026 in the United States, United Kingdom, and France.

When are Apple’s smart glasses coming?

Apple’s first smart glasses are now expected in late 2027, per Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. Apple has pushed the lighter, cheaper Vision Air headset to a later date.

What languages do Meta Glasses translate live?

Meta Glasses support live translation across 20 languages: English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Portuguese, Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, and Vietnamese. The latest update added 14 of those.