WhatsApp Business API pricing explained: what you pay Meta and when
Marketing, utility, authentication and service messages are charged differently. Learn which messages are free and how to keep your WhatsApp bill low.
Using the WhatsApp API has two costs: the platform you use (your Wapify plan) and the message charges Meta bills for messages your business sends. This article explains the second part.
Meta charges per delivered template message
Meta charges for template messages by category and by the customer’s country code:
- Marketing: offers, announcements, newsletters, re-engagement. The most expensive category.
- Utility: order, delivery, payment and account updates for something the customer already did.
- Authentication: one-time passwords and login codes.
- Service: your replies inside the 24-hour window after a customer writes to you. These are free.
The 24-hour customer service window
When a customer messages you, a 24-hour window opens. Inside it you can reply with any message — text, images, documents, buttons — for free, and utility templates sent inside the window are free too. After the window closes you need a template to message the customer again.
How to keep costs low
- Get customers to message you first with chat links, QR codes and Click-to-WhatsApp ads, then reply for free.
- Use a bot to answer common questions inside the free window.
- Send marketing only to engaged, opted-in customers. Smaller, targeted campaigns convert better and cost less.
- Use utility templates only for real transactional updates so they are not re-categorised as marketing.
Where to see the current rates
Meta publishes its rates per country on its WhatsApp Business Platform pricing page and changes them from time to time. Your message charges are billed by Meta to the payment method on your WhatsApp Business account.