WhatsApp Billing Rules

——To learn about WhatsApp billing rules by reading this article

WhatsApp announced updates to pricing on the WhatsApp Business Platform, to be simpler and more consistent with industry practices, encourage higher-quality messaging experiences for people, and better align with value delivered for people and businesses.

• Effective November 1, 2024 – Service conversations will be free for all businesses.
• Effective July 1, 2025 –
  • WhatsApp will charge on a per-message basis instead of per-conversation, to simplify our pricing and better align to industry standard-pricing for messaging.
  • Utility template messages sent during the customer service window will be free, to provide more flexibility to businesses in how they engage with users.

Per-message pricing

Per-message pricing will apply to all businesses starting July 1, 2025, at 12am, by WhatsApp Business Account timezone. With per-message pricing, businesses on our platform will be charged:

• Per delivered marketing template message
• Per delivered authentication template message
• Per delivered utility template message, if delivered outside of a customer service window

For example, if you send a marketing template and then two utility templates to a WhatsApp user, that will incur 3 charges (1 marketing, 2 utility). If the 2 utility templates are sent while a customer service window is open between you and the user, however, it would only incur a single charge (1 marketing).

You can contact your sales manager to get the latest WhatsApp price list.

Template categories

Marketing, Utility, and Authentication are all template messages. Their categories can be viewed in WhatsApp Manager.

• Marketing — Marketing is used for promotions or information about your business, products or services. Or any message that isn't utility or authentication.Examples: welcome messages, newsletters, offers,coupons, catalogs, new store hours.
• Utility — Utility is used for transaction, account, order or customer request. Examples: order confirmations, account updates, receipts, appointment reminders, billing. (Choose Marketing if you want to include promotion with the Utility message.)
• Authentication — Authentication is used for one-time passwords that your customers use to authenticate a transaction or login. Examples: one-time password, account recovery code.
• Service — Enables you to resolve customer inquiries.

If the customer service window is not open, you can only send template messages (Marketing, utility, authentication) to the user.

Figure 1: Template categories

Customer service windows

Whenever a WhatsApp user messages you, a 24-hour timer called a customer service window starts (or refreshes if one has already been started).

When a customer service window is open between you and a user, you can send any type of message to the user. If a window is not open between you and the user, you can only send template messages to the user, as template messages are the only type that can be sent outside of a customer service window.

Free utility templates in the customer service window

Starting July 1, 2025, utility templates sent within a customer service window ("CSW") are free for all businesses. Utility templates sent outside a CSW will continue to be charged the utility rate.

This illustration shows the behavior of two utility templates sent by a business on or after July 1, 2025:

Figure 2: utility template

Utility template um1 is free because it is sent while the CSW is still open, but um2 is billed the utility rate, because it is sent after CSW has closed.

Free service conversations

Starting November 1, 2024, service conversations are free for all businesses.

As a reminder, a customer service window must be open between you and a WhatsApp user before you can send the user a non-template message.

Free Entry Point conversations

When a customer uses an Android or iOS device to send you a message through WhatsApp Ad or Facebook Page Call-to-Actionl buttons,you can respond with any type of message for free for 24 hours. If you respond, a 72 hour free entry point window will be opened. You can continue to message the user with any type of message while this window is open, at no charge. Note that 24 hours after the customer initially messages you, you will only be able to send templates (for free) unless the customer messages you again.

Authentication-international rates

Eligibility

If your business opens more than 750K conversations in a moving 30-day period across all of your WhatsApp Business Accounts with WhatsApp users whose country calling codes are for a country that has an authentication-international rate, it will be deemed eligible for authentication-international rates.

Once deemed eligible, WhatsApp will set your start times 30 days out for each country that has an authentication-international rate. In addition, WhatsApp will attempt to determine your primary business location using publicly-available information.

WhatsApp will then send you an eligibility email that includes these start times and the country that WhatsApp set as your primary business location (if we were able to determine the country). This provides you with 30 days notice before authentication-international rates apply.

Note that eligibility is permanent. Once your business is deemed eligible, all authentication conversations opened on or after your start time will be charged the authentication-international rate in markets where authorization-international rates apply.

Countries with authentication-international rates

The following countries have authentication-international rates:

• Egypt
• India
• Indonesia
• Malaysia
• Nigeria
• Pakistan
• Saudi Arabia
• South Africa
• United Arab Emirates