Two separate bills arrive when you use the WhatsApp Business Platform: one from your software provider, and one from Meta. This page is about Meta's.
The model changed
WhatsApp used to bill per conversation — a 24-hour session, priced by category. On 1 July 2025 Meta moved to per-message pricing: you are charged for each template message that is delivered.
Older articles describing "conversation-based pricing" are describing a retired model. If a provider is still quoting you conversation prices, check the date on their page.
What is charged, and what is free
- Marketing templates — charged on delivery, always.
- Utility templates — charged when delivered outside an open customer service window; free inside one.
- Authentication templates — charged, with their own rate structure.
- Service messages — your ordinary replies inside the open 24-hour window are free, with no monthly cap.
That last point is the one worth internalising: answering customers costs you nothing. Cost comes from you starting conversations, not from having them.
What drives the number
- The recipient's country, taken from their phone number's country code — not where your business is.
- The template category.
- Your volume tier — higher monthly volumes can unlock lower rates.
Where the real rates live
Meta publishes rates in downloadable rate cards, per currency, and updates them periodically. We deliberately do not republish those numbers here, because a stale rate on a marketing page is worse than no rate at all. Download the card for your account's currency from Meta's pricing documentation, and use our pricing calculator to do the arithmetic with your own figures.
How to spend less
- Answer inside the window. Free is free. Fast replies are also better service, which is the rare case where cheap and good agree.
- Use utility templates for utility purposes, and send them while the window is open where you can.
- Send fewer, better marketing messages. Volume that gets blocked costs you twice: once on the invoice, once on your quality rating.
Meta sets and publishes these rates, and Meta is the source of truth. WeizChat adds nothing on top of what Meta charges you.