Businesses are responsible for reviewing the category assigned to their approved templates. Whenever a template is used, a business accepts the charges associated with the category applied to the template at time of use.
This document explains how conversation-based pricing works on the WhatsApp Business Platform.
We charge per conversation, not per individual message. Conversations are 24-hour message threads between you and your customers. They are opened and charged when messages you send to customers are delivered. The criteria that determines when a conversation is opened and how it is categorized is explained below.
Conversations are categorized with one of the following categories:
Marketing, utility, and authentication conversations can only be opened with template messages. Service messages can only be opened with free-form messages. See Opening Conversations below.
To learn more about conversation categories and how to choose an appropriate category when creating your templates, see Template Categorization.
Conversations are opened when you send a template message or free-form message under the following conditions.
Marketing, utility, and authentication conversations are opened when you send an approved marketing, utility, or authentication template message to a customer and no open conversation with that category exists between you and that customer.
For example, if an open authentication conversation exists between you and a customer and you send them another authentication template message within 24 hours, a new conversation is not opened. If you send them a marketing message, however, a new marketing conversation is opened, resulting in two open conversations.
Service conversations are opened when you are within a customer service window, you send a free-form message to a customer, and no open conversation of any category exists between you and the customer.
For example, if an open conversation of any category exists between you and a customer and you send them a free-form message within 24 hours, no new conversation is opened. However, if no open conversation exists and the customer messages you (which starts a customer service window) and you reply within 24 hours with a free-form message, a new service conversation is opened.
When a customer messages you, a 24 hour timer called a customer service window starts. If you are within the window, you can send free-form messages or template messages. If you are outside the window, you can only send template messages.
Marketing, utility, authentication, and service conversations last 24 hours unless closed by a newly opened free-entry point conversation.
Free-entry point conversations last 72 hours.
It is possible to have multiple open conversations between you and a customer. This can happen in the following situations:
See Conversation Examples below.
Each WhatsApp Business Account gets 1,000 free service conversations each month across all of its business phone numbers. This number is refreshed at the beginning of each month, based on WhatsApp Business Account time zone.
Marketing, utility and authentication conversations are not part of the free tier.
A free entry point conversation is opened if (1) a customer using a device running Android or iOS messages you via a Click to WhatsApp Ad or Facebook Page Call-to-Action button and (2) you respond within 24 hours. If you do not respond within 24 hours, a free entry point conversation is not opened and you must use a template to message the customer, which opens a marketing, utility, or authentication conversation, per the category of the template.
The free entry point conversation is opened as soon as your message is delivered and lasts 72 hours. When a free entry point conversation is opened, it automatically closes all other open conversations between you and the customer, and no new conversations will be opened until the free entry point conversation expires.
Once the free entry point conversation is opened, you can send any type of message to the customer without incurring additional charges. However, you can only send free-form messages if there is an open customer service window between you and the customer.
For example, if the customer messages you via a Click to WhatsApp Ad at 10am and you respond via a template message at 10pm the same day:
Only one conversation opened with a customer:
Multiple conversations opened with a customer:
To see some of these dynamics in message threads, download our
pricing explainer PDF.
Rates vary based on conversation category and country/region rate. You can download the rate card below that corresponds to your WhatsApp Business Account's currency to see our rates by country/region for each conversation category.
These rates apply for any conversation opened on or after June 1, 2023 at 12:00 AM, based on WhatsApp Business Account time zone.
Charges for conversations are based on the country of the user’s phone number. We rely on your customer's country calling code and network prefix (area code) to determine their country. The table below shows how we map country codes to countries or regions. If a country is not listed below, it maps to Other.
Markets |
Calling Code
(and network prefix if applicable) |
---|---|
Countries | |
North America | |
Rest of Africa | |
Rest of Asia Pacific | |
Rest of Central & Eastern Europe | |
Rest of Western Europe | |
Rest of Latin America | |
Rest of Middle East | |
Other |
The information in the table above is also available in a CSV file:
Pricing information is included in all message webhooks. See:
Billing and billing-related actions are handled through the Meta Business Suite. See About Billing For Your WhatsApp Business Account for more information.