This page is specific to “AI Providers” using the WhatsApp Business Platform. This does NOT change how Meta charges all other businesses using the WhatsApp Business Platform. Refer to the pricing page.

Who this applies to

This is specific to “AI Providers” using the WhatsApp Business Platform, as defined in our Terms of Service⁠ updated on January 15, 2026: Providers and developers of artificial intelligence or machine learning technologies, such as large language models, generative artificial intelligence platforms, general-purpose artificial intelligence assistants, or similar technologies who provide certain services on WhatsApp Business Platform.

This does NOT change how or what Meta charges all other businesses using the WhatsApp Business Platform. They will continue to be charged as outlined in the pricing explainer. This includes not being charged for non-template messages sent in an open customer service window. This also does not change the mechanics of the customer service window.

Why Meta is charging

Specifically for third party AI Providers:

Effective January 15, 2026, WhatsApp’s Terms of Service update⁠ “AI Providers” are only permitted to offer general purpose AI assistants on the WhatsApp Business Platform where Meta is legally required to permit this use case.

Effective February 16, 2026, in countries where Meta is legally required to support AI Providers usage of the WhatsApp Business Platform, Meta will charge AI Providers for non-template messages sent to WhatsApp users in these countries.

What and where Meta will charge

Effective May 13, 2026 as of 12am local WABA timezone, Meta will no longer charge “AI Providers” for non-template messages delivered to users in certain markets, per below.

Effective February 16, 2026 – Meta will charge for:

Each non-template message ("type":"text", "type":"image", and so on)

Delivered from an “AI Provider”

To a user in a market where Meta is legally required to permit AI Providers to use the WhatsApp Business Platform

Markets and effective dates (updated as of May 12, 2026):

Effective March 11, 2026, this applies to Brazil (+55).

Effective March 11, 2026 until May 12, 2026, this applied to the following countries:

Austria (+43)

Belgium (+32)

Bulgaria (+359)

Croatia (+385)

Cyprus (+357)

Czech Republic (+420)

Denmark (+45)

Estonia (+372)

Finland (+358)

France (+33)

Germany (+49)

Greece (+30)

Hungary (+36)

Iceland (+354)

Ireland (+353)

Latvia (+371)

Liechtenstein (+423)

Lithuania (+370)

Luxembourg (+352)

Malta (+356)

Netherlands (+31)

Norway (+47)

Poland (+48)

Portugal (+351)

Romania (+40)

Slovakia (+421)

Slovenia (+386)

Spain (+34)

Sweden (+46)

Effective February 16, 2026 until May 12, 2026, this applied to Italy (+39).

For example: If a user in Italy sends an AI Provider a prompt, and the AI Provider delivers three non-template message responses to the user over a span of 5 minutes, that will incur three charges.

Rates

AI Provider rates for non-template messages CSV (updated May 12, 2026).

AI Provider rates for non-template messages PDF (updated May 12, 2026).

These rates are specific to AI Providers using the WhatsApp Business Platform. To see rates for marketing, utility, and authentication messages, please refer to Pricing on the WhatsApp Business Platform.

Analytics

The Pricing Analytics API will include a new <PRICING_CATEGORY> value of AI_BOT to reflect AI Provider traffic.

{
  "start": <START_TIMESTAMP>,
  "end": <END_TIMESTAMP>,
  "phone_number": "<BUSINESS_PHONE_NUMBER>",
  "country": "<COUNTRY_CODE>",
  "pricing_type": "REGULAR",
  "pricing_category": "AI_BOT",
  "volume": <VOLUME>,
  "cost": <COST>
}

Webhooks

The webhooks will reflect the <PRICING_CATEGORY> for these non-template messages from “AI Providers” as general_purpose_ai.

Billable messages have type set to regular in the pricing object of status messages webhooks:

"pricing": {
 "billable": true,
 "pricing_model": "PMP",
 "type": "regular",
 "category": "general_purpose_ai"
}

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