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.
Conversation-Based Pricing
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.
Conversation Categories
Conversations are categorized with one of the following categories:
- Marketing — Enables you to achieve a wide range of goals, from generating awareness to driving sales and retargeting customers. Examples include new product, service, or feature announcements, targeted promotions/offers, and cart abandonment reminders.
- Utility — Enables you to follow-up on user actions or requests. Examples include opt-in confirmation, order/delivery management (e.g., delivery update); account updates or alerts (e.g., payment reminder); or feedback surveys.
- Authentication — Enables you authenticate users with one-time passcodes, potentially at multiple steps in the login process (e.g., account verification, account recovery, integrity challenges).
- Service — Enables you to resolve customer inquiries.
Marketing, utility, and authentication conversations can only be opened with template messages. Service conversations 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.
Opening Conversations
Conversations are opened when you send a template message or free-form message under the following conditions.
Marketing, Utility, and Authentication Conversations
When you send an approved marketing, utility, or authentication template to a customer, we check if an open conversation matching the template's category already exists between you and the customer. If one exists, no new conversation is opened. If one does not exist, a new conversation of that category is opened, lasting 24 hours.
For example:
- Hour 0: You send a targeted promotion (marketing template) to a customer. No open marketing conversation exists between you and the customer, so a marketing conversation lasting 24 hours is opened.
- Hour 4: You send another marketing template to the customer. An open marketing conversation already exists between you and the customer, so a new marketing conversation is not opened.
- Hour 6: The customer purchases a product on your site and you send them an order confirmation (utility template). An open utility conversation does not exist between you and the customer, so a utility conversation is opened, lasting 24 hours. This results in two conversations open between you and the customer: a marketing conversation and a utility conversation.
For additional examples, see our
pricing explainer PDF.
Service Conversations
When you send a free-form message to a customer (which can only be done if a customer service window exists between you and the customer), we check if an open conversation — of any category — already exists between you and the customer. If one exists, no new conversation is opened. If a conversation does not exist, a new service conversation is opened, lasting 24 hours.
For example:
- Hour 0: You send a targeted promotion (marketing template) to a customer. No open marketing conversation exists between you and the customer, so a marketing conversation lasting 24 hours is opened.
- Hour 4: The customer messages you. This opens a customer service window between you and the customer, allowing you to send them free-form messages for the next 24 hours.
- Hour 5: You send a free-form message to the customer. An open conversation already exists between you and the customer (a marketing conversation in this case), so a service conversation is not opened.
- Hour 24: The marketing conversation expires.
- Hour 25: The 24-hour customer service window is still open, so you send a second free-form message to the customer. No open conversation exists between you and the customer anymore, so a service conversation is opened, lasting 24 hours.
- Hour 26: The 24-hour customer service window is still open, so you send a third free-form message to the customer. An open service conversation already exists between you and the customer, so a new service conversation is not opened.
For additional examples, see our
pricing explainer PDF.
Customer Service Windows
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.
Conversation Duration
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.
Multiple Conversations
It is possible to have multiple open conversations between you and a customer. This can happen in the following situations:
- An open marketing, utility, or authentication conversation exists between you and a customer and you send them a template message of a different category within 24 hours.
- An open service conversation exists between you and a customer and you send them a template message within 24 hours.
Free Tier Conversations
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.
Free Entry Point Conversations
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:
- The free-entry point conversation starts at 10pm and lasts 72 hours.
- You can send template messages at no charge in those 72 hours.
- You can send free-form messages until 10am the next day, at which point the customer service window closes, as it is independent of the free entry point conversation (if the customer messages you again, however, it opens another 24-hour customer service window in which you can send free-form messages).
Rates
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.
Rate Cards
Authentication-International Rates
Starting June 1, 2024, we are introducing authentication-international rates. See Authentication-International Rates to learn about these rates and how they may affect you.
Country Calling Codes
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:
Webhooks
Pricing information is included in all message webhooks. See:
- Cloud API: Message Status Updates
- On-Premises API: Message Status Updates
Billing
Billing and billing-related actions are handled through the Meta Business Suite. See About Billing For Your WhatsApp Business Account for more information.