WhatsApp Business Pricing 2023

A guide to WhatsApp’s latest template category pricing

How does WhatsApp’s pricing work? 

Since March 2023, all businesses who use WhatsApp Business platform are charged for each 24-hour conversation they have with users, with different rates according to the conversation category. 

When setting up your WhatsApp integration in Web1on1, a series of templated messages are set up with one of three categories and approved by WhatsApp. These templates are used to start business-initiated chats and each category incurs a different charge per use. 

The three categories, all of which require customer opt in, are: 

• Utility – Nearly all your templates are likely to be Utility. These facilitate a specific, agreed-upon request or transaction or update to a customer about an ongoing transaction, including post-purchase notifications and recurring billing statements. 
• Marketing - Include promotions or offers, informational updates, or invitations for customers to respond / take action. Any conversation that does not qualify as utility or authentication is a marketing conversation. 
• Authentication - Enable businesses to authenticate users with one-time passcodes, potentially at multiple steps in the login process (e.g., account verification, account recovery, integrity challenges).

All user-initiated conversations are categorized as Service, which help customers resolve enquiries. The first 1,000 user-initiated conversations in any 24-hr period are free providing the business responds with a free-form message. 

See Meta’s guidelines here 

See guidance on adding WA templates here. 

How conversation charges are initiated 

Conversation charges are based on template category. When a template is delivered, it opens a new conversation in a 24-hour window and incurs the charge of that conversation category. 

See Meta’s guidelines and country code ratecards here 

What is the definition of a conversation? 

WhatsApp defines a conversation as a fixed 24-hour session that includes all messages delivered to a customer. 

The 24-hour chat window begins when either: 

• You send a templated message and the message is delivered to your customer. It doesn’t matter whether your customer replies or not. This is a business-initiated chat. Note – non-delivered messages don’t count. 
• You reply to a customer who sends you a message, and the reply is delivered back to the customer. This is a user-initiated chat. 

A session starts on delivery of a business reply to a user-initiated message or delivery of a business-initiated message to a user, and ends 24 hours later.  

At the end of the 24-hours, if the chat is still ongoing, you’ll need to initiate a new templated conversation. If no messages are sent in 24 hours, and you want to re-engage the chat, you can send another templated message and this will start another 24-hour session at the business-initiated category rate. 

The cost of the 24-hour chat varies by country or region. You can check WhatsApp's pricing to see what rates will be used for your business. 

Example business-initiated chat:

Example customer initiated chat:

Are there any other benefits? 

You won’t be charged for chats when users message businesses using call-to-actions buttons on Ads that Click to WhatsApp or a Facebook Page call-to-action buttons. Free entry point chats can only be user-initiated and the free conversation window lasts for a full 72hours. 

What will I pay?  

You can find the category rate card for your country here. 

How will Web1on1 charge you for WhatsApp services? 

Your WhatsApp Business is integrated into the Web1on1 service. Any direct costs from WhatsApp incurred for your use of the service will be included in your monthly invoice in arrears. 

Recap (Before / Now)