Conversation Pricing (per-conversation billing)

Conversation pricing is the name of the old billing model of the official WhatsApp API, in which Meta charged per 24-hour conversation. Since July 1, 2025, billing is per delivered message, by category and the recipient's country.

What goes into the bill today

• Marketing and authentication: a rate per delivered message, by country.
• Utility: charged per delivered message; since October 1, 2026, also when sent inside the customer service window, from the first message.
• Service: since October 1, 2026, replies inside the 24-hour window get 1,000 free messages a month on each number; from the 1,001st on they are charged per message, with no volume discount.
• Click-to-WhatsApp ad: the conversation it opens gets 72 hours in which every message is free.

How to estimate a campaign

Split messages by category and country, look up the applicable rate and multiply by delivered volume. Factor in volume tiers where they apply and add the cost of the platform or provider. Do not use one flat rate for every country or category.

What does not change

The customer service window does not make every template free, and relabeling a promotion as utility to pay less does not work: Meta recategorizes the template.

Source: Meta's developer pricing page, checked in October 2026. Meta only changes prices on the first day of a quarter; check the rate card before signing up or sending a campaign.