{"id":3087,"date":"2026-10-15T15:39:39","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T10:09:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.smsgatewaycenter.com\/blog\/?post_type=docs&#038;p=3087"},"modified":"2026-10-15T15:39:40","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T10:09:40","password":"","slug":"how-does-whatsapp-per-message-pricing-work","status":"publish","type":"docs","link":"https:\/\/www.smsgatewaycenter.com\/blog\/kb\/how-does-whatsapp-per-message-pricing-work\/","title":{"rendered":"How does WhatsApp per-message pricing work?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Meta charges <strong>per message<\/strong>. The older conversation-based model, which charged for a 24-hour conversation window, was replaced on <strong>1 July 2025<\/strong>. If you are comparing old quotes or older guides, that is the difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What you pay<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Each template message you send is charged according to its <strong>category<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Marketing<\/strong> &#8211; promotions, offers, product news<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Utility<\/strong> &#8211; order, payment, delivery and account updates<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Authentication<\/strong> &#8211; one-time passcodes<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rates differ by category and by the recipient&#8217;s country, and India is its own market in Meta&#8217;s rate card.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Where to see your rates<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Open your <strong>Rate Plan<\/strong> and select the <strong>WhatsApp<\/strong> tab. It lists your rate per country for Marketing, Utility, Authentication and Service messages. What you actually spend appears per message in your <strong>WhatsApp Delivery Report<\/strong> and per campaign in <strong>Campaign Summary<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Two things that change your bill<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Meta can update its rate card quarterly<\/strong>, on 1 January, 1 April, 1 July and 1 October. Check your Rate Plan before planning a large campaign.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Category decides the price.<\/strong> A template Meta re-categorises from Utility to Marketing becomes more expensive to send, so it pays to write utility templates that stay utility (see <em>Which category should I choose for a WhatsApp template?<\/em>).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some messages carry no Meta charge at all. See <em>Which WhatsApp messages are free?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Source:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/developers.facebook.com\/docs\/whatsapp\/pricing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Meta: WhatsApp Business Platform pricing<\/a>. Meta changes these rules from time to time, so check the source if something looks different in your account.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Meta charges per message. The older conversation-based model, which charged for a 24-hour conversation window, was replaced on 1 July 2025. If you are comparing old quotes or older guides, that is the difference. What you pay Each template message you send is charged according to its category: Rates differ by category and by the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":118,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"doc_category":[2339],"doc_tag":[],"class_list":["post-3087","docs","type-docs","status-publish","hentry","doc_category-pricing"],"year_month":"2026-10","word_count":232,"total_views":"2","reactions":{"happy":"0","normal":"0","sad":"0"},"author_info":{"name":"admin","author_nicename":"admin","author_url":"https:\/\/www.smsgatewaycenter.com\/blog\/author\/admin\/"},"doc_category_info":[{"term_name":"Pricing","term_url":"https:\/\/www.smsgatewaycenter.com\/blog\/kb-cat\/pricing\/"}],"doc_tag_info":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smsgatewaycenter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/docs\/3087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smsgatewaycenter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/docs"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smsgatewaycenter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/docs"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smsgatewaycenter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/118"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smsgatewaycenter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.smsgatewaycenter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/docs\/3087\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smsgatewaycenter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"doc_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smsgatewaycenter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/doc_category?post=3087"},{"taxonomy":"doc_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smsgatewaycenter.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/doc_tag?post=3087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}