Message Categories & Pricing

Meta charges the WhatsApp Business Platform per delivered message. The old model — one charge per 24-hour conversation — was retired on July 1, 2025 and replaced with per-message pricing. Every message a business delivers to a user has exactly one category and incurs at most one charge. Messages from users to the business are never charged, and a message that is sent but not delivered is not charged.

The price of a message depends on two things: its category and the market (the recipient's country calling code).

The message categories#

CSW = Customer Service Window — the 24-hour window that opens (and resets) each time the user messages or calls you. Free-form (non-template) messages can only be sent while it is open. FEP = Free Entry Point window (see below).

What changed, and when#

Key billing rules (current)#

1. Every delivered business message is charged on its own. Sending 20 messages means 20 charges — there is no "one charge per 24-hour window" any more.
2. Free tier for service messages — each business phone number gets 1,000 free delivered service messages per month. They do not roll over; the count resets monthly. Meta charges from the 1,001st service message.
3. No payment method = no service messages after the free tier. Meta keeps delivering service messages within the free 1,000, but stops delivering them after that if the account has no payment method.
4. Free Entry Point (FEP) — when a user messages you from a Click-to-WhatsApp ad (on the Android or iOS app) and you reply inside the CSW, that reply is free and opens an FEP window that may stay open for up to 7 days. Inside it, marketing, utility, authentication and service messages are all free (Meta Business Agent messages are still charged).
5. Volume tiers — utility and authentication messages get lower rates as monthly volume grows, per market, counted across the whole business portfolio. Messages sent free inside an FEP window don't count toward the tiers.
6. Rates change only on the first day of a quarter (Jan 1, Apr 1, Jul 1, Oct 1), with at least one month's notice for rate changes.

How the categories compare on price#

On Meta's rate card effective October 1, 2026, in every market, marketing has the highest rate, and utility, authentication and service share the same list rate. Utility and authentication can then drop below that through volume tiers. Some markets also have a separate, higher authentication-international rate. Exact figures change by market and quarter — always read them from Meta's rate cards.

Summary#

• Customer messages you, you reply free-form → service message → free for the first 1,000 per number per month, then charged.
• You send a marketing template → charged per delivered message.
• You send a utility template → charged, inside or outside the CSW (since Oct 1, 2026).
• You send an authentication template (OTP) → charged.
• Customer came from a Click-to-WhatsApp ad and you replied inside the CSW → FEP window, up to 7 days, all of the above free.

Reading the price on a status webhook#

Status webhooks for your messages carry a pricing object. pricing_model is PMP (per-message pricing), category is the rate that applied, and type tells you whether it was charged:

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

A service message still inside the free monthly tier shows "billable": false and "type": "free_customer_service".

Reference image#

Frequently asked#

Gotchas & common mistakes#