WhatsApp Business Platform: prices, limits and rules — with dates and sources

Quarterly change dates only; notice 1/3/6 months by change type.

Charged per delivered message, by recipient market and template category.

A free entry point (FEP) window opens when a user messages the business from a Click-to-WhatsApp ad or a Facebook Page call-to-action on the Android or iOS app (desktop and web are not supported) and the business replies inside the 24-hour customer service window. That reply is not charged and starts the FEP window, which may remain open for up to 7 days. While it is open Meta does not charge for marketing, utility, authentication or service messages. Meta Business Agent messages are the exception and are still charged for token usage inside the FEP window. The FEP window is tracked for the business and user pair, not per Messaging account, so any Messaging account sending on that phone number can send free messages while it is open. Utility or authentication messages sent in an FEP window do not count toward volume tiers.

CORRECTED 2026-10-02 during the CON-291 run. This row previously read "72h all message types free after response within 24h". The live pricing page (stamped "Updated: Sep 30, 2026", read by browser 2026-10-02) states the FEP window "may remain open for up to 7 days", not 72 hours. Only the main pricing page states a duration; the non-template-messages page mentions the FEP window without one, so this rests on a single page — re-confirm before a post leans hard on the 7-day figure. Two further details added that the row did not carry: Meta Business Agent messages are NOT free in the FEP window (token charge still applies), and the window is tracked per business/user pair rather than per Messaging account. KNOCK-ON: published post 97 states 72 hours in several places and was corrected in the same run; anything else citing a 72-hour FEP window is now stale and should be swept.

Service messages (non-template replies powered by a person or by a third-party AI solution) were free from 1 November 2024 until 30 September 2026. Since 1 October 2026 Meta charges for them per delivered message, at the same rate as utility and authentication for the market, with no volume tiers. Each business phone number gets a free tier of 1,000 delivered service messages per month, which does not roll over and resets monthly; Meta charges from the 1,001st. Service messages can still only be sent inside an open customer service window. Two exclusions: AI Providers are governed by the separate AI Providers pricing policy instead, and eligible governments and non-profits keep free service messages beyond the tier through 31 December 2027. Businesses without a payment method on file have service messages delivered only within the free tier, not beyond it. Separately, non-template messages powered by Meta Business Agent are a different category and have been charged per token since 1 August 2026.

Rewritten to present tense 2026-10-02 (CON-291), after confirming by browser that the change landed. Both Meta pages read this run: .../whatsapp/pricing?locale=en_US (stamped "Updated: Sep 30, 2026") and .../whatsapp/pricing/non-template-messages?locale=en_US. The pricing page's "Prior updates → Effective October 1, 2026 → Charging for messages that were previously free" section now lists service messages as a completed change. Two facts added to this row that it did not previously carry, both from the live pricing page: the AI Providers carve-out ("Pricing updates for service messages launching October 1, 2026 do not apply to AI Providers") and the government/non-profit carve-out ("Service messages remain free beyond the monthly free tier only for eligible government and non-profit organizations ... in effect through December 31, 2027"). The payment-method consequence is stated in the newer pricing page's wording — delivery continues inside the free tier, stops beyond it — not the older non-template-messages page's blanket "stop delivering service messages". This row supersedes the finding in CON-373, which read the documentation on 2026-09-28, before the 2026-09-30 page update, and concluded the premise was unsupported.

Utility templates delivered inside an open customer service window were free from 1 July 2025 until 30 September 2026. Since 1 October 2026 Meta charges per delivered message for utility messages sent in response to users, on the same terms as any other utility template. For utility messages sent in an open customer service window, the pricing type in the status messages webhook changed from free_customer_service to regular. Volume tiers continue to apply to utility and authentication messages.

Rewritten to present tense 2026-10-02 (CON-291) after browser verification of both Meta pricing pages. The change is now listed under the pricing page's "Prior updates → Effective October 1, 2026" heading, not as upcoming. sourceUrl moved from the non-template-messages page to the main pricing page: the non-template-messages page is titled "Upcoming pricing updates" and still frames all three changes in the future tense ("Meta will charge"), because it is the announcement page and was last updated 2026-09-28. The main pricing page carries the current state. Prefer the main pricing page for this row from now on.

Per-message pricing since 2025-07-01; conversation-based pricing deprecated.

€0.0456EUR

Volume tiers from 300,001/mo. Re-verified UNCHANGED 2026-09-18 against the official EUR rate-card asset linked from the developers.facebook.com/documentation pricing doc (current card effective 2026-07-01). Germany authentication also stays 0.0456 on the published "Rate cards effective October 1, 2026" EUR asset (Germany,EUR,0.1131,0.0456,0.0456,n/a,0.0456). Germany still has NO authentication-international rate (card shows n/a) and is not among the 9 markets gaining one on 2026-10-01 (Bangladesh, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Morocco, Nepal, Oman, Sri Lanka, Ukraine). Read from the rate-card asset, not whatsappbusiness.com, where the interactive values do not render.

€0.0142EUR

Re-verified UNCHANGED 2026-09-18 against the official EUR rate-card asset linked from the developers.facebook.com/documentation pricing doc (current card effective 2026-07-01). Rest of Western Europe authentication also stays 0.0142 on the published "Rate cards effective October 1, 2026" EUR asset (Rest of Western Europe,EUR,0.049,0.0142,0.0142,n/a,0.0142). Still no authentication-international rate for this region (n/a), and it is not among the 9 markets gaining one on 2026-10-01. Read from the rate-card asset, not whatsappbusiness.com, where the interactive values do not render.

Germany standalone (calling code 49); Austria (43) and Switzerland (41) under Rest of Western Europe.

€0.1131EUR

Re-verified UNCHANGED 2026-09-18 by reading the official EUR "rates" asset linked from the developers.facebook.com/documentation pricing doc (doc page itself Updated: Sep 10, 2026). Current card is still the one effective 2026-07-01 and shows Germany,EUR,0.1131,0.0456,0.0456,n/a,n/a. Also re-checked the published "Rate cards effective October 1, 2026" EUR asset: Germany,EUR,0.1131,0.0456,0.0456,n/a,0.0456 — marketing stays 0.1131, so this value holds past the 2026-10-01 quarter boundary. Corroborated by the pricing doc's own list of 1 October rate changes, which names marketing increases only in Kuwait, Mexico, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Rest of Middle East and Rest of Asia Pacific — Germany is not listed. sourceQuote extended with the two trailing rate-card columns (Authentication-International, Service) that the card actually carries. Note: Meta corrected an error in the USD to-be PDF on 2026-09-14; the doc states all 32 CSVs and the other 15 PDFs published 2026-09-01 remain accurate, so the EUR asset read here is unaffected. Values were read from the rate-card asset itself, not from whatsappbusiness.com, where the interactive rate-card values do not render.

€0.0490EUR

Re-verified UNCHANGED 2026-09-18 against the official EUR rate-card asset linked from the developers.facebook.com/documentation pricing doc (current card effective 2026-07-01). Rest of Western Europe marketing also stays 0.049 on the published "Rate cards effective October 1, 2026" EUR asset (Rest of Western Europe,EUR,0.049,0.0142,0.0142,n/a,0.0142). The doc's 1 October marketing change list (Kuwait, Mexico, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Rest of Middle East, Rest of Asia Pacific) does not include this region. Covers Austria (43) and Switzerland (41) — see meta.rates.country_mapping.dach; the current pricing doc's country-calling-code table still lists Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Norway, Portugal, Sweden and Switzerland under Rest of Western Europe, and none of them is among the markets going standalone on 2026-10-01. Read from the rate-card asset, not whatsappbusiness.com, where the interactive values do not render.

Service messages to German numbers are charged at €0.0456 per delivered message, in force since 1 October 2026. By market, service rates are the same as the utility and authentication rates, and Germany was not among the 40 rates changed in the 1 October 2026 rate card update. Each business phone number has one free tier of 1,000 delivered service messages per month; Meta charges from the 1,001st. The free tier does not roll over and resets monthly at 12am in the Messaging account timezone. There are no volume tiers for service messages.EUR

Rewritten to present tense 2026-10-02 (CON-291) after the change was confirmed landed. Verified against developers.facebook.com/documentation/business-messaging/whatsapp/pricing?locale=en_US (page stamp "Updated: Sep 30, 2026") and .../pricing/non-template-messages?locale=en_US, both read by browser 2026-10-02. The pricing page now states plainly: "This page reflects pricing updates that became effective as of October 1, 2026." The €0.0456 figure is carried forward unchanged and is now independently supported by the non-template-messages page: "By market, rates for service messages will be the same as the rates for utility and authentication messages" — rows 2 and 3 hold €0.0456 for German utility and authentication, and Germany is absent from the 40-rate October change table. PAYMENT-METHOD DISCREPANCY RESOLVED: the previous note recorded a conflict between the two pages. The current pricing page settles it — "If businesses do not have a payment method for their Messaging account(s), Meta will deliver service messages within the free tier but not deliver them after the free tier has been used." Delivery inside the tier continues; nothing beyond it. DETAIL DROPPED, DELIBERATELY: the 2026-09-18 value recorded that the 1,000 free messages are shared between 1:1 and group service deliveries, with a group send consuming one unit per delivered recipient, and a free_group_customer_service webhook type. Neither is on the live page as of 2026-10-02 — the webhook table shows only free_customer_service — so it has been removed from the value rather than asserted. If a post needs the group-send behaviour, re-verify it first. STILL OPEN, not filled by this run: there is no meta.rates.service.rowe row, although the October EUR card publishes Rest of Western Europe service at €0.0142.

Portfolio-level accrual per market–category pair; monthly reset.

€0.0456EUR

Volume tiers from 100,001/mo: −5%…−25%. Re-verified UNCHANGED 2026-09-18 against the official EUR rate-card asset linked from the developers.facebook.com/documentation pricing doc (current card effective 2026-07-01). Germany utility also stays 0.0456 on the published "Rate cards effective October 1, 2026" EUR asset (Germany,EUR,0.1131,0.0456,0.0456,n/a,0.0456), so this value holds past the quarter boundary; the doc's 1 October change list names utility/authentication increases only in Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Peru, South Africa and Ukraine and decreases in Bangladesh, Iraq, Nepal and Sri Lanka — Germany is not listed. Note: from 2026-10-01 utility messages sent inside an open customer service window stop being free and are charged at this same rate — see meta.pricing.free_utility_in_csw. Volume tiers continue to apply to utility and authentication (but not to service). Read from the rate-card asset, not whatsappbusiness.com, where the interactive values do not render.

€0.0142EUR

Re-verified UNCHANGED 2026-09-18 against the official EUR rate-card asset linked from the developers.facebook.com/documentation pricing doc (current card effective 2026-07-01). Rest of Western Europe utility also stays 0.0142 on the published "Rate cards effective October 1, 2026" EUR asset (Rest of Western Europe,EUR,0.049,0.0142,0.0142,n/a,0.0142); the doc's 1 October utility/authentication change list does not include this region. Note: from 2026-10-01 utility messages sent inside an open customer service window stop being free and are charged at this same rate. Volume tiers continue to apply to utility and authentication (but not to service). Read from the rate-card asset, not whatsappbusiness.com, where the interactive values do not render.

messaging_limit_tier deprecated; use whatsapp_business_manager_messaging_limit.

Auto-increase by one level within 6 hours when quality high and ≥ half limit used in last 7 days.

Max unique recipients outside a CSW in a moving 24h period; portfolio-level, shared across numbers.

Newly created business portfolios start at 250 unique recipients per moving 24-hour period. The limit increases to 2,000 by completing a scaling path, then to 10,000, 100,000 and Unlimited via automatic scaling.

The customer service window is opened by a user message or call and resets to 24 hours with each further user message. Non-template messages can only be sent while it is open, so they can only be used to respond to users, never to reach out. Since 1 October 2026 service-category non-template messages are charged per delivered message inside the window, with a free tier of 1,000 per business phone number per month; they were free from 1 November 2024 to 30 September 2026. Non-template messages powered by Meta Business Agent are a separate category, launched 1 July 2026 and charged per token since 1 August 2026 at one global rate of $2.00 per million input and output tokens (roughly 4–5 US cents per message at 20,000–25,000 tokens). Outside the window only approved templates can be sent.

Rewritten to present tense 2026-10-02 (CON-291). IMPORTANT — this row's Meta Business Agent clause was challenged by CON-373, which called it "wrong entity, wrong unit, wrong date". That challenge is itself wrong and the clause stands. The non-template-messages page states both dates explicitly: the Meta Business Agent category launched 1 July 2026 ("With the launch of Meta Business Agent on July 1, 2026"), and per-token charging began 1 August 2026 ("Effective August 1, 2026 - Meta will charge on a per-token basis for Meta Business Agent messages"). The per-token unit is confirmed on both pages, with the rate now added to this row. CON-373 appears to have conflated Meta Business Agent with the separate AI Providers policy, which is a different entity on a different timetable. Both pages read by browser this run; the two dates are stated on the non-template-messages page and the rate on both.

Outside the window only approved templates, charged by category.

Separate paid path for Business App users (Meta Verified subscription).

OBA = blue checkmark; eligibility via WhatsApp Manager; not for WhatsApp Business app numbers.

Official Business Account status is requested via WhatsApp Manager. Eligibility requires policy compliance, at least 30 days on the platform, two-step verification and an approved display name.

Opt-in required before messaging; must state the business name; method free but must comply with applicable law.

Repeated violations → restrictions increasing in duration; review via Business Support Home.

Quality Flagged for 7 days → messaging limit down one level immediately.

As of 2026-09-01, the WhatsApp Business Profile API exposes only about, address, description, email, profile_picture_url, websites and vertical. There is no birthday field.

WhatsApp does not provide customer date-of-birth data to businesses. Birthday campaigns therefore have to run on data you already hold, such as a Shopify customer record.

Cloud API: IVR numbers registrable if they accept international calls and route the code to a person.

WhatsApp Business app supports landlines (code via call/SMS; no extensions).

Authentication templates: OTP button required; no URLs/media/emojis; parameters ≤15 chars.

Meta re-checks templates; utility→marketing with 1-day notice (instant after misuse warning); 60-day appeal.

Three template categories: Marketing, Utility, Authentication. Templates are the only message type sendable outside a CSW.

Utility requires non-promotional AND (user-specific/requested OR essential/critical); mixed content → marketing.