This article provides detailed information about WhatsApp pricing policy.

Note: Starting June 1, 2023, Meta has revised its pricing policy.

Meta charges businesses per conversation within a 24-hour window and starts when businesses send their first message to their customers. Each conversation type has a unique 24-hour conversation window and is charged based on the category type.

For a general overview of WhatsApp integration with Freshchat, see Overview of WhatsApp Business Integration.

The article contains the following sections:

1. Understanding WhatsApp Pricing Policy
   • Types of WhatsApp Message Categories
2. WhatsApp Pricing Rates 
3. Exploring WhatsApp Pricing Usecases
4. WhatsApp Usage Metrics

Understanding WhatsApp Pricing Policy

WhatsApp has a conversation-based pricing policy that charges businesses using the WhatsApp platform and API based on the conversation initiator (user-initiated or business-initiated) and categories.  

Types of WhatsApp Message Categories

• Service (or User-initiated) Conversations:
  Includes conversations initiated by customers. For example, customers reaching out to businesses for support or queries. Each WhatsApp Business Account gets 1000 free service conversations each month. Based on the WhatsApp Business Account time zone, this number is refreshed at the beginning of each month.
  
  
• Business Conversations (Template Messages):
  Includes all interactions initiated by businesses for purposes such as delivering customer notifications and promotional marketing. This conversation type is further classified into the following subcategories based on the intent of the messages:
  
  

Types of Business Conversations:

For more details, see WhatsApp pricing policy.

WhatsApp Pricing Rates 

The charges for conversations vary based on the user's country code. Rates for both business-initiated and user-initiated conversations differ based on the country or region. Please find below the rates:

Note: These rates are applicable starting 1st March 2024 for each type of WhatsApp conversation (marketing, utility, authentication, and service).

For customers billed in currencies other than USD, the following exchange rates will apply when processing the monthly WhatsApp invoices.

Exploring WhatsApp Pricing Usecases

Let’s explore a few use cases to understand how WhatsApp pricing works. Use these as a guideline to know what your pricing may look like. 

Scenario 1: User-initiated service conversation for general customer support 

Acme Air is an airline managing flight operations and provides general customer support via WhatsApp

• Kelly messages Acme Air about an upcoming flight reservation. 
• The 24-hour conversation window starts once Acme Air responds to Kelly.
  All additional messages within the 24-hour window are free, which allows Acme Air to exchange as many messages as required with Kelly to resolve the issues. 
• If Acme Air wants to continue conversations with Kelly, it can be done only via message templates. In this case, a new conversation starts, and the session becomes a business-initiated conversation. The charges are based on the message template category used. 

Scenario 2: User-initiated conversation followed by a utility conversation

Acmekart is a shoe retailer that deploys chatbots to answer basic customer queries, like order and delivery status

• Kelly checks her order status with Acmekart at 1:13 PM.
• The Chabot immediately provides the order status at 1:13 PM.
• The bot sends a message to Kelly the next day at 3:45 PM to inform about the product delivery. |
  As it's more than 24 hours since Kelly’s last response, a new conversation starts when the Acmekart bot sends a message to Kelly the next day, which is a utility message template.

In this scenario, Acmekart pays for one service and one utility conversation.  

Scenario 3: Multiple business-initiated conversations within 24 hours

Acme Air, an airline company, notifies customers who have opted to receive notifications about flight delays or status changes via utility message templates.

Kelly receives two messages from Acme Air within a single 24-hour conversation window:

• The first message informs about flight delay
• The second message is a reminder about the departure time

In this scenario, sending multiple messages of the same template category within an open conversation window will not incur additional charges. Hence, in this scenario, WhatsApp will charge Acme Air only for one utility conversation to deliver these two messages to Kelly, as this is within the 24-hour conversation session.

However, if a utility conversation is open and if Acme Air delivers a marketing template message within that open conversation, a new marketing conversation opens. This will incur charges for both marketing and utility conversation templates. 

WhatsApp Usage Metrics

With WhatsApp usage metrics, you can now monitor the usage metrics for every WhatsApp number integrated with Freshworks from a unified screen. You can get complete visibility into the total conversations consumed, with a clear distinction between business-initiated, user-initiated, and free conversations on a monthly basis and the costs incurred.

To check your WhatsApp usage metrics:

1. Go to Admin Settings > Channels > WhatsApp.
   
2. Click on the Utilization icon. Here you get a summary of total conversations and a breakdown of business-initiated, user-initiated, and free conversations every month.

Learn more:

• WhatsApp pricing policy
• Overview of WhatsApp Business Integration
• Integrating your WhatsApp Business account