As of June 1, 2023, Meta has implemented the following updates:
Revamp of Message Categories
Revised Pricing
Further details regarding these changes are provided below.
1. Whatsapp Message Categories
All conversations are split into two broad categories:
a) Service (or User Initiated) Conversations: Service Conversations encompass all user-initiated interactions. Every business is entitled to 1000 complimentary service conversations per calendar month.
b) Business Conversations: Business Conversations, also referred to as Template Messages, encompass all interactions initiated by businesses for purposes such as delivering customer notifications and promotional marketing. These conversations are further classified into three subcategories based on the intent of the messages:
i) Marketing- Amplify the promotion of your products or services through business-driven conversations.
ii) Utility - Boost your business by delivering transaction-related messages, such as order status or delivery notifications, directly to customers who have chosen to receive them.
iii) Authentication - Optimize your communication by utilizing conversations that generate one-time passcodes (OTPs) for various purposes such as account registration, account recovery, and ensuring smooth user authentication.
Note : Please note that business conversations are not covered under the earlier mentioned 1000 complimentary conversations and they only apply to service conversations.
2. Pricing
The charges for conversations vary based on the user's country code. Rates for both business-initiated and user-initiated conversations differ depending on the country or region. Please find below the new rates:
For customers who are billed in currencies other than USD, we will be using the following exchange rates to raise the monthly WhatsApp invoices.
Sample Pricing
The section below provides examples of multiple scenarios and how they’d impact pricing in real time. Use these as a guideline to have an idea of what your pricing may look like.
Scenario 1: User Initiated Service Conversation- General Customer Support
As you can see in the example above, a user named Kelly, messages Acme Air about an upcoming reservation. When Acme Air’s reply message is delivered, it starts the 24-hour service conversation session. In this scenario, all additional messages are free within the 24-hour session. This encourages Acme Air to follow up with support inquiries promptly while providing users the ability to exchange as many messages as needed to resolve concerns within the 24-hour session. If Acme Air continues to exchange messages with Kelly after the initial 24-hour conversation session has ended, they’ll incur costs related to a new service conversation. They’ll also be required to send a message template to start a new conversation if it’s been more than 24 hours since Kelly’s last message, which will be charged as a business-initiated conversation based on the category of the template.
Scenario 2 : User initiated conversation followed by a utility conversation
Kelly wants to check on an order she placed with Acmekart, an online shoe retailer. She does so at 1:13 pm.
Acmekart has a bot set up to reply to basic order inquiries and respond to Kelly with delivery details at 1:13 pm.
As a follow-up the next day, the Acmekart bot lets Kelly know that her order has been delivered at 3:45 pm through a utility message.
When the Acmekart bot replies to Kelly more than 24 hours after the first message confirming the delivery ETA, it starts a new service conversation. Acmekart also has to use a utility message template because it’s been more than 24 hours since Kelly’s last message.
In this scenario, Acmekart pays for one service and one utility conversation.
Scenario 3: Multiple business initiated conversations within a 24 hour period
When a flight is delayed or its status changes, Acme Air alerts customers who have opted in to receive notifications using a utility message template.
Two transactional message templates sent in a single 24-hour conversation session result in one utility conversation charge.
In this scenario, Acme Air wants to let Kelly know that her flight is delayed by 30 minutes.
WhatsApp will charge Acme Air for one utility conversation to deliver these two message templates to Kelly within a 24-hour conversation session. Sending multiple templates of the same category within an open conversation will not incur additional charges. In case, a utility conversation is open and a marketing template is delivered within that open conversation, a new, separate marketing conversation is opened and marketing conversation charge is initiated along with the utility template charge.
Thus, the charges for conversations are based on the template category used. When a template is sent, it starts a new conversation of that category and incurs the corresponding charge, unless the template is sent during an ongoing conversation of the same category. For example, if an ongoing utility conversation is active and a marketing template is sent within that conversation, a separate marketing conversation will be opened, and the charge for marketing conversations will apply. However, sending multiple templates of the same category within an ongoing conversation does not result in additional charges.
Service conversations are initiated when there are no other ongoing conversations, and the business responds to a user with a free-form message within the 24-hour customer service window. If a business responds with a template message or sends a template message within an ongoing service conversation, a new conversation is opened based on the template category. An exception to this is during free entry point conversations. During this period, businesses can send multiple templates of different categories without opening new conversations.
To know more about the above mentioned changes, please click here. Please reach out to support@freshchat.com if you have more questions.