WhatsApp billing: how Meta charges each message

Meta charges for the messages your company sends through the official WhatsApp API. The price depends on the message category and on the recipient's country. Meta charges directly on the card registered in the WhatsApp account; XBASE does not charge per message. This page explains how this billing works, what changed on October 1, 2026, what weighs on the cost for teams using an AI agent and where to follow spend in XBASE. The rules are Meta's: if anything here differs from the official documentation, Meta's prevails.

How Meta chargesCopy Anchor Link

• Per delivered message. Since July 1, 2025, Meta charges for each delivered message, no longer per conversation.
• By the recipient's country. The price follows the country code of the customer's number, not your company's country.
• One charge per message, by the category Meta assigns to that message.
• What the customer sends is free. Meta does not charge for the messages the customer sends to your company.
• Official API only. The WhatsApp and WhatsApp Business phone apps still have no per-message charge.

Message categoriesCopy Anchor Link

Marketing, utility and authentication are templates: messages approved by Meta before sending. Meta defines the category, and it can reclassify a template after it is approved. Billing follows the category Meta applied on delivery.

Customer service windowsCopy Anchor Link

24-hour windowCopy Anchor Link

Each message the customer sends opens (or renews) a 24-hour window. While it is open, your company replies freely, without a template. When it is closed, you can only send a template.

Free entry point windowCopy Anchor Link

When the customer arrives through a click-to-WhatsApp ad or through a Facebook Page call-to-action button, and your company replies within 24 hours, Meta opens a window in which no message is charged, not even templates. This window stays free after October 2026. How long it stays open is in Meta's documentation (see the sources at the end of the page).

What changed on October 1, 2026Copy Anchor Link

The 24-hour window remains: you keep replying without a template. What changed is that this reply is no longer always free. And it is not a brand-new charge: service messages were charged until November 1, 2024.

The 1,000 free replies per numberCopy Anchor Link

Each number has 1,000 free service messages per month. Charging starts at the 1,001st.

• It applies per number: two numbers, two allowances.
• Only delivered service messages count. Marketing, utility and authentication templates do not.
• Every free-form reply counts, whether from someone on the team or from the AI agent.
• It resets every month, at midnight on the 1st, in the Meta account's time zone. What is left does not carry over to the next month.

AI agentsCopy Anchor Link

For Meta, the agent's reply inside the 24-hour window is a service message, like one from a team member. It uses the number's allowance and, after the 1,000, is charged at the utility rate of the customer's country, with no volume discount.

• Every message counts. In the Several short messages format, each part goes out as a separate message: a reply in 3 messages costs 3 times as much as A single message.
• They are two different costs. Meta's fee pays for delivering the message. The cost of the AI that writes the reply is separate, and shows in Usage & consumption.
• The per-token price is for another product. Meta charges per token (US$2.00 per million tokens, since August 1, 2026) for replies from its own AI agent, Meta Business Agent. Replies from XBASE agents are service messages, charged per message.

How much it costsCopy Anchor Link

Reference values for Brazil, per delivered message, before taxes. They come from Meta's rate card in effect since April 1, 2026, the same one used in the calculator:

At these values, marketing costs about 9 times as much as utility. Meta only changes the rate card on the first day of each quarter (January, April, July and October 1), with advance notice.

For other countries and to build the month's budget, use the WhatsApp cost calculator. It does not deduct the 1,000 free replies: subtract them from each number's reply volume.

In templates, Estimated cost per send shows Meta's reference price for the category, in Brazilian reais.

Volume discountCopy Anchor Link

High-volume senders get a discount from Meta, with its own rules:

• it applies only to utility and authentication; marketing and service are left out;
• it is counted by country and category (for example, Brazil and utility): the volume of one does not help the other;
• the count resets at the start of each month;
• the lower rate only applies to messages within the new tier, not to the earlier ones.

The limits and discounts for each tier are in Meta's rate card. In the calculator, you choose the tier.

Where to follow it in XBASECopy Anchor Link

In Billing, Overview tab, the WhatsApp — usage and cost at Meta card shows the usage of the numbers connected through WhatsApp (Official Meta). Change the month in the card selector to see previous months.

• Delivered messages per number: for each number, how many messages were delivered in the month, including the free ones, and how many in each category.
• Cost at Meta: how much Meta calculated for the number in the month, in your Meta account currency. It is an estimate; the official amount is on the Meta invoice.
• Free service this month: how much of the allowance has been used, for example "640 of 1,000". When the allowance runs out, the card shows the approximate price of each new service message.
• Payment at Meta: opens the Meta billing center in a new tab. There, choose the number's WhatsApp account to see the invoice and add or change the card.
• Old wallet debits: until 10/15/2026, XBASE debited the price of charged messages from the wallet. In months with these debits, the Categories, Templates and Messages tabs show the history.

The numbers come from Meta itself: they are approximate and can take a while to update. Only people with access to Billing see this card.

XBASE plan and Meta's feeCopy Anchor Link

They are two separate charges, from different companies:

• XBASE plan: monthly, with prices on the Pricing page.
• Meta's per-message fees: Meta charges directly on the card registered in your company's WhatsApp account, at Meta. XBASE does not charge per message and nothing comes out of the wallet per message.

For Meta to keep delivering replies after the month's 1,000 free ones, the WhatsApp account must have a payment method registered at Meta.

On a number with coexistence, messages sent from the phone app remain free.

How to reduce the costCopy Anchor Link

1. Check your templates' category. At the reference values, marketing costs about 9 times as much as utility in Brazil. Order, payment and delivery notices are utility. Since Meta can reclassify a template, check the category in WhatsApp API → Templates.
2. Reply in a single message. In WhatsApp API → Numbers, click Manage agent, open How the agent replies and choose the A single message format.
3. Group the customer's consecutive messages. In the same place, Wait before replying makes the agent answer at once the messages the customer sends in a row.
4. Use click-to-WhatsApp ads. They open the free entry point window.
5. Follow each number's allowance in Billing, so there are no surprises at the end of the month.
6. Keep an eye on the volume tiers for utility and authentication. Service and marketing have no discount.

SourcesCopy Anchor Link

• Meta: WhatsApp Business Platform pricing
• Meta: pricing for non-template messages

Frequently asked questionsCopy Anchor Link

See alsoCopy Anchor Link