What WhatsApp messages cost

How Meta charges for WhatsApp messages — which ones are free, which are paid, and how to keep your costs down.

Who charges you

Meta charges for WhatsApp messages. It bills your own Meta business portfolio directly, on the card you add there. This is separate from your Raion Hub plan.

Raion Hub’s Message Quota card, on the Accounts tab of WhatsApp Business, counts what Raion Hub sends for you on your plan. It is not Meta’s bill.

No card yet? See Add a payment method for WhatsApp.

The two windows

Two windows decide whether a message is free or paid.

Window	How it opens	What you can send
Customer service window	Opens for 24 hours whenever a customer messages (or calls) you. Each new message from them restarts the 24 hours.	Inside it: ordinary replies, not templates. Outside it: only an approved template.
Free entry point window	Someone messages you from a Click-to-WhatsApp ad, on the WhatsApp app for Android or iPhone (not desktop or web), and you reply within the 24-hour customer service window. Your reply is free. It can stay open for up to 7 days.	While it is open, Meta does not charge for marketing, utility, authentication or ordinary (service) messages.

What is charged

Message	Charged?
Messages your customers send you	Free.
Templates (marketing, utility, authentication)	Charged per delivered message. Not delivered means not charged. The price depends on the template’s category and the customer’s country. Meta calls the country the market: the calling code of the recipient’s number.
Ordinary replies. Meta calls them service messages: any message that is not a template, whether typed by a person, a keyword auto-reply or the AI chatbot	Each business number gets 1,000 free a month. They do not roll over; the count resets every month. Since 1 October 2026, Meta can charge from the 1,001st. Eligible government and non-profit organisations keep them free beyond the 1,000.
Utility templates sent inside an open 24-hour window	Free from 1 July 2025, but charged again since 1 October 2026. Still free inside a free entry point window.

The three template categories

Category	For
Marketing	Promotions, offers and newsletters
Utility	Something the customer did: order or booking updates, reminders, receipts
Authentication	One-time passcodes

Meta checks the category when it approves a template, and can re-categorise it.

Sending more utility and authentication messages in a month unlocks lower rates for those two categories. The tiers are per country and reset every month.

To make one, see Create a template and Authentication templates.

What happens without a payment method

Templates fail to send.
Once a number has used its 1,000 free replies in a month, Meta stops delivering the rest until a card is added.

In Raion Hub this shows under a message in Conversations as Payment issue on the WhatsApp account — Check billing in Meta Business Manager (error 131042). Add a card as in Add a payment method for WhatsApp.

Ways to keep costs down

Answer customers inside the 24-hour window, instead of sending a template later.
Run Click-to-WhatsApp ads, so conversations start inside a free entry point window.
Use the right category. Do not send promotions as utility: Meta re-categorises them.
Send campaigns only to people who want them. It also protects your quality rating — see Get your business verified by Meta.

Worked examples

What happens	Charged?
A customer in Brazil messages you. You reply 10 minutes later with a typed answer.	Free. It is one of the 1,000 free replies that month.
You send a promotion template to 500 people in several countries. 480 are delivered.	480 marketing messages are charged, each at its customer’s country rate. The other 20 are not.
Someone in Germany taps your Click-to-WhatsApp ad on their phone. You reply within an hour. Over the next 3 days you send them a promotion and a booking reminder.	Free. All of it falls inside the free entry point window.

Prices and Meta’s own rules

Meta publishes the rates per country, and changes them. Find the current ones on Meta’s WhatsApp pricing page , and read how the bill works in About billing for your WhatsApp Business account .

Checked against Meta’s pricing page on 22 October 2026. Meta changes these rules; its page wins if they differ.