Moving off the free WhatsApp Business app onto the official API? The first thing that confuses everyone is how Meta charges. Forget per-message billing like old SMS — WhatsApp runs on conversations. Here's the whole pricing model, plainly, plus how to keep the monthly bill small.
One conversation = a 24-hour window that opens with the first message delivered. Everything you and the customer exchange inside those 24 hours falls under a single fee. Meta splits them four ways:
Four flavours, and the names matter because the price follows who starts the chat:
Then there's the part providers hope you won't notice. Plenty of enterprise platforms want £200–£500 a month before you've sent a thing, then skim a margin off every message after. Susan (Hire Susan) skips both — free to try, no per-message markup at all. And because your everyday chats (questions, bookings, enquiries) land in the free service bucket, that 1,000-a-month allowance stretches a long way for a small firm.
And my number? I've had it for years.
It comes with you. Landline or mobile, it ports straight onto the API, no round-robin "please update your contacts" message required.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
So do messages from customers cost me?
When they message first, that opens a service window — and the first thousand windows a month are free. Most small firms find the conversations that matter never leave the free tier.
Why does Meta still ask for a card, then?
Anything beyond the allowance bills normally, so Business Manager keeps a payment method on file. Same setup as their ad accounts — nothing unusual.