Meta Implements New Fees for WhatsApp Business Messages Starting October

Meta plans to implement a new system for calculating fees on certain messages sent via its "WhatsApp Business Platform/API," effective October 1. This change will specifically impact companies and organizations that rely on the platform to manage a large volume of customer conversations and provide automated support services. Under the new mechanism, service messages sent by businesses to their customers will become subject to charges after exhausting the first 1,000 free messages per business number each month. It is important to note that this change does not include the regular WhatsApp Business application used on phones, nor will Meta impose fees on messages initiated by customers and sent to businesses. The imposed fees vary based on the recipient customer's country, not the sending company's location. According to the announced prices, the cost of a utility message after the free quota for the following countries is: $0.0036 per message in Egypt, $0.004 in Algeria, $0.0079 in Iraq, $0.0091 in Jordan, $0.0107 in Saudi Arabia, $0.0157 in the UAE, and $0.023 in Morocco. It should be noted that Syria is currently ineligible to receive WhatsApp Business Platform messages, thus no similar price is available for it. When calculating 10,000 chargeable messages, the basic cost amounts to approximately $36 in Egypt, $40 in Algeria, $79 in Iraq, $91 in Jordan, $107 in Saudi Arabia, $157 in the UAE, and $230 in Morocco, before any additional fees imposed by a third-party service provider. Marketing messages, however, are subject to a different and higher tariff in most markets, for instance, approximately $0.0644 in Egypt, $0.0576 in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, $0.0392 in Jordan, $0.0414 in Morocco, and $0.0225 in Algeria per message. This adjustment comes as part of Meta's gradual transition towards a model that bases commercial message charges on their type, number, and recipient country, replacing previous exemptions that applied to some service messages. The decision clarifies that WhatsApp will not generally become "paid for businesses"; the fees primarily target companies utilizing the advanced WhatsApp Business Platform/API, while the traditional WhatsApp Business application continues to operate without these per-message charges.