On October 1 Meta starts charging for something that used to be free: replying to a customer on WhatsApp. This is not a price adjustment. It is a change in what gets charged.
If your agency handles enquiries on WhatsApp, this affects you. And it is worth understanding now, because October's bill shows up in November.
What changes exactly
Until September 30, every message a customer sends you opens a 24-hour window, and everything you reply inside it costs nothing. From October 1, each of those replies is charged.
With one exception that changes the maths: the first 1,000 messages each month are free, and the allowance is per phone number. One number means 1,000 free replies, three numbers mean 3,000. It resets monthly and whatever you do not use is lost.
What it costs
The price is set by the country of whoever receives the message, not yours. An Argentine agency replying to a Brazilian pays Brazil's rate.
To do the maths you need to know how many messages an enquiry takes. We measured it across more than 40,000 agency conversations on Trama: the average is 5 messages per enquiry.
So an agency with 400 enquiries a month sends around 2,000 messages. Take away the 1,000 free ones and 1,000 are billable, and there the destination changes everything: USD 26 if your customers are in Argentina, USD 8.50 in Mexico, USD 6.80 in Brazil and USD 0.80 in Colombia.
We built a WhatsApp cost calculator so you do not have to work it out by hand. You pick the countries people write to you from, set your volume, and it gives you the monthly cost across all 47 markets Meta lists.
Two ways to pay less
The first one you already have if you run ads. When someone messages you from a Click to WhatsApp ad and you reply within the first 24 hours, that conversation is free for 72 hours. Everything said inside it costs nothing, and for an agency running campaigns that can be most of the volume.
The second is more uncomfortable and more important: how many messages it takes to resolve an enquiry. If your team needs twelve messages for what can be resolved in five, from October that difference has a price.
What does not change
Receiving is still free. Messages customers send you are never charged, in any country or regime. Only what leaves your number is billed.
Instagram and Messenger do not charge per message either. If you also answer there, Meta does not charge you for those conversations.
And one more thing on the same day
October 1 is also when Meta tightens business verification. If you have not verified yours yet, it is worth sorting out before both things land together.
Meta sets the rates and can change them every quarter. That is why the calculator shows the date we checked each number against the official documentation, and links the source.
Atahualpa Herrera
Co-founder & CTO, trama.
A cargo del producto y la tecnología de trama. Convencido de que una buena herramienta se siente como un compañero de equipo, no como una pantalla más para llenar.
More posts by Atahualpa Herrera