New Pricing updates for WhatsApp Business Platform [effective July 2025]
New updates in WhatsApp Business Platform API pricing from July 2025. Switching to per-message pricing, conversation pricing will be redacted, volume tier pricing for Etility and Authentication categories and more.
Starting July 2025, WhatsApp will be switching to a per-message pricing model, just like most other communications channels, like SMS and RCS. It appears that WhatsApp aims to reduce the complexity associated with the conversation session approach and be consistent with the model of per-message followed by other alternate channels. This article will guide you through all the updates around pricing, giving you a clear understanding of the effects on your business concerning Chakra Chat.
What’s New from 1st July 2025
- WhatsApp will charge per-message pricing instead of per-conversation pricing.
- Concept of conversation messages will not be applicable henceforth
- New definition of utility messages categorization
- Messaging volume-based discount tiers to incentivize higher usage
- Updated Utility and Authentication rates revision
WhatsApp to move to a per-message pricing model:
Earlier per-conversation Pricing Model: Businesses were charged based on conversation categories (e.g., utility, marketing, authentication, service) with a unified single fee for a 24-hour conversation window, during which unlimited free-form messages could be exchanged with message recipients. This would often lead to multiple conversation windows and the billing details getting complex.
New per-message Model: Starting from the 1st of July, 2025, Meta will charge businesses per template message sent, simplifying the entire pricing structure. This eliminates the conversation-based pricing approach, where overlapping conversation windows could trigger additional charges.
What is the impact on Businesses? The pricing model is simplified now, and businesses can better estimate and project their WhatsApp messaging charges. Businesses now have to pay for pre-approved template messages sent (and delivered only). Businesses can reply to users with free-form messages at NO extra cost within the 24-hour service window, which resets at every user message.
New definition of utility messages with revised categorization:
New Definition criteria for utility messages: To qualify as a utility category, a message template should meet the following criteria:
- Non-promotional in nature with no intent to persuade the recipient or promote a product/service/business
- Should be specific to the user or related to the user (to a specific order, account, transaction, or services)
- Critical or Essential to the user only
What changes for businesses? Businesses will now have to accommodate their new utility message templates as per the revised definition. Any existing approved templates will need to be recategorized into either Utility or Marketing. Businesses will receive email or webhook notifications regarding this from WhatsApp.
Messaging Volume Tiers for Utility and Authentication categories
What is Volume tier-based pricing? WhatsApp is introducing Tier-based rates to the Utility and Authentication categories to incentivize higher usage for these specific use-cases. Businesses will pay a lower rate with increased messaging volume as per the volume tiers.
How will the volume tier-specific pricing work?
- Businesses start paying a lower price specific to the defined tier as they upgrade to a new volume tier every time.
- The tiers have a monthly time frame and reset to 0 at the start of each month.
- The pricing will be a unique combination of Market (geography/country) and Category (Utility or Authentication). So a business will have tiers India-Utility, India-Authentication, Brazil-Utility, and so on.
- All WhatsApp Business Accounts within a Business Portfolio are aggregated, and volume tiers are determined based on the overall portfolio.
- Only the chargeable Utility messages will be added to the Volume Tiers. The utility template messages sent to users during the open customer service window are not charged effective 1st July, 2025, and hence do not count towards the volume tiers.
Sample Volume Tier Structure coming into effect from July 2025
Updated Utility and Authentication rates revision
New Rates: WhatsApp has revised the utility and authentication rates for select markets to ensure competitiveness with other market players. The attempt is to make the rates at par with other channels to drive increased WhatsApp adoption for such messages.
The new rate card can be found here: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/whatsapp/pricing/updates-to-pricing#rate-cards
The rate for the Authentication category has seen a sharp downward correction, with a median correction of around 60% and a top correction in the range > 90 % from the previous rates.
A quick summary of the rate correction by category-market combination:
Other Key Points on Pricing
- Free Entry Point Conversations: These will continue to remain the same but reflect messages instead of conversations. The 72-hour window is post a reply from the business.
- Meta charges only for the delivered messages
- The changes will be live effective midnight, July 1, 2025, as per the respective WhatsApp Business Account timezone.
- Businesses are expected to send template messages to users who subscribe to receive communications on their WhatsApp channel.
- The pricing changes for WhatsApp on Meta’s website and documentation are the ones when Meta charges directly to businesses. The final pricing for any business working with a WhatsApp Solution Partner will be decided by the partner and may be different from the Meta-listed pricing.