Pay-as-you go pricing for the WhatsApp Business API
Our transparent, scalable WhatsApp pricing makes it easy to understand how much you’ll pay to send WhatsApp messages from your business.
Estimate your WhatsApp costs
WhatsApp pricing is calculated based on Twilio’s per-message fee, plus Meta’s per-template message fee, which Twilio passes through to customers. Twilio’s per-message fee for WhatsApp is $0.005, inbound or outbound*. Meta’s per-template message fees are available on WhatsApp’s rate cards.
How Meta's template fees and categories work
The Meta per-template message fee varies by use case: utility, authentication, or marketing. You are charged for each template message you send.
During a customer service window, Meta does not charge for utility template messages or free-form messages.
A customer service window lasts for 24 hours after you receive a customer-initiated WhatsApp message. You will still be charged for Marketing and authentication templates.
Utility Template
Specific customer requests, transactions, post-purchase notifications, or billing reminders.
Marketing Template
Business-initiated templates that do not qualify as utility or authentication (e.g. promotions, offers, informational updates, survey requests).
Free-form messages
Messages that don’t use a template. These are only allowed during a customer service window.
Less red tape, more read messages
Send and receive messages to WhatsApp users using the Twilio Messaging APIs you already know and avoid the complexities of integrating with Meta’s WhatsApp API. Twilio lets you scale your communications with less technical overhead. Start engaging customers sooner with quick onboarding, managed infrastructure, global compliance, and unified messaging tools.
Engagement Suite
Enhance your WhatsApp messaging functionality with features for better customer engagement and marketing performance.
|
Features |
Twilio per message fee |
|---|---|
|
Link shortening/click tracking and message scheduling |
$0.015 |
Get started with WhatsApp messaging for free
Integrate with Twilio’s powerful APIs to start connecting with your customers on WhatsApp. Start building for free today.
Learn more about WhatsApp pricing
User-initiated conversations that start from an advertisement on Facebook or Instagram and then click to a WhatsApp or Facebook Page are free for 72 hours after the conversation begins. But the conversation is only free of charge if you respond within 24 hours to the initial message and any additional messages you send are in response to replies from the customer.
Twilio fees still apply. And charges for Facebook and Instagram advertisements still apply.
When a WhatsApp user messages you, a 24-hour timer called a “customer service window” starts. If one has already been started, it refreshes.
When a customer service window is open between you and a user, you can send any type of message to the user whether it's a template or free-form message. If a window is not open between you and the user, you can only send template messages to the user, as template messages are the only type that can be sent outside of a customer service window.
When you submit a WhatsApp template for approval through the Twilio Console, you will be prompted to select one of the categories: Marketing, Authentication, or Utility.
If WhatsApp determines that your category selection is inaccurate, WhatsApp will change the template category and pricing will be conducted accordingly.
High-volume tiers may receive discounts by Meta. The tiers at which discounts begin varies by country and use case. Learn more here.
The pricing listed on this page is only applicable to the Programmable Messaging API.
For Flex, we waive the per-message fee. View Flex pricing to learn more.