Which WhatsApp conversations Meta charges for

What exactly is free?

Anything you send inside an open customer service window, which is the 24 hours following the customer's last message to you.

This matters more for integration design than it first appears. A support workflow that only ever answers people who wrote in operates almost entirely in free territory, however many messages it sends. A workflow that reaches out first pays for every conversation it opens, however few messages each one contains.

So the cost of an integration is driven by how many conversations it starts, not by how chatty it is. Two systems sending the same volume can differ enormously in what Meta charges.

Who does Meta bill?

The payment method on your own WhatsApp Business Account, set in WhatsApp Manager.

This is a direct relationship between the business and Meta. The charges do not pass through a Tech Provider, which is also why a provider cannot mark them up, bundle them, or resell them. Anyone offering discounted WhatsApp conversation rates is either a reseller with a different arrangement or describing something other than Meta's charges.

The practical consequence is that an account with no payment method can reply freely all day and fails the moment it tries to open a conversation, which is a confusing failure until the split is understood.

Common mistakes

• Budgeting per message. Meta prices conversations, and a long exchange inside the window costs nothing.
• Expecting a provider invoice to include Meta's charges. They are billed directly and separately.
• Building outbound workflows without a payment method on the account. Replies will work and outreach will not.

Frequently asked questions

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