Businesses that rely on WhatsApp to communicate with customers will face a new operating cost from October 1, 2026, as Meta begins charging for service messages sent through the WhatsApp Business Platform.
The change implies that businesses will no longer be able to send all customer-service replies for free within WhatsApp’s 24-hour customer service window thereby potentially increasing communication costs for companies that depend heavily on the platform to manage customer relationships.
Meta, which owns WhatsApp, said in its developer documentation that it will begin charging on a per-message basis for all service messages from October 1. The messages have been free since November 2024.
The new pricing applies specifically to the WhatsApp Business Platform which is the infrastructure used by larger businesses, customer-service platforms, developers and companies that manage WhatsApp conversations at scale.
It does not mean that ordinary WhatsApp users will start paying to send messages but businesses using the standard WhatsApp Business app for direct conversations are also not the primary target of the new platform charges.
What is changing?
Under the existing system, when a customer initiates a conversation with a business, a 24-hour customer service window opens. Businesses can respond within that period using service messages without being charged for those messages.
From October 1, Meta will charge businesses for those service messages on a per-message basis.
The company is effectively moving from a model where customer-initiated support responses were free to one where businesses pay according to the number of chargeable messages they send.
This could affect businesses…
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Read Full Article by Folake Balogun at businessday.ng
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