Meta will begin charging businesses for service and certain utility messages sent through the WhatsApp Business Platform from October 1, 2026, a move that could raise communication costs for Nigerian banks, fintechs, e-commerce companies, logistics firms and other businesses that use the platform to engage customers at scale.
The company announced the change in a July 2026 update to its WhatsApp Business Platform pricing, saying service messages would move to a per-message pricing model from October 1.
The new charges apply to businesses using the official WhatsApp Business Platform, formerly known as the WhatsApp Business API. They do not affect ordinary WhatsApp users or most small businesses using the standard WhatsApp Business app.
Under the current system, businesses can respond to customers with free-form service messages during a 24-hour customer service window without paying Meta for those messages. From October 1, service messages sent during the window will become chargeable.
Meta will also begin charging for utility messages sent in response to customers during the 24-hour window. These include payment confirmations, order updates and delivery notifications, which have previously been free under the platform’s pricing structure.
In its developer documentation, Meta said the new service-message charge would apply from October 1, noting that such messages had not been charged since November 1, 2024. It also said utility messages had been free since July 1, 2025.
For Nigerian businesses, a chargeable service or utility message is expected to cost about $0.0101, equivalent to approximately ₦14 at an exchange rate of ₦1,340 to the dollar. Marketing messages are priced significantly higher at about $0.062, or roughly ₦84 at the same exchange rate.
The fees are paid directly to Meta and may not…
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Read Full Article by Joy Agwunobi at businessamlive.com
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