Starting June 1st 2023, WhatsApp will be moving from the pricing model described in this article to a use case based pricing model. For more information on these changes and what to expect from the WhatsApp Business API with Twilio, please see the guide here.
WhatsApp Messages use a conversation-based pricing model for all business globally sending WhatsApp messages. This pricing model went into effect on February 1, 2022 , and moved from a per template/session charge to a single WhatsApp fee for the conversation based on who initiated (the business, or the end user).
Conversation-based pricing overview
Here's how WhatsApp's conversation-based pricing model works:
- WhatsApp will charge once per 24-hour session of messaging between a business and a customer. The charge will vary, depending on who initiated the conversation (the business or the end user). During the session, there are no additional charges for any additional messages from the business or the end user.
- In addition to the WhatsApp conversation charge, customers will continue to incur the Twilio flat fee of $0.005 per message.
- Your first 1,000 conversations each month won’t incur any WhatsApp fee (Twilio per-message costs still apply). These free conversations can be both business-initiated and user-initiated.
- Conversations aren’t charged when consumers message businesses with call-to-action buttons on ads or on a Facebook Page. Free entry point conversations are only user-initiated, and just the first conversation is free of charge. Conversations with consumers after that are charged. Twilio per-message costs still apply.
- Standard pricing will apply for ads that click to WhatsApp. The conversation that initiates from the ad is free, but not the ad itself.
- Charges are only applied to messages in "Delivered" status. Messages in Failed, Undelivered, Sent, and Delivery Unknown statuses are not charged.
- For full details on WhatsApp pricing, see Twilio's WhatsApp Pricing Calculator .
How does this impact Twilio's per message charges?
These changes are being made by WhatsApp; there are no changes to Twilio's charges, including the per message charge.
How does this impact my business use case?
We have identified the following possible impacts to common use cases:
- Frequent notifications: If you are sending multiple messages within a 24-hour period, you will now only incur a single charge from WhatsApp for starting the conversation. WhatsApp will not charge for template messages.
- Infrequent notifications: If you are sending messages over multiple 24-hour periods, you will now incur charges from WhatsApp for each conversation.
- Customer support: If you are responding to incoming user-initiated messages, then you will start incurring user initiated conversation based charges.
For full details on this pricing change, see Twilio's WhatsApp Pricing page and Facebook's Conversation-Based Pricing page.