WhatsApp's new pricing from 1 October 2026 — exactly what changes, with real numbers
The short answer
WhatsApp's new pricing starts on 1 October 2026: Meta will charge you for replying to your own customer — the free-form message you send to someone who wrote to you first, written by a person or by an AI agent. Meta calls it a service message, and it has been free with no cap since November 2024.
The new rule in one line: the first 1,000 replies per business phone number per calendar month are free, then every message is charged at the customer market's utility rate, with no volume tiers. The allowance resets monthly, does not roll over, and belongs to each number, not to the account.
In practice: a shop answering fewer than a thousand messages a month from one number will pay nothing. That describes most small and mid-sized shops in this market.
WhatsApp's new pricing: what exactly gets charged
Almost everyone searching for WhatsApp's new prices is asking one question: is replying to a customer still free? The change touches one category out of four — and unluckily, it is the category that makes up most of your messages.
Meta splits your messages into four categories. Three are templates you start and pre-register: marketing, utility, and authentication (OTP). The fourth is the service message: any free-form message you send in reply to a customer who wrote to you, inside the 24-hour window that opens and resets with each message from them.
Which means something simple and heavy: every reply your customer-service bot sends is a service message. Not an edge case — it is the largest category by count for any shop that sells through conversation.
Exactly what changes on 1 October
Until 30 September 2026
- Replies inside the window are free, uncapped
- A utility template inside the window is free
- You pay only for what you start, outside the window
From 1 October 2026
- 1,000 free replies per number a month, then per message
- A utility template inside the window becomes billable
- The rate = the customer market's utility rate, with no volume tiers
"A thousand free messages per account." Not true — the allowance belongs to each business phone number. Two numbers means two thousand. Anyone counting it per account will tell a merchant sending 700 from one number and 700 from another — who owes nothing — that they are four hundred over.
WhatsApp's new message prices — in dollars and in your own currency
A service message is priced at the utility rate in the customer's market. The figures below are not copied from Meta's table — they are what we actually paid on traffic that ran through this platform, read from the billing log.
| Market | Per message past the allowance | 1,500 replies/mo | 5,000 replies/mo |
|---|---|---|---|
| Egypt | $0.0036 | $1.80 | $14.40 |
| Saudi Arabia | $0.0107 | $5.35 | $42.80 |
| UAE | $0.0157 | $7.85 | $62.80 |
Figures are for one business number and one month, and the market is the customer's, not yours. The column is simply (replies − 1,000) × the rate.
WhatsApp's new prices in Saudi Arabia and Egypt
The rate follows the customer's market, not yours: a shop in Riyadh messaging an Egyptian customer pays Egypt's rate. Here are both markets in their own currency, for one business number per month.
| Replies a month, one number | Saudi Arabia — in riyals | Egypt — in pounds |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 1,000 | free | free |
| 2,000 | 40.13 | 198.00 |
| 5,000 | 160.50 | 792.00 |
| 10,000 | 361.13 | 1,782.00 |
The conclusion that settles it for most merchants: a shop answering fewer than a thousand messages a month from one number pays nothing — which describes most shops in both markets. Past the thousand, the bill stays in two figures at any reasonable volume.
For the full rates across every message category in each market: WhatsApp API pricing in Saudi Arabia · and in Egypt.
What stays free
The 72-hour window for anyone arriving from a Click-to-WhatsApp ad or a Facebook page button stays free for templates. That is a real reason to put ad budget behind that format: a visitor who arrives from the ad is cheaper than one who arrives on their own.
Meta's table indicates a service message stays free inside the 72-hour window, and two readings of the same page gave contradictory answers. We have not printed a number we cannot prove: check your own Meta account after 1 October before building a budget decision on it. This paragraph will be updated the moment it is settled.
What to do before 1 October
- Know your own number
Open your account's stats and count how many service messages you sent last month from each number separately. Under a thousand means nothing changes for you. ArabyBot customers find the counter ready on the WhatsApp numbers page.
- Fix your billing details
Anyone without a working payment method on their WhatsApp Business account will find messages refused past the allowance, not merely charged. Check Meta Business Manager → Billing.
- Look at how many messages make one reply
Per-message pricing turns a three-bubble reply into three charges. Fold a reply into one message where you can — the largest saving available, and it costs you no quality.
- Push what you can through the ad window
Click-to-WhatsApp ads open a free 72-hour window for templates. If you are spending on ads anyway, this format lowers your Meta bill rather than raising it.
Do not reply to your customers less. A service message is the cheapest thing Meta sells — in Egypt about a seventh of a marketing message — and a customer who got no answer costs more than any invoice.
Frequently asked
What exactly is a service message?
Any non-template message you send a customer inside an open 24-hour window — written by a person or by an AI agent. The window opens and resets with every message the customer sends. If your work is answering people who ask you things, most of your messages are service messages.
Is the 1,000 per account or per number?
Per business phone number. An account running two numbers gets 1,000 on each — two thousand — not 1,000 shared. This is the single most misread point, and it reverses the answer for anyone with more than one number.
Does an unused allowance roll over?
No. It resets at the start of each calendar month and anything unused expires. So there is no point holding replies back in a quiet month to save them.
Is there a volume discount?
No — and it is the only category without one. Utility and authentication rates fall as your monthly volume rises; the service rate stays flat however much you send.
Does anything else change on the same day?
Yes, and most pages miss it: a utility template sent inside the open window was free from July 2025 and becomes billable on 1 October 2026 as well. If your flow is "the customer writes, we answer with a template", you are affected twice, not once.
So WhatsApp costs money now?
Not all of it, and it was never all free. What you always paid for is what you start — templates, broadcasts, OTP. What is new is that your reply to a customer who messaged you becomes billable past the first 1,000 a month per number. Most shops never reach the thousand.
What will I pay if I answer 2,000 customers a month?
From one number: the first 1,000 are free and the other 1,000 are charged. In Egypt that is about 198.00 EGP a month, in Saudi Arabia about 40.13 SAR. And if you run two numbers and split the traffic, you pay nothing — each number has its own thousand.
Does this mean I should reply less?
No. A service message is the cheapest thing Meta sells — in Egypt roughly a seventh of a marketing message. Reply exactly as you do today, and watch one thing: how many messages make up a single reply. Under per-message pricing, three bubbles in one turn are three charges.
Read next
Know your number before the meter starts
ArabyBot shows you the thousand-free counter for each number on its own, and what the overflow will cost — before 1 October, not after.