An Ultimate Guide to WhatsApp Business API Pricing

The WhatsApp Business API’s pricing strategy revolves around the conversation-based pricing model. Simply put, businesses are charged based on the number of conversations they have with their customers.

However, apart from WhatsApp conversation costs, other fees can be involved in implementing WhatsApp Business API. Let’s consider all these fees before deciding to use the service.

When setting up a WhatsApp Business API account, there are three types of costs to consider:

1. WhatsApp conversation charges. These charges apply per WhatsApp conversation, not per message. They are based on the conversation category and the customer's country.
2. WhatsApp Business Service Provider (BSP) fees. Since the WhatsApp API doesn’t have an interface, you'll need a BSP, such as Kommo, to use it. The fees vary based on different factors, such as the hosting type and pricing model.
3. WhatsApp BSP monthly subscription fees. BSPs offer messaging, customer communication and CRM tools on top of the API access for managing conversations at scale for a monthly fee.

WhatsApp charges per conversation happening between you and your customers. The charges vary depending on the number and category of conversations occurring each month.

WhatsApp has two types of conversations:

1. User-initiated (Now called Service Conversation)
2. Business-initiated

The first type of WhatsApp conversation, a user-initiated conversation, begins when you reply to a message from your customer.

WhatsApp defines it as “any user-initiated conversation, such as to resolve a customer inquiry”.

Here’s an example of a service conversation dealing with customer inquiries:

To be able to start a Service conversation, when a customer sends you a message, you will have to respond within a 24-hour customer service window.

WhatsApp offers 1,000 free Service conversations every month. If you exceed the limit, fees will apply.

Besides 1,000 free Service conversations per month, you can make customers get in touch with you using tools that can drive more organic awareness to your WhatsApp number. For example, you can add your WhatsApp number to your website, email signature, or QR code on your product, or use paid channels such as Click to WhatsApp Ads or Facebook’s Call-to-Action buttons. These paid tools are also known as Free Entry Point conversations.

When a customer initiates a message through one of the provided free entry points, it also opens a 24-hour customer service window. Within this time, you can respond with a free-form message at no cost. Keep in mind that once you send a response, the messaging window extends to 72 hours.

During this extended period, you can send unlimited template messages for free. If the customer replies to your free-form or template message, it begins another 24-hour customer service window, allowing you to send free-form messages once again.

Once the 24-hour customer service window expires, your business can only respond if you use a pre-approved WhatsApp template to initiate a conversation yourself.

On the other hand, a business-initiated conversation is a conversation that your business starts first. However, you can only initiate it with a template message approved by WhatsApp to avoid spam.

In other words, using a template message is the only way your business can initiate a conversation with your customer.

Also, you can only start a conversation with customers who have previously opted-in to receive messages from you.

The new business-initiated conversations categories are:

• Marketing
• Utility
• Authentication

Every category has its own price.

Let’s go through each of them to understand how you can use them with your customers.

WhatsApp defines a Marketing conversation as:

If your business-initiated conversation doesn’t qualify as a utility or authentication conversation, then it would fall under the marketing category.

According to WhatsApp, a Utility conversation is the following:

In other words, utility conversations include messages such as order notifications.

WhatsApp explains Authentication as the following:

When you initiate a conversation using a template, a WhatsApp fee is charged regardless of whether you receive a response from your customer. The conversation will open the moment you send the template, meaning you can send an unlimited number of messages to your customer within the next 24 hours.

However, a new conversation will be opened if you send a message containing a template from a different category during this 24-hour window, and you will be charged separately for it.

There are different factors that can affect pricing in WhatsApp Business API. These are:

1. Use case
2. Region
3. WhatsApp BSP charges

Let’s explore each factor.

Your WhatsApp Business API fees depend on how you use it. The pricing differs between the marketing, support, and sales team because every team uses a certain conversation category.

For example, Business-initiated conversations usually cost 0.5 to 15 cents per conversation, while Service conversations range from 0.3 cents to 9 cents.

Let’s look at the difference in pricing by teams.

According to WhatsApp, “Marketing conversations drive incremental sales. Marketing rates are now higher and utility lower to reflect value for people and businesses.”

Marketing conversations have the highest costs among the four categories. This means that sending bulk messages can quickly become expensive and tricky.

The reason for this is that marketing teams use WhatsApp to broadcast promotional messages, including limited-time offers, updates and call-to-actions.

Nonetheless, WhatsApp has strict policies against businesses spamming their clients, which means that your business must comply with WhatsApp Business Messaging Policy and send promotional messages only to those customers who have previously opted-in.

According to WhatsApp, “Utility conversations facilitate existing sales.”

Although sales teams use different categories of conversations, depending on their goals and strategies, the primary goal is nurturing leads and winning sales.

If your business has a high-profit margin per sale, using the WhatsApp API can be an ideal solution. This is because you would only engage in conversations with a few clients per month, but the revenue generated from such conversations will be more than enough.

Finally, speaking of support teams. WhatsApp highlights that “Service conversations help resolve customer inquiries.”

Since support teams are typically responsible for handling conversations initiated by customers, service conversations are ideal for such teams.

The main goal is to respond to customer inquiries promptly, which should be easily achievable within the 24-hour customer service window.

Service conversations benefit support teams because they allow the team to send an unlimited number of messages to help customers resolve their issues without incurring additional charges.

Add 1,000 Free Service conversations each month to the equation, and you might not even pay a dime. Just make sure your support team doesn't reply to occasional spam messages to avoid getting additional charges.

Now let’s talk about the pricing by region. The pricing for WhatsApp Business API varies by country and region where your customers are based. Some countries have higher pricing than others.

Let’s go through Brazil, Argentina, Indonesia, India, and Hong Kong.

With over 120 million users, Brazil has one of the largest WhatsApp user bases in the world.

The average cost per message in Brazil is US$ 0.04.

With over 40 million active WhatsApp users in Argentina, the WhatsApp Business API has been widely adopted in Argentina.

The average cost per message in Argentina is US$ 0.04.

Indonesia is one of the top five countries globally for WhatsApp usage, making the WhatsApp Business API a valuable tool for Indonesian businesses.

The average cost per message in Indonesia is US$ 0.03.

India is home to the largest number of WhatsApp users worldwide, making the WhatsApp Business API a crucial part of many businesses customer service strategies.

The average cost per message in India is US$ 0.006.

Businesses in Hong Kong frequently use the WhatsApp Business API.

The average cost per message in Hong Kong is US$ 0.046.

View WhatsApp Business API pricing of other countries.

WhatsApp Business API doesn’t have a front-end interface; for this reason, you will need a CRM or a BSP to use it. Another option is hiring a team of developers to set it up and keep it running. If you think that’s too much for you and you’d like to have it easy, then you can adopt a WhatsApp CRM, such as Kommo.

Every WhatsApp BSP has its own pricing models, but generally, they include two components:

• WhatsApp Business API fees
• Monthly subscription fees for using the software

Some BSPs can charge additional fees for services, such as setup or implementation.

WhatsApp Business API prices are formed in different ways. On top of WhatsApp conversation charges, there are additional fees imposed by BSPs.

The most common pricing models used by BSPs are:

1. Markup per message: This is similar to how you pay for SMS. You pay for each message sent or received through the WhatsApp Business API.It's a good choice if your usage varies from month to month or if you're just starting out and unsure of your messaging volume.
2. Markup per conversation: Here, you are billed based on the number of monthly conversations you have. A conversation is any message exchange between your business and a customer within a 24-hour window. This can be a more cost-effective option for businesses that have fewer conversations but send more messages per conversation.
3. Monthly or flat fee: This is a fixed pricing model where you pay a flat fee per month regardless of the number of messages or conversations. It's a good choice if you have a high volume of messages and want predictable billing. But it does come with a number of limitations.
4. Setup or license fee: In some cases, providers impose a one-time setup fee on top of markup fees and WhatsApp conversation charges.

Since the WhatsApp Business API lacks a front-end interface, BSPs offer messaging, customer communication, and CRM tools on top of the API access.

While the monthly subscription fees for BSPs can range between $10 to $100 per user per month, the benefits they provide can be worth it.

With so many options available in the market, it can be overwhelming to choose the right BSP for your business. To make it easier, our team has created a handpicked list of the top WhatsApp Business Solution Providers to compare and contrast the available options:

Let’s take Kommo as an example.

In addition to handling your WhatsApp messaging, Kommo offers a unified inbox that connects every communication channel a business uses in one place, including Instagram, Messenger, Telegram, Viber, and email. This means businesses can talk to all their customers in one place without leaving the app.

Kommo's personal lead card feature allows businesses to store all communication with a lead in one place, chat with colleagues, leave notes, and set tasks to ensure no important details are missed.

In Kommo, you can create personalized message templates to cover common messages and inquiries on WhatsApp, and a powerful AI assistant called Salesbot can take the majority of routine tasks. These include:

• Greeting leads and customers
• Sending reminders
• Routing leads to the right sales reps
• Generating invoices

Once you get your messaging game on, you can use Kommo’s dashboard or stats tab to track and measure the success of your WhatsApp messaging campaigns, identifying your bottlenecks and opportunities for growth.

Kommo offers a WhatsApp integration with a convenient WhatsApp managing platform. Kommo also gives $1 to try the WhatsApp Business API, so you’ve got nothing to lose.

When it comes to topping up your balance, you've got options: pick from four preset amounts ($5, $50, $100, $150) or set your own.

Kommo offers a tool that calculates the top-up based on a few details from both Business and User-Initiated Conversations:

• Your country or the customer's country
• Number of conversations
• Number of messages/conversation

Topping up in Kommo is easy – you just need to select your desired value, and click Top up now.

You will be taken to a page to input your credit information. Then simply click Pay.

To view your past top-ups, go to WhatsApp manager in Kommo,

Estimating your WhatsApp costs before switching to WhatsApp Cloud API is a smart move. You can do it easily with Kommo's friendly WhatsApp pricing calculator.

In just a few clicks, you'll have all the answers. Choose your primary country of operation, give an estimate of how many messages you send each month across different categories, and let our WhatsApp pricing calculator handle the rest.

Understanding WhatsApp API pricing can seem challenging and frustrating. If switching to WhatsApp Cloud API is the right choice for your business, Kommo is here to make it easier.

• Give our 14-day free trial a shot and test the official WhatsApp Cloud API integration at no cost. See how it improves your communication with customers.
• Book a demo with our team of WhatsApp pros. We'll answer your questions, discuss your goals, and find the pricing plan that suits you.