10 May 2022

WhatsApp Business API: How Much Does It Cost?

WhatsApp has shifted to a conversation-based pricing model — but how does it affect you? Find out all you need to know about the WhatsApp Business API pricing.

Benard Kiplangat

Content Writer

Reading time: 5 minutes

Many companies are now turning to WhatsApp to market their business — because chat marketing is full of untapped opportunities. From high open rates to reply rates, using messaging platforms to engage with customers is what sets businesses apart.

But, before you even think of using WhatsApp for business, you need to tackle one thing — the costs. Being unfamiliar with what you’re paying for can incur additional and unnecessary expenses, which can be detrimental to your business.

There’s no doubt that the WhatsApp Business API pricing can be confusing for many. To help you understand everything you need to know about WhatsApp Business pricing, we will dive deeper into the full breakdown of the costs.

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How WhatsApp’s pricing works

Before we dive straight into WhatsApp Business API, it’s important to clearly distinguish the different solutions WhatsApp offers and their costs.

WhatsApp Business

The WhatsApp Business application is built for smaller companies to support their communication needs.

When using WhatsApp Business, your account is created with your business phone number and is accessed by the dedicated WhatsApp Business app or via WhatsApp Web (not the same as the regular WhatsApp app).

It’s also important to note that there are two different WhatsApp Business Accounts: the Official Business Account and Business Account.

Official Business Accounts are the business profiles that have a green tick alongside their brand names. The Business Account is just a standard WhatsApp Business Account using the business app or the platform.

The difference between a WhatsApp Official Business Account and a WhatsApp Business Account.

Even with more robust features such as a business catalog and semi-automation compared to the regular WhatsApp, WhatsApp Business is free of charge and can simply be downloaded from the app store.

WhatsApp Business API

While the WhatsApp Business app is for small businesses with simple marketing needs, WhatsApp Business API is an advanced solution for larger brands.

To use WhatsApp Business API, you have to go through a third-party intermediary, known as a WhatsApp Business Solution Provider (BSP), to get an API account. Once you have a WhatsApp API account, you can then begin messaging your customers.

In other words, a WhatsApp BSP allows businesses to have WhatsApp conversations while using their existing business software.

So, how much does it cost?

Well, that largely depends on the BSP you’ve chosen to use! That’s because WhatsApp Business charges your BSP, and your BSP will pass that cost on to you. Bear in mind that your BSP will add their own fees such as setup costs, purchasing numbers, and a centralized inbox.

An overview of how much WhatsApp Business API costs

WhatsApp Business API pricing: Conversation-based pricing model

As of February 2022, WhatsApp shifted its pricing from notification-based to conversation-based pricing. Businesses are now charged per conversation, which includes all messages delivered in a 24-hour session window.

The pricing is further split into two categories, user-initiated conversations, and business-initiated conversations.

Businesses and users can exchange an unlimited number of messages, including template messages, within the 24-hour conversation session without incurring additional charges. Subsequently, after the 24-hour window, businesses can only send templated messages that incur fees.

User-initiated conversations

Business-initiated conversations

Business-initiated vs user-initiated pricing

If you receive a user-initiated message and respond to it within a 24-hour window, all your conversations with that user throughout the timeframe will be priced based on the user-initiated pricing.

The next window of 24 hours will then depend on who sends the message first and will be priced by user-initiated if the user was the first one to start the conversation. Otherwise, it will be charged based on business-initiated pricing.

There are other factors to consider that affect the pricing of these two conversation types, like the destination of the user’s country. You can check out the full list here.

Other important pricing information:

Free monthly conversations

Free entry points

WhatsApp Business Solution Provider pricing

Let’s take a look at how service providers may decide to offer their WhatsApp Business API services.

While many BSPs may charge you separately for the WhatsApp fees, others strategically distribute the costs across their subscription plans.

Therefore, the main pricing models for BSPs will vary. Coupled with other personalized services, you may incur more costs from one BSP than you could from others.

One factor to consider is the costs of their plans alongside WhatsApp’s fee. There are three most common pricing models that many service providers use — per message pricing, message bundle pricing, or monthly active users pricing.

Twilio

MessageBird

Userlike

WhatsApp Business API: What’s next?

Whether you’re using WhatsApp Business or API, and for customer support, sales, or marketing, WhatsApp is a powerful business tool that remains indispensable.

While there are countless other WhatsApp BSPs out there, we recommend you try out our NovoChat to see how you can streamline your business. We offer the most affordable chat marketing features that allow you to access WhatsApp Business features and more at no extra cost.

To get started with NovoChat, get started with us today!