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Understand WhatsApp billing

Last Update: Sep 2024 • Est. Read Time: 2 MIN
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WhatsApp charges per conversation initiated by a user or business in 24-hour increments, starting from the moment a first message is delivered. This article provides details on the different types of WhatsApp conversations, and how conversations are priced.

Who can access this feature?
User typesAdmins can access the Billing page.


In this article

Updates to WhatsApp pricing (June 2023)

As of June 1, 2023, business-initiated conversations are no longer included in the 1,000 free conversations provided by WhatsApp each calendar month. All business-initiated conversations will be charged. For more information, see their Pricing documentation.

WhatsApp conversation categories

Conversations can either be initiated by the user or the business, and are categorized. All conversations are measured in a 24-hour period.

  • User-initiated conversations, or service conversations, are sent by your customer. Your agents have 24 hours from when the customer's first message is delivered to reply to that message. All replies to a customer within that 24 hour window will be associated with the user-initiated conversation. Once the 24-hour period ends, WhatsApp closes the conversation.

  • Your agents can use pre-approved message templates to create a business-initiated conversation with a customer outside of the 24 hour window of a user-initiated conversation. Business-initiated messages can fall under one of 3 categories: Utility, Authentication, and Marketing.

For more information on how WhatsApp defines conversation categories, see the WhatsApp article on Conversation-Based Pricing.

WhatsApp usage costs

WhatsApp provides each WhatsApp Business account 1,000 user-initiated conversations, or service conversations, for free every calendar month.

Note: WhatsApp determines and sets the free tier conversations per Business Account. See WhatsApp’s pricing terms for the most up to date information.

User-initiated conversation costs

Kustomer will charge for user-initiated conversations based on the then-current published user-initiated rates located at the WhatsApp article on Conversation-Based Pricing.  Rates for WhatsApp conversations vary by country or region.

Business-initiated conversations costs

Kustomer will charge for business-initiated conversations based on the then-current published business-initiated rates located at the WhatsApp article on Conversation-Based Pricing. Rates for WhatsApp conversations vary by country or region.

How do I track my organization's usage?

You can track how many conversations you've sent or received via your WhatsApp channel by going to Settings > Billing > Manage Subscription. Expand the Monthly Add-on section and look for the Usage section for your WhatsApp account. Here, you can view your account usage directly in WhatsApp by selecting See Usage. You can also see how many inbound conversations you've received that count towards your additional total.