WhatsApp conversation (billing)
In WhatsApp Business API billing, the conversation was the unit of charge until 2025: a 24-hour session opened by the first message, with the price determined by the category (marketing, utility, authentication, service) and the user's country. Meta then moved to pricing per delivered template message, keeping customer-initiated service conversations free.
In the conversation model, all messages exchanged within the 24-hour session fell under a single charge, and opening multiple categories generated separate sessions. The model was superseded because it was hard to predict with mixed volumes. With per-message pricing, every delivered marketing, utility or authentication template has a unit price from the rate card, while free-form messages sent within the customer service window are not charged.
Some inherited rules remain: replies to user-initiated (service) conversations are free; utility templates sent within an open window are free; entry points from Click-to-WhatsApp ads open a free 72-hour period. To estimate a campaign budget, you therefore multiply the number of recipients by the template's unit rate for the category and destination country.
SendApp applies Meta's per-message price list with no markup whatsoever: the business pays for the platform and only the actual Meta costs, whatever the conversation volume.
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