WhatsApp Business API pricing updates 2025

Effective July 1, 2025, WhatsApp is rolling out a series of significant pricing updates across its Business API platform. These changes are designed to streamline pricing, provide better flexibility for businesses, and reward higher volumes of messaging with more attractive rates. Below, we break down the key updates that will impact businesses using the WhatsApp Business API:

• July 1, 2025: Charge per-template message instead of per-conversation

• July 1, 2025: Make utility messages sent in response to users’ messages free

• [NEW] July 1, 2025: Update utility and authentication rates across several markets

• [NEW] July 1, 2025: Introduce volume tiers for utility and authentication

• [NEW] July 1, 2025: Refine the definition of utility and shift specific use cases to/from utility

• [NEW] H2 2025: Align per-user marketing limits with per-template message pricing

What’s changing on WhatsApp Business API in 2025?

1. Per-template message pricing replaces conversation-based pricing

Previously, WhatsApp charged businesses based on 24-hour conversation windows—once a conversation was initiated, all messages exchanged within the next 24 hours were covered by a single charge. Starting July 1, 2025, WhatsApp will switch to a per-template message pricing model, offering a more transparent and predictable pricing structure. This means you’ll be charged each time you send a template message, regardless of when the previous message was sent.

To adapt to this change, you may review your automation and messaging strategies to ensure messages are concise and purposeful. Be mindful of how often you trigger template messages, as each now incurs a separate charge.

To help you budget effectively, the table below provides a detailed breakdown of Meta's per-template message charges (Effective July 1, 2025):

WhatsApp Business API pricing is determined by Meta and is subject to change. For the latest rate card, please refer to Meta’s website.

📌 New to WhatsApp Business Pricing?
Learn more about the different types of WhatsApp message templates, factors that impact WhatsApp Business API pricing, and billing process here.

2. Free utility templates in response to users

Utility templates sent in direct response to a user-initiated message will be completely free of charge starting July 1, 2025. If your customer starts a conversation (e.g., asking for order status), any utility templates you send in reply, such as a tracking update or confirmation, won’t incur a cost. This update makes customer support interactions more affordable and encourages more conversational, user-first engagement.

Consider encouraging user-initiated chats in your customer journeys so you can reply using utility templates at no cost. This can be a simple way to reduce your WhatsApp messaging spend.

3. Utility and authentication rate updates

WhatsApp will adjust pricing for utility and authentication messages in several regions. Rates are being updated to better align with the cost of alternative messaging channels in each market.

Depending on the countries you message, you may see a price increase or decrease. For example:

• Utility pricing will decrease in select Latin American and “Rest Of” regions.

• Utility pricing will increase in Indonesia.

• Authentication rate will decrease in most regions, except Egypt, India, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and the UAE.

Check your most active customer markets. If you serve users in affected regions, you’ll want to review updated pricing on July 1 to understand how your costs may change. See official pricing here.

4. Introducing volume tiers for utility and authentication

Another major update that will take effect on July 1, 2025, is the launch of volume tiers for utility and authentication messages.

• Rates are tier-specific: This means that businesses that send higher volumes of messages will unlock lower rates. Once they reach a certain number of messages, they move up to a new pricing tier with lower costs for those messages. WhatsApp adds up all the utility and authentication messages from your business to decide which tier you fall into.

• Tiers are market-specific: The pricing tiers are different depending on the country and type of message. For example, the rates for utility messages in Brazil might be different from the rates for authentication messages in Brazil, and they’re also different for other countries.

• Tiers reset monthly: Every month, the message counts go back to zero. Your new pricing tier will be based on how many messages you send in that month.

For example, the volume tiers for Utility messages in Brazil are:

Image Credit: Meta

You’ll benefit from automatic discounts as your messaging volume grows. If you’re sending a high volume of messages, you should monitor your totals using analytics tools (like SleekFlow’s analytics dashboards) to optimize your budget.

For more details, check out the official updates to pricing here.

5. Refined definition of utility messages

WhatsApp is tightening its rules around what qualifies as a utility message. Going forward, utility messages must be:

• Non-promotional, and

• Either requested by the user (e.g., order confirmation) or essential/critical (e.g., fraud alerts).

Templates that don’t meet these criteria will be reclassified as marketing messages and charged accordingly.

This means that some messages you previously categorized as Utility may now fall under the more expensive Marketing category. For instance:

• General feedback surveys like “Rate us” → Marketing

• Re-engagement messages like “Your credit score has been updated” → Marketing

• Critical alerts like “Stay alert for {{XYZ}} scam” → Still Utility

WhatsApp will automatically recategorize your templates starting July 1, 2025. You’ll receive updates via email or webhook if any of your templates are affected. It’s a good idea to review your existing templates now to ensure they align with the new rules.

6. Per-user marketing template message limits aligned with per-template message pricing

WhatsApp is updating how per-user marketing template message limits work. Previously, a business could only send one marketing template outside an open marketing conversation, and additional messages required an open conversation window.

With the update starting late Q2 2025, WhatsApp will allow businesses to send unlimited marketing templates, but each template sent will count toward the user’s marketing limit. This means limits are now tracked by the number of messages, not conversations.

There’s one key exception: if a user replies to a marketing message, it opens a 24-hour customer service window. Messages sent during this window will not count toward the user’s marketing limit.

This gives you more flexibility to engage users with marketing content, but you’ll need to be mindful of how many marketing messages each user receives. Repeated messages without engagement could limit your future reach to that user.

To make the most of this, plan your marketing sequences carefully. Focus on compelling calls-to-action and incentives that drive replies—doing so opens a 24-hour window where additional messages don’t count against the limit.

Conclusion

With the shift to per-template pricing, free utility templates, and volume-based discounts, there's ample opportunity to optimize your messaging strategy and reduce costs. However, it’s important to stay on top of these changes, especially the new definition of utility messages and the alignment of per-user marketing limits.

Make sure to review your existing templates, monitor your messaging volume, and adjust your strategy to maximize the benefits of these updates. For more information on the WhatsApp Business API pricing rates, visit the official WhatsApp Business Pricing page.