{"id":5547,"date":"2026-08-31T08:01:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T08:01:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/justfineinfotech.com\/meta-to-charge-businesses-for-whatsapp-messages-from-october-1-thisdaylive\/"},"modified":"2026-08-31T08:01:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T08:01:18","slug":"meta-to-charge-businesses-for-whatsapp-messages-from-october-1-thisdaylive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/justfineinfotech.com\/fr\/meta-to-charge-businesses-for-whatsapp-messages-from-october-1-thisdaylive\/","title":{"rendered":"Meta to Charge Businesses for WhatsApp Messages from October 1 \u2013 THISDAYLIVE"},"content":{"rendered":"

Meta, the parent company of WhatsApp, has announced plans to begin charging businesses for customer-service messages on its WhatsApp Business Platform from October 1, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

According to a notice on its WhatsApp Business platform, Meta said it would also begin charging for utility messages sent in response to users within the open 24-hour window<\/p>\n

The policy means businesses whose operations depend on the platform will need to plan for additional operational costs from a previously free service<\/p>\n

\u201cEffective October 1, 2026, Meta will charge on a per-message basis for all service messages, consistent with how Meta charges for template messages. These messages have not been charged since November 1, 2024,\u201d the company said<\/p>\n

\u201cEffective October 1, 2026, Meta will charge on a per-message basis for utility messages sent in response to users (within an open 24-hour customer service window). These messages have not been charged since July 1, 2025.\u201d<\/p>\n

A service message is a non-template reply sent by a business after a customer initiates a conversation, while utility messages refer to transactional communications such as payment confirmations, account updates<\/a>, order confirmations, and delivery notifications<\/p>\n

While the 24-hour customer-service window will remain in place, businesses will no longer be able to send free service messages when the window closes under the new policy<\/p>\n

The new charges apply to businesses using the WhatsApp Business Platform, formerly known as the WhatsApp Business API, which is designed for companies managing customer communications at scale<\/p>\n

This includes businesses such as banks, fintech companies, telecommunications operators, e-commerce platforms and other companies that use WhatsApp for customer support and automated communications<\/p>\n

Although Meta has not provided specific rates, current pricing references indicate that utility-type messages to Nigerian numbers are around $0.0101 per message, or roughly N13.5 at an official exchange rate of N1,337 as at August 28, 2026<\/p>\n

Businesses are also expected to confirm the applicable October rate once Meta publishes its final rate card<\/p>\n

Meta has also warned businesses and solution providers to have a valid payment method on their accounts before the new charges take effect<\/p>\n

\u201cFor any Solution Provider or directly-integrated businesses that do not have a payment method on file by September 30, 2026, Meta will stop delivering service messages as of when they become charged on October 1, 2026,\u201d the company said<\/p>\n

The move follows Meta\u2019s shift towards per-message pricing on the WhatsApp Business Platform<\/p>\n

Since July 2025, utility messages sent within an open customer-service window were free, while service messages had been free since November 2024<\/p>\n

\n

\n Related:<\/strong>
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\n WhatsApp Marketing Automation Africa: 6 Dangerous Mistakes Brands Make in Nigeria
\n <\/a>\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Source: www.thisdaylive.com<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Meta, the parent company of WhatsApp, has announced plans to begin charging businesses for customer-service messages on its WhatsApp Business Platform from October 1, 2026<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5549,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[415,693,310,101,105],"class_list":["post-5547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-whatsapp-business-sme-growth","tag-businesses","tag-charge","tag-messages","tag-meta","tag-whatsapp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/justfineinfotech.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/justfineinfotech.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/justfineinfotech.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justfineinfotech.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justfineinfotech.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5547"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/justfineinfotech.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5547\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5548,"href":"https:\/\/justfineinfotech.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5547\/revisions\/5548"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justfineinfotech.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/justfineinfotech.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justfineinfotech.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/justfineinfotech.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}