Updates to
WhatsApp’s
conversation
based pricing
New conversation categories effective June 1, 2023
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Our vision is for WhatsApp to be how people and businesses
communicate at every stage of the customer journey.
messages from businesses, and reaching out to businesses for customer
service on WhatsApp.
To align our product experience and pricing with this vision, we are introducing
new conversation categories and naming. There will be three new business-
initiated conversation categories and we’re renaming user-initiated to align
with the primary ways businesses and people are messaging on WhatsApp.
The new conversation categories are:
1 Marketing conversations
Business-initiated conversations that include promotions or offers,
informational updates, or invitations for customers to respond / take action.
Any conversation that does not qualify as utility or authentication is
a marketing conversation.
2 Utility conversations
Business-initiated conversations to facilitate a specific, agreed-upon
request or transaction or update a customer about an ongoing transaction.
These may include transaction confirmations, transaction updates,
and/or post-purchase notifications.
3 Authentication conversations
Business-initiated conversations that enable businesses to authenticate
users with one-time passcodes at multiple steps during the login process,
such as account registration, account recovery, and integrity challenges.
4 Service conversations
Any user-initiated conversation, such as to resolve a customer enquiry.
Our pricing reflects the different value each of these experiences
drives for businesses and people. Marketing conversations
drive incremental sales, while Utility conversations facilitate existing
sales. Service conversations help resolve customer inquiries and
Authentication conversations enable secure log-ins.
Rates for each conversation category are available here.
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Template approval requires category validation using
See our developer documents
template categories.
country
and region are available in our pricing documentation.
How to select template
category
in
WhatsApp Manager
You will be prompted
to select a template
category when creating a
new template.
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For any template that
has variables, a sample
with variables populated
must be provided for
the template category to
be confirmed.
If the selected category
does not match with our
categorization, we will prompt
you to change the category.
You can appeal if you feel
our selected category is not
consistent with our guidelines.
How to select a template category during template creation in the
Business Management API
Template categories will be fields in the Business Management API
template creation request. More details here.
Template rejection will be provided in response if the category
selected does not match with our categorization. Rejection reason will
indicate category mismatch.
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What happens if I send templates of different categories in the same
24-hour conversation window?
Any time a template message is delivered, it will result in a conversation
charge unless it is sent in a conversation of the same category. For example, if
a utility template is delivered during a service conversation, it will open a
separate utility conversation open for 24 hours from the time the utility
template is delivered.
If a utility template is delivered during an open utility conversation, it will not open
a new utility conversation or create a new charge. Below are several
examples to illustrate how conversation charges work.
EXAMPLE 1
Opening a marketing
conversation inside a
service conversation
A service conversation is
opened at 9:31 when a
business response to a
customer message is delivered.
A marketing template is
delivered while this service
conversation is still open at
4:30. This opens a separate
marketing conversation. The
result is one charge for a service
conversation and one charge
for a marketing conversation.
Free entry point conversations1
are an exception. A template
delivered during the three day free
window will not open a new
conversation.
In the above example, if the business
replied to the first user message
delivered at 9:30 with a template, a
1
Free entry point conversations are conversation of the same category
conversations that initiate from Ads that
Click to WhatsApp or Facebook Page CTAs. as the template will be opened, not a
More details available [here] service conversation.
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EXAMPLE 2
Opening a utility
conversation inside a
marketing conversation
A marketing conversation
is opened at 3:40 when a
marketing template message
is delivered. Later, with the
marketing conversation still
open, a utility template is
delivered at 6:00. This opens
a separate utility conversation.
The result is one charge for a
marketing conversation and one
charge for a utility conversation.
EXAMPLE 3
Two templates of the same
category result in only one
conversation charge.
A utility conversation is opened
at 9:00 when a utility template
message is delivered. Later,
with the utility conversation still
open, another utility template
message is delivered at 11:00.
There is no new conversation
charge because the template
category used within the open
conversation window did not
change. The result is one
utility conversation charge.
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EXAMPLE 4
One template with both utility
and marketing content
A template that includes content
that is both utility and marketing
based on our template
guidelines is delivered at 11:59.
Whenever marketing content
is identified in a template, the
template will be categorized
as marketing. The result is one
marketing conversation charge.
Thank you.
