Skip to content

Ledger entryNo. 224373

Per-Message Pricing(PMP)

Also called: Pay per message · Per-delivered-message pricing · Message-based pricing · WhatsApp per-message billing

Definition
Meta's WhatsApp billing model since 1 July 2025: each delivered message is charged by its category and the recipient's market, with no conversation fee.

Pricing & billing

Mode · cost calculator

Work it out

Price a month, one delivered message at a time

  • Marketing₹0.94per message
    20,000 × ₹0.94 · max 1,00,000= ₹18,800.00
  • Utility₹0.19per message
    50,000 × ₹0.19 · max 1,00,000= ₹9,500.00
  • Authentication₹0.14per message
    30,000 × ₹0.14 · max 1,00,000= ₹4,200.00
  • Service₹0.145per message
    15,000 × ₹0.145 · max 1,00,000= ₹2,175.00

Estimated total

₹34,675.00

for 1,15,000 messages · blended ₹0.3015 per message

Share of spend

  • Marketing templates17% of messages · 54% of spend
  • Utility templates43% of messages · 27% of spend
  • Authentication (OTP)26% of messages · 12% of spend
  • Service replies13% of messages · 6% of spend

Marketing templates drives 54% of the bill — at ₹0.94 a message, its volume matters most.

Service replies have been charged since 1 October 2026; Meta skips the charge on each number's first 1,000 a month, which this estimate ignores. Free entry point deliveries and failed messages are not charged.

Rates for India, ex-GST.

Set a month's deliveries for each category. Every delivered message is charged at its category's India rate (ex-GST), and the total shows which category really drives the bill.

Total ₹34,675.00 for 1,15,000 messages.

What is WhatsApp per-message pricing?

Per-message pricing (PMP) is how Meta has charged for the WhatsApp Business Platform since 1 July 2025, when it replaced conversation-based pricing. Instead of one fee per 24-hour conversation, every delivered message is priced on its own, by two things: its conversation category — marketing, utility, authentication or service — and the pricing market of the recipient's phone number.

Templates are charged by the category Meta assigns them. Free-form service replies sent inside the 24-hour customer service window were free until 30 September 2026; since 1 October 2026 they have been charged per message, and utility templates sent inside an open window became chargeable on the same date. Messages delivered inside a free entry point window, opened by replying to a conversation that started from a Click-to-WhatsApp ad, carry no charge, and Meta skips the charge on the first 1,000 service messages each business phone number delivers in a month. Failed and undelivered messages are never billed, and neither are inbound messages from customers.

Meta's volume tier pricing lowers utility and authentication rates as monthly volume grows within a market; marketing has no tiers, and Meta offers none for service messages. On InfiQ's India rate card (ex-GST) a delivered message costs ₹0.94 for marketing, ₹0.19 for utility, ₹0.14 for authentication and ₹0.145 for a service reply. Each status webhook carries a webhook pricing object with pricing_model: "PMP", the category and a type (regular when charged, free_entry_point or free_customer_service when not), so developers can attribute cost message by message; Meta plans to deprecate the older billable flag.

Key takeaways

  • Per-message pricing (PMP) charges every delivered WhatsApp message by its category and the recipient's pricing market.
  • It replaced conversation-based pricing on 1 July 2025; there is no longer a fee per 24-hour conversation.
  • Service replies, and utility templates sent inside an open window, have been charged in India since 1 October 2026.
  • Failed, undelivered and inbound messages are never billed, nor are free entry point deliveries or each number's first 1,000 service messages a month.
  • Status webhooks carry a pricing object with pricing_model PMP, the category and a type that shows whether each message was charged.

How does WhatsApp per-message pricing work?

  1. Meta assigns a category

    Every template is marketing, utility or authentication, as Meta categorises it; a free-form reply inside the customer service window is a service message.

  2. The recipient's number sets the market

    The recipient's country calling code selects the pricing market and therefore the rate, wherever the business itself is based.

  3. Delivery triggers the charge

    A message is charged when it is delivered to the customer's device. Sends that fail or never arrive are not billed.

  4. Free windows and tiers adjust it

    Deliveries inside a free entry point window carry no charge, Meta skips the charge on each business phone number's first 1,000 service messages a month, and utility and authentication volume tiers lower the rate as monthly volume in a market grows.

  5. Webhooks and analytics report it

    Each status webhook includes a pricing object (billable, pricing_model, category, type), and the pricing_analytics field aggregates volume and cost by category, market and period.

In code

WhatsApp per-message pricing in code

{
  "object": "whatsapp_business_account",
  "entry": [{
    "id": "{WABA_ID}",
    "changes": [{
      "field": "messages",
      "value": {
        "messaging_product": "whatsapp",
        "metadata": {
          "display_phone_number": "919876543210",
          "phone_number_id": "{PHONE_NUMBER_ID}"
        },
        "statuses": [{
          "id": "wamid.HBgMOTE5ODEyMzQ1Njc4FQIAERgSQjM0RkE2",
          "status": "delivered",
          "timestamp": "1792348200",
          "recipient_id": "919812345678",
          "pricing": {
            "billable": true,
            "pricing_model": "PMP",
            "category": "marketing",
            "type": "regular"
          }
        }]
      }
    }]
  }]
}

A delivered marketing template under per-message pricing. Messages from before July 2025 report pricing_model CBP (conversation-based pricing) instead.

The figures

WhatsApp per-message pricing: key facts and limits

Live since
1 July 2025 (replaced conversation pricing)
Billing event
Each delivered message
Price set by
Category × recipient's pricing market
Service replies (India)
₹0.145 each since 1 Oct 2026, beyond the free tier
Not charged
Free entry point deliveries; first 1,000 service messages per number a month; failed, undelivered and inbound messages
Volume tiers
Utility and authentication only
Rate changes
1st day of a quarter, at least one month's notice

Example: Pricing one grocery order in Lucknow

An online grocery in Lucknow handles one order: a login OTP (authentication), an order confirmation and a dispatch update (two utility templates), and three replies to the customer's question about substitutions (three service messages inside the window the customer opened). Under per-message pricing that is six deliveries across three categories, each at its own rate; the three replies are charged once the grocery's number has used its 1,000 uncharged service messages for the month, which on a busy support line happens early. Under the retired conversation model the same order would have been billed as a handful of 24-hour conversations, however many messages each one held.

Why does WhatsApp per-message pricing matter?

Under per-message pricing every message has a price, so message design is cost design. A reminder sequence of four templates costs four times one template; a chatty bot that splits one answer into five bubbles sends five charged service messages. Teams that understand the model choose categories honestly, consolidate messages, answer ad leads inside free entry point windows and forecast with real per-category volumes — and their invoices stop surprising finance.

Costly mistakes

Common mistakes with WhatsApp per-message pricing

  • Budgeting by conversation

    Old spreadsheets count 24-hour conversations. Under per-message pricing every delivered message counts, so a five-message thread costs five times a single message.

  • Splitting answers into many bubbles

    Every bubble uses up the number's monthly service tier, and each one beyond it has been a charged service message since 1 October 2026. Send one well-structured message with buttons or a list instead of several short ones.

  • Treating category as a choice to game

    Meta assigns and re-checks categories, and a utility template with promotional content is recategorised as marketing. Write templates that honestly fit the cheaper category.

  • Ignoring the recipient's market

    Rates follow the recipient's number, not your location. Authentication messages to foreign numbers are priced by those markets, and some markets add a higher authentication-international rate.

PMP FAQs

When did WhatsApp switch to per-message pricing?
On 1 July 2025. Conversation-based pricing, which charged one fee per 24-hour conversation, ran until 30 June 2025.
Are service replies charged under per-message pricing?
Yes, since 1 October 2026. Meta charges each delivered service message after a business phone number's first 1,000 of the month; on InfiQ's India card the rate is ₹0.145. They were free until 30 September 2026.
Am I charged for messages that fail?
No. Only delivered messages are charged; failed and undelivered sends, and inbound messages from customers, are not billed.
What does PMP mean in a webhook?
It is the pricing_model value for messages billed under per-message pricing. It appears in the pricing object of status webhooks; messages from before July 2025 show CBP, for conversation-based pricing.

Best practices for WhatsApp per-message pricing

  • Store the pricing object from status webhooks alongside each message record.
  • Forecast with per-category volumes rather than one average rate.
  • Answer ad leads quickly so free entry point windows open.
  • Consolidate multi-message sequences where one template can do the job.

See InfiQ pricing

* Per-message rates for India, ex-GST: marketing, utility and authentication effective 1 July 2026; service messages ₹0.145 since 1 October 2026 (they were ₹0 until 30 September 2026). Volume commitments earn discounts — final rate is confirmed on your account; applicable GST extra. Rates for other countries differ (see the international rate table on /pricing).

Put PMP to work

InfiQ is an official Meta Business Partner. Start a 7-day free trial — no card needed — and see this running on your own number.

Start free trialBrowse all 550 terms