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Ledger entryNo. 360072

Pricing Market

Also called: Rate card market · Recipient market · WhatsApp pricing region

Definition
The country or regional bucket Meta assigns a WhatsApp recipient from their phone number's country code; it picks which rate-card row prices the message.

Pricing & billing

Mode · router

Work it out

Route each number to the market that prices it

10 / 10
Skills-based

Only agents with the required skill are eligible; the least busy of them wins.

Incoming · 0 left

  1. All 10 conversations have been routed.

Conversation 10 of 10 · Skills-based

Asha in Dubai · +91(needs +91)goes toIndia

Skills: needs +91, and only India has it.

  • India

    3 of 5 open

    • +91
    1. Anil · +91 98470…needs +91
    2. Meera · +91 94470…needs +91
    3. Asha in Dubai · +91needs +91

  • United Arab Emirates

    1 of 3 open

    • +971
    1. Fathima · +971 50…needs +971

  • Saudi Arabia

    1 of 3 open

    • +966
    1. Rahul · +966 55…needs +966

  • Rest of Middle East

    3 of 5 open

    • +968
    • +974
    • +965
    1. Joseph · +968 92…needs +968
    2. Suresh · +974 33…needs +974
    3. Nikhil · +965 66…needs +965

  • Rest of Asia Pacific

    2 of 4 open

    • +977
    • +94
    1. Deepa · +94 77…needs +94
    2. Bina · +977 98…needs +977

Waiting · 0

  1. Nobody waiting: every conversation found an agent.
Ten recipients from a Kochi agency's list, each sent to the market its country code belongs to. Step through to see Gulf numbers split between single-country markets and the Rest of Middle East bucket.

Conversation 10 of 10, Asha in Dubai · +91: Skills: needs +91, and only India has it.

What is a WhatsApp pricing market?

A pricing market is the row of Meta's rate card that a delivered WhatsApp message is charged from under per-message pricing. Meta picks it from the country calling code of the recipient's phone number: a message to a +91 number is priced in the India market, a message to a +971 number in the United Arab Emirates market, whatever the sender's location. The category of the message (marketing, utility, authentication or service) then picks the column, and the cell where the two meet is the rate.

Markets come in three shapes. Large markets are single countries, such as India, Indonesia, Brazil, Saudi Arabia or the United Kingdom. A few are regions, such as North America for the United States and Canada. Everything else falls into regional buckets, for example Rest of Asia Pacific (Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and others), Rest of Middle East (Oman, Qatar, Kuwait and others), Rest of Africa, Rest of Latin America, Rest of Western Europe and Rest of Central & Eastern Europe, plus a final Other bucket. Meta's rate-card files list which countries sit in each bucket, and the mapping can change when Meta revises the card.

The market is decided by the recipient, not the business. That separates it from the billing currency, which the business chooses when it sets up payment, and from authentication-international eligibility, which depends on where the sending business is registered. A Dubai-based business messaging a +91 number pays India rates in its own billing currency; a Pune business messaging a customer's +968 number pays the Rest of Middle East rate.

Key takeaways

  • A pricing market is the rate-card row Meta uses to price a delivered message, chosen from the recipient's country calling code.
  • The recipient's number decides the market, not the sender's location, the billing currency or where the user happens to be.
  • Large countries have their own market; smaller ones share regional buckets such as Rest of Middle East or Rest of Asia Pacific.
  • Utility and authentication volume tiers are counted separately in every market, per business portfolio.
  • Some rules exist only in certain markets, such as India's authentication-international rate and the block on marketing to +1 US numbers.

Example: A Kochi travel agency with Gulf customers

A Kochi tour operator sends a utility template with booking confirmations to 4,000 customers. Most have +91 numbers and are priced in the India market. About 600 are Malayali families working in the Gulf: the +971 numbers are priced in the United Arab Emirates market, the +966 numbers in Saudi Arabia, and the +968, +974 and +965 numbers all in Rest of Middle East. One customer who lives in Dubai but kept her +91 number is still priced as India, because the market follows the number, not the person. The agency's finance team now forecasts each campaign per market instead of multiplying the whole list by the India rate.

How does a WhatsApp pricing market work?

  1. Normalise the number

    Store every recipient in E.164 format (country code first, no leading zero or spaces). The country calling code at the start is what decides the market.

  2. Map the country code to a market

    Look the code up in the country-to-market table that comes with Meta's current rate card. Single-country markets map one to one; smaller countries map to a Rest of … bucket or to Other.

  3. Pick the category column

    The template's category (marketing, utility or authentication), or service for a free-form reply in the window, selects the column. The market row and category column give the per-message rate.

  4. Apply market-specific rules

    Check rules that only some markets carry: a higher authentication-international rate in markets such as India for OTPs from eligible high-volume businesses based abroad, and marketing to +1 United States numbers, which Meta does not deliver.

  5. Count volume per market

    Under volume tier pricing, utility and authentication tiers are counted per market and category, so 50,000 India utility messages and 5,000 Indonesia utility messages climb two separate ladders.

In code

A WhatsApp pricing market in code

// Map recipients to pricing markets for a per-market cost forecast.
// Illustrative subset: load the full table from Meta's current rate card.
const MARKET_BY_CODE = {
  "91": "India",
  "62": "Indonesia",
  "971": "United Arab Emirates",
  "966": "Saudi Arabia",
  "968": "Rest of Middle East",   // Oman
  "974": "Rest of Middle East",   // Qatar
  "965": "Rest of Middle East",   // Kuwait
  "977": "Rest of Asia Pacific",  // Nepal
  "94": "Rest of Asia Pacific",   // Sri Lanka
  "44": "United Kingdom",
};
 
export function pricingMarket(e164) {
  const digits = e164.replace(/\D/g, "");
  // Country codes are 1-3 digits; the longest match wins.
  // +1 and +7 are shared by several countries: resolve those with a
  // phone-number library rather than the prefix alone.
  for (const len of [3, 2, 1]) {
    const market = MARKET_BY_CODE[digits.slice(0, len)];
    if (market) return market;
  }
  return "Other";
}
 
export function countByMarket(recipients) {
  const counts = {};
  for (const number of recipients) {
    const market = pricingMarket(number);
    counts[market] = (counts[market] ?? 0) + 1;
  }
  return counts; // multiply each count by that market's rate for the category
}
 
console.log(countByMarket(["+919847012345", "+971501234567", "+96892123456"]));
// { India: 1, "United Arab Emirates": 1, "Rest of Middle East": 1 }

A forecasting helper, not a billing source: Meta decides the market, and its pricing data is what you reconcile against.

The figures

A WhatsApp pricing market: key facts and limits

Decided by
Country calling code of the recipient's number
Not decided by
Sender location, billing currency or where the user is
Market shapes
Single countries, regions, Rest of … buckets, Other
Rate lookup
Market row × message category column
Volume tiers
Counted per market and category, per business portfolio
India rates on InfiQ (ex-GST)
Marketing ₹0.94 · Utility ₹0.19 · Authentication ₹0.14 · Service ₹0.145

Why does a WhatsApp pricing market matter?

Most businesses messaging from India send almost everything to +91 numbers, so the market looks irrelevant until the first diaspora campaign, an export customer list or an international OTP flow lands on the bill at very different rates. Knowing the market for every recipient lets finance forecast spend per country, lets marketing decide whether a Gulf or Singapore audience is worth the price, and lets developers reconcile invoices line by line, because Meta's volume tiers and its pricing analytics are both reported per market.

Costly mistakes

Common mistakes with a WhatsApp pricing market

  • Forecasting a mixed list at one rate

    Multiplying a whole audience by the India rate under-budgets any list with diaspora or export customers. Group recipients by market first, then price each group.

  • Assuming location decides the price

    A customer travelling or living abroad on a +91 number is still priced as India, and a foreign number used in India is priced as its own country. Only the number's country code counts.

  • Hard-coding the bucket list

    Meta can move countries between markets when it revises the rate card. Load the country-to-market table from the current card each quarter instead of freezing it in code.

  • Ignoring market-specific rules

    Some rules exist only in certain markets, such as the authentication-international rate and the block on marketing to United States numbers. Check them per market before a campaign.

Pricing Market FAQs

Does a business outside India pay India rates to message Indian users?
Yes, for marketing, utility and service messages the India market applies to any +91 recipient. For authentication, a business based outside India pays the standard India rate until Meta makes it eligible for the higher authentication-international rate (more than 750,000 OTPs to listed markets in a moving 30 days; see /pricing).
Is the pricing market the same as the billing currency?
No, the pricing market and the billing currency are decided independently. The market follows each recipient's phone number and changes message by message; the billing currency is set once per account by the business and applies to every message it sends.
Which market do small countries fall into?
Countries without their own row are grouped into regional buckets such as Rest of Asia Pacific or Rest of Middle East, or into Other. Meta's rate-card files list the exact countries in each.
How do I find which pricing market a phone number belongs to?
Read the country calling code from the number in E.164 format and look it up in the country-to-market table that ships with Meta's current rate card. Shared codes such as +1 and +7 need a phone-number library to resolve the country first.

Best practices for a WhatsApp pricing market

  • Validate and store numbers in E.164 at capture time; it makes market mapping trivial.
  • Report spend per market alongside per category so unusual countries stand out early.
  • Before a diaspora or export campaign, price the non-India share separately.
  • Use a maintained phone-number library for shared codes such as +1 and +7.

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).

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