Three people trying to answer on the same WhatsApp and only one fits. A block that nearly took the customer list with it. And when you look for the way out, every site shows a different price and none shows the math. Then comes the form: book a demo. This page has no form.
How Meta charges today
Since July 1, 2025 billing is per delivered message, no longer per 24-hour conversation. The documentation is blunt: "You are only charged when a template message is delivered". If the template did not deliver, there is no charge. The rate varies by category — marketing, utility and authentication are different prices, and marketing is by far the most expensive.
The 24-hour window model existed until June 30, 2025. A good share of the content ranking for the Business API still describes it — and the math those pages teach produces a number that does not match the invoice.
What is free — and it is a lot
This is the part almost nobody writes, and it is the one that changes the math:
- Every non-template message is free. The documentation puts it plainly: "all non-template messages are free". The text your agent types is not billed.
- Service conversations are free since November 1, 2024 — when the customer reaches out and you reply, there is no charge for the conversation.
- Utility templates delivered inside an open service window are free. An order confirmation sent while the conversation is live costs nothing.
The practical reading: inbound support operations pay very little. What costs money is starting conversations — marketing templates above all. If your volume is answering customers who came to you, the Meta bill tends to be small.
Where to see the real price, without guessing
Meta publishes the official table per currency as a downloadable file, updated by rate card. Since July 1, 2026 eligible accounts in Brazil can be created and billed in BRL, so you can read the number directly, with no dollar conversion.
Because it changes, and a copied table ages badly. That is why you find such different values out there: hand-made dollar conversions, on different dates, at different rates. Read it at the source — the same file we read. If a vendor shows you a number and does not say when it is from, that is the tell.
Meta's official rate table →The 250 cap that stops every new account
Price without the cap is misleading, and this is where most people are surprised. Every new account starts able to open 250 conversations in 24 hours — and that number counts unique people reached outside an already-open service window. Ten messages to the same customer consume one. Meta's ladder is this:
- 250 — where every new account starts.
- 2,000 — via one of three paths: verify your business, be verified by a partner, or deliver 2,000 messages outside service windows to unique numbers within 30 days, using high-quality templates.
- 10,000, 100,000 and unlimited — automatic, and each step requires two things at once: high quality across all your numbers and templates, and having used at least half your current limit in the last 7 days.
First: the cap belongs to the portfolio, not the number — Meta calculates it at the business portfolio level and all your numbers share the same limit. Adding numbers does not multiply the cap. Second: low senders do not climb, because they never meet the half-the-limit rule. Low, steady volume stays on the step it is on.
The activation steps
- Connect through Meta's popup — signup happens inside Meta itself, and the account created there is yours, in your Business Manager.
- Choose between Coexistence and a new number — with Coexistence the number you already use also starts existing on the platform, and the app stays on your phone.
- Verify your business in Meta Business — the most direct path out of 250.
- Add a payment method to your Meta account — the message invoice is between Meta and you, directly.
- Get your first template approved — and start operating within the 250 cap.
We do not publish a duration for any step. Meta does not disclose it, we have not measured it, and promising a timeline here would be making it up.
When the official API is not worth it
We sell both sides, so we can be straight. An unofficial tool — an extension on top of WhatsApp Web — costs less, skips Meta's approval queue and, feature for feature, does nearly the same: broadcasts, labels, scheduling, flows, CRM. If you work alone and want to save time, it solves that.
The official API solves something else, and it is only four things: the number is registered with Meta, several agents answer on the same number, the cap rises by published rule, and Meta is who you talk to when something breaks. If none of those four is your problem today, do not pay for them.
The number stays registered with Meta — not a regular WhatsApp driven by a third-party tool, which is what Meta takes down when it spots it. Several agents answer on the same number, each with their own login, nobody passing a phone around. The cap rises by Meta's published rule, and the step you are on is visible in the panel. And with Coexistence the app stays on your phone: the number keeps ringing there.
The panel subscription starts at R$ 290/month, or R$ 203/month billed annually. That is the software price — the message bill is between Meta and you, on your own account.