WhatsApp to bill businesses per message from October

Abimbola Joseph

Meta, the parent company of WhatsApp, will begin charging businesses for service and utility messages sent via the WhatsApp Business Platform from 1 October 2026.

The change, announced in Meta’s July 2026 pricing update, ends a period during which such messages were free. It applies to companies using the official WhatsApp Business Platform, formerly the WhatsApp Business API, to manage large-scale customer communications.

Banks, fintechs, e-commerce firms, telecoms operators, logistics providers, and major retailers are among those expected to be affected. Ordinary WhatsApp users and most small businesses using the standard WhatsApp Business app will not be impacted.

Currently, when a customer contacts a business, a 24-hour service window opens, allowing businesses to reply with free-form service and utility messages at no cost. From October, however, Meta will charge on a per-message basis, aligning service messages with the existing pricing model for template messages.

Utility messages, such as payment confirmations, order updates, and delivery notifications, will also attract charges. Meta has warned businesses and Solution Providers to add payment methods before 30 September 2026, or risk service messages being blocked once billing begins.

For Nigerian businesses, each chargeable service or utility message will cost about $0.0101 (approximately ₦14 at an exchange rate of ₦1,340 to the dollar). Marketing messages are significantly higher, at $0.062 (around ₦84).

While the per-message cost appears modest, the financial impact could be substantial for companies sending hundreds of thousands of messages monthly. For example, a fintech dispatching 500,000 utility messages would face Meta fees of about $5,050, roughly ₦6.8 million, before any additional charges from third-party providers.

WhatsApp has become a vital communication channel for Nigerian businesses, widely used for customer support, transaction updates, and logistics notifications. Meta’s shift to per-message billing marks a decisive move towards monetising business messaging at scale. From October, companies relying heavily on WhatsApp for customer service and transactional communication will need to factor these new charges into their operating costs.