From 1 October 2026, Meta will start charging Singapore businesses for two types of WhatsApp messages that cost nothing today. The first is a reply sent inside a customer's 24 hour window, once a business phone number has sent 1,000 in a calendar month. The second is a utility template sent inside that same window. Meta's rate card, effective 1 October 2026, prices both at Singapore's utility rate. That is S$0.0205 per message delivered. Singapore's three headline rates stay unchanged.
The change in cost affects every business on the WhatsApp Business Platform that messages Singapore numbers, whether it connects to Meta directly or through a provider. While past rate cards changed prices, this change adds two new types of messages to your bill. Businesses on the free WhatsApp Business app are not affected. A reply generated by Meta Business Agent is a separate category and outside this article.
Summary of changes
Date: 1 October 2026, at midnight in the WhatsApp Business account's own timezone.
Newly billable, one: replies inside an open 24 hour window, which Meta calls service messages, past 1,000 a month on each phone number. Priced at S$0.0205.
Newly billable, two: utility templates sent inside an open window, at the same rate, with no free tier of their own.
Payment method: add one before 30 September 2026. Without it, Meta delivers replies within the free tier and stops once the free tier has been used. A busy number then stops answering customers until the next month.
Unchanged: marketing at S$0.0937, and utility and authentication at S$0.0205. Also unchanged: the 24 hour window itself, the 72 hour free entry point window, and volume tiers on utility and authentication.
What a Singapore message costs
Meta charges per template message delivered, by the template's category and the recipient's country calling code. Singapore rates are the rates for messages to a Singapore number, wherever your business sits. The figures below are Meta's Singapore-dollar rates; an account Meta bills in US dollars pays the US-dollar rates in our October rate explainer.
| Category | What it covers | Cost per message |
|---|---|---|
| Marketing | Promotions, offers, launches, abandoned cart | S$0.0937 |
| Utility | Order confirmations, delivery updates, reminders | S$0.0205 |
| Authentication | One-time passwords, verification codes | S$0.0205 |
| Service | Replies inside a customer's 24 hour window, after 1,000 a month per number | S$0.0205 |
Replies past 1,000 a month become billable
A service message is any free-form reply your team or your automation sends while the customer's window is open. Meta stopped charging for these on 1 November 2024 and starts again on 1 October 2026, with a free tier in front of the charge. Meta's pricing page, as it stood on 24 September 2026, states under its service rates effective 1 October 2026:
Each business phone number has one shared free tier of 1,000 delivered service messages per month. Both 1:1 and group service deliveries draw from this same free tier. A 1:1 delivery consumes one unit; a group send consumes one unit per delivered recipient. Meta charges for service messages after the free tier has been used.
Unused service messages in the free tier do not roll over. The free tier resets monthly for each business phone number (for example, 1,000 for October with no roll-over; 1,000 for November with no roll-over).
Meta allocates the allowance per business phone number, not per WhatsApp Business account. Two numbers at 800 replies each pay nothing, while one number at 1,600 pays for 600. An inbox handling 5,000 replies a month on one number pays for 4,000 of them: S$82.00. Meta's notice on the change states that service messages have no volume tiers. The rate does not fall with volume the way utility and authentication rates do.
Utility templates inside the window become billable
A utility template sent inside an open window has been free since 1 July 2025. An order confirmation sent right after a customer asked about the order cost nothing. Meta's pricing page states that from 1 October 2026, Meta will charge for utility messages sent in an open 24 hour customer service window. The rate is the utility rate, with no free tier. A business sending 500 of these a month goes from being charged nothing to S$10.25.
An account with no payment method stops delivering replies
Meta's pricing page, as it stood on 24 September 2026, adds a condition to the free tier:
If you do not have a payment method for your WhatsApp Business account, Meta will deliver service messages within the shared free tier but not deliver them after the free tier has been used. To ensure continuity of your service messages, please ensure you have a payment method in Billing Hub.
Meta's notice on the upcoming updates sets the date:
For any Solution Provider or directly-integrated businesses that does not have a payment method on file by September 30, 2026, Meta will stop delivering service messages as of when they become charged on October 1, 2026.
What it costs in practice
Both examples below cover only what changes on 1 October. Existing charges are unchanged.
A business sending 2,000 marketing templates and handling 5,000 replies
| Line | Calculation | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Marketing templates | 2,000 × S$0.0937 | S$187.40 |
| In-window utility templates | 500 × S$0.0205 | S$10.25 |
| Replies past the free 1,000 | 4,000 × S$0.0205 | S$82.00 |
| Total | S$279.65 |
Of that, S$92.25 is new on 1 October. The same business paid S$187.40 in September for the identical volume. The marketing line is still two thirds of the bill, which is why template category matters more than either new charge.
A business under the allowance
A clinic with one number handles 700 replies a month, sends 100 appointment confirmations inside open windows and 300 marketing templates for a seasonal offer. Its replies stay inside the free 1,000 and cost nothing. The 100 in-window confirmations go from free to S$2.05. The 300 marketing templates cost S$28.11 today and the same in October. From 1 October 2026, S$2.05 will be added to a S$28.11 bill.
What to do before 1 October
Add a payment method in Billing Hub by 30 September 2026. If a provider bills you, confirm with the provider which account the payment method sits on.
Count replies per phone number, not per account. WhatsApp Manager's messaging insights give the count. Meta allocates the free 1,000 per number, so the number of messages you send across your numbers decides whether you pay at all.
Count in-window utility templates as a separate number. Filter your status webhooks for pricing type
free_customer_servicewith categoryutility, or ask your provider for that count.Check your template categories. A transactional message belongs in utility, at S$0.0205 against S$0.0937 for marketing. A high-volume template in the wrong category is still the most expensive mistake on the platform.
Answer in fewer messages. Past the free 1,000 messages, every reply is charged, so an enquiry settled in three messages instead of eight saves five charges.
What does not change
Singapore's three headline rates remain the same on 1 October 2026. Marketing is S$0.0937, utility and authentication S$0.0205.
The 24 hour window is unchanged as a rule. It still opens and resets every time the customer messages you, and you still cannot send a free-form message once it closes. Only the price of what you send inside it moves. Free entry point windows stay free. A conversation started from a Click to WhatsApp ad or a Facebook Page button still gives you 72 hours of free messages of every type.
Volume tiers on utility and authentication work as they did, and per-message billing itself is untouched. Meta's pricing calendar allows a rate change only on the first day of a quarter. A rate card update carries at least one month's notice.
Where Volty sits in this
Volty tracks the 24 hour window on each conversation and switches the composer to an approved template once that window closes, so a reply does not fail at the point of send. From 1 October a reply inside an open window is billable once the free 1,000 are used, whichever tool sends it, and Meta bills your WhatsApp Business account directly.
From 1 October 2026, for your first year on Volty, what Meta charges for the service replies Volty sent past 1,000 per business phone number a month is deducted from your monthly Volty bill. In the worked example above, 4,000 replies are charged. If every one of them came from Volty, S$82.00 is deducted from your monthly Volty bill in your first year on Volty. Read How Volty works to see how you can automate your inbox.
Questions readers ask
Does Meta bill WhatsApp in Singapore dollars?
Yes. The Singapore dollar has been one of Meta's billing currencies since 1 April 2026, and Meta publishes Singapore rates in it. Effective 1 July 2026 Singapore reads S$0.0937 for marketing and S$0.0205 for utility and authentication. An older account that Meta still bills in US dollars pays Meta's US-dollar rates instead.
What does a WhatsApp message cost in Singapore?
On Meta's rate cards effective 1 July 2026 a marketing template to a Singapore number costs S$0.0937 per message delivered, and a utility or authentication template costs S$0.0205. Those figures stay the same on the cards effective 1 October 2026. A reply inside a customer's 24 hour window is free until 30 September 2026 and costs S$0.0205 from 1 October, after the first 1,000 in a month on each business phone number.
What changes for a Singapore business on 1 October 2026?
Two charges start and Singapore's three headline rates do not move. From 1 October 2026 each business phone number gets 1,000 free replies inside customers' 24 hour windows per calendar month, and every reply after that costs S$0.0205. Utility templates sent inside an open window stop being free on the same day and are charged at that same rate. An account with no payment method on file stops having replies delivered once the free tier has been used.
What happens if my WhatsApp Business account has no payment method on 1 October 2026?
Meta's pricing page states that an account without a payment method has service messages delivered within the free tier. Meta stops delivering them after the free tier has been used. Meta's notice on the change sets 30 September 2026 as the date to have a payment method on file. Add one in Billing Hub before then, or ask your provider which account the charge lands on.
Are WhatsApp authentication messages cheaper than utility messages in Singapore?
No. Meta prices authentication and utility identically in every market on its rate cards. In Singapore both are S$0.0205 per message delivered. A budget that assumes one-time passwords are cheaper than delivery notifications is wrong by the whole difference.
Why did Singapore's WhatsApp rates change on 1 July 2026?
Until then Singapore shared a price with the rest of Asia Pacific. On 1 July 2026 Meta gave Singapore its own prices, and utility and authentication rose from S$0.0145 to S$0.0205. Marketing did not change. Singapore's rates now move independently of Australia, Japan, Thailand and the rest of the region. Nine more markets get their own prices on 1 October 2026, and Singapore is not one of them.
Sources
Meta's WhatsApp Business Platform pricing page: Singapore's rate card effective 1 July and 1 October 2026. Also the free-tier and payment-method sentences quoted above, the note on Singapore's 1 July 2026 move, the list of billing currencies and the pricing calendar.
Meta's notice on upcoming pricing updates for service and utility messages: the 30 September 2026 payment-method sentence quoted above. Also the Meta Business Agent category and the line that service messages have no volume tiers.
Further reading: every country rate and the nine markets getting their own prices on 1 October, what 1 October changes outside Singapore and WhatsApp Business API rates by country and the calculator. Also how the 24 hour window opens and closes.