# What is WhatsApp conversation-based pricing?

> Conversation-based pricing was Meta's original WhatsApp model, one charge per 24-hour conversation. It ended on 1 July 2025. Here is what replaced it.

WhatsApp conversation-based pricing was Meta's original billing model for the WhatsApp Business API: one charge covered every message exchanged in a 24-hour conversation window, whatever the number of messages. Meta replaced it with per-message pricing on 1 July 2025, so the term now describes how the platform used to be billed rather than how it is billed today.

Updated 7 Sep 2026

## How the model worked, and when it ended.

A conversation opened the moment a qualifying message was delivered and ran for 24 hours, and Meta charged once for that whole window at a rate set by its category and the customer's country. Marketing, utility, authentication and service conversations each had their own rate, and every business got a monthly allowance of free service conversations. Meta retired the model on 1 July 2025 and moved to per-message pricing, where each template message delivered is charged on its own and the conversation is no longer the billing unit. The phrase survives in older guides, in dashboards that have not been relabelled, and in budgets built before that date, which is usually why someone is looking it up.

## What you are not charged for.

Replying to a customer inside the open 24-hour session window does not cost you anything. That means customer service, which is where the bulk of message volume sits for most SMEs, is effectively free. The bill comes from the messages you send first: campaigns, reminders, re-engagement, verification codes. Understanding that split is the difference between a predictable WhatsApp cost and a surprising one.

The Voltade take

When we scope a WhatsApp build we forecast cost by category rather than by total message count, because the two look nothing alike. Shifting work into replies inside the session window, and keeping outbound messages genuinely transactional, is usually where the savings are.

Related pages

WhatsApp Template Categories · WhatsApp Session Window · WhatsApp Business Solution Provider (BSP) · WhatsApp Business API pricing guide · Our pricing

More from the glossary

AI Agent · PSG Grant · AI Agent vs Chatbot

## Want to see this in action?

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## Links

- [WhatsApp Template Categories](https://voltade.com/sg/resources/glossary/whatsapp-template-categories)
- [WhatsApp Session Window](https://voltade.com/sg/resources/glossary/what-is-whatsapp-session-window)
- [WhatsApp Business Solution Provider (BSP)](https://voltade.com/sg/resources/glossary/what-is-a-whatsapp-bsp)
- [WhatsApp Business API pricing guide](https://voltade.com/sg/learn/whatsapp/whatsapp-business-api-pricing)
- [Our pricing](https://voltade.com/sg/voltade-grants)
- [AI Agent](https://voltade.com/sg/resources/glossary/what-is-an-ai-agent)
- [PSG Grant](https://voltade.com/sg/resources/glossary/what-is-psg-grant)
- [AI Agent vs Chatbot](https://voltade.com/sg/resources/glossary/ai-agent-vs-chatbot)