03 · Conversational AI
What the WhatsApp API really costs
Since 1 July 2025 WhatsApp charges per delivered template message, not per conversation, and the price depends on the category. A bot answering people who write first operates almost entirely inside the free 24-hour service window. Cost appears when the business starts the conversation.
No signup · no email · runs in your browser
Your volume
If you already use WhatsApp Business, export the last 3 months of conversations and take the average.
Click-to-WhatsApp ads are not charged for the first 72 hours.
Rates — check them today
$355MXN / month
800 of your 1,500 messages cost nothing: they arrive through the 24-hour service window the customer opens by writing to you. What you see above is 700 templates you initiate, plus the BSP margin. In dollars: US$19.18.
How your messages split
Monthly breakdown
The rates are Meta's and Meta charges them. Whoever builds your bot should not mark them up.
| Category | Volume | USD each | MXN |
|---|---|---|---|
| Service · 24h window | 800 | 0.0000 | free |
| Utility | 400 | 0.0065 | $48 |
| Marketing | 300 | 0.0436 | $242 |
| BSP margin | 700 | 0.0050 | $65 |
| Total | 1,500 | US$19.18 | $355 |
These prices expire. Meta changed its rate card twice in twelve months and the latest update took effect on 1 July 2026. The preloaded figures are a starting point, not a quote: open Meta's live rate card for your market the day you quote and replace them. Any tool that gives you a fixed number without letting you edit it is lying by omission.
Why it exists
Why most quotes are wrong
People quote too high, assuming every conversation costs money. Or too low, ignoring that broadcast campaigns are genuinely expensive. Both come from not separating the categories.
The rates in this calculator are editable fields, not constants hidden in the code. Meta changed its rate card twice in twelve months and the latest update took effect on 1 July 2026. Any hard-coded number will be stale within a quarter.
The lever almost nobody uses deliberately: conversations that start from a click-to-WhatsApp ad are not charged for the first 72 hours. If the business already runs ads, it is the biggest saving available.
Questions
What people usually ask
Because they change. Meta updated its rate card twice in twelve months and public sources report different ranges depending on the date of the card you consult. A fixed number would give false precision: the right move is to open Meta's live rate card the day you quote and replace it.
Other tools
Did you get a number you did not expect?
Send it over and I will tell you what I would do with that case in the first 30 days, with nothing to hire. If the honest answer is that you do not need an agency yet, I will tell you that too.