In this guide
How Meta charges
Meta charges per delivered message: if a message doesn’t arrive, it isn’t paid. The price depends on two things: the type of message and the country of the customer’s number, not the agency’s. And only messages from the business to the customer are paid; messages from the customer to the business, never.
These are the prices of the WhatsApp Business Platform, the one used by the software that replies and sends notices for a business. There are four types of message:
| Type | Spain | What for and when |
|---|---|---|
| Service | €0.0166 | Replying to the customer, whether a person or an AI writes it. Within 24 hours of their last message. |
| Utility | €0.0166 | Notices about something of theirs: the booking, a payment, the documents. At any time, with a template. |
| Marketing | €0.0585 | Offers, news, greetings. At any time, with a template. |
| Authentication | €0.0166 | Codes to check who they are. At any time, with a template. |
A template is a message with fixed text that Meta reviews and approves before it can be used, with gaps for the name, the date or the amount. If the customer has a number from another country, that country’s rate applies.
The 24-hour window
Every time the customer writes, a 24-hour window opens, and each new message from them opens it again. Inside that window, the agency replies with free text: these are service messages. Outside it, it can only write to them with a utility, marketing or authentication template.
An example: if the customer writes on Monday at 10:00, the agency can reply with whatever it wants until Tuesday at 10:00. On Tuesday at 11:00, only with a template.
Since 1 October 2026, a utility template sent inside the window is also paid: before that, since July 2025, it was free.
What is free
The month of the 1,000 free replies starts at 00:00 on the 1st, in the account’s time zone. The ad rule applies when the customer writes from the phone app, not from WhatsApp Web or a computer.
Utility or marketing
The difference between the two is more than threefold, so it matters. Meta tells them apart by what the message says: to be utility, a template can have no promotion at all, and it has to be about something of the customer’s, like their booking or their payment, or about something essential to them. If it mixes the two, it’s marketing.
About their trip
“Your booking for the Japan trip on 12 April is confirmed.” · “A reminder that the balance is due on 1 March.” · “For your trip we still need the photo of Marta’s passport.”
To sell them something
“New Japan departures with 10% off.” · “Happy birthday!” · And also: “Your booking is confirmed. Enjoy 10% off your next trip”.
The examples are ours, based on Meta’s. Meta decides the category from the exact text of each template and can change it if the text doesn’t fit.
A month at an agency
An agency that 300 customers write to in a month, replying four times to each, confirming 40 bookings and sending 60 payment reminders:
| What | How much | Messages |
|---|---|---|
| Replies to 300 customers | €3.32 | 1,200: 1,000 free and 200 at €0.0166 |
| Booking confirmations | €0.66 | 40 at €0.0166 |
| Payment reminders | €1.00 | 60 at €0.0166 |
| Total for the month | €4.98 |
If that month it also sends a promotion to 500 customers, that’s 500 × €0.0585 = €29.25 more. Meta’s volume discounts in Spain start at 100,000 utility messages a month: they don’t affect an agency.
If there’s no card
What Meta charges is paid with a payment method on the business’s WhatsApp account. Without one, Meta delivers the month’s 1,000 free replies, but not one more: reply 1,001 no longer arrives. And templates, notices and promotions also need the payment method.
In short: you can start without a card, but it’s best to add it before reaching 1,000.
If an AI answers
For Meta, a reply is a service message whether a person or another company’s AI writes it: it costs the same, €0.0166 in Spain, and counts towards the 1,000 free ones. What the AI costs is separate and is charged by whoever provides it.
Meta’s special rate for “AI Providers” is for general-purpose assistants, the ones anyone can use to ask about anything. Meta says explicitly that it doesn’t change what it charges other businesses, and in Spain, moreover, it hasn’t charged it since 13 May 2026.
When prices change
Meta only changes prices on 1 January, 1 April, 1 July or 1 October, and gives at least a month’s notice if it changes a rate, three months if it adds something new and six if it changes the way it charges. As of 28 October 2026, nothing has been announced for 1 January 2027.
How Tramoa does it
With Tramoa, you pay what Meta charges directly to Meta, with your card and with no markup from us, separately from Tramoa’s fee. You can start without a Meta card: your assistant replies with the month’s 1,000 free replies. In the panel you see how many you’ve used, and we let you know when you reach 900, so you can add the card in time.
Sources
- Pricing on the WhatsApp Business Platform (Meta, updated on 30 September 2026), with the official EUR rate card and volume tiers, in force since 1 October 2026.
- Upcoming pricing updates for Meta Business Agent, service and utility messages (Meta, 28 September 2026).
- Template categorization (Meta, 15 September 2026).
- New pricing policy for AI Providers (Meta, 15 October 2026).
Prices checked on Meta’s official pages on 28 October 2026. Meta can only change them at the start of each quarter.