What you will get
You will know which messages Meta charges for and which it does not. You will also be able to estimate what a campaign costs before sending it.What Meta does not charge for
- What your customers write to you. Messages you receive are never charged.
- The first 1,000 replies of each phone number every month. These are the replies inside the 24-hour window, from the agent or from your team in Eva. They do not roll over to the next month.
- What you send from the WhatsApp Business phone app, on a number you keep using in the app. Those messages do not go through the API.
- Everything delivered inside a Meta ad’s free window, explained below.
The 24-hour window
When a person writes to you, a 24-hour window opens, and each new message from them restarts it. Inside that window the agent replies without a template. After 24 hours without a message from the person, WhatsApp only lets approved templates through. Templates are charged by category, inside and outside the 24 hours, except inside an ad’s free window.The free window of a Meta ad
Someone who arrives from a Meta ad that opens WhatsApp can open a window in which Meta charges for the delivery of no message at all. It opens when three conditions are met:- The person wrote to you from a Meta ad that opens WhatsApp.
- They wrote from the WhatsApp app on an Android phone or an iPhone.
- You reply within 24 hours of their message.
Meta’s categories
Meta places every template in a category and prices that category country by country. Whoever writes the template proposes the category, and Meta approves it.
Marketing is the most expensive category in nearly every country. Utility, authentication and service cost considerably less.
Mexico’s rates
In Mexico, Meta’s card in force since October 1, 2026 sets these rates per delivered message, excluding taxes:
The official rates, country by country, are on Meta’s WhatsApp pricing page.
An example with numbers
If 500 marketing templates are delivered to Mexican numbers, Meta’s charge would be about USD 19.85. If Meta classified them as utility, it would be about USD 4.25. If one number sends 3,000 replies in a month, the first 1,000 are free. The other 2,000 pay USD 0.0085 each: about USD 17. The actual total depends on deliveries, the approved category, the free ad window, any discounts and your account currency.
The send confirmation, before the first message goes out.