WhatsApp will change its pricing model starting February 2022. It will switch from the current notification-based pricing to new conversation-based pricing. Currently, WhatsApp charges business accounts per notifications sent. Let’s look at how the new pricing model works.

WhatsApp Business API conversations are categorised into two groups:
Business-initiated: These are post-purchase notifications.
User-initiated: These are conversations featuring general support inquiries and customer care.

These two categories will have different rates. Additionally, the conversations will be measured in 24-hour sessions. Each session begins only when the business delivers its first message. Note that it can be a business-initiated message or a response to a customer inquiry.

Each account will get the first 1,000 conversions free, so businesses can develop customer experience first without having to pay. And if a user messages business by clicking a CTA from a Facebook page or WhatsApp ads, this conversation will not be charged.

Let’s take Anne Watts a customer of hypothetical businesses Commercial Air and Kicks as our example. Commercial Air is a commercial airline while Kicks is an online shoe retailer. Anne uses WhatsApp to contact businesses because it’s the easiest and fastest way. Both Commercial Air and Kicks send important updates and respond to inquiries via WhatsApp.

Business-Initiated Conversation

Scenario 1: The business initiates the conversation

1. The commercial airline uses a bot to send alerts automatically when the flight is delayed using a message template.
2. Since it sends two message templates within a 24-hour session, it is treated as one business-initiated conversation.

The airline will only be charged for one business-initiated conversation.

Scenario 2: A business-initiated conversation with a user reply

1. After Anne places an order, Kicks sends a message that prompts her to confirm receiving shipping information notifications.
2. Anne confirms by replying with yes.

In this example, the shoe retailer will pay for one business-initiated conversation because the user has responded within a 24-hour session.

User-Initiated Conversation

Scenario 1: General support inquiries or customer care support within a 24-hour conversation session.

1. Anne Watts messages Commercial Air to confirm her flight status. Once the Airline responds to this query, a 24 hour conversation period is initiated.
2. All the messages in the first 24-hour session will be free. This will encourage businesses to respond to general support inquiries on time. Besides, it allows users to exchange enough messages to resolve inquires within 24 hours.
3. If the first 24-hour period ends and Commercial Air continues to send messages to Anne, they’ll incur costs because of a new conversation. Besides, they will have to send a new conversation template to Anne if 24 hours have elapsed. This will be charged as business initiated conversation.

In this example, the customer gets all the information she needs, and the airline only pays for one user-initiated conversation.

Scenario 2: User-initiated conversation that leads to a new business-initiated conversation

1. In this case, the customer checks the status of her order at 1:13 PM.
2. A bot replies with the details instantly.
3. On the next day, the bot sends a follow-up message at 3:45 PM informing Anne that the order has been delivered.

Since the bot has sent a new message after 24 hours, it is calculated as a new conversation. The bot uses a new template for the follow-up message. So in this case, Kicks will pay for both user-initiated and business-initiated conversations.

The conversation rates for both business and user-initiated will vary depending on the region. The customer’s phone number will be used to identify the region. Here are the new worldwide WhatsApp conversation rates that will take effect starting February 2022.