Meta is preparing to make a significant change to how businesses are charged for customer conversations on WhatsApp. Starting today, October 1st, the company will begin charging for service messages that were previously free. This change will apply to businesses using WhatsApp Business in India and other markets.

Under the new system, service messages will be charged per message, at rates that match the current rates for utility and authentication messages in each market. Meta has set a deadline of today, September 30th, for businesses to add a payment method to their accounts. Businesses using a solution provider or direct integration that do not have a payment method registered by that date may stop receiving service messages once the new charges take effect.

Meta already charged businesses for several types of WhatsApp messages, including marketing templates, utility messages, and authentication messages. However, some customer service messages remained free. Since November 1, 2024, non-template service messages have been free, and utility messages sent during the active 24-hour customer service window have been free since July 1, 2025. This will change on October 1, when Meta will begin charging for service messages as well as utility messages sent in response to customers.

Service messages are non-template responses sent by a human customer service agent or an external AI system, and they can only be sent during the 24-hour customer service window, meaning businesses cannot use this category to initiate a new conversation.

As for the cost of WhatsApp messages for business in India, the exact price will depend on the market. Meta says that the pricing for service messages will be consistent with the rates it charges for utility and authentication messages in each country. In India, Meta's Business Agent accounts use Indian Rupees as the billing currency. For global Business Agent pricing, Meta converts the applicable USD rate to Indian Rupees using the daily exchange rate at the time of message delivery.