Removing the 5% processing fee, and Meta pricing changes from 1 October

This is the biggest WhatsApp pricing change we have ever made. Starting October 1, 2026, Secure Automation is removing the 5% processing fee on every WhatsApp message you send. Marketing, utility, service, all of it. From that day you pay Meta's published rate to the cent

> 💥 Open Meta's rate card. Open ours. The numbers will match exactly. That is the whole announcement.

💸 The 5% is gone. Every message, every market.

• You pay Meta's rate, full stop: No processing fee. The 5% comes off your rate in every market and every category.
• Pricing you can actually verify: Meta publishes its rates publicly. Ours now match them line for line, so you can quote a client and prove your numbers instead of explaining a mystery fee.
• Nothing to enable: It applies automatically to every sub-account on October 1.

📉 Here is what your rate looks like on October 1

Per marketing message, what you pay today and what you pay from October 1:

• 🇧🇷 Brazil: $0.0656 → $0.0625
• 🇨🇴 Colombia: $0.0131 → $0.0125
• 🇮🇳 India: $0.0124 → $0.0118
• 🇺🇸 United States / Canada: $0.0263 → $0.0250
• 🇬🇧 United Kingdom: $0.0667 → $0.0635
• 🇪🇸 Spain: $0.0742 → $0.0707

📋 Full rate card, USD per message, effective October 1, 2026

This is Meta's published rate card and it is exactly what you will be billed. Service is priced the same as utility in every market.

🔁 If you resell WhatsApp, check your rebilling multiplier

Rebilling is applied as a multiplier on cost, so your client-facing price moves with the rate. Review your multiplier under Agency dashboard > Reselling > WhatsApp > Manage and set it where you want it ahead of October 1.

Two categories of messages that are currently free become billable from 1 October 2026. Both changes apply on a per-message basis, consistent with how template messages are already charged.

• What changes: All service messages will be charged on a per-message basis, consistent with how template messages are charged. A service message is any free-form reply you send inside an open 24-hour customer service window, including manual Inbox replies, workflow replies and Conversation AI replies.
• Why it matters: Service messages have not been charged since 1 November 2024. From 1 October 2026 they return to being a billable message category.
• Free allowance: The first 1,000 service messages per phone number are free. The allowance is counted per phone number and resets at the start of each following month.

• What changes: Utility messages sent in response to users will be charged on a per-message basis, that is, utility messages delivered within an open 24-hour customer service window.
• Why it matters: In-window utility messages have not been charged since 1 July 2025. From 1 October 2026 a utility message is billable whether it is sent inside or outside the customer service window.

• The allowance is tracked per WhatsApp phone number, not per sub-account and not per contact.
• The first 1,000 service messages delivered from that number in a calendar month are free.
• Once the number passes 1,000, every additional service message that month is charged per message.
• The counter resets to zero at the start of the next month. Unused allowance does not roll over.

> 💚 Nothing about Free Entry Point changes on October 1. Conversations that start from a Click to WhatsApp ad or a Facebook Page call-to-action button remain free for a full 72 hours, for every message type. Marketing, utility and service messages are all at no charge inside that window. This is the single biggest lever you have to keep your WhatsApp costs down after October 1.

How it works

• A WhatsApp user messages you from a Click to WhatsApp ad or a Facebook Page call-to-action button, on the Android or iOS app. (Desktop and web do not open an FEP window.)
• A 24-hour customer service window opens as normal.
• If you reply within those 24 hours, that reply is free and it opens a 72-hour Free Entry Point window starting from the moment you replied.
• While the FEP window is open you can send any type of message at no charge, including service messages and utility templates that would otherwise be billable.

One thing to watch: the customer service window is independent of the FEP window. If the 24-hour customer service window closes, you can only send template messages, even though the FEP window is still open and those templates are still free.

What this means in practice: route more first-touch traffic through Click to WhatsApp ads and Page CTA buttons. Every conversation that starts there gives you three days of completely free messaging, which the new service-message charge does not touch.

Per-message rates change in the following markets from 1 October 2026. Markets marked * are also moving out of their regional "Rest Of" pricing bucket, see Change 4.

*Market is being moved out of its respective "Rest Of" pricing region to be standalone on the rate card.

The nine markets with utility rate updates were given four months' notice rather than the usual one month.

In the markets marked as an increase above, Meta's increase is larger than the 5% we are removing, so your rate is higher than what you pay today. Everywhere else your rate goes down. The full card is above.

Six markets moved out of their respective "Rest Of" pricing region on 1 July 2026: Hong Kong, Singapore, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Qatar. From 1 October 2026 a further nine markets become standalone on the rate card.

Standalone from 1 October 2026: Bangladesh, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Morocco, Nepal, Oman, Sri Lanka and Ukraine.

Until 30 September 2026 a message to one of these countries is priced at its regional "Rest Of" rate. From 1 October 2026 the country has its own line on the rate card, with its own per-message rate.

1. 🔁 Review your rebilling multiplier under Agency dashboard > Reselling > WhatsApp > Manage. Service and in-window utility volume that cost you nothing will start carrying a per-message cost.
2. 🤖 Audit high-volume support flows. Sub-accounts that rely heavily on free-form support replies and Conversation AI are the most exposed to the change.
3. 📣 Keep using Click to WhatsApp ads. Free Entry Point conversations stay free for the full 72-hour window.
4. 📊 Watch your per-number volume. Numbers that stay under 1,000 service messages a month are unaffected.
5. 🔔 Set a wallet balance alert in Settings > Company Billing so a rate change never interrupts your sending.

• 📉 The 5% off your rate in every market, starting with your very first send
• 🔁 Rebilled sub-accounts follow the new rate automatically, so check your multiplier is set where you want it
• 🤝 Pricing you can defend to any client, because it is Meta's number and nothing else
• 🎁 1,000 free service messages per phone number per month covers routine support at no cost

Many WhatsApp platforms add anywhere from 6% to 25% on top of Meta's rate and never tell you. As of October 1, we add nothing. Go check.

• WhatsApp Business Platform pricing (Meta)
• How WhatsApp message billing works in Secure Automation (link to support article)