WhatsApp Business API pricing in Malaysia (2026)

Until 30 September 2026, a free-form reply inside the 24-hour customer service window cost nothing. Meta made these "service messages" free on 1 November 2024. From 1 October 2026 they are billed again, per delivered message, at the same rate as a utility template in the customer's country.

Meta's definition is broad: a service message is any non-template reply "powered by a person, like a customer service representative, or by a 3rd-party AI solution". So it makes no difference which tool you use. A reply from a shared inbox, a rule-based chatbot or an AI agent is billed the same way.

Fewer than the headlines suggest. We looked at the replies sent through the API by every active WhatsApp Business API number on Mampu AI, excluding our own test accounts. Across the months we checked, 67 % to 70 % of numbers sent 1,000 replies or fewer in a month, so they would have paid nothing.

The fee is concentrated in a few busy numbers. Across all numbers, 61 % of the replies in a month came from numbers that had already used their free 1,000. That's why the bill barely touches most small businesses but can run up quickly for a busy one. Use the table above to estimate yours.

Method: anonymised, aggregated share of outgoing non-template messages per WhatsApp Business API number on Mampu AI, counted per calendar month. Failed messages and replies typed in the WhatsApp Business app are excluded. The figures are an upper bound, because they do not remove replies that were free under the 72-hour ad window. The sample is small, so read them as an indication, not a market survey.

Your replies stop being delivered once the free 1,000 are used. Meta's own wording: without a payment method, "Meta will deliver service messages within the shared free tier but not deliver them after the free tier has been used." For the rest of that month your chatbot, AI agent and team would look silent to customers.

To add a payment method, open Meta Business Suite, go to Billing & payments (Billing Hub) and attach a card to the WhatsApp Business Account that owns your number: open Billing Hub payment methods. Meta bills this account directly, so the charge appears on your Meta invoice, not on your chatbot subscription.

The bill is simply billable replies × rate. The rate is fixed, so the saving comes from sending fewer, more complete messages and from getting more chats into the free windows.

• Send one complete message per turn. Put the answer, the next question and buttons or a list in a single bubble instead of three short ones.
• Remove loops that re-send menus. A "back to main menu" option that re-sends four messages spends four messages every time a customer taps it.
• End chats cleanly. Close the flow or hand the chat to a person when the question is answered, instead of letting a bot keep prompting.
• Skip repeat welcomes. Returning customers don't need the full greeting sequence each time.
• Grow through Click-to-WhatsApp ads and the Facebook Page button. Those chats are free for 72 hours, so qualify ad leads inside that window.
• On a coexistence number, split the work. Let the AI handle the first reply and the common questions, then continue long conversations from the WhatsApp Business app, which is free.
• Block spam and set active hours. Stop the bot from replying to spam contacts or chatting at length outside hours when a short message would do.