WhatsApp Business API pricing 2026: what's free and where markup hides

# Summary WhatsApp Business API is never strictly free—Meta charges $0.004 to $0.13 per message depending on country and category—but access platforms can be free, and costs vary dramatically based on whether you use Meta's direct Cloud API (free) versus markup-charging intermediaries (5-10x more expensive). As of July 2025, Meta shifted to per-message billing, service replies within 24-hour windows are free, and the first 1,000 customer-initiated conversations monthly are free, making total costs depend largely on the platform layer rather than Meta's per-message fees.