Meta has announced a new pricing model for businesses using the AI-powered Meta Business Agent on the WhatsApp Business Platform. The company is moving from message-based billing to token-based pricing for AI interactions. It has also confirmed that charges for some business messages will return later this year.
The new token-based pricing will take effect from August 1. Instead of charging businesses for every AI message, Meta will now bill them based on the number of tokens used to process customer prompts and generate responses.
Meta has set a global price of $2 (around Rs. 190) for every one million tokens. According to the company, a typical AI conversation uses around 20,000 to 25,000 tokens. This means each interaction will cost about $0.04 to $0.05, which is roughly Rs. 3.8 to Rs. 4.8. Simpler conversations will use fewer tokens and cost less, while longer and more complex conversations will cost more.
Meta is also bringing back charges for service messages on WhatsApp Business starting October 1. Any non-template message that is not generated by the Meta Business Agent will be treated as a service message and billed under the platform’s pricing policy.
The company will also start charging for utility messages sent within the 24-hour customer service window. This change will end the pricing waiver that has been available since July 2025. The charges will follow the existing pricing structure for utility and authentication messages, with rates varying by country. In India, utility and authentication messages are currently priced at Rs. 0.115 per message.
Along with the pricing changes, Meta announced that WhatsApp Business now integrates with enterprise platforms such as Shopify and Zendesk. This allows businesses to connect the Meta Business Agent with their existing workflows and customer support systems.
