Conversations
Starting February 1st, 2022, WhatsApp will switch from a notification-based pricing model to a conversation-based pricing model. Instead of being charged for notifications sent, businesses will be charged per conversation, which includes all messages delivered within a 24-hour period.
After this date there will be a new conversation object on the webhook, as well as a pricing and an origin object. These will then indicate the conversation ID, how it was initiated and the pricing schema that will be applied.
How It Works
There are two types of conversations on the WhatsApp Business API, each with different rates:
User-initiated: A conversation that initiates in response to a user message. Any time a business replies to a user within the 24 hour customer service window, that message will be associated with a user-initiated conversation.
Business-Initiated: A conversation that initiates from a business sending a user a message outside the 24 hour customer service window. Messages that initiate a business-initiated conversation will require a message template.
All conversations are measured in 24-hour increments or “sessions,” as we’ll refer to them here
These 24-hour conversation sessions start whenever the first message is delivered by a business, either in response to a user inquiry, or if a business-initiated message template is delivered.
Charges for conversations are based on the user’s phone number. Rates for business-initiated conversations and user-initiated conversations vary by market (country or region). See Rates for specific pricing information.
Free Entry Points Conversations
Conversations will not be charged when users message businesses using call-to-actions buttons on Ads that click to WhatsApp or a Facebook Page CTA. Free entry point conversations can only be user-initiated. Only the first conversation that starts from the entry point is free of charge. Subsequent conversations with the user are charged.
Standard pricing will apply for Ads that Click to WhatsApp. The conversation that initiates from the ad is free, but not the ad itself.
API usage and webhooks
With the new pricing being implemented, nothing changes when sending messages and templates. There will be new information available in the webhook: a new conversation object as well as a pricing and an origin object. These will then indicate the conversation ID, how it was initiated and the pricing schema that will be applied.
Please see more information in the detailed Facebook document.
Facebook Documentation
See the below link for the official Facebook documentation on the Topic.
FAQ - Conversations
Q: Where can I see the total costs for my conversations? For owned WABAs (if you onboarded with the Embedded Signup process) you can view the following metrics are available in the Insights tab of your WhatsApp Manager:
Messages sent: The number of messages sent from the selected phone number(s). This is different from messages delivered, which only counts messages that were confirmed as being delivered to the recipient.
Messages delivered: The number of messages that your recipients received that were sent and delivered from the selected phone number(s). This only counts messages that were confirmed as being delivered to the recipient.
Messages received: The number of messages that the selected phone number(s) received from recipients.
Amount spent: The estimated total amount of money you've spent on messages delivered from the selected phone number(s). This metric is an estimate.
You can export these metrics from the Insights tab by phone number, country and message type.
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