This is the first question every shop owner asks, and the answer is better than most people expect.
Since July 2025 Meta bills per message, not per conversation — and service messages, meaning your replies inside a customer-initiated 24-hour window, are free and unlimited.
What you actually pay for
| Message type | Who starts it | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Service — your reply to a customer | The customer | Free and unlimited, within 24 hours |
| Utility template — order or delivery update | You | Charged per message |
| Marketing template — promotions | You | Charged per message, the priciest category |
| Authentication template — OTP codes | You | Charged per message |
A shop that answers enquiries and takes orders lives almost entirely in the first row. You reply to people who messaged you, and that is free.
So where does the money actually go?
Three places, and only one of them is Meta.
- Meta — only for templates you send first. Zero if you only ever reply.
- Your provider — unofficial providers and BSP resellers charge a monthly fee per number. Going direct to Meta’s Cloud API removes this entirely.
- Your software — whatever actually writes the replies.
The per-number monthly fee is where most shops overpay. Unofficial providers commonly charge around USD 12 per number per month — roughly LKR 3,600 — for a number Meta will host free.
What this means for a Sri Lankan shop
If your customers message you and you answer, your WhatsApp bill is nothing. Your real cost is the software that answers, plus any templates you choose to send afterwards — a delivery notification once the parcel is out, for example.
That exchange costs nothing on WhatsApp, however long it runs, as long as it stays within 24 hours of the customer’s last message.