Understanding WhatsApp’s New Conversation Categories & Pricing Model

If you are using WhatsApp Business API, you need to know about the new conversation categories and pricing model that will come into effect on June 1, 2023. In this blog, we will provide an overview of what the changes mean and what to expect going forward.  

What is changing?
WhatsApp is moving from a two-category conversation pricing model (user- and business-initiated conversations) to four categories.  

• Business-initiated conversations will now be divided into three categories: Authentication Conversations, Marketing Conversations, and Utility Conversations. 
• User-initiated conversations will now be called Service conversations.  

But what does this mean for your business? Let’s take a closer look at the use-case based business-initiated conversation categories:

• Authentication conversations: Business-initiated conversations to authenticate users with one-time passcodes (OTP), potentially at multiple steps in the login process (e.g., account verification, account recovery)
• Marketing conversations: Business-initiated conversations that may include promotions or offers, informational updates like a back-in-stock alert, or invitations for customers to respond or act. A marketing conversation is any conversation that does not qualify as utility or authentication.
• Utility conversations: Business-initiated conversations that facilitate a specific, agreed-upon request or transaction, or update a customer about an ongoing transaction, including post-purchase notifications and recurring billing statements. 

For more detail about the timelines and processes, please see this link: WhatsApp pricing changes and launch timeline 

Why is Meta making these changes? 
The new conversation categories aim to better align WhatsApp’s pricing and product experience with the various stages of the customer journey. WhatsApp’s success can be attributed to the relevance of business-initiated conversations and the small number of spam messages. For Marketing, over 67% of businesses reported an increase in conversion rates due to the implementation of WhatsApp Business Platform. As a result, Meta wants to help businesses improve their customer journey and continue to focus on these high ROI marketing use cases.   

What are the changes to the WhatsApp Business API pricing?
Meta will switch to a use case-based pricing model for all businesses globally sending WhatsApp messages. These changes will go into effect on June 1st, 2023. The conversation rates will continue to vary based on the user’s country or region, the user here being the customer that the business is communicating with.

When it comes to the WhatsApp conversation-based pricing for each of the categories: 

• Utility conversations will have lower rates than current business-initiated conversations 
• Marketing conversations will have higher rates than current business-initiated conversations 
• The rates for Authentication conversations will be announced later 
• Service conversations will remain at the same rates as current user-initiated conversations 

You can find the exact WhatsApp conversation-based pricing rate cards for each of the categories here. 

As an official WhatsApp API Business Solution Provider, we are committed to helping businesses and developers make the most out of WhatsApp. If you have any further questions, please contact our team at whatsapp@textlocal.in. Don’t let these changes catch you off guard. Start preparing for the new conversation categories and pricing model now so that your business can continue to thrive on WhatsApp.