WhatsApp Service Messages: 1,000 Free a Month
WhatsApp service messages are billed since 1 October 2026: 1,000 free per number a month, then about RM0.06 a reply in Malaysia. See what yours cost.
Since 1 October 2026, WhatsApp service messages are billed. Every business phone number gets 1,000 free service replies a month, and each reply after that costs about RM0.06 in Malaysia. Almost none of the businesses we work with have asked us about this yet, which tells us most owners do not know it happened. This page tells you whether it touches you before the first invoice does.
Updated 4 October 2026. The charge is live, the free tier is confirmed, and Meta softened the payment-method rule on 1 October. All three are covered below.
A service message is any ordinary reply your team or your chatbot sends inside the 24-hour window after a customer writes in. On the WhatsApp Business Platform (the API), the first 1,000 a month per phone number are free, and from the 1,001st Malaysia is billed USD 0.0140 a message, about RM0.06, with no volume discount. A business handling around 10 chats a day on one number pays nothing. The bill only becomes real at roughly 30 chats a day and above, and replies from the free WhatsApp Business app are not billed at all.
How many free WhatsApp service messages do I get?
You get 1,000 free service messages per business phone number, every calendar month. Billing starts at the 1,001st message. The allowance resets each month and does not roll over (360dialog, Service Message Charging Starts October 1, 2026).
The allowance is counted per phone number, not per account. A business running three WhatsApp numbers has 3,000 free replies a month, 1,000 on each, not 1,000 shared between them (Techish, 1 October 2026). One provider's help page describes the allowance per account instead, so if you run several numbers, ask your provider to confirm how yours is counted.
Meta's public pricing page was still showing its older wording when we checked on 4 October. The free tier reached businesses through Meta's partner notices first, which is why this page cites the providers.
How much is a WhatsApp service message in Malaysia?
A service message to a Malaysian number costs USD 0.0140 once the free 1,000 are used. That is about RM0.06 at early-October exchange rates of roughly RM4.15 to the dollar (360dialog rate table, same source as above).
The rule behind the number is simple. Meta bills a service message at the same rate as a utility template in the customer's country (Meta developer documentation). Malaysia's utility rate is USD 0.0140, so the service rate is too.
The rate is flat. The 5,000th reply costs the same as the 1,001st. Meta sets the rate in US dollars, so the ringgit figure moves a little with the exchange rate.
What does a 30, 50 or 100-chat day cost?
A business with 10 chats a day on one number pays RM0. At 30 chats a day the bill is about RM100 a month. The table assumes three replies per chat (an answer, a follow-up, a confirmation) over a 30-day month.
| Chats per day (one number) | Replies per month | Billable after the free 1,000 | Monthly cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 chats | 900 | 0 | RM0 |
| 30 chats | 2,700 | 1,700 | about RM100 |
| 50 chats | 4,500 | 3,500 | about RM210 |
| 100 chats | 9,000 | 8,000 | about RM480 |
Here is the claim this page makes. For most Malaysian SMEs running one number, the 1 October change costs nothing, and the posts warning that "every reply now has a price" are wrong for exactly the reader they frighten. The businesses that do pay are the ones whose WhatsApp is nearly all inbound questions.
| Business | Service replies a month | Billable | Monthly cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Renovation firm in Shah Alam, 3 staff | 1,200 | 200 | about RM12 |
| Dental clinic in Ipoh, 4 staff | 6,000 | 5,000 | about RM300 |
| Property manager, 300 units | 9,500 | 8,500 | about RM510 |
The renovation firm barely notices. The clinic and the property manager get a new line on the bill, because they answer "can I reschedule" and "when is the lift fixed" all day. Both are still paying less than one part-time salary. A second phone number adds another free 1,000, which matters for a business that already splits sales and support.
What happens if there is no payment method on the account?
You still get the free 1,000. An account with no payment method on file can still use its 1,000 free service messages each month. What stops is everything after that. Once the allowance runs out, Meta stops delivering further service replies until a payment method is added (Techish, same source as above).
This is softer than the first notices suggested. In September, several providers read Meta's wording as "no card by 30 September, no replies from 1 October". The position confirmed on 1 October is that replies stop at the 1,001st message, not the first.
The failure is easy to miss. The customer keeps writing, your reply shows as sent in the dashboard, and it never arrives. A clinic doing 30 chats a day would hit that wall on about the twelfth day of the month.
Check who holds the payment method for your number. Some providers pay Meta and invoice you. Others have Meta bill you directly. With Raion HUB, Meta bills WhatsApp fees directly to your account at official rates with no markup from us, so the card sits on your own Meta business portfolio. The three-minute Billing Hub steps are in our guide to WhatsApp replies not sending since 1 October.
Which WhatsApp conversations stay free?
Three kinds of reply still cost nothing.
The first 1,000 service messages per number each month. Covered above.
Replies inside the free entry point window. When a customer starts the chat from a Click-to-WhatsApp ad or a Facebook Page call-to-action button, the replies in that window are free. Meta's documentation gives the window as 72 hours. Some providers report that from 1 October ad-opened windows last 7 days. Until your provider confirms the longer window on your account, plan on 72 hours.
Replies from the WhatsApp Business app. The charge applies only to the WhatsApp Business Platform, meaning numbers connected through the API to a CRM, chatbot or booking tool. A team replying by hand on the free app pays nothing.
The second lane is why how a chat starts now matters. A lead who arrives from Click-to-WhatsApp ads can be answered for days at no charge. The same lead arriving from a number printed on a banner counts against the 1,000. In Raion HUB every lead is tagged by source the moment it lands, so the team can see which chats came from an ad without reading back through timestamps.
What else changed on 1 October 2026?
One more charge started the same day. A utility template sent while a customer's 24-hour window is open used to be free. It is now billed at the utility rate like any other template (Meta developer documentation, same source as above). Businesses that send order confirmations or appointment reminders as templates into open chats will see it on the October invoice.
A marketing campaign that fails for some customers only is a different rule. That is Meta's per-user marketing cap, explained in why your WhatsApp marketing message was not delivered. The full rate card by category is in our WhatsApp Business API pricing guide for Malaysia.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I keep my WhatsApp bill near zero?
Count messages, not conversations. That is the one habit this change rewards. Five one-line replies cost five messages. One complete reply costs one.
How to Keep Your WhatsApp Service Message Bill Near Zero
An AI assistant that answers from your own documents helps with step three. It gives the full answer the first time instead of "let me check" followed by three more messages. That matters more now that each message is counted. Our guide to AI chatbots on WhatsApp in Malaysia covers how that works.
Do not move back to the phone app to avoid the charge. A clinic that does this saves about RM300 a month and loses the shared inbox, the reply history and the 9pm auto-reply. Most businesses that make the move were never going to be billed in the first place.
The bottom line
The 1 October 2026 change is smaller than the headlines made it. Each business phone number gets 1,000 free service messages a month, and replies after that cost about RM0.06 in Malaysia, so a one-number business at 10 chats a day pays nothing and one at 30 chats a day pays about RM100. Count your replies per number, confirm who holds the payment method, and answer in one complete message. Most owners have not heard about this yet, and for most of them the honest answer is that it does not change the bill.
