DEPRECATED
Starting February 1, 2021, WhatsApp will test a new pricing model for WhatsApp Business API, that will impact businesses sending messages to users with a Mexico phone number.
WhatsApp will inform us of any definitive changes and we will pass the information along to our partners and clients.
The current concept of messages
Session messages: Session messages are messages sent during a 24-hour window in response to a message initiated by a customer. These messages are free of charge.
Template messages: Outside this session window, the company can only communicate with its contacts by sending a template message.
This happens when the company wants to start the conversation with a first message, or when the customer stops communicating, for more than 24h, and the company wants to communicate with the customer.
The templates are structured messages that must be approved by WhatsApp; once approved, they can be used multiple times. These messages have a cost.
New message concept for Mexico
Starting February 1, 2021, charges will be applied per conversation instead of per template message. WhatsApp defines a conversation as a 24-hour session of unlimited messaging between a person and a business. The 24-hour conversation session begins when:
- A business-initiated message is delivered to a user, outside of a 24-hour window
- A business reply to a user message is delivered within the 24-hour window
Conversations have a fixed cost of 0.014 USD per conversation, like the example below:
Conversation Quota
We want to continue to make it free for businesses to explore using the API to connect with their customers. During this test, businesses will receive 1,500 free conversations each month when messaging users with Mexico phone numbers.
Any conversation beyond the first 1,500 will be charged at the rate of $0.014 per conversation.
You can access the information on the WhatsApp page:
At Woztell all variable costs such as template usage, and now conversations, are discounted from the usage credits.
As this is a WhatsApp test that is not yet clear if it will be expanded to other countries or modified, we will continue to discount the usage credits based on template usage throughout the month, and on the 10th of the following month, we will compare how much was charged per template to the actual value charged by WhatsApp based on conversations.
In the case of having discounted more credits than what was charged by WhatsApp, we will return the value to the credits, to be used in the following month.
In the case of having deducted fewer credits than used for conversations, we will deduct the difference from the credits.