WhatsApp & Meta, in plain words.
These are Meta's rules, not ours — with one exception, marked “(airbees)”. Each one decides what your messages cost or whether they arrive, and most businesses meet them for the first time in an invoice. Worth ten minutes whoever you buy from.
- 24-hour window (customer service window)
- When a customer messages you, a 24-hour window opens in which you can reply freely in your own words. Replies inside it are charged by Meta at the utility rate from 1 October 2026; until then Meta did not charge for them. Outside the window you can only send pre-approved templates. This is why response speed is not just a courtesy — let the window close and re-opening the conversation costs you a template.
- Service message
- A message in your own words, sent inside the 24-hour window — what your team or your AI agent says back when a customer writes in. Service is Meta’s fourth charged category, after marketing, utility and authentication. From 1 October 2026 Meta charges for service messages at its service rate, which by the customer’s country is the same as its utility rate. Messages in the 72-hour window that opens when a customer arrives from a click-to-WhatsApp ad stay free. The rate for any country →
- Free entry point
- When a customer reaches you through a click-to-WhatsApp ad, a 72-hour window opens, and messages inside it are free of message charges. They stay free after 1 October 2026.
- Template message
- A message written in advance and approved by Meta, needed whenever you start a conversation or reply after the 24-hour window has closed. Templates are approved per language and can be rejected or paused, which is why they are worth writing carefully rather than in a hurry.
- Template category
- Meta sorts every template as marketing, utility or authentication, and the category sets the price. Meta decides the category, not you — wording a promotional message as a receipt does not make it one. Anything that re-engages a quiet contact is treated as marketing however it is phrased.
- Quality rating
- Meta scores your number on how recipients react — blocks and reports pull it down. A low rating drops your messaging limit and can suspend the number. This is the real reason broadcasting from a personal phone or an unverified number is dangerous: the damage is to the number your customers already have.
- Messaging limit
- How many unique contacts you may start conversations with in a rolling 24 hours. New numbers start restricted and the limit rises with consistent quality and verified business standing.
- Business verification
- Meta confirming your business is real, using your trade licence and business details. Until it is done, your number stays limited and your display name cannot be trusted. Verification is tied to the business behind the account, not to the name you would like to show.
- Display name
- The name customers see instead of your phone number. Meta approves it against the verified business behind the account, so the entity matters more than the wording you submit.
- WhatsApp Business API
- The official programmatic channel for businesses — as distinct from the consumer WhatsApp Business app on a phone. It is what allows a team to share one number, a system to send approved campaigns, and an AI to answer without anyone holding the handset.
- Conversation (Meta’s former billing unit)
- Until 2025 Meta billed by conversation: a 24-hour window between your business and one contact, priced once however many messages it held. Meta now prices each message on its own, by category and by country. People still say “conversation” for a chat; on airbees the word has a precise meaning of its own, defined in the next entry.
- AI conversation (airbees)
- airbees’ billing unit, and not one of Meta’s terms: one customer, one 24-hour chat, with at least one reply from your BEE. QueenBee Pro charges AED 1.99 per AI conversation and QueenBee Max AED 0.99, at every volume. A chat your BEE never answered is not charged. It is separate from Meta’s per-message charges; both are drawn from the same prepaid wallet. +VAT where applicable. What a conversation really costs →
Where the money actually goes
Every message Meta charges for is billed at its published rate for the recipient's country. We add nothing on top — check any rate against Meta's own card, or see how billing works end to end.