WhatsApp introduces token-based pricing for AI Agents from August 1

Meta has changed the pricing for businesses using its AI agent on WhatsApp Business, weeks after introducing the tool for customer interactions. From August 1, businesses using the Meta Business Agent on WhatsApp will be charged on a token basis instead of the current per-message model.

The company said the change is meant to better reflect the token usage required to process a user prompt as AI takes on a larger role in customer support and sales. Meta also said it will bring back charges for some business messages from October 1 after waiving them for nearly two years. The announcement comes ahead of the global rollout of usernames on the platform.

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What the AI agent does

The Meta Business Agent can answer customer queries that may include recommending products, booking appointments, , capturing and qualifying leads, offering round-the-clock support, driving sales, and transferring chats to a human agent when required. Meta said smaller businesses will get access to the agent through select tiers of its WhatsApp Business Premium subscription, while larger businesses will be billed based on token usage.

How the new pricing will work

Under the new model, businesses will have to pay a global rate of $2, or about Rs 189, for every 1 million tokens for using the Meta Business Agent. It is suggested that a typical message could use up to 25,000 tokens, which makes roughly 4 to 5 cents per message. However, the final cost will be based on how complex the interaction is.

Meta says that the pricing brings together AI processing and message delivery into a single charge, unlike some third-party AI providers. It also reflects a wider shift towards token-based enterprise pricing by companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic.

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Service message fees to return

From October 1, 2026, Meta will reintroduce charges for non-template service messages sent outside Meta Business Agent. These messages will be charged at the same rates as utility and authentication messages, with rates differing by market. In India, such messages are currently priced at Rs 0.115 each, with lower rates for high-volume businesses. Meta said it may revise pricing up to once every quarter and will publish the rates taking effect on October 1, including service message charges, by September 1.

The move is similar to WhatsApp's switch to per-message pricing in July 2025, which previously replaced the conversation-based billing model. With India remaining WhatsApp's largest market, with an estimated 850 million users and more than $1 billion in annual business messaging revenue, the latest pricing changes add to Meta's efforts to monetise WhatsApp Business.