How much does a WhatsApp API message cost in Singapore?

As of November 2026, Meta charges SGD 0.0937 for a marketing message to a Singapore number and SGD 0.0205 for a utility, authentication or service message. Each business number gets its first 1,000 service messages a month at no charge.

Is the WhatsApp Business API free?

No. Meta charges per message delivered, and vendors usually add a monthly fee. What's free: messages customers send you, your first 1,000 service messages a month, and messages in a free entry point window from a click-to-WhatsApp ad.

Are replies to customers free on the WhatsApp API?

Not any more, past the first 1,000. Since 1 October 2026, Meta gives each business number 1,000 service messages a month at no charge, then charges SGD 0.0205 each for Singapore numbers, as of November 2026.

Why does a message to Malaysia cost more than one to Singapore?

Meta sets a rate for each market, based on the country code of the number that receives the message. As of November 2026, a marketing message to Malaysia costs SGD 0.1101 against SGD 0.0937 for Singapore.

Does the WhatsApp Business app charge per message?

No. The Business app is free to download and to send from. Meta's documentation says messages sent from the app stay free even if the number also uses the API.

How often does Meta change WhatsApp prices?

At most four times a year, on 1 January, 1 April, 1 July and 1 October. Meta gives at least a month's notice for a rate change and six months for a change of pricing model.

WhatsApp API pricing in 2026: Singapore rates per message

How WhatsApp API pricing works

Meta charges per message. Its pricing documentation, updated 30 September 2026, says the per-message model began on 1 July 2025 and replaced the older pricing by conversation.

Four rules decide every charge:

Meta charges only for messages from your business to a customer. Messages customers send you are never charged.
You pay when a message is delivered, not when it's sent. A message that never arrives costs nothing.
The rate depends on the message's category: marketing, utility, authentication, service or Meta Business Agent.
It also depends on the market, which is the country calling code of the number that receives it. A message to a +65 number is charged Singapore's rate, wherever your business is.

Each message carries one category and one charge. The WhatsApp Business app sits outside all of this: it's free to download, Meta doesn't charge per message for anything you send from it, and Meta's documentation says those messages stay free even when the same number also uses the API.

What each message category costs in Singapore

As of November 2026, these are Meta's list rates for messages to Singapore numbers, from its rate card effective 1 October 2026. Meta publishes the card in SGD and USD.

Category	What it's for	SGD per message	USD per message
Marketing	Offers, launches, invitations, win-back messages	0.0937	0.0732
Utility	Updates on an order, a booking or an account the customer has	0.0205	0.016
Authentication	One-time passcodes	0.0205	0.016
Service	Replies inside the 24-hour window, after the first 1,000 a month	0.0205	0.016
Meta Business Agent	Replies written by Meta's own AI agent	Not listed in SGD	USD 2.00 per million tokens, which Meta estimates at 4 to 5 cents a message

Marketing, utility and authentication messages are templates. You write them in advance, Meta approves them, and you can send them at any time. Service messages are ordinary replies, and you can only send them while the customer service window is open. Meta's documentation says that window opens when a customer messages you, lasts 24 hours and resets with each message they send.

Meta Business Agent is billed differently. As of November 2026, Meta charges USD 2.00 per million tokens, and that one charge pays for both the AI's work and the delivery. Meta's own estimate is 20,000 to 25,000 tokens a message, so about 4 to 5 US cents each, and more for a complicated answer.

What changed on 1 October 2026

Meta's pricing documentation lists three changes that took effect on 1 October 2026. As of November 2026, these are the rules:

Service messages are charged again. They'd been free since 1 November 2024. Now each business phone number gets 1,000 service messages a month at no charge, and Meta charges from the 1,001st.
Utility templates sent inside an open customer service window are charged again. They'd been free since 1 July 2025.
Meta updated 40 rates and moved 9 markets out of their regional groups to get rates of their own.

There's a practical catch. Meta's documentation says a business with no payment method on file gets its service messages delivered within the free 1,000, then not delivered at all. If you're on the API, check that your vendor has billing set up.

The 1,000 free service messages don't roll over. Meta resets the count each month at midnight in your account's time zone.

What's still free

As of November 2026, Meta's documentation lists the messages it doesn't charge for:

Anything a customer sends you.
The first 1,000 service messages each month, for each business phone number.
Messages in a free entry point window. That window opens when a customer writes in from an ad that clicks to WhatsApp, on Android or iPhone, and you reply within the customer service window. While it's open, marketing, utility, authentication and service messages are all free. Meta Business Agent messages are still charged.
Every message sent from the WhatsApp Business app.

Rates for the countries Singapore businesses message most

The receiving number sets the rate, so a message to a Malaysian customer costs Malaysia's rate. As of November 2026, these are Meta's SGD list rates from the 1 October 2026 rate card:

Market	Marketing	Utility and authentication	Service
Singapore	0.0937	0.0205	0.0205
Malaysia	0.1101	0.0179	0.0179
Indonesia	0.0526	0.032	0.032
India	0.0151	0.0018	0.0018
Hong Kong	0.0937	0.0334	0.0334
United Kingdom	0.0812	0.0282	0.0282
North America	0.032	0.0044	0.0044
Rest of Asia Pacific, including the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and Australia	0.1078	0.0145	0.0145

Malaysia and Indonesia also have a higher authentication-international rate, which applies to some businesses that send passcodes across borders. Meta's documentation lists 47 markets in all: 39 named countries and 8 regions.

Volume discounts on utility and authentication

Meta gives volume discounts on utility and authentication messages only. Marketing and service messages always cost the list rate.

As of November 2026, the SGD tiers for utility messages to Singapore numbers start like this:

Up to 150,000 a month: SGD 0.0205, the list rate.
150,001 to 1,000,000: SGD 0.0195, 5% off.
1,000,001 to 4,000,000: SGD 0.0185, 10% off.

The discount applies only to the messages inside each tier, and the count resets every month. Meta adds up messages across all the accounts in your business portfolio. A small business won't come near the first tier, so plan on the list rate.

Vendor fees on top of Meta's

Most businesses reach the API through a vendor, and Meta's charges are only part of the bill. Meta's business FAQ says there's no extra fee to reach the Business Platform directly, and that partners "may charge additional fees" for the tools they add.

When you compare vendors, ask for four numbers separately:

Their monthly fee, and what it includes: users, numbers, an inbox, a chatbot.
Whether they pass on Meta's per-message charges at cost or add a margin.
Which currency your account is billed in. Meta's documentation says the currency is chosen when the account is created and can't be changed afterwards, though Meta offers a migration tool.
What their AI costs, if they sell one, since that's billed on top of the per-message charge.

Meta Business Agent is the exception to vendor billing. Meta's FAQ says Meta charges businesses directly for it, even through a partner.

A month's bill for a small business

Made-up example: a physiotherapy clinic uses the API through a vendor, and this is one month of its messages to Singapore numbers.

It sends 1,600 replies to patients who wrote in. Those are service messages, and because the first 1,000 are free, only 600 are charged at SGD 0.0205, which comes to SGD 12.30.

The day-before appointment reminders are 800 utility templates at SGD 0.0205: SGD 16.40.

A health-screening offer goes to 300 patients who opted in to offers, as marketing templates at SGD 0.0937 each. That's SGD 28.11.

As of November 2026, Meta's charges for the month come to SGD 56.81. The vendor's monthly fee comes on top, and so does any AI the vendor sells.

Now suppose the clinic adds "book now and get 10% off" to every reminder. Meta would class those as marketing, and the same 800 reminders would cost SGD 74.96 instead of SGD 16.40.

The example shows where the money goes. Replies are cheap, and the first 1,000 are free. Marketing costs more than four times as much as a utility message. One promotional line in a reminder changes its category.

How to keep the bill down

These habits follow from Meta's own rules:

Keep reminders and confirmations purely about the booking or order. Meta's categorisation guide says a template that mixes utility and marketing content is marketing.
Answer customers inside the 24-hour window. Replies cost far less than templates, and your first 1,000 each month are free.
Send promotions only to people who opted in and tend to read them. Meta may cap how many marketing messages a person receives from businesses, and templates that people block or ignore get paused.
Use ads that click to WhatsApp if you advertise anyway. Replies in the free entry point window cost nothing.
Count before you buy. Most of a small business's messages are replies, and the free Business app sends those at no charge.

Do you need to pay per message at all?

Per-message pricing only applies to the Business Platform. Many small businesses never need it. The free WhatsApp Business app sends replies, follow-ups and broadcasts at no charge from Meta, as the WhatsApp Business guide explains.

The API earns its fees when you send templates at volume, need many people on one number, or want WhatsApp joined to other software. The Business API guide covers what getting on it takes.

Tools that link to the WhatsApp you already use, the way WhatsApp Web does, aren't billed by Meta per message, because they don't use the Business Platform. Palby AI Agent, which we make, is one of those. It links your number through a third-party service called Green API and doesn't use Meta's per-message billing at all. That route can't send Meta's templates. It also carries the risk WhatsApp's help centre warns about: "linking your device through unofficial apps or websites may put your account at risk". The team inbox page shows what it does.

30 minutes. You choose the day and the time.

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When Meta changes its prices

Meta's pricing documentation says that since September 2025 it changes prices only on the first day of a quarter: 1 January, 1 April, 1 July or 1 October. It also promises notice before each change:

Type of change	Example	Notice Meta gives
A rate change	A new rate for one country and category	At least 1 month
An add-on to the model	New discounts for utility and authentication	At least 3 months
A change of model	Moving from per-conversation to per-message pricing	At least 6 months

So the next possible change after this guide is 1 January 2027. We check Meta's rate card each quarter and update the rates here.