OCP doesn’t add any extra fee for sending and receiving any type of message using the WhatsApp channel. OCP offers a 14-day free trial and access to all pro features, and you can build your chatbot in the WhatsApp cloud channel.
For paid and premium plans refer to the pricing section of our website, https://alendei.com.
With the conversation-based pricing model, WhatsApp Business Platform conversations fall into 2 categories that are priced differently:
User-initiated: A conversation that initiates in response to a user message. Whenever a business replies to a user within the 24-hour customer service window, that message will be associated with a user-initiated conversation. Businesses can send free-form messages within this 24-hour customer service window.
Business-initiated: A conversation that initiates from a business sending a user a message outside the 24-hour customer service window. Messages that initiate a business-initiated conversation will require a message template.
All conversations are measured in fixed 24-hour sessions. A conversation starts when the first business message in a conversation is delivered, either initiated by the business or in reply to a user message and ends 24 hours later. Businesses and users can exchange any number of messages, including template messages, within a 24-hour conversation session without incurring additional charges. Each 24-hour conversation session results in a single charge.
The pricing varies based on the recipient's geographical location. If you are sending messages to users in India, your sending cost will be comparatively lower than sending messages to users in the US.
You can check the detailed pricing structure through the link below.
https://developers.facebook.com/docs/whatsapp/pricing
All conversations are measured in 24-hour increments or “sessions”, as we’ll refer to them here. A session starts whenever the first message is sent by a business, either in response to a user inquiry or if a business-initiated message template is delivered.
The policy requires the use of a template message whenever sending a message to a user more than 24 hours after their last message. So, a new session begins.
If you send a free-form message outside the customer support window, you are not following the policy, so the delivery of this message will fail. However, it opens a business-initiated conversation that might be charged.
The first 1,000 conversations each month are free. If you want to send more than 1,000 conversations, you need to add a credit card to your account.
Also, Facebook offers a free testing phone number for every app, it’s super easy for you to build a demo WhatsApp bot with a test number, and also take advantage of the free 1000 session message to onboarding clients.
Please note that the free 1000 session message is offered at the WABA level. If you have multiple numbers under the same WABA, then all these numbers will share the limits of 1000 free session messages.
The limits will refresh on a monthly basis.
Conversations are not charged when users message businesses using call-to-action buttons on Ads that Click to WhatsApp or a Facebook Page call-to-action buttons. Free entry point conversations can only be user-initiated. The first conversation that starts from the entry point is free of charge, and then subsequent conversations with the user are charged.
Standard pricing applies for Ads that Click to WhatsApp. The conversation that initiates from the ad is free, but not the ad itself.