A business bot on WhatsApp may only message people who gave you their number and opted in. It can reply freely for 24 hours after the customer's last message; after that it may only send pre-approved Message Templates. Meta charges per delivered template message, and from October 1, 2026, it also charges for service replies inside the window. The bot must offer a clear route to a person. This is a summary of Meta's own pages, not legal advice.
The short version
- Collect and log opt-in before the first message, naming your business.
- Free-form replies only within 24 hours of the customer's last message; templates after that.
- Offer a prompt, clear route to a human and honor every opt-out.
- Per-message pricing since July 1, 2025; service messages charged from October 1, 2026.
- Meta bars AI providers from offering general-purpose assistants on WhatsApp; ordinary support and sales bots are not the target.
Opt-in before you message
Meta's WhatsApp Business Messaging Policy says you may only contact people who have given you their mobile number and opted in to receive messages from you. Collect that opt-in in the bot flow or on your web form, name your business in it, and keep a record. National marketing and telemarketing laws apply on top; our guide to chatbots and the law covers them. The same policy says you must respect every request to stop or block messages, whether it arrives on WhatsApp or elsewhere.
The 24-hour window and Message Templates
The policy lets you reply without a template for 24 hours after the user's last message. Meta calls this the customer service window. Outside it, you may only send approved Message Templates, which Meta sorts into marketing, utility and authentication categories. Design follow-ups, reminders and re-engagement messages as templates from the start.
Automation needs an escalation path
The same policy allows automation inside the 24-hour window but requires "prompt, clear, and direct escalation paths": an in-chat transfer to an agent, a phone number, email, web support, a store visit or a support form.
What WhatsApp messages cost
Meta's pricing documentation says the platform has charged per delivered message since July 1, 2025, and only for template messages: marketing templates always, utility and authentication templates only outside an open customer service window. Messages sent within a 72-hour free entry point window, which opens when a user arrives through a Click-to-WhatsApp ad or a Facebook call-to-action button, are free.
That changes on October 1, 2026. Meta's non-template messages page says it will charge per message for service messages, the free-form replies inside the 24-hour window, which have not been charged since November 2024. It will also charge for utility templates sent inside an open window. Service-message rates equal the utility and authentication rate for each market, and the free entry point window stays free. Manychat's help center says a monthly allowance of free service messages per phone number remains; we could not confirm that allowance on Meta's own page, so treat it as unverified.
The AI Providers clause
The WhatsApp Business Solution Terms, last modified March 6, 2026, bar AI model providers from using WhatsApp to offer a general-purpose assistant when the AI is the primary product rather than incidental to it. A bot that handles support, bookings, orders or sales is not the target. The current terms carve out users with phone numbers from the European Economic Area or Brazil. The effective date of January 15, 2026 comes from press reports, not the terms page, so we list it as unverified. The same terms bar using WhatsApp Business data to train AI models, except fine-tuning a model for your exclusive use.
The rules are moving in Europe: a law-firm note reports that the European Commission ordered Meta on June 9, 2026 to restore free access for rival AI assistants while it investigates. That concerns assistant providers, not business bots, but recheck the terms before you build on them.
Messenger and Instagram
Meta's Messenger Platform policy gives a business 24 hours to respond to a user, and messages inside that window may be promotional. A Human Agent tag lets a person reply by hand for up to seven days; it is not for bot messages. The same policy requires automated chats to say they are automated at the start of a conversation, after a long gap and when a chat moves from a person back to the bot. Meta's Instagram-specific page did not load when we checked, so whether the Human Agent tag works the same way on Instagram is unverified. For picks on these channels, see the best chatbots for Instagram and Messenger.
How each product handles WhatsApp fees
Meta's fees are never part of a builder's subscription price. What differs is who collects them and what the builder adds. This is what our product database records.
| Product | WhatsApp fees, per the vendor's pages |
|---|---|
| Manychat | WhatsApp from Pro at $39 a month. Meta's fees are charged from a prepaid Manychat Wallet at per-country rates, for example $0.1569 for a marketing template and $0.0632 for a utility template delivered in Germany. Manychat's guide says 1,000 service messages per number a month stay free after October 1, 2026 (not confirmed by Meta). |
| Chatfuel | Chatfuel attaches its credit line to your WhatsApp Business Account and deducts Meta's fees from the same wallet that pays for AI replies. Chatfuel says the new service-message fees will run through the wallet too. At a zero balance the bot stops replying. |
| Landbot | WhatsApp on your own number is an add-on to Professional at €100 a month, with 10,000 service messages included. Landbot's pages disagree on its markup: €0.05 per template message in the help center, a flat 20% on top of Meta's fee on the pricing page. |
| Typebot | WhatsApp on Pro at $89 a month. You connect your own Meta app, so Meta bills you directly, separately from your Typebot plan. |
| Intercom Fin, Botpress, Tidio Lyro, HubSpot | WhatsApp is a listed channel (on HubSpot, only for the Breeze Customer Agent). How Meta's fees are billed is not recorded in our product database, so ask the vendor before you budget. |
| Voiceflow | No WhatsApp channel found in the documentation. |
For a ranked list, see the best chatbots for WhatsApp. The Manychat vs Chatfuel comparison looks at the two wallet-based tools side by side.
Frequently asked questions
Can a chatbot message customers on WhatsApp after 24 hours?
Only with an approved Message Template. Meta's WhatsApp Business Messaging Policy allows free-form replies for 24 hours after the customer's last message; after that, a bot may only send templates, and Meta charges per delivered template. A new message from the customer reopens the window.
Are WhatsApp chatbot replies free?
Until September 30, 2026, free-form service replies inside WhatsApp's 24-hour customer service window are free. Meta's pricing documentation says that from October 1, 2026 it charges per message for service messages at the market's utility rate. Messages inside the 72-hour window that follows a Click-to-WhatsApp ad stay free.
Does Meta ban AI chatbots on WhatsApp?
No, not business chatbots. The WhatsApp Business Solution Terms bar AI model providers from offering a general-purpose assistant as the main product, and exempt users with EEA or Brazil phone numbers. A bot that uses AI to handle support, bookings or sales is not the target of that clause.
Does a WhatsApp chatbot need a human handoff?
Yes. Meta's WhatsApp Business Messaging Policy allows automation but requires prompt, clear and direct escalation paths, such as a transfer to an agent, a phone number, email or a support form. The bot must also honor any request to stop messages.
Keep reading
- What is the difference between a chatbot and an AI agent?guide
- Rule-based or AI chatbot: which should you build?guide
- How is chatbot software priced?guide
- What counts as a conversation in chatbot pricing?guide
- Best chatbot buildersbest list
Researched and drafted with AI assistance from the sources listed on this page. We have not built or tested bots on these platforms yet. Method: How we review