Pricing
Meta charges for WhatsApp template messages at its published rates and bills your business directly. Archus Lab's platform fee is separate and quoted when you request access — before you connect anything. We never mark up, resell, or relay Meta's charges.
The model
Most WhatsApp platforms blend the two into one opaque number. We keep them apart so you can see each one move on its own.
Meta prices approved template messages — marketing, utility, and authentication — by category and destination country, and bills them to the payment method you add in WhatsApp Manager, inside your own Meta Business Manager.
We are not in that payment path. No markup, no reselling, no vendor rate card sitting between you and Meta's.
The workspace itself: shared inbox, contacts with enforced consent, template tooling, Coexistence sync, and support. Quoted when you request access, before you connect anything.
Leaving is simple. Disconnect any time; our access ends immediately and your data is deleted on the schedule in Data deletion.
Meta's side
The rule of thumb: answering people is free. Starting or reopening a conversation with a template is what costs money.
| When you… | Meta charges |
|---|---|
| Receive a message from a customer | Nothing. Charges apply to what you send, not what you receive. |
| Reply free-form within the 24-hour service window | Nothing. Service replies inside the window are free — this is most of a support team's traffic. |
| Send a utility template while that window is open | Nothing. Utility updates delivered inside an open window carry no charge. |
| Send a template outside the window | Meta's per-message rate for that template's category — marketing, utility, or authentication — and the recipient's country. |
Rates move, so we don't reprint them. Meta publishes the current rate card at business.whatsapp.com/products/platform-pricing — check it there, not on a vendor's cached copy. Marketing templates cost more than utility ones, which is Meta's way of saying the same thing we do: send what people asked for.
Questions
The consumer app is free; the WhatsApp Business Platform is Meta's paid product for answering at team scale. What you pay Meta for is reaching out — template messages sent outside the 24-hour service window. Answering people who message you costs nothing.
No. Meta's messaging charges go straight from Meta to you, at Meta's published rates. Our platform fee is separate and quoted when you request access.
Template messages fail to send until one is added — and the channel page tells you exactly that, with a link to the right place in WhatsApp Manager. Nothing fails silently.
Yes, on one line: the notifications you would send outside the window each month, times Meta's rate for your country and template category on the rate card. If most of your traffic is replying to customers who message you first, expect the Meta side to be small.
Get a quote
Tell us how many people answer messages and roughly how many conversations a week. You get the platform fee and an honest read on your likely Meta charges — before you connect anything.
