WhatsApp Business API pricing in the UAE 2024

WhatsApp generated $906 million in revenue in 2022. Its popularity across the world and especially in UAE, has successfully attracted businesses to incorporate its useful features for customer engagement, marketing, and sales.

While the WhatsApp Business App is still free to download, every WhatsApp Business API account has a fee charged per conversation, and the pricing varies depending on the country.

Although WhatsApp voice calls and video calls are banned in the UAE, it is still a highly popular messaging app with over 6.73 million users nationwide, which stands for 79.6% of the country's total population.

Interested in using WhatsApp for your business? It’s not that complicated! We have put together a complete guide to show you how. Check out the WhatsApp Business API pricing and its billing process right below.

What is the WhatsApp Business API?

WhatsApp Business API is a messaging solution tailored for businesses to effectively improve communication, marketing, and sales.

Users are strongly encouraged to partner with global WhatsApp Business Solution Providers (BSP)s that are messaging experts in the field of enterprise businesses and customer communications, for example, SleekFlow and 360dialog, to connect with customers via WhatsApp.

Since WhatsApp has such a massive pool of users worldwide (over 2 billion users as of 2023!), businesses can utilize WhatsApp links to make it easier for customers to contact them and use a WhatsApp Manager to better manage the surge in conversations!

Introduction to the official WhatsApp Business API

WhatsApp has become an essential messaging tool in our daily lives, and if your UAE business is not taking advantage of this, you may be losing out on certain benefits that can bring your brand to the next level.

Other than the WhatsApp that we use for personal messaging, there are two types of accounts WhatsApp has introduced for businesses, which are the WhatsApp Business App and the official WhatsApp Business API, also known as the WhatsApp Business Platform.

Let's take a look at a simple comparison below.

Basically, WhatsApp Business API allows your business to explore a number of useful features and generate more sales through messaging. On the other hand, WhatsApp Business App is good for small to medium businesses for limited use.

Example: Emirates Airlines uses WhatsApp Business API for customer service

Emirates Airlines has been utilizing its official WhatsApp Business account for customer interaction. Other than the green tick verification on its WhatsApp Business profile, automated responses are set up to reply to FAQs immediately, no matter where the customers are or when the messages are sent. This means that they can allocate more time and manpower for more complicated issues and to handle angry or impatient customers.

The benefits of using WhatsApp Business API can be summarized below:

• a verified WhatsApp Business profile: green tick verification

• chatbots and automated responses for FAQs

• personalized broadcast messages

• interactive messages with chat buttons

• multiple logins

To read more information about the Official WhatsApp Business API, you can check out here.

Learn how to create a WhatsApp Chatbot for your business in the UAE.

WhatsApp's conversation-based pricing model in 2023

WhatsApp has announced a new pricing model, switching from notification-based to conversation-based, effective from 1 February 2022. In other words, businesses will be charged per conversation instead of notifications sent.

From June 2023 onwards, WhatsApp will once again adapt its pricing structure to suit different business needs.

To begin with, conversations are categorized into:

• Business-initiated conversations:
  starts when businesses reach out to customers by sending a message. Only Template Messages can be used for this type of conversation.

• User-initiated conversations:
  begins when messages are sent to reply to customers, which means that the customer is the one who sent your business a message first. This type of conversation is also known as service conversations where businesses can send free-form messages instead of just Template Messages.

The good news here is that the first 1000 user-initiated conversations each month are free!

Other than the type of conversations, businesses have to take note that there is a customer care window in which user-initiated conversations will end 24 hours after the last message your customers sent. After this 24-hour window, businesses will have to begin a new conversation with a Template Message.

If a user sends your business a WhatsApp message but you do not reply to it, you will not be charged.

WhatsApp Business - cost per conversation in AED

New WhatsApp Business API pricing for the UAE from June 2023 onwards

Old WhatsApp Business API pricing for the UAE in 2022

*Pricing in AED is estimated based on the USD exchange rate as of Apr 2023.

WhatsApp Pricing Calculator

Now you can calculate your messaging cost using SleekFlow's WhatsApp pricing calculator!

You may also visit Facebook’s website for more information.

Factors that affect the WhatsApp Business API pricing

If you are using WhatsApp Business API already, you should understand how everything works. However, with the new pricing model in place, there are a few factors that may affect your monthly spending on WhatsApp Business API.

1. Country/region

The fee for each type of business-initiated conversation, including utility, authentication, and marketing conversation, and user-initiated/service conversation depends on the country your business is located. You may refer to the table above to check the pricing for your country in the UAE.

2. Customer care window

As mentioned earlier, there is a customer care window in the conversation-based structure created by WhatsApp. If a customer sends a message to you, the 24 hours following the last message received from the customer is known as the Customer Care Window.

Beyond this Customer Care Window, businesses will then have to start the business-initiated conversation again with a Template Message.

So, what are template messages? Read on to find out.

Starting from June 2023, if you send 2 or more different types of business-initiated conversations within the same 24 window, you will be charged twice for each type of conversation.

Official WhatsApp Business API's message type

According to Facebook, businesses need to follow specific formats when drafting a notification send-out. More importantly, the content has to be consistent with its terms and policies. To understand that, we must first know the two basic types of messages, Template Messages and Session Messages.

Template Messages

Template Messages are pre-approved message templates for marketing messages or outbound notifications like delivery alerts and appointment reminders.

You must use a WhatsApp Template Message if more than 24 hours have elapsed since the user’s last response to you. Any other types of messages sent outside the 24-hour window will fail to reach the user.

For example, if you want your customer to receive this message:

Hi, Harry! Your Order Number: 20200120 has been dispatched. Thank you!

You will need to submit the following template:

Hi, {{1}}! Your Order Number: {{2}} has been dispatched. Thank you!

Hence, the first variable will be the customer name labeled as {{1}}, and the second variable will be the order number labeled as {{2}}.

Session Messages

Session Messages are any messages sent and received in response to a user-initiated message and do not require pre-approval.

A messaging session starts when a user sends you a message and lasts for 24 hours from the most recently received message.

You can wait for users to message you, and it would be a user-initiated conversation, or you can send a Template Message to invite the user to respond, which generates a business-initiated conversation.

WhatsApp Business API pricing in the UAE

The United Arab Emirates, as listed on Facebook's official pricing table, has a fee of AED $ 0.12 and $0.07 for business-initiated conversations and user-initiated conversations respectively as of 2022. Starting from June 2023, the business-initiated conversation will range from $0.065 to $0.73 depending on the subcategory of the conversation. So if your business is based in Dubai or Abu Dhabi, it will incur fees as stated above.

Calculate your costs using our WhatsApp Business API calculator* in the above section.

WhatsApp Business API provider pricing

SleekFlow, as the official WhatsApp Business Solution Provider (BSP), is one of the best options for businesses looking for WhatsApp solutions. Users in UAE will only need to pay a monthly fee of US $15 (~AE $55.09) for each hosted number to enjoy the latest benefits available on the WhatsApp Business Platform.

As SleekFlow uses the WhatsApp Cloud API hosted by Meta, it guarantees a much stabler connection and offers from 80 up to 500 MPS (messaging per second) for WhatsApp Broadcast. Also, the easy yet powerful onboarding process only requires 3 minutes before you start experiencing the advantages of having an official WhatsApp Business account.

Find out how to get started with WhatsApp Business API through SleekFlow.

Understanding the billing process for WhatsApp Business API

Once your business starts implementing the WhatsApp Business API, it is of utmost importance for you to learn how to view payments and understand the invoice.

When creating a WhatsApp Business account, the system requires you to apply for a line of credit. After the application has been approved, a monthly invoice will be shown in the 'Payment Settings' section within your WhatsApp Business Manager.

As mentioned above, the invoice that includes all spending associated with the same WhatsApp Business Manager will be emailed to users during the first week of each month. The payments can then be settled by bank transfer to the Facebook bank account listed on each invoice. To avoid late payment charges, fees should be paid within 30 days following the invoice date.

The billing process is even simpler for SleekFlow customers! All you need to do is top up your WhatsApp credits through the SleekFlow platform, and the WhatsApp fees will be automatically deducted depending on your usage.