How much does a WhatsApp message cost in Africa? (2026)

Last updated October 8, 2026 — Meta rates in effect since October 1, 2026.

Meta charges for every delivered WhatsApp Business message, by category and by the recipient's country. In Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal, Kenya and the 36 other "Rest of Africa" countries, a marketing message costs $0.0225 (€0.0186, about 12.20 CFA francs); a utility, authentication or service message costs $0.004 (€0.0033, about 2.16 CFA francs).

The first 1,000 service messages on each number stay free every month. Meta bills all of it directly to your own WhatsApp Business Account (WABA): Genuka WA, a Meta Tech Provider, adds no markup and charges a separate subscription per number.

How does Meta charge for WhatsApp messages in 2026?

Since July 1, 2025, Meta charges per message, and only when the message is delivered. The price depends on two things: the message's category and the country calling code of the recipient's number. Messages your customers send you are never charged.

Two rules changed on October 1, 2026. Service messages — your free-form replies, outside templates — are paid again, after being free since November 1, 2024. And utility templates sent inside the 24-hour window the customer opened, free since July 1, 2025, are now charged too. On the same day, Morocco left the "Rest of Africa" group for a higher rate, and South Africa's utility and authentication rates went up.

A free-form message sent through the Genuka WA API is a service message, whether a person wrote it or your own AI generated it: Meta files every non-template message that does not go through its Meta Business Agent platform under "service". Two exceptions: AI Providers are charged differently (Meta's "AI Providers" pricing policy), and eligible government and non-profit organizations keep their service messages free beyond the free tier through December 31, 2027.

Which WhatsApp messages are still free?

• Messages you receive from customers, however many.
• The first 1,000 service messages on each number, every month. The count resets on the 1st of the month at midnight in the WhatsApp account's timezone, and unused messages do not roll over.
• Everything sent inside a free entry point window. When a customer messages you from a Click to WhatsApp ad on the Android or iOS app and you reply within 24 hours, this window opens and can stay open for up to 7 days. Marketing, utility, authentication and service messages are not charged while it is open.
• A message that is not delivered is not charged.

How much does a WhatsApp message cost in each African country?

Meta publishes one rate card per currency. The first table is Meta's euro rate card, converted to CFA francs at the fixed parity of €1 = 655.957 FCFA, which holds for both the Central African (XAF) and the West African (XOF) franc. Every amount is per delivered message.

If your WhatsApp Business Account is billed in dollars, this is Meta's USD rate card:

(1) Beyond the 1,000 free service messages per number per month. (2) See the next section.

Three things to know when reading these cards:

• Meta publishes a fixed card per currency and bills each account in its own currency, at that card's rates, not at the day's exchange rate. Your account is billed in the currency chosen when it was created, and after that only Meta's currency migration API can change it. Coexistence accounts (a number kept on the WhatsApp Business app) are not eligible for this API, so pick the currency when the account is created. Only the euro card converts to CFA francs at a fixed rate; a dollar account depends on the rate your bank applies.
• The "authentication-international" rate only targets large senders based abroad. Meta applies it only to businesses that send more than 750,000 messages outside the customer service window over a rolling 30 days to the markets concerned, and only to recipients in a country other than their own. A Cameroonian small business sending codes to Nigeria pays the regular authentication rate.
• Marketing weighs the most. In "Rest of Africa", a marketing message costs 5.6 times a utility one.

Which African countries are billed at the "Rest of Africa" rate?

What counts is the calling code of the recipient's number, not the country your business is in. Meta groups 40 countries under "Rest of Africa":

Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Chad, Republic of the Congo (Brazzaville), Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Côte d'Ivoire, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Eswatini, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

• Morocco left the group on October 1, 2026. It now has its own, more expensive line and an authentication-international rate.
• Nigeria, Egypt and South Africa each have their own rates.
• A country missing from Meta's list is billed at the "Other" rate. That is the case for several countries you would expect in the African group: the Democratic Republic of the Congo (+243), Guinea (+224), the Central African Republic (+236), Equatorial Guinea (+240), Djibouti (+253) and Mauritius (+230). A marketing message there costs €0.05, or 32.80 FCFA: more than twice the "Rest of Africa" rate. A merchant in Douala messaging a +243 customer therefore pays the "Other" rate.

Do WhatsApp rates go down with volume?

Yes, but only for utility and authentication. Meta counts each month's charged messages per market and per category, adding up every WhatsApp account in your business portfolio. Marketing and service have no tiers, and free messages do not count.

"Rest of Africa" tiers on the euro card:

The lower rate applies only to the messages that fall inside that band, never retroactively to the whole month, and the count resets every month. Nigeria, Egypt, South Africa and Morocco use the same thresholds on their own rates. In practice, a business sending a few thousand notifications a month always pays the list rate.

How much does a shop in Cameroon pay each month?

Take an online shop in Douala: one WhatsApp number, customers in Cameroon (+237, so "Rest of Africa") and a WhatsApp Business Account billed in euros. Every month it sends 1,000 order notifications, 200 login codes and 400 free-form replies to customer questions.

The 1,600 outbound messages exceed the Starter allowance (500 per number per month) and fit easily in Growth (5,000). Stay on monthly billing: on a yearly plan, the Growth allowance currently covers the whole year, and those 5,000 messages would run out in just over three months at this pace. On a WhatsApp account billed in dollars, the same Meta fees are 1,200 × $0.004 = $4.80.

Add a monthly promotion to 2,000 customers as a marketing template: 2,000 × €0.0186 = €37.20, about 24,402 FCFA more on the Meta side. That one campaign costs almost ten times the rest of the traffic: marketing is what makes the bill.

Who bills what: Meta or Genuka WA?

Meta bills the messages, directly to the customer's own WhatsApp Business Account and to the payment method the customer added with Meta. Genuka is a Meta Tech Provider, not a BSP: we do not resell messages, we add no markup to them, and there are no credits or wallet to top up.

Genuka WA charges a subscription per WhatsApp number. The base price covers the first number, each extra number costs less, and the plan includes an allowance of outbound messages per number. That allowance caps your sends; it is never billed per message.

The message allowance applies per billing period: one month on a monthly plan. On a yearly plan it currently covers the whole year and is not multiplied by twelve, so for a steady monthly volume, choose monthly billing.

The same tiers exist in euros and dollars, on a price list of their own: €19, €49 and €149 (or $19, $49 and $149) a month, or 15, 39 and 119 a month paid yearly. Every account starts with a 7-day free trial of the Growth tier, no card required. The subscription is paid by mobile money (Genuka Pay in Cameroon, pawaPay in the other CFA franc countries we cover) or by card (Stripe).

Details are on the pricing grid, in Plans & billing and, for an AI agent, in /pricing.md.

How do I check what Meta charges me?

{
  "type": "message_status",
  "field": "messages",
  "data": {
    "id": "wamid.HBgLMjM3...",
    "status": "delivered",
    "pricing": {
      "billable": true,
      "pricing_model": "PMP",
      "type": "regular",
      "category": "utility"
    }
  }
}

curl "https://wa.genuka.com/api/v1/analytics?kind=pricing&connectionId=con_1&start=2026-10-01&dimensions=PRICING_CATEGORY,COUNTRY" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $GENUKA_WA_API_KEY"

{
  "data": {
    "kind": "pricing",
    "source": "meta",
    "granularity": "DAILY",
    "points": [
      {
        "start": 1790812800,
        "end": 1790899200,
        "day": "2026-10-01",
        "volume": 48,
        "cost": { "available": true, "amount": 0.1584 },
        "dimensions": { "pricing_category": "UTILITY", "country": "CM" }
      }
    ],
    "days": [
      {
        "day": "2026-10-01",
        "totals": { "volume": 48, "cost": { "available": true, "amount": 0.1584 } },
        "points": ["…"]
      }
    ]
  },
  "window": { "start": "2026-10-01T00:00:00.000Z", "end": "2026-10-08T09:00:00.000Z" },
  "truncated": false,
  "archivedDays": 8,
  "costAvailable": true,
  "retentionDays": 365
}

How do I lower my WhatsApp bill?

• Reply inside the 24-hour window. Up to 1,000 free-form replies per number per month cost nothing.
• Target your campaigns. Marketing costs 5.6 times utility in "Rest of Africa": 500 interested customers beat 5,000 random recipients.
• Bring customers in through Click to WhatsApp ads. If you reply within 24 hours, the conversation that follows is free for as long as the free entry point window stays open.
• In the CFA zone, prefer a WhatsApp account billed in euros. The fixed parity makes the cost in CFA francs predictable, bank fees aside; a dollar account follows the exchange rate. Decide when the account is created: a coexistence account cannot switch currency later.

FAQ

Are WhatsApp Business messages free in Africa?

Not all of them. Messages your customers send you are free, and so are the first 1,000 free-form replies on each number every month. Templates — marketing, utility, authentication — are charged from the first delivered message, including inside the 24-hour window since October 1, 2026, except inside a free entry point window opened by a Click to WhatsApp ad.

How much does a WhatsApp OTP cost in Cameroon?

€0.0033 per delivered code on an account billed in euros, about 2.16 CFA francs, or $0.004 on a dollar account. The rate is the same in every "Rest of Africa" country. Creating an authentication template does, however, require the business to have completed one of Meta's scaling paths, usually business verification.

Does Genuka WA take a commission on messages?

No. Meta bills messages directly to your WhatsApp Business Account, at Meta's rates, with no markup from Genuka. Genuka WA only charges a subscription per number, from 5,000 FCFA (€19) a month, or 3,000 FCFA a month paid yearly.

Why did my Meta bill go up in October 2026?

Since October 1, 2026, Meta charges service messages beyond 1,000 per number per month, and utility templates sent inside the 24-hour window, which used to be free. Rates also went up in Morocco, which left the "Rest of Africa" group, and for utility and authentication in South Africa.

Does the price depend on my country or my customer's?

Your customer's: Meta applies the rate of their number's calling code. A business in Abidjan messaging a Nigerian customer (+234) pays the Nigeria rate.

Sources

• Meta, Pricing on the WhatsApp Business Platform, page updated September 30, 2026, and its USD and EUR rate cards "effective October 1, 2026" (download links in the Rate cards and volume tiers section).
• Meta, Upcoming pricing updates for Meta Business Agent, service and utility messages, page updated September 28, 2026.
• Meta, Authentication-international rates.
• Meta, Change billing currency via API, page updated June 23, 2026 (coexistence accounts are not eligible).
• Meta, Template categorization, page updated September 15, 2026 (automatic category updates).
• Meta, Messaging limits.
• Meta, Error codes (code 131042).
• Meta, Analytics (pricing_analytics).
• BCEAO, Histoire du franc CFA (parity €1 = 655.957 FCFA).
• French Treasury, Les principes et modalités de fonctionnement de la coopération monétaire (the same fixed parity for the West and Central African CFA francs, in French).
• 360dialog, Authentication messages (requirements for authentication templates).
• Genuka WA, Plans & billing, /pricing.md, error 141010 and WhatsApp API without Meta verification.