The WhatsApp Business Platform is not available for free due to its functionality and focus on data privacy.
There are two ways to use WhatsApp as a communication channel:
If the channel is used exclusively for support requests, the first 1000 user-initiated conversations per month are included. You can find more information about the pricing structure here:
If you want to proactively message your contacts, this is where the WhatsApp Campaigns feature comes into play:
Monthly costs
Userlike offers a WhatsApp channel integration starting from the Team plan. With this plan, you can proactively message up to 100 customers per month (plus conversation costs).
If you want to reach more than 100 customers per month, you need our add-on for unlimited campaign messages. It costs 39€ per month (plus conversation costs).
Conversation costs (transaction fees)
Up to 1,000 "user-initiated" conversations (e.g. support requests) are free each month. Note that this free quota can only be used for support chats, so conversations where a customer contacts you first.
For each "business-initiated" conversation, such as newsletters or sales offers, WhatsApp charges 0.1131€ per conversation in Germany (see pricing table below). In addition, there is a processing fee of 0.01€ for each campaign message.
What counts as a "conversation"?
A paid conversation includes a 24-hour session that begins when the company messages a customer or responds to a customer message. All messages sent and received within this 24-hour service window are covered by the session fee.
How much does a conversation cost?
If you have used up the 1000 inclusive support conversations for the current month, fees will be charged, which vary depending on the country and initiator of the conversation. User-initiated conversations, usually classic support chats, cost around 7 cents in Germany.
WhatsApp divides conversations initiated by the company into three application cases: transactions, authentications, and marketing. Each application case comes with different fees.
In Germany, the costs for a company-initiated conversation are about 6 cents, for an authentication about 5 cents, and for marketing content about 11 cents.
Conversations in different categories can occur in parallel or overlap. For example, if you reply to a support question from a customer at 3 pm, a support conversation opens. If you send them a newsletter at 7 pm, a marketing conversation opens. There are costs for both conversations. You can send as many session messages and support templates as you like until 3 pm the following day, and unlimited session messages and marketing templates until 7 pm the following day.
The current prices worldwide and in different currencies can be found on the meta page.
Cost summary
Userlike Plan: from 90€/month
Add-on for unlimited campaign messages: 39€/month
Transaction fees:
- Customer-initiated messages: 1000 conversations per month for free, then approximately 7 cents per message
- Company-initiated messages: depending on category and country - for Germany between 0.0636€ and 0.1131€ plus 0.01€ processing fee from Userlike per customer reached
- You can find the exact transaction costs here
Example: Let's say you send 2,000 campaign messages in the Marketing category per month. Then the costs are calculated as follows:
39€ + (0.1131€ + 0.01€) x 2,000 = 285.20€/month for pure campaign costs.
In addition, you have to factor in the costs of your Userlike subscription (starting from 90€/month).