Kenyan businesses that use WhatsApp to keep in touch with customers will have to dig deeper into their pockets from October, after Meta announced a new charge on messages sent in response to customer enquiries.
The company will charge Sh0.52 for every delivered message sent through WhatsApp Business, with the new fee taking effect on October 1. The charge is equivalent to $0.0040 per message and will apply to utility messages sent by businesses while the 24-hour customer service window is still open.
The same rate will apply to businesses in Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda. In other major African markets, the charges will vary, with businesses in Nigeria paying Sh0.87 per message, South Africa Sh0.98 and Egypt Sh0.47.
"From October 1, 2026, Meta will charge for utility messages sent in response to users within an open 24-hour customer service window. These messages have not been charged for since July 1, 2025," Meta announced.
Meta explained that the 24-hour period begins whenever a customer sends a message, meaning the window is based on the time of each individual user message.
The new pricing will not affect customers who contact businesses seeking information. Instead, the cost will be passed to businesses, and Meta said it will only charge for messages that are successfully delivered to the intended recipient.
WhatsApp Business is a separate version of WhatsApp aimed at small businesses and provides tools that help them manage communication with customers.
Among the features available on the platform are product catalogues, automated responses and broadcast messaging. Larger companies can also access paid API services that support large volumes of messages and can connect WhatsApp with customer relationship management (CRM) systems.
Meta has divided business messages into two main groups, service and utility messages.
Service messages are responses sent by businesses after customers raise questions or make enquiries. Utility messages, on the other hand, provide customers with updates about transactions or orders, including confirmation that a payment has been made.
Businesses can respond to customer questions through their own customer service staff, while service messages can also be generated by third-party artificial intelligence (AI) tools.
The two categories have remained free since WhatsApp Business was launched in 2018. However, Meta has already been charging companies that use the platform to market their products and services.
In Kenya, promotional or marketing messages currently attract a charge of $0.0225, equivalent to about Sh3. The same type of message costs Sh7 in Nigeria, Sh5 in South Africa and Sh8 in Egypt.
Meta currently charges businesses for marketing messages as well as messages sent through its Business Agent service.
The company launched Meta Business Agent in June as an AI assistant built into its platforms, including Messenger and Instagram. The tool is designed to handle customer service and sales conversations around the clock.
Business Agent can respond to questions from customers, suggest products, negotiate prices, arrange appointments and hand conversations over to human employees where necessary.
The AI service charges businesses according to the number of tokens used. Meta's global rate is $2, or about Sh259, for one million tokens.
A normal message generally uses between 20,000 and 25,000 tokens, putting the cost at about five US cents, or Sh6, per message. Messages requiring simple answers use fewer tokens, while more detailed responses consume more and cost more.
A customer asking, "What time does your Nairobi CBD branch open?" could receive a response through four messages. Such an exchange could consume up to 80,000 tokens, translating to $0.16, or about Sh21.
A longer conversation where a customer is guided through choosing and buying products from an online catalogue could require about 10 messages. That interaction could consume approximately 250,000 tokens and cost as much as $0.50, or about Sh65.
The changes will be closely felt by small businesses in Kenya, where thousands of enterprises use WhatsApp Business as their main channel for communicating with customers.
Many businesses rely on automatic replies to handle routine enquiries, including questions about opening hours. Others use the platform to provide customers with links to their product catalogues and other business information.
Meta has given businesses a deadline to prepare for the new charges and warned that those who fail to provide a payment method could lose access to service messaging.
"Any businesses that do not have a payment method on file by September 30 will have their service messages stopped on October 1," Meta said.