Message costs — who bills what, and what stays free

Connecting to EezieLead doesn't change what Meta charges. Here's what Meta bills, what stays free, and what changes on 1 October 2026.

A fair question we hear a lot: "The Business App is free — does connecting to EezieLead mean I now pay for messages?" The honest answer: connecting doesn't change Meta's rates. WhatsApp's message pricing is set by Meta and is the same whether or not you use EezieLead. We never add a message fee of our own and never mark Meta's up.

What costs what

WhatsApp's pricing hinges on Meta's 24-hour customer service window, the 24 hours after a customer's last message to you.

What you're doing	Cost
The AI replying inside the 24-hour window	Free until 30 September 2026, then billed per message by Meta
Replying by hand from your WhatsApp Business App	Free, always
Re-opening a chat after 24 hours (a template message)	Paid, per message

What changes on 1 October 2026

Since November 2024, replies inside the 24-hour window have been free. From 1 October 2026 Meta bills them per message, at the same rates it charges for utility messages, which vary by country.

This applies to every reply sent through the WhatsApp Business Platform, which is the Cloud API your number connects to. It doesn't matter who wrote the reply: Meta's own AI, a third-party assistant like ours, or a person typing in a shared inbox. There is no version of this that only hits automation.

The date has been widely misreported as a charge on every WhatsApp business. It isn't. The free green WhatsApp Business app and the paid Business Platform are two separate products with two separate billing systems, and this change is Platform only. We walk through both in Meta Business Agent pricing.

The free path is still there

This is the part worth knowing, and it's why Coexistence matters more from October than it did before.

Meta's own documentation is explicit that messages you send from the WhatsApp Business App stay free, and that they "do not create, extend, or affect Cloud API conversation windows or Cloud API pricing." Your app messages sit entirely outside the Platform's billing.

So on a connected number you keep two ways to answer, on the same number, at the same time:

Let the AI reply. Instant, around the clock, billed per message by Meta from October.
Pick up your phone and reply in the Business App. Free, always, no template needed.

A business that only ever had the Platform has no free option after October. You do.

Connecting to EezieLead doesn't cost you more

You keep everything that was free about your Business App. Manual one-to-one messages stay free and unlimited — Coexistence doesn't touch them. The only thing that changes is that bulk broadcast lists become read-only (no one-to-many blasts to a saved list). If your business runs on answering customers, you pay nothing extra for connecting; if it runs on mass promotions, weigh that one point.

Who you pay, and where to see the rates

You pay Meta directly for any paid messages, through the payment method on your own WhatsApp Business account (the one you add during signup). EezieLead never bills you for WhatsApp messages and never marks them up. Your EezieLead subscription is separate: it covers the AI service, not your WhatsApp usage.

Rates are set by Meta and vary by country and message type. See Meta's official estimates on the WhatsApp Business Platform pricing page.

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