What Meta charges for
Meta moved to charging per delivered template message. The price depends on the category (marketing, utility, authentication) and on the country of the person receiving it. Marketing messages cost more than utility and authentication.
Meta changes its prices and publishes a rate card for each currency. Always take the figures from your own Meta account, not from an article, including this one.
What is free
When a customer messages you, you can reply freely for 24 hours after their last message. Those replies are not billed as template messages, which is why a chatbot answering inbound enquiries costs little in Meta fees.
What the software costs
Software such as ClickCard charges its own plan fee for the inbox, campaigns, chatbot and reports. It is separate from Meta’s per-message charge, which Meta bills to the WhatsApp Business Account you connect. Ask any provider whether it adds a markup to Meta’s rate.
GST may apply on top of both; check your invoices.
Estimating a month
Multiply the messages you expect in each category by the rate on your Meta rate card and add GST. The calculator on this site does the sum and suggests a plan.