How much does a WhatsApp API cost, and which one is the cheapest?

In short: a WhatsApp API has two layers of cost. On Meta's official API, Meta charges for each delivered message at a rate set by the recipient's country and the kind of message, and the provider you connect through adds its own fee, per number, per message or per account. Gateways that run a WhatsApp Web session pay no Meta fees but are not Meta's API, and the cheapest option depends on how many numbers and messages you have.

ZapClaw connects your numbers to Meta's official WhatsApp Cloud API through Coexistence, for one fee per account instead of one per number. The free plan asks for no card.

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Layer one: what Meta charges

Meta's pricing page for the WhatsApp Business Platform, updated on 30 September 2026, lists no subscription and no platform fee: Meta charges per delivered message, by market and by category. That holds on every provider built on Meta's API, and when you use the Cloud API directly with a Meta app of your own.

Meta's list rates per delivered message for a few markets, effective 1 October 2026. Brazil appears twice, from Meta's rate cards in US dollars and in reais:

Recipient's market Marketing Utility, authentication and service (each)
Brazil, in US dollarsUS$ 0.0625US$ 0.0068
Brazil, in reaisR$ 0.3217R$ 0.0350
IndiaUS$ 0.0118US$ 0.0014
MexicoUS$ 0.0397US$ 0.0085
ColombiaUS$ 0.0125US$ 0.0008
ArgentinaUS$ 0.0618US$ 0.0260
North America (region)US$ 0.0250US$ 0.0034
SpainUS$ 0.0707US$ 0.0200
United KingdomUS$ 0.0635US$ 0.0220
GermanyUS$ 0.1365US$ 0.0550

The full rate cards, in several currencies, are linked from the rate cards section of Meta's pricing page; open them from there, since the file links expire. Some markets, India among them, also have an authentication-international rate. Some pages about Meta's billing still describe the rules from before 1 October 2026, so this page quotes Meta's developer page only.

Estimate what Meta charges you in a month

Choose the market of your customers' numbers, how many numbers you connect and how many messages of each category you send in a month. The estimate applies Meta's list rates and the free service messages. Only what you send is billed: the messages your customers send you are free.

Meta charges this directly to you; ZapClaw's fee is separate.

In US dollars, from Meta's rate card in US dollars.

Category Estimate
Marketing templates
1,000 × US$ 0.0250
 US$ 25.00
Utility templates
2,000 × US$ 0.0034
 US$ 6.80
Authentication templates
500 × US$ 0.0034
 US$ 1.70
Service replies above the free ones
2,000 × US$ 0.0034
 US$ 6.80
Total for the month US$ 40.30

Service replies. Each business phone number gets 1,000 free service messages a month, so the estimate bills only the replies above 1,000 times the numbers connected.

Volume tiers. Utility and authentication messages get lower rates above monthly volumes that vary by market, so this estimate, which uses list rates, can be higher than Meta's bill. Authentication messages sent to India or Indonesia by a business outside that country have a separate authentication-international rate, which the estimate leaves out.

Rates checked on 19 October 2026 on Meta's pricing page, effective 1 October 2026.

Layer two: what each provider charges

Each provider's own fee as its pricing page showed it on 14 October 2026, in the currency it publishes. On Meta's official API, Meta's fees above come on top, whichever provider you choose.

Provider How it connects Pricing model Entry price, as published Free plan or trial Messages in the provider's fee Coexistence
On Meta's official API
Meta Cloud API, directly Your own Meta app, on Meta's Cloud API Meta's fees per delivered message, nothing else No platform fee on Meta's pricing page 1,000 service messages per number each month, and the free entry point window Every delivered message is billed, after the free tiers Only for a Solution Partner or Tech Provider, per Meta
360dialog Meta's official API Per number Regular: € 49 per number a month (US$ 59 in its docs); Premium € 99 Sandbox: up to 200 messages, to your own number only No per-message fee from 360dialog; Meta's fees are paid from a prepaid balance per number Yes, per its docs
Dualhook Meta's official API Per plan, by connections: 1, 5, 10 or 25 Developer: US$ 12 a month for 1 connection; Team US$ 25, Agency US$ 45, Enterprise US$ 99 14-day free trial Lists “unlimited webhook deliveries” and no per-message markup Yes, per its site
Evo Hub Meta's official API, through what it calls a proxy to Meta's API Per plan, by channels (WhatsApp, Instagram or Facebook): 3 to 100, plus extra channels Starter: R$ 97.00 a month for 3 channels; up to R$ 2,497.00 for 100 Not covered here Not covered here Not covered here
Kapso Meta's official API, through Embedded Signup Per account, with a number cap (1, 3 or 50) and extra numbers at US$ 10 on Pro, US$ 5 on Platform Free US$ 0; Pro US$ 25 a month; Platform US$ 299 Free plan: 2,000 messages a month, 1 number, no card, US$ 2 welcome credit 2,000, 100,000 or 1,000,000 a month by plan, sent and received; then US$ 0.002 (Pro) or US$ 0.001 (Platform) per message Yes, per its docs
Twilio Meta's official API, through Twilio's messaging API Per message, sent or received US$ 0.005 per message, plus US$ 0.001 per failed message Free trial without a card, with 100 WhatsApp messages; a Sandbox for testing None included: every message is billed Not mentioned in its docs; its migration guide says the number leaves the WhatsApp Business app
YCloud Meta's official API Per plan, by channels; extra channels US$ 5 a month each Free US$ 0 (2 channels); Growth US$ 52 a month, or US$ 39 a month billed yearly (US$ 468) Free plan with no end date, 2 channels Not capped by plan, per its site (“unlimited messaging API” on Free) Not covered here; its site links a Coexistence product page
Z-API Omni Meta's official API, through Embedded Signup Per channel; a WhatsApp channel is one WhatsApp Business number R$ 99.99 a month per channel up to 9; Partner R$ 89.99 from 10 Not covered here Not covered here Yes, per its docs
ZapClaw Meta's official API, through Embedded Signup Per account; unlimited numbers on the paid plans Business: US$ 29 a month; Agency US$ 49 Free plan with no end date: 1 number, 500 messages a month, no card 20,000 a month on Business for all numbers, sent and received; then from US$ 0.90 per 1,000 Yes
On a WhatsApp Web session
Uazapi WhatsApp session, linked by QR code or pairing code Per device up to 10, then server tiers R$ 29 a month for 1 device; R$ 19.00 per device up to 10; LITE R$ 138 up to 100; PRO R$ 195 up to 300 A test after you log in; 7-day satisfaction guarantee “Envio de mensagens ilimitado” (unlimited sending) Not applicable: not Meta's API
WaSenderAPI Links your WhatsApp account by QR code Per plan, by numbers: 1, 3, 6 or 10 Basic: US$ 6 a month for 1 number; Pro US$ 15, Plus US$ 30, Business US$ 45 3-day free trial “No Daily Message Cap” Not applicable: not Meta's API
Whapi.Cloud Linked-device session Per WhatsApp number, with discounts for several US$ 29 a month per number, shown to a visitor in the United States; R$ 49 shown in Brazil Free sandbox (5 active conversations a month, 150 messages a day); 5-day trial of the paid plan “Unlimited messaging & media”; no per-message fees Not applicable: not Meta's API
Z-API (QR code) WhatsApp Web session, linked by QR code Per instance Ultimate: R$ 99.99 a month per instance; Partner R$ 89.99 from 10 2-day trial, no card “Sem limite de mensagens” (no message limit) Not applicable: not Meta's API

Prices are shown as each vendor publishes them, never converted. ZapClaw's follow where you are: reais in Brazil, US dollars elsewhere. “Not covered here” marks a point this page did not check. Several providers price larger volumes on request, among them 360dialog, Kapso, YCloud, WaSenderAPI and Whapi.Cloud.

How to read the table

Four ways of charging sit side by side:

Below, the provider's monthly fee for 1, 5 and 20 numbers, worked out from the list prices in the table. Assumptions: monthly billing, the cheapest listed plan or combination that covers the numbers, traffic within each plan's allowance, no discount on request, and Meta's fees left out, because they depend on what you send and where.

YCloud is left out of the 5 and 20 counts because this page did not record how many channels its paid plans include (each extra channel is US$ 5 a month). Twilio charges by message instead: 20,000 messages a month, sent and received, come to US$ 100 in Twilio fees, plus US$ 0.001 per failed message and Meta's fees.

Then count the messages. ZapClaw Business includes 20,000 a month for all numbers together, sent and received, and bills the extra from US$ 0.90 per 1,000, down to US$ 0.55 above 200,000. Kapso includes 100,000 on Pro and 1,000,000 on Platform, also counting sent and received. Z-API's QR-code product, Uazapi, Whapi.Cloud and WaSenderAPI advertise unlimited messages or no daily cap. On Meta's API, “unlimited” in a provider's plan describes the provider's fee only: Meta's fees still apply.

Where ZapClaw is not the cheapest. For one number, WaSenderAPI, Dualhook and Uazapi list less than either of ZapClaw's two price lists, Kapso Pro lists less than ZapClaw's dollar price and includes five times the messages, and Kapso's and YCloud's free plans are larger than ZapClaw's. At five numbers Uazapi still lists less, and Dualhook's Team plan lists less than ZapClaw's dollar price. Uazapi's server tiers, with unlimited sending, stay low as the numbers grow, on a WhatsApp session rather than Meta's API.

Where ZapClaw's model fits. The fee is the same whether you connect 2 numbers or 200, on Meta's official API with Coexistence, so it suits many numbers with moderate traffic each, such as an agency's clients or a business with several branches. The Agency plan includes 3 isolated clients and 60,000 messages a month for US$ 49. ZapClaw does not fit bulk broadcasting, more than 20 messages per second, groups, or voice and video calls: none of that is supported under Coexistence, and the limit is Meta's.

What the price does not show

Compared one by one: ZapClaw vs Uazapi, ZapClaw vs 360dialog, ZapClaw vs Twilio, ZapClaw vs Z-API, ZapClaw vs Evolution API and official and unofficial WhatsApp APIs compared. Moving a number that is already on another provider: see how. Self-hosted Chatwoot: connect it to the official API.

Questions

What is the cheapest WhatsApp API?

None is cheapest in every case, and on Meta's official API Meta's fees come on top of any of them. From the list prices above:

Do I pay Meta's fees on every provider?

On every provider built on Meta's official API, yes: Meta charges per delivered message, whoever sends it. What differs is how the fee reaches you. On ZapClaw, Meta bills you directly and ZapClaw adds no markup. 360dialog collects Meta's fees through a prepaid balance per number and states it adds no markup; Twilio says it passes them through; Kapso says they pass through “at cost, with no markup”; YCloud advertises “Zero Mark-up”; Dualhook says Meta's fees are separate, with “no per-message markup from Dualhook”. Z-API's QR-code product, Uazapi, Whapi.Cloud and WaSenderAPI pay no Meta fees, because they do not use Meta's API.

Why do WhatsApp API prices differ by country?

For two reasons. Meta sets its rate by the recipient's market: a marketing message costs US$ 0.0118 to a number in India and US$ 0.1365 to one in Germany at list rates, and Meta publishes its rate cards in several currencies. Some providers also set their own price by region: Whapi.Cloud showed US$ 29 a month to a visitor in the United States and R$ 49 in Brazil, ZapClaw has one price list in reais for customers billed in Brazil and one in US dollars for everyone else, and 360dialog bills its subscription in euros or US dollars only.

Does ZapClaw charge per number?

No. ZapClaw charges per account: the paid plans take unlimited numbers for one fee, and Business includes 20,000 messages a month shared by all of them, sent and received together. The free plan has 1 number. Meta's fees are separate, billed by Meta directly to you. Details on the pricing page.

Sources

Checked on 14 October 2026, and Meta's rates again on 19 October 2026. Prices change: confirm each one on the vendor's own page before you decide.