Conversations
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The WhatsApp API pricing model is based on conversations. This means that businesses pay per conversation, which includes all messages interchanged within a 24-hour period.
There are two types of conversations on the WhatsApp Business API, each with different rates:
User-initiated: A conversation that initiates in response to a user message. Any time a business replies to a user within the 24-hour customer service window, that message will be associated with a user-initiated conversation.
Business-initiated: A conversation that initiates from a business sending a user a message outside the 24-hour customer service window.
The conversation starts when the first business message in a conversation is delivered. However, the conversation type will be defined once a message has been sent by the business.
All conversations are measured in 24-hour increments or “sessions”, as we’ll refer to them here. A session starts whenever the first message is sent by a business, either in response to a user inquiry or if a business-initiated message template is delivered.
The policy requires the use of a template message whenever sending a message to a user more than 24 hours after their last message. So, a new session begins.
If you send a free-form message outside the customer support window, you are not following the policy, so the delivery of this message will fail. However, it opens a business-initiated conversation that might be charged.
If the user sends a message back (replies) within 24 hours of the failed delivery, this conversation will be charged as business-initiated. Because, although the free-form message was not delivered, it was sent by the business.
Please note that conversations rules are different and independent from customer service windows, which are used to understand if the business can send a free-form message or a template message.
See the example below for more details:
