Table Comparison:
| Feature | Normal WhatsApp | WhatsApp Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| Recognition | Common | Green Tick ✅ |
| Interactive Chat Buttons | No❌ | Yes✅ |
| Cost per conversation | Free of charge | Marketing - $0.086 Utility - $0.02 Authentication - $0.018 Service - $0.022 |
| Banned | Sending more than 300 messages a day is considered spam and can result in a ban | Less likely to be banned and can send messages to up to 10,000 contacts at once. |
| Account Security | Accounts that violate official WhatsApp policies may be permanently blocked. | Accounts will be blocked in extreme cases. Most of the time, it will simply reduce the account’s quality rating and the number of messages sent per day. |
| Application Procedures | All types of merchants can register to use | Only accept legal institutions. |
Conversation-Based Pricing
Charges are applied per conversation, not per individual message sent or received.
Conversations are 24-hour message threads between you and your customers. They are opened and charged when messages you send to customers are delivered. The criteria that determines when a conversation is opened and how it is categorized is explained below.
WhatsApp Business Conversation Categories
- Marketing
- Enables you to achieve a wide range of goals, from generating awareness to driving sales and retargeting customers. Examples include new product, service, or feature announcements, targeted promotions/offers, and cart abandonment reminders.
- Utility
- Enables you to follow-up on user actions or requests. Examples include opt-in confirmation, order/delivery management (e.g., delivery update); account updates or alerts (for example., payment reminder); or feedback surveys.
- Authentication
- Enables you authenticate users with one-time passcodes, potentially at multiple steps in the login process (e.g., account verification, account recovery, integrity challenges).
- Service
- Enables you to resolve customer inquiries.
Opening Conversations
Conversations are opened when you send a template message or free-form message under the following conditions.
Marketing, Utility, and Authentication Conversations
When you send an approved marketing, utility, or authentication template to a customer, we check if an open conversation matching the template’s category already exists between you and the customer. If one exists, no new conversation is opened. If one does not exist, a new conversation of that category is opened, lasting 24 hours.
For example:
- Hour 0: You send a targeted promotion (marketing template message) to a customer. Open marketing conversation not exists between you and the customer, so a marketing conversation lasting 24 hours is opened.
- Hour 4: The customer completes an order on your site, so you send them an order confirmation (utility template message). Open utility conversation not exists between you and the customer, so a utility conversation lasting 24 hours is opened.
- Hour 10: You send a shipment confirmation (utility template message) to the customer. An open utility conversation already exists between you and the customer, so a new utility conversation is not opened.
Service Conversations
A service conversation is opened when a free-form message is delivered to your customer and no open conversation of any category exists between you and the customer.
A customer service window must exist between you and the customer in order to send a free-form message.
For example:
Case 1:
- Hour 0: You send a targeted promotion (marketing template) to a customer. No open marketing conversation exists between you and the customer, so a marketing conversation lasting 24 hours is opened.
- Hour 4: The customer messages you. This opens a customer service window between you and the customer, allowing you to send them free-form messages for the next 24 hours.
- Hour 5: You send a free-form message to the customer. An open conversation (marketing) already exists between you and the customer, so a service conversation is not opened.
- Hour 24: The marketing conversation expires.
Case 2:
- Hour 0: You send a free-form message to the customer. No open conversation exists between you and the customer, so a service conversation is opened, lasting 24 hours.
- Hour 10: The 24-hour customer service window is still open, so you send a second free-form message to the customer. An open service conversation already exists between you and the customer, so a new service conversation is not opened.
Customer Service Windows
When a WhatsApp user messages you, a 24-hour timer called a customer service window starts (or refreshes).
All types of message, except for template messages, can only be sent to a user when a customer service window is open between you and the user.
Conclusion
- What kind of conversation will be opened is based on the messages you send. For example, marketing conversation is opened when marketing template message is send.
- You will be charged when a conversation is opened. However, for the next 24 hours, the messages you send won’t incur any additional charges.
- All kind of conversations lasting for 24 hours.
- Service conversation can only be opened when no other open conversation (Marketing, Utility and Authentication) but a customer service window exist between you and the customer.