For Kenyan businesses that have turned WhatsApp into a customer-service lifeline, every reply could soon come with a price tag.
Kenyan businesses using the WhatsApp Business Platform will begin paying Meta for certain service messages from October 1, 2026, ending the current free arrangement after businesses exhaust a monthly allowance.
Under Meta’s new pricing structure, each business phone number will receive 1,000 delivered service messages free every month, after which businesses in Kenya will pay approximately KSh0.52 for every additional delivered service message.
Service messages include customer support responses and transactional communications such as order confirmations and updates. The change is expected to affect businesses that rely heavily on WhatsApp to communicate with customers.
However, the change applies to businesses using the WhatsApp Business Platform/API, rather than the standard free WhatsApp Business app.
The new charges could force businesses with high customer interaction volumes to reconsider how they manage support, orders and other communications through the platform.
