WhatsApp will charge businesses for AI chatbots starting October 1

Technology Jul 03, 2026

WhatsApp is changing things up for businesses: Starting October 1, 2026, companies will have to pay to use AI chatbots like ChatGPT or Claude on the platform.
The new price can go as high as $968 for every 10,000 messages sent: way more than the current free setup.
If you stick with Meta's own AI tools, it's noticeably cheaper at $400 to $500 for the same number of messages.

Meta steers businesses toward its AI

This move comes right after WhatsApp rolled out usernames (which got some privacy pushback).
By making third-party bots almost twice as expensive, Meta is putting rival providers at a disadvantage and steering businesses toward its own AI.