1.1 Pricing inside the service window

What changes

From October 1, 2026, the free-form replies you send inside the 24-hour window are billed per message.

Here's the pricing object on a support reply, before and after:

"pricing": {-  "billable": false,+  "billable": true,  "pricing_model": "PMP",-  "type": "free_customer_service",+  "type": "regular",  "category": "service"}

The free_customer_service type from Chapter 0.5 stops being how your support replies come back. The category doesn't move, which is easy to miss. If you count billable messages by category, service has been there all along, always free, and from October it's billed.

There is a second change: utility templates delivered inside the customer service window become billable again. Meta has not charged for these since July 1, 2025. Marketing and authentication templates were already billed per delivered message; utility now follows them whether the window is open or closed.

What doesn't change

• Inbound is still free. However many messages customers send you, they cost nothing.
• The window still works the same way. It governs what you can send. It no longer makes what you send free.
• Marketing and authentication templates keep their existing billing behavior. Utility templates are the exception: the open window stops making them free.
• Ads entry points still open a free window. A conversation that starts from a click-to-WhatsApp ad keeps its 72-hour window where replies are free, billed as free_entry_point rather than as service. If much of your volume starts from ads, your exposure is smaller than your reply count suggests.

The published rates

Meta's October card is now published. Service messages use the same per-message list price as utility and authentication for the recipient's market. There is no separate service row on the card: use its utility value.

Nine countries become standalone pricing markets on October 1: Bangladesh, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Morocco, Nepal, Oman, Sri Lanka and Ukraine. Each also receives a published authentication-international rate. Chapter 0.4 shows the October card and map.

What determines your exposure

How much of this reaches your bill comes down to how many outbound messages you send inside the window. It's largest for three profiles:

• Support-heavy businesses. Long human conversations, many turns each.
• Automated agents. An AI assistant that asks clarifying questions can take ten or fifteen turns to resolve something, and from October each of those turns is billed.
• Split messages. Sending three short messages instead of one long one has been a free style choice. From October it's three charges instead of one.

If you're almost entirely outbound marketing or authentication templates with little back-and-forth, the change may barely register. Utility templates sent as replies still belong in the estimate. The next chapter is how to put a number on it, whichever profile you are.