Many ecommerce brands start with the free WhatsApp Business app on one phone. It works, until the volume grows: several people need to answer, order questions pile up, and someone asks for a campaign to 5,000 customers. At that point the question is no longer "should we use WhatsApp?" but "which WhatsApp?".
This guide explains the two official options Meta offers, what each one allows, how the 24-hour customer service window and templates work, how Meta charges (including the change on October 1, 2026), and how coexistence lets you keep the app on the same number. Everything that changes over time is stated as of September 2026, with links to Meta's own documentation at the end.
The two ways to run WhatsApp as a business
Meta offers businesses two products:
- The WhatsApp Business app. A free app for Android and iPhone, built for small businesses that answer customers by hand.
- The WhatsApp Business Platform. Meta's programmatic access to WhatsApp, usually called "the API". You rarely use it directly. You reach it through software that connects to it on your behalf, such as a helpdesk, a marketing tool or a Business Solution Provider (BSP).
They are not two tiers of the same product. They are different tools with different rules, and the right choice depends on how many conversations you have, how many people answer them, and what you want to automate.
What the WhatsApp Business app does well
Meta's feature page for the app lists, among others:
- A business profile with your logo, description, hours and website.
- Greeting and away messages that go out automatically.
- Quick replies for answers you send often, and labels to organize chats.
- A catalog, catalog links and a cart, so customers can browse and send you an order.
- Business broadcasts, private one-to-one messages to several contacts, with scheduling and insights.
- Linked devices: up to 10 devices and agents on one account.
- Ads that click to WhatsApp, and Meta Verified.
For a shop with one or two people answering, this is often enough. The limits show up as the business grows:
- Everything is manual. There is no connection to your order data. To answer "where is my order?", someone has to open Shopify, find the order and copy the tracking link.
- No real integrations. The app does not connect to your helpdesk, your CRM or your own systems.
- Reporting is basic. It is hard to know response times, who answered what, or which messages led to orders.
What the WhatsApp Business Platform adds
The Platform is built for volume and for software. With it you can:
- Answer from a shared inbox where several people, or an AI agent, work the same number.
- Connect store data, so replies use real order, shipping and product information.
- Send template messages at scale: order updates, reminders and campaigns to people who opted in.
- Automate with flows and bots, and receive every message and delivery status through webhooks.
It comes with rules the app does not have: the customer service window, approved templates, per-message pricing and messaging limits. The next sections cover each one.
One practical point before you start: Meta's documentation says numbers already in use with WhatsApp cannot be registered on the Platform unless they are deleted first. If your number is on the WhatsApp Business app today, that is where coexistence (below) matters.
The 24-hour customer service window
This is the rule that shapes everything else on the Platform.
When a customer messages or calls you, a 24-hour customer service window opens. While it is open you can send any type of message: free text, images, documents, buttons. Every new message from the customer resets the timer to 24 hours.
When the window closes, you can only send pre-approved template messages. That is why a slow first reply costs more than time: if a customer writes on Friday night and nobody answers until Monday, your reply has to be a template.
Templates and their three categories
A template is a message you write in advance, submit to Meta, and reuse with variables (a name, an order number, a link). Templates are reviewed automatically when you create or edit them. Every template belongs to one of three categories, and the category decides the price and the rules.
| Category | What it is for | Typical ecommerce use |
|---|---|---|
| Marketing | Awareness, sales, retargeting | Launches, offers, new arrivals, win-back messages |
| Utility | Following up on something the customer did or asked for | Order confirmation, shipping update, return received |
| Authentication | Verifying identity | One-time codes at login or checkout |
Two rules matter in practice:
- A utility template has to stay utility. It must contain no promotional language and must be specific to the user (their order, their account) or essential. If you add a discount to a shipping update, Meta treats the whole template as marketing.
- Marketing needs consent and restraint. WhatsApp may limit how many marketing templates a person receives from all businesses, based on how likely they are to engage, and users can stop marketing messages from your business in the chat. We cover consent in detail in our guide to WhatsApp marketing consent.
How pricing works, as of September 2026
Meta has charged per delivered message since July 1, 2025. Before that, it charged per 24-hour conversation. The rate depends on the message category and on the recipient's market. Meta publishes rate cards by country; check them before you budget, because rates change several times a year.
Until September 30, 2026
- Marketing templates: charged on every delivery.
- Utility templates: charged outside the customer service window, free inside it.
- Authentication templates: charged outside the window.
- Service messages (your non-template replies inside the window): free.
From October 1, 2026
Meta announced two changes:
- Service messages become paid, charged per message at the same rate as utility and authentication messages in that market. Meta offers no volume tiers for service messages.
- Utility templates inside the window also become paid, at the utility rate.
In practice, from October every reply your team or your AI agent sends has a cost, even inside the window. The cost now scales with how many messages each conversation takes. Clear, complete answers are cheaper than five short ones.
What stays free or cheaper
- Free entry points. When a customer starts a chat from an ad that clicks to WhatsApp or from a Facebook Page call-to-action button, and you reply within 24 hours, a 72-hour window opens. Meta states that messages in that window remain free for delivery after October 1.
- Volume tiers. Utility and authentication rates drop as monthly volume grows. Tiers reset every month and are counted across all WhatsApp Business Accounts in your business portfolio.
- Messages you send from the WhatsApp Business app on a coexistence number stay free, according to Meta's coexistence documentation (see below).
Messaging limits
Separately from price, Meta limits how many unique people you can message outside the customer service window in a rolling 24 hours. The limit is set per business portfolio and shared by all its numbers. New portfolios start at 250; the next levels are 2,000, 10,000, 100,000 and unlimited. You can move up by verifying your business, by having a partner verify it, or by delivering 2,000 messages outside the window to unique users in 30 days with high-quality templates.
Replies inside the window do not count toward this limit. It matters for campaigns and template notifications, not for replies to customers who wrote to you.
Coexistence: the app and the Platform on one number
Without coexistence, the choice is binary: keep the number in the app, or move it to the Platform. Coexistence removes that trade-off. With it, a business can connect its existing WhatsApp Business app account and number to the Platform and use both at once.
According to Meta's documentation:
- History: chats from the most recent 6 months can be synchronized, if the business confirms sharing its chat history during onboarding.
- Contacts and new messages are synchronized, and messages are mirrored between the app and the Platform.
- Throughput is fixed at 20 messages per second on a coexistence number.
- Some features are switched off: group chats are not supported, broadcast lists are disabled, and disappearing messages, view-once messages and live location are turned off for one-to-one chats.
- Pricing is split: messages sent from the app stay free; messages sent through the Platform follow Platform pricing.
- Keep the phone active. Meta lists inactivity of the primary device for about 14 days as a reason for disconnection.
Coexistence is set up through a Meta partner using Embedded Signup, and needs a recent version of the WhatsApp Business app. It suits brands that want to keep answering from the phone (in a store, for example) while the rest of the team and the automation run on the Platform.
How to choose
There is no single threshold. Use these signals:
| Signal | App is usually enough | Move to the Platform |
|---|---|---|
| Conversations per day | A few dozen, answered by one or two people | More than one person can handle in the day |
| Who answers | The owner or a small team on phones | A team with shifts, roles and an inbox |
| Order questions | Occasional, looked up by hand | Frequent "where is my order?" and return questions |
| Campaigns | Occasional, small lists | Regular campaigns to opted-in audiences |
| Automation | Greeting and away messages | AI replies, flows, follow-ups |
| Measurement | Not needed | Response times, quality, orders after a campaign |
If you are in between, coexistence gives you a way to move without losing your history or the phone workflow your team knows.
A checklist before you move
- Decide who owns the number. Use a number the company controls, not a personal line.
- Verify your business with Meta. It raises messaging limits and lets you register more numbers (new portfolios start with two).
- Collect opt-in properly before any marketing template. Write down where and how each person agreed.
- Draft your utility templates first: order confirmation, shipping update, return received. Keep them free of promotions.
- Plan for the window: who answers at night and on weekends, and what happens when nobody can.
- Budget per message from October 1, 2026, using Meta's rate card for each country you sell to.
- Decide on coexistence if you want to keep the app on the same number, and check its limits against how your team works.
How Kanesh fits
Kanesh runs on the official WhatsApp Business Platform: inbox, templates and campaigns, in one place with your Shopify data. If you are weighing the move, our diagnosis looks at your real conversations first. Get your conversation diagnosis.
Sources
All sources accessed on September 29, 2026.
- Meta for Developers, Pricing on the WhatsApp Business Platform (opens in a new tab)
- Meta for Developers, Upcoming pricing updates for Meta Business Agent, service and utility messages (opens in a new tab)
- Meta for Developers, Pricing updates on the WhatsApp Business Platform (opens in a new tab)
- Meta for Developers, Service messages (customer service windows) (opens in a new tab)
- Meta for Developers, Template fundamentals (opens in a new tab)
- Meta for Developers, Template categorization (opens in a new tab)
- Meta for Developers, Per-user marketing template message limits (opens in a new tab)
- Meta for Developers, Messaging limits (opens in a new tab)
- Meta for Developers, Business phone numbers (opens in a new tab)
- Meta for Developers, Onboarding WhatsApp Business app users (coexistence) (opens in a new tab)
- WhatsApp Business, WhatsApp Business app features (opens in a new tab)