WhatsApp to Charge Kenyan Businesses for Messages: Meta will start charging Kenyan businesses for service messages sent through the WhatsApp Business Platform from 1st October 2026. The move ends the free treatment of replies sent within the 24-hour customer service window. Businesses will pay $0.0040 (about Sh0.52) per delivered message for utility and service responses. Marketing messages remain more expensive at around Sh3 each. The charges apply only to businesses using the WhatsApp Business Platform or API for large-scale communication. Ordinary users and those on the standard WhatsApp Business app are not affected. Companies that fail to add a payment method by 30th September risk having their service messages stopped. The change is expected to raise operating costs for banks, retailers, e-commerce firms, airlines and many SMEs that rely heavily on WhatsApp for customer support and order updates.
1
1
