Effective February 1, 2023, Meta will complete the transition of the pricing model from a model that considered the number of templates submitted by a company to a model based on the number of conversations a company has with its customers during a calendar month.
This means that, if until now the cost for using a WhatsApp Business API official account was based on how many templates (pre-approved message templates by WhatsApp) were sent by the company, while the conversations by customers were free, starting from February 2023 all WhatsApp Business API lines will be charged for both inbound and outbound conversations. A different cost per call will be applied per country (based on the integration prefix of each WhatsApp number).
A "conversation" is defined as a 24-hour time window that is opened from the moment the customer or business sends the first message: once the conversation has started, the next charge will take place if the customer or business decides to continue the conversation once 24 hours have passed since the first message.
How does this change impact Callbell's pricing model?
If you have had the opportunity to acquire our platform, you probably know that, as a business, we have always wanted to apply a simple and defined pricing model for our customers, trying to avoid in any way a pricing that included a variable cost, and in part assuming , like Callbell, the cost generated by WhatsApp. We are still convinced that for a small / medium-sized company, this has been a winning model over time that has allowed us to streamline our sales process, preventing our customers from entering deeply into the complex pricing system applied by Meta.
As of today, January 2023, our pricing model must also change, as the new pricing structure of WhatsApp (Meta) makes this model unsustainable for our company. Also, with the release of our public API, which automates the sending of a significant volume of messages, we are unable to control the volume of conversations handled in each account: for some clients with a high volume of conversations, this model of pricing would generate an operating loss for Callbell, which would find itself having to bear a higher cost than that paid for the use of our system.
What changes will take effect from February 2023?
The changes to our pricing effective from February 1, 2023, have the purpose of compensating, only where necessary, the cost difference between the part of the plan that serves to cover the use of the WhatsApp API channel (50 EUR between 1 and 10 agents, 100 EUR between 11 and 20 agents etc…) and the cost invoiced by WhatsApp based on the number of conversations managed by your company. This means that, if your company consumes a higher budget than the one actually paid to Callbell for the WhatsApp Business API integration, the difference in excess consumption from the previous month will be invoiced at the beginning of the calendar month.
How do I know if my company will be impacted by the pricing change?
If your company manages a volume of less than 2000 monthly conversations on WhatsApp (3000 in the case of 10-20 agents, 4000 in the case of 20-30 agents), it will not be impacted by the pricing change (of the +2500 companies active on our platform , to date, only 72 will be impacted by this change). This is because Callbell, in most cases, is in a position to bear and deal with the cost invoiced by WhatsApp for using your line.
In the event that your company is impacted by the pricing change, you will be notified by our support team and, on every first working day of the month, starting from March 2023, you will find, in the "billing" section of your account Callbell, the invoice of the relative charge, which will show the detail of the total excess cost incurred by Callbell for the management of your WhatsApp account. Our team will provide you with an estimate of your consumption during the month of December 2022 / January 2023, so that you can consider the budget necessary to cover any cost difference.
We know that this situation can change the cards on the table and, for this reason, if your company decides not to continue with our service, it must notify us via this form by 02/20/2023. In this case, Callbell will guarantee the service until the next renewal date and you will receive the necessary support to migrate to another provider in order to continue using your WhatsApp Business API account (each provider will be affected by the same pricing change) .
For any doubts, questions or perplexities, you can contact us on our WhatsApp number; our team will answer all your questions, organizing a possible call to go into detail about the change.
Thanking you in advance for your understanding, we take this opportunity to wish you a happy 2023.
Cordial greetings,
The Callbell team
Resources
Meta Pricing for WhatsApp Business API
What is meant by BIC (Business Initiated Conversation) and UIC (User initiated Conversation)?