# How campaign pricing works

> What Meta charges for each campaign message, how Soosh works out the estimated cost before you send, and who bills you.

Source: https://docs.soosh.io/concepts/how-campaign-pricing-works/

Meta charges for each template message that's delivered. The price depends on
the template's category and the customer's country. Soosh shows an estimated
cost before you send, but Meta bills you, not Soosh: messages aren't taken
from your Soosh wallet.

## Why campaigns cost money

WhatsApp belongs to Meta, and Meta sets the price of business messages. Since
July 2025, Meta charges per message: each template message delivered to a
customer has a price. Replies to a customer inside the
[24-hour window](https://docs.soosh.io/concepts/the-24-hour-window/) are free, and so are utility
templates sent while that window is open.

A campaign always sends a template, so its messages are usually charged. The
price of each one depends on:

- **The category.** Marketing costs the most. Utility and authentication cost
  less. See [Template categories](https://docs.soosh.io/concepts/template-categories/).
- **The customer's country.** Meta prices some countries on their own, and
  groups the rest into regions, like "Rest of Asia Pacific". A message to
  Priya in India and one to a customer in Germany cost different amounts.
- **Your volume.** Meta gives volume discounts on some categories.

Meta bills each WhatsApp Business Account in its own currency, from its own
price list for that currency.

> **Cost:** Meta charges for every marketing message delivered, whether or not the
> customer reads it.

## How Soosh estimates the cost

When you add customers to a campaign, the **Add customers** window shows an
**Estimated cost** on its last step, before you click the add button. The campaign page shows it again
under **Check and send**, and the confirmation before sending repeats it.

To work it out, Soosh:

1. Looks at each customer's number to find their country.
2. Counts the messages for each country or region.
3. Multiplies by Meta's rate for the template's category there.

Soosh only counts messages that haven't gone out yet. The prices come from a
copy of Meta's price list that Soosh's administrators keep up to date. The
estimate is in the currency Meta bills your WhatsApp number in.

The estimate is the most the campaign can cost. It leaves out volume
discounts and free messages, and you pay nothing for messages that fail.
Some cases look different:

- **No prices yet.** If Soosh has no price list in your billing currency, it
  says so, like **No INR prices yet**, and shows only the number of messages.
- **Currency not known yet.** If Meta hasn't said which currency it bills
  your number in, the estimate is in US dollars, with a note saying so.
- **Numbers with no price.** Messages to a country with no price on the list
  are left out of the total, and Soosh says how many.

## Who bills you

Meta bills the payment method on your WhatsApp Business Account, which you
manage in Meta's WhatsApp Manager. The bill comes from Meta.

Your Soosh wallet in [**Settings > Wallet**](https://app.soosh.io/settings/wallet) doesn't pay for WhatsApp
messages. Campaigns keep sending whatever its balance is. The wallet pays for
Soosh's AI features. See [How billing works](https://docs.soosh.io/concepts/how-billing-works/).

To see what Meta actually charged, go to
[**Analytics > WhatsApp insights**](https://app.soosh.io/analytics/whatsapp-insights) and open **Pricing**. It shows
the cost by category and country, and how many messages were free.

## What it means for you

- **Check the estimate before you send.** It's the quickest way to spot a
  campaign that's bigger or dearer than you meant.
- **Use the right category.** A marketing template costs more than a utility
  one, but a promotion sent as utility gets rejected or moved to marketing.
- **Send to people who want it.** Smaller, well-chosen audiences, like
  customers tagged *VIP*, cost less and get more replies.
- **Compare with the real bill.** The **Pricing** numbers in WhatsApp
  insights are usually lower than the estimate.

## Related

- [Send a campaign to a tag](https://docs.soosh.io/guides/campaigns/send-a-campaign-to-a-tag/)
- [Read campaign results](https://docs.soosh.io/guides/campaigns/read-campaign-results/)
- [See WhatsApp insights](https://docs.soosh.io/guides/analytics/see-whatsapp-insights/)
- [How billing works](https://docs.soosh.io/concepts/how-billing-works/)
- [Template categories](https://docs.soosh.io/concepts/template-categories/)
- [Marketing opt-out](https://docs.soosh.io/concepts/marketing-opt-out/)