Under the new pricing model, businesses will pay about Ksh0.52 per delivered service message in Kenya, based on Meta's October rate card. Service messages will be charged after a free allowance of 1,000 delivered service messages per business phone number each month.

🇰🇪 Breaking It Down

Marketing messages will cost significantly more, at about Ksh3.20 to KSh3.30 per delivered message, although marketing messages are already subject to per-message charges and are not part of the new October 1 change in Kenya.

The changes extend Meta's shift towards per-message pricing, which had already introduced charges for business-initiated marketing, utility and authentication template messages.

From October, service replies sent after customers initiate conversations will also become chargeable once the monthly free allowance is exhausted.

📌 What You Need to Know

Previously, certain utility and service messages sent within the 24-hour customer-service window could be delivered without a Meta messaging charge. From October 1, however, service messages within the window will be subject to the new pricing after the 1,000-message free allowance, while utility template messages sent within the window will also become chargeable and will not receive the 1,000-message free allowance.

However, the treatment depends on the type of message, with free-form service replies covered by the 1,000-message monthly allowance, while utility templates sent within the 24-hour window will be charged at the applicable utility rate.

For example, a company sending 10,000 chargeable service messages in Kenya would pay approximately KSh4,680 after the first 1,000 free messages, assuming the KSh0.52 rate applies.

The cost of 10,000 marketing messages would remain roughly KSh32,000 to KSh33,000, based on the applicable marketing rate, since marketing messages were already chargeable.

Similarly, businesses using third-party software or Business Solution Providers may pay more than Meta's listed rates because those providers can charge their own fees or mark-ups. Meta's charges also apply only to successfully delivered messages, meaning failed or undelivered messages are not billed.

📰 Source: Kenyans.co.ke