A WhatsApp chatbot for a business can be anything from an automatic greeting in the WhatsApp Business app to an AI assistant connected to ’s API. The cost, the work to set it up and what it can do all change. We checked ’s documentation on 23 October 2026 to explain which options exist, what charges per message in Spain and which rules are worth knowing before you start.
Four ways to get a chatbot on WhatsApp
Not every option uses AI, and they do not all cost the same. These are the four usual options:
- The WhatsApp Business app. According to , it offers an automatic greeting for anyone starting a conversation, away messages outside business hours, quick replies and labels. These are fixed texts you write yourself: it is not an AI assistant and does not use the API. If you get few enquiries and they are mostly the same, it may be enough.
- A platform on top of the API. A provider connects the WhatsApp Business Platform API and gives you a flow editor. You pay the platform and, separately, the messages charges for.
- A custom chatbot. An AI assistant that looks up your orders, your catalogue or your documents and replies through the API. A technical team, in-house or external, builds it. It takes the most work and fits your business best.
- Business Agent. offers its own AI agent and, since 1 July 2026, bills its replies in a category of their own. Worth keeping in mind when you compare.
What Meta charges per message in Spain
Since 1 July 2025 charges per delivered message, and only for the ones the business sends. Messages written by the customer cost nothing. This is the euro rate card in force since 1 October 2026:
Five details change the sum:
- Templates (marketing, utility and authentication) are the only thing you can send without the customer having written first. Free-form replies can only be sent inside a 24-hour window that opens and resets with each customer message.
- classifies as “service” any free-form reply that does not come from its own agent, whether a person writes it or a third-party AI solution generates it. For each business phone number, the first 1,000 service messages each month are free.
- If the customer writes to you from an ad that clicks to WhatsApp, it opens a free entry point window that can last up to 7 days. While it is open, does not charge for marketing, utility, authentication or service messages. ’s agent is still charged.
- ’s agent is billed by , at 2 US dollars per million. estimates that one message uses 20,000 to 25,000 tokens, which is about 4 or 5 US cents.
- can only change rates on the first day of each quarter. The marketing rate for Spain went up on 1 July 2026, so it is worth rereading the rate card every quarter.
The example in the table is ours, not a client’s: 2,500 service replies and 500 marketing templates in one month add up to €54.15 in fees, before tax. On top of that comes the platform, if you use one, and the cost of the AI model. In what an AI agent really costs we explain how that part is worked out.
A new rule: a general-purpose assistant will not do
Since 15 January 2026, the WhatsApp Business Solution Terms prohibit AI providers from using the platform to offer their general-purpose assistants when that is the main thing they offer, which decides at its own discretion. , and Microsoft announced that their WhatsApp chatbots would stop working, according to TechCrunch.
A business that uses AI to serve its customers is not affected. gave TechCrunch the example of a travel company running a customer service bot. In practice, your chatbot has to solve things about your business, such as orders, appointments or product questions, and not act as “ChatGPT inside WhatsApp”.
What to decide before you build it
- Permission to write first. requires the customer to have agreed to receive your messages before you write to them, with your company name stated clearly and in line with applicable law. If the customer writes first, you can reply within 24 hours.
- What the bot does and does not do. Decide in advance which questions it answers and what happens when it does not know: the sensible default is to pass the conversation to a person with the context already written.
- Where the answers come from. A bot that answers with old prices or opening hours does more harm than having no bot. Someone has to keep that data up to date.
- Personal data. Messages carry phone numbers and customer details. Ask your data protection adviser to review how they are stored and for how long.
- How to measure it. Count conversations, how many it resolves without help and how many it hands to a person. Without those three numbers you will not know whether it pays off.
How to choose between the four options
This is our own rule of thumb, not a rule:
- Few enquiries a day and mostly the same ones: the WhatsApp Business app.
- Repeated questions with answers in documents that change: a platform or a custom AI chatbot.
- You need to look up orders, appointments or stock: custom.
- You do not want to maintain anything yourself: look at ’s agent and work out its token cost with your real volume.
If you do not have a chatbot on your website yet either, start with our guide to website chatbots, because the decisions about data and handing over to a person are the same.
Where we fit in
At LetBrand we build chatbots for your website, connected to your data.
If you already have a chatbot on your website and you want to fix something specific, such as the answers, the handover to a person or the model, our One-off Review (€150) fits: it is meant for targeted fixes with a single delivery. If you want a full report on your website or app, there is the Technical Audit (€200). If you are looking for a new chatbot for your website connected to your data, see how we build chatbots or get in touch.
