Free tool
Enter a month of messages by type and see Meta’s fee in dirhams, 5% VAT, and room for your provider’s charge. The rates are Meta’s AED prices for messages delivered to a +971 number.
Promotions, launches, re-engagement
Orders, shipping, appointment reminders
One-time passcodes
Only if Meta applies the higher rate
Free-form replies inside the service window
Each gets 1,000 free service replies
Optional. Leave 0 if you only want Meta’s price
UAE list rates from 1 October 2026, per delivered message. Messages your customers send you are free. Volume discounts are not applied.
This month, including VAT
AED 385.37
AED 4,624.44 if every month looked like this
How it works
Since 1 July 2025, Meta charges when WhatsApp delivers a business message, and only then. Meta does not charge for a message that WhatsApp does not deliver. Messages your customers send you are free. The price depends on the template category and on the country code of the recipient. This calculator prices the United Arab Emirates row, which is its own market on the rate card, not a “rest of Middle East” bucket.
Marketing messages are promotions, launches and re-engagement. Utility messages are the operational ones: order updates, delivery notices, appointment reminders. Authentication messages are one-time passcodes. Authentication-international is the higher passcode rate Meta applies for some businesses based on their primary business location. Service messages are free-form replies inside the customer service window. The first 1,000 service replies on each business number are free every month. After that, Meta charges them at the utility rate.
The figure is Meta’s list price. Your provider may add a markup or a monthly platform fee, so there is a field for that. UAE VAT at 5% applies on top of Meta’s fee and the provider amount. The calculator does not apply volume discounts. Those start at 100,001 utility messages in a month, which is beyond the businesses we usually work with. It also does not include the cost of building the assistant, the inbox or the CRM connection. That is a separate, fixed project price.
Worked example
One business number, in a typical month: 1,000 marketing messages, 2,000 utility messages, 200 authentication messages, and 1,500 service replies. No international authentication, and no provider fee on top.
The first 1,000 service replies on that number are free, so only the rest are on the bill. Customer messages into the business are not on it at all. A year of identical months would be AED 4,624.44, and that forecast moves the day Meta changes the card. The build of the assistant is separate: small-business WhatsApp automation starts from AED 9,500, with these message fees passed through at cost.
FAQ
No. Conversation-based pricing has ended. Meta charges per delivered template or service message. If a quote still talks about “conversation fees”, ask them to restate it in messages, because the two models are not the same bill.
No. Messages from a user to your business are free. You pay for messages the business sends, and only when WhatsApp delivers them. Meta charges for the half of a marketing campaign that WhatsApp delivers.
Each WhatsApp business number gets 1,000 free service replies per calendar month. Service replies are the free-form messages you send inside the customer service window, not marketing templates. Two numbers mean 2,000 free replies. The calculator subtracts that allowance before applying the service rate. Utility and marketing messages are not part of the allowance.
The total includes VAT at 5% on Meta’s fee plus whatever you enter in the provider field. The provider field starts at zero. Put your BSP’s monthly platform fee or markup there if you know it. If you do not, the total is Meta plus VAT only, which is the number to compare providers against.
Meta lowers the utility and authentication rates after high monthly volumes, starting at 100,001 utility messages. Marketing has no tier. Almost every UAE business we speak to is well below that, so the list rate is the honest figure. If you are above it, the calculator will overstate the utility line and we will price the tier properly in a quote.
The page shows the date the AED rate card was last checked, and the date those rates took effect (1 October 2026). Meta changes prices. We re-check the official pricing page every quarter and update a single rates file. Do not treat a year-long forecast as a locked contract.
For a small business, a WhatsApp automation build typically starts from AED 9,500. That covers the API setup, the assistant, the handover to staff and the logging. We pass message fees and AI usage through at cost and estimate them up front. The calculator is the message half of that conversation.
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