Does Meta charge for AI replies on WhatsApp?
Yes. Since 1 October 2026, replies written by a third-party AI are service messages, charged exactly like a human agent's replies: per delivered message, after 1,000 free a month per number. For a UAE buyer that's about AED 0.0576 per reply. Meta's own Business Agent AI is a separate, token-priced category.
Last checked: 7 Oct 2026
Third-party AI is a service message
Meta's pricing for non-template messages says a reply written by a third-party AI counts as a service message. There is no separate cheaper tier for bot replies. The UAE service rate on the card effective 1 October 2026 is USD 0.0157, about AED 0.0576, per delivered message.
Each business number includes 1,000 free service messages a month. Messages the customer sends are not charged.
A rough conversation estimate
An estimate, not a measured Sabbaq invoice: about eight replies in a lead conversation is about AED 0.46 for a UAE number. At that estimate, fewer than about 125 such conversations a month may stay inside the free 1,000. Your count will differ with how long the chat runs.
Meta's own Business Agent is a different product
Meta prices its own Business Agent separately, in tokens, not as the same service-message rate. A Sabbaq reply on the brokerage's WhatsApp Business account is the third-party case: a service message, billed by Meta to the brokerage with no Sabbaq markup.