Meta just raised your WhatsApp bill.

Meta prices the WhatsApp Business Platform, the official API, per delivered message. Replies inside the 24-hour window after a customer writes, which Meta calls service messages, used to be free. Since 1 October 2026 only the first 1,000 a month per business number are free, and Meta charges for every reply sent through the API after that, except while Meta’s free entry point window is open (after a customer writes from a click-to-WhatsApp ad). For replies to UAE (+971) numbers that is AED 0.0576 each, from Meta’s AED rate card effective 1 October 2026. Messages your customers send you stay free; marketing templates cost AED 0.2115 each and utility templates AED 0.0576.

It applies to every business on an official-API provider, whether WATI, respond.io, SleekFlow, Interakt, Gallabox or another, and it comes on top of the provider’s own plan. Some providers bill message fees through their own rate card, which can differ from Meta’s. In dirhams: a number that sends 1,500 replies a month now pays for 500 of them, AED 28.80; at 5,000 replies it pays AED 230.40. Every rate is in WhatsApp Business API pricing in the UAE.

We use the same assumptions as our UAE chatbot cost guide: half the messages are your customers’ and half are AI replies, every reply goes to a UAE number inside the 24-hour window, there are no templates or broadcasts, and prices are list prices billed monthly, before VAT and taxes (and, for OrcaFlo, before the payment processing fee on each invoice). Each tool is priced on its cheapest plan with an AI agent that answers on WhatsApp, because OrcaFlo’s price includes its assistant. Meta’s fee is AED 0.0576 per reply after 1,000 free a month. Competitor prices are from their own pricing pages, as of October 2026. OrcaFlo is priced on its cheapest option at each volume: Starter paying per message, or with a monthly message bundle where that costs less (a bundle only pays off above about 4,500 messages a month).

Some businesses use WATI, respond.io or Interakt as a shared inbox and answer every chat by hand. Their entry plans have no AI agent (and respond.io Starter has no broadcasts either), so they cost less than the plans above. Here is that bill next to OrcaFlo’s, which always includes an assistant that answers every message.

At 1,000 and 3,000 messages a month, OrcaFlo costs less than the AI plan of any of the four: $34.99 and $74.99, against $134 and $153 plus taxes on Interakt, the cheapest of them. Most of that gap is the plan fee, not Meta’s new charge: at 3,000 messages Meta’s fee is AED 28.80, about $7.84. It only grows large at high volume.

At 10,000 messages a month a message bundle brings OrcaFlo’s bill down further. With the 10,000-message bundle, OrcaFlo’s Starter plan comes to $174.99, less than $247 plus taxes on Interakt, AED 784 (about $214) on SleekFlow, $311 on WATI and $262–412 on respond.io, before their extras. Paying per message it would be $214.99, less than Interakt, WATI and respond.io, and about the same as SleekFlow. A bundle is charged upfront each month and unused messages don’t roll over, so it only pays off at steady volume: below about 4,500 messages a month, paying per message costs less.

Without an AI agent the picture changes earlier. At 3,000 messages Interakt Growth costs less than OrcaFlo, WATI Growth costs about the same, and respond.io Starter costs more. If you answer every chat yourself and don’t want AI, staying may be the cheaper choice. Switching pays off when you want the assistant to answer, book and follow up for you.

respond.io’s price, as of October 2026: Starter is $99 a month billed monthly ($79 a month billed yearly) and has no AI agents, broadcasts or workflows. Growth, the cheapest plan with AI Agents, is $199 a month billed monthly ($159 a month billed yearly), with 10 users, 1,000 monthly active contacts and 10,000 AI credits; an AI agent reply uses 2–5 credits. Meta’s fees come on top.

At the same volume: Growth comes to $199 at 1,000 messages and $207 at 3,000, against $34.99 and $74.99 on OrcaFlo. Starter, without AI, comes to $99 and $107.

What the importer brings: contacts with tags, custom fields and lifecycle stages, and respond.io is the only one of these four tools whose own export brings past conversations across (its Messages export). They show as read-only history on each contact; the assistant doesn’t read or answer them. Read OrcaFlo vs respond.io, or go straight to I’m switching from respond.io.

Interakt’s price, as of October 2026 (international): Growth is $55 a month billed monthly, plus taxes; Interakt lists discounts for quarterly and yearly billing. WhatsApp AI agents are a $74.99 monthly add-on that includes 100 AI messages, then $0.011 per AI message. Message costs follow Interakt’s regional rate card.

At the same volume: Growth with the AI add-on comes to $134 at 1,000 messages and $153 at 3,000, plus taxes, against $34.99 and $74.99 on OrcaFlo. Growth without AI comes to $55 and $63 plus taxes.

What the importer brings: Interakt’s contacts export (all users or a filter), with tags, attributes and lifecycle. Past conversations can’t be imported yet. There’s no separate OrcaFlo vs Interakt page: Interakt is in our fair list of the best WhatsApp chatbots in the UAE. In Interakt the export is under Contacts (All Users) → Export, and switching to OrcaFlo walks through the import. Or go straight to I’m switching from Interakt.

Send us your export and we’ll move your contacts and set up your assistant for you. Switchers get this done-for-you setup at no extra cost, on any plan, Starter included: we import your contacts, tags and lifecycle stages, set up the assistant from your products, prices and policies, and you check it before it goes live.

You also get the normal free trial: no plan fee for 14 days and your first 500 messages free. Messages beyond those are billed weekly, during the trial too.

I’m switching, or email your export to support@orcaflo-panel.com with the subject “Switching to OrcaFlo”. A person on our team replies.