On 15 September 2026 Meta introduced the Meta One plans for businesses, from $14.99 to $499 a month, which increase use of Meta Business Agent, the WhatsApp Business AI agent. The agent can be used in two ways, with different bills: the app, where you start free and move to a plan for more responses, and the API platform, where Meta invoices the tokens consumed.
What Meta announced
- On 3 June 2026, at the Conversations conference in London, Meta introduced Meta Business Agent: it answers customers on WhatsApp, recommends catalogue products, books appointments, qualifies leads and can close a sale, in the customer's language and the business's tone. Meta said getting started was free and paid subscriptions would follow.
- On 15 September the Meta One plans for businesses and creators arrived: Essential, Advanced, Expert and Max. Meta says they are available globally, rolling out gradually.
- The same day Meta published WhatsApp Business Tools MCP, a server that lets an AI coding assistant set up the account, the number and the message templates. It is built for development and testing, not production at scale, and is for whoever configures the channel.
The business plans
| Plan | Price | What changes for the agent |
|---|---|---|
| Essential | from $14.99 a month | More agent access, verified badge and channel |
| Advanced | from $49.99 a month | More agent responses, more linked devices, broadcast credits |
| Expert | from $149 a month | Highest levels of features and agent capacity |
| Max | from $499 a month | Highest levels of features and agent capacity |
The WhatsApp Business app stays free and, according to Meta, the agent is free each month up to an included allowance: the plans give more responses. The subscription is bought per business profile or phone number, with a 7-day trial for eligible new subscribers.
What the agent costs in the app and through the API
In the app the cost is that of the plans. Meta says Meta One changes neither the functions nor the pricing of the API platform.
For businesses using the API platform, directly or through a partner, Meta's documentation sets pay-as-you-go pricing: $2 per million tokens, with a typical message using 20,000 to 25,000 tokens, that is 4 or 5 US cents. Charges start on 1 August 2026, invoiced monthly. With 500 agent messages a month that would be about $20 or $25 [illustrative estimate, to be confirmed against your own project].
What it means for your business
If messages are few and mostly repeated questions about opening hours, availability, prices and bookings, the agent inside the app is in our view the quickest way to answer everyone out of hours. The limit is that the catalogue, the tone and the rules for passing to a person stay inside a tool you do not control: if Meta changes plans or allowances, your spend changes too.
If the answers have to read real orders, price lists or bookings, or if customers also write from other channels, an assistant connected to your systems is the better fit, with the cost of the WhatsApp API and that of the model.
What to check before switching it on
- The pages cited carry no list of countries for the agent. Through the API the business must be based in an authorised country and not operate in finance, government, health, alcohol, gambling, over-the-counter drugs or matrimony services, and the Eligibility endpoint is the check that counts. In the app, according to Meta, you see the features of your account by starting the subscription.
- WhatsApp's business policy allows contacting people only if they have given their opt-in.
- Within 24 hours of the customer's last message the policy allows automated replies without templates; after that only approved message templates can be sent.
- With automation the policy requires prompt, clear and direct escalation paths, and Meta writes that you can decide when a person steps in.
- For the Cloud API Meta states that it acts as data processor or service provider and leaves the business with its own legal obligations on data protection. Different terms may apply to Meta's AI services.
Before opening it to customers we would keep proof of the opt-in, prepare the message templates you will need, and write down who answers when the agent hands over and how quickly. We would also update the privacy notice, tell customers when an automated assistant is replying, and try the agent for two weeks with real questions in Italian, checking a sample of the answers by hand.
Where we start
If you ask us to assess an agent, we start from the bill: how many messages you receive in a month, how many are repeated questions, which route makes sense among the app, the API platform and an assistant connected to your systems, and what each costs with Meta's figures. Then we set a spending cap and try the assistant before opening it to customers. Control of costs and of answer quality is part of our AI automation and chatbot service.
If we build the assistant and it calls a paid model, we propose Kmemo, our open-source library (Apache-2.0): a semantic cache that recognises a request already answered even when it is rephrased. Lexical checks block reuse when two texts look alike but the answer changes, such as "convert 100 USD" and "convert 250 USD"; the documentation states that they do not cover every case. For repeated questions that means fewer calls to the model. It does not apply to Meta's agent, which runs inside Meta, and it only helps where questions repeat.
What we do not know yet
- Whether the plans and the agent are available in Italy. Meta calls them global but variable by region, app and account, and the pages cited on the agent and the plans neither list countries nor name Italy.
- How many responses the free allowance and each plan include, and what happens when they run out: Meta's pages do not say.
- The price list in euros including VAT: the announcement gives prices in dollars and the Italian list is not in the pages cited. What counts is the price shown in the app.
- Which languages the agent supports: the pages cited say only that it replies in the customer's language.
- Whether replies without a template sent through the API, even by a person, have been billable since 1 October. Meta's page lists them as billable from that date but still carries the notice about upcoming changes: ask your provider to confirm.
- Whether and how Meta uses the content of conversations with the agent, for example to train models: the pages cited do not say.
If you want us to look at your messages and the monthly cost of an agent, see AI automation and chatbots or get in touch.
Sources
- Meta: Introducing Meta One (15 September 2026)
- WhatsApp Business: Meta One on WhatsApp Business App
- WhatsApp Business: Introducing Meta Business Agent on WhatsApp (3 June 2026)
- Meta for Developers: Announcing WhatsApp Business Tools MCP (15 September 2026)
- Meta for Developers: Non-template messages
- Meta for Developers: Agent budget
- Meta for Developers: Build an AI agent for your business
- WhatsApp Business: Messaging Policy (last updated 23 September 2026)
- Meta for Developers: Data privacy & security
