WhatsApp to shift to per-message billing from July 1, 2025

WhatsApp to shift to per-message billing from July 1, 2025

Greetings Recruiters,

If you’re using WhatsApp to connect with candidates through Zoho Recruit, there’s an important pricing change coming up that you’ll want to plan for.

What’s changing?  

Starting July 1, 2025, WhatsApp is moving away from conversation-based pricing and switching to per-message billing on the WhatsApp Business Platform.

Previously, you were charged once for all messages sent within a 24-hour window (after initiating a conversation). With the new model, every business-initiated message will be charged separately—based on:

➡ WhatsApp Business Platform Pricing

Note: Charges apply only to messages successfully delivered to users.
So if you send, say, one marketing message and two utility messages outside a customer service window, you'll be billed for three separate messages.

What counts as a "customer service window"?  

The customer service window is a 24-hour period that starts every time a candidate sends you a message.

During this window:

  • You can send free-form/ non-template (real-time) replies

  • You can also send utility template messages 

This means updates like interview confirmations, status alerts, and reminders are now free—if they’re sent as part of an active conversation.

This update builds on a change introduced in November 2024, and now includes utility templates as well.

72-hour free messaging after ad or Facebook CTA clicks  

If a candidate taps on a WhatsApp ad or the "Send Message" button on your Facebook page, a 72-hour free window is triggered.

Here’s how it works:

  • First 24 hours: You can send any number of free-form or template messages

  • Next 48 hours: You can continue the conversation using template messages only

➡ More on the 72-hour window

This is a great way to follow up with interested candidates—at no extra cost.

Volume-based discounts now available  

If you regularly send high volumes of utility or authentication messages, WhatsApp’s new tier-based pricing model can help reduce costs automatically.

Discounts are:

  • Applied based on your monthly volume

  • Available for utility and authentication messages only

  • Region-specific, with updated rates shared by Meta

➡ View volume-based pricing

What’s considered a utility message?  

From July 1, 2025, utility templates must meet stricter criteria.

They should:

  • Be non-promotional

  • Contain information the user explicitly requested

  • Be essential to a process (e.g., appointment reminders, job status updates, or login alerts)

Templates that don’t meet these criteria may be recategorized as marketing, and charged accordingly.

What should you do now?  

  1. Audit your existing templates – Make sure they're correctly categorized

  2. Time your responses to make use of the free 24-hour and 72-hour windows

  3. Review your usage patterns and prepare for potential cost shifts

  4. Bookmark Meta’s pricing page for the most current region-specific rates

➡ WhatsApp's official website for up to date rates

We'll keep monitoring this on our side too. If anything changes from the Zoho Recruit end—or if we roll out specific features or best practices to support this—we’ll update you right away.

Regards,
Team Zoho Recruit

    • Sticky Posts

    • An update to improve email delivery | Email Authentication & Relay

      Update Rollout Latest Update: Enterprise users (8th July, 2025) This update is now live for Enterprise plan users in all regions. This includes People Plus, but not Zoho One, which will be covered in an upcoming update. Professional users (31st May 2025)

    • Zoho Recruit User Group Meet-up | INDIA 2025 (Venue Finalised)

      Hello Zoho Recruit users from India, We’re pleased and excited to announce our 2025 edition of Zoho user group meet-up in India in five cities! In this meet-up, our team of experts will help you understand the intricate nuances to use Zoho Recruit better,

    • Zoho Recruit is coming to the UK | Zoho Community Learning Series

      Customers from the United Kingdom, Exciting news: We will be in London for the Zoho Recruit user meet up. Our team will help you better understand the intricate nuances of Zoho Recruit to help you hire faster, inform about new and upcoming features, and

    • Ask the experts - A live Q & A discussion on Zoho Recruit

      We are delighted to come back with another edition of Ask the Experts community series. This edition, we'll be focusing on everything about Zoho Recruit. The topics will focus on the features that are used/asked by the majority of users and also based

    • Restriction on 'From' addresses with a public domain

      Dear Zoho Recruit Community, We hope this message finds you well. This post is to inform you about some important updates regarding email restrictions within Zoho Recruit. Effective post 31st March 2025, we will be implementing changes to the use of email

      • Recent Topics

      • Schedule a Call by Date and Time when a specific lead status is selected

        Hi Wanting to create a workflow where a call can be scheduled by date & time when a specific lead status is selected. Can only currently set the date by Due Date - Trigger Date - Plus 'x' day(s) Thanks

      • Zoho CRM's Copy Customization functionality now works across DCs, for customized accounts, and more

        Availability This feature is available in Standard, Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions. These changes have been rolled out to all users in all DCs. For more information, please refer to these help documents: Overview | Instructions Hello

      • How can I bold text on Zoho Forms submit buttons?

        In the old theme builder, I could bold the text on a form's submit button. With the new theme builder, I can only change the text of the header or fields in the form, and not the button itself.

      • Workflow workdrive rollout

        Hi! When will workflow be rolled out to all users? Thanks.

      • Stage History

        when viewing a ticket , and you look at stage history tab (kanban view) and look at the stage duration column in days, it shows the current stage of the ticket as " current stage ". Should it not rather show the amount of days it has been in that current

      • Lead Owner Signature Merge Field

        I want to automatically insert a signature (i.e. contact info usually found at the bottom of an email) into an email template, depending on who the lead owner is. What is the merge code for the Signature from a Users profile? CRM > Settings > Customization > Templates There is a popup near the bottom of the edit screen which says: "You can insert a Signature, which is available as a merge field in the users section." It is also referenced on this page: https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/kb/crm/customize-crm-account/customizing-templates/articles/template-builder#Merge_Fields

      • 5名限定 課題解決型ワークショップイベント Zoho ワークアウト開催のお知らせ (10/31)

        ユーザーの皆さま、こんにちは。Zoho ユーザーコミュニティチームの中野です。 10月開催のZoho ワークアウトについてお知らせします。 今回はZoomにて、オンライン開催します。 参加登録はこちら（無料）：https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/BGYTysOnSqa9LA9eY2IKww ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Zoho ワークアウトとは？ Zoho ユーザー同士で交流しながら、サービスに関する疑問や不明点の解消を目的とした

      • Hiding Pre-defined Views

        You can enhance Zoho with custom views - but you cannot hide the pre-defined views. Most users focus on 4 or 5 views. Right now for EVERY user EVERY time they want to move to one of their 4 or 5 views - they have to scroll down past a long list of pre-defined views - we don't use ANY of the pre-defined views. Adding the feature to allow a predefined view to be hidden completely or only visible to certain users would be a big improvement in usability for Zoho CRM. This feature is already available

      • Rich-text fields in Zoho CRM

        Hello everyone, We're thrilled to announce an important enhancement that will significantly enhance the readability and formatting capabilities of your information: rich text options for multi-line fields. With this update, you can now enjoy a more versatile

      • Send Automated WhatsApp Messages and Leverage the Improved WhatsApp Templates

        Greetings, I hope all of you are doing well. We're excited to announce a major upgrade to Bigin's WhatsApp integration that brings more flexibility, interactivity, and automation to your customer messaging. WhatsApp message automation You can now use

      • [Integration Edition] Deluge Learning Series – Third-Party Integrations with Deluge | October 2025

        We’re excited to continue this three-month edition of the Deluge Learning Series: Session 1 – Integrating Zoho Apps with Deluge Using Built-In Integration Tasks Session 2 – Integrating Zoho Apps with Deluge Using invokeURL and invokeAPI Session 3 – Third-Party

      • Has anyone integrated SMS well for Zoho Desk?

        Our company does property management and needs to be able to handle inbound sms messages which create a ticket for Zoho Desk. We then need to be able to reply back from Zoho desk which sends the user an sms message. This seems like a fairly common thing

      • Feature Request: Tag, Search, and Report on Individual Private Comments

        Zoho Desk Team, First, I want to say that we are extensive users of Zoho Desk and it is a core part of our support operations. We rely heavily on the private comments feature for internal communication, knowledge sharing, and maintaining a clear history

      • Zoho CRM Community Digest - August 2025 | Part 2

        Hello Everyone! Here's a quick round-up of handy tips, clever workarounds, and product updates from late August. Product Updates: Meeting Enhancements in Zoho CRM! Track whether a meeting is online, in-office, or at the client’s location using the new

      • Assistance Needed: Ticket Status Not Updating and Sorting by Last Customer Reply in Zoho Desk

        Hello, I’m facing two issues in Zoho Desk that I’d like your guidance on: Ticket Status Not Updating: When a customer replies to a ticket, the status does not change to Reopened. Instead, it remains in Waiting on Customer, even after the customer’s response

      • Round robin

        Hi, I'm trying to set up a round robin to automatically distribute tickets between agents in my team but only those tickets that are not otherwise distributed by other workflows or direct assignments. Is that possible and if so which criteria should I

      • Optimising CRM-Projects workflows to manage requests, using Forms as an intermediary

        Is it possible to create a workflow between three apps with traceability between them all? We send information from Zoho CRM Deals over to Zoho Projects for project management and execution. We have used a lookup of sorts to create tasks in the past,

      • Time Entry Notifications

        Hi All - I have support staff who place notes of their work in the time entry section of Zoho Desk. Is there a specific workflow or setting I need to enable to have the ticket holder updated via email when an entry is saved?

      • Change text in help desk

        Hi, Please let me know how can i change the this text, see screenshot.

      • Customer happiness customisation

        Hi, I was wondering if it's possible to somehow customise to whom and when customer happiness request is sent? Can you enable it only for selected tickets for example based on workflow or any other criteria (customer name, tag or anything else)? Also

      • Sign in process is beyond stupid. I'd rather plug my phone into USB and copy files than sign in to this POS.

        792 clicks and fields to fill in just to get into a 3rd rate app is too stupid for me.

      • Cells Border

        Hi I am using Zoho Sheet on S Tab , is there any option to make all border of any cell at once. I think this is very basic which we are missing. This is available in mobile but not in tab or suggest if i am missing this function. And for Tab can you give

      • Custom order for Current Stage (Blueprint field)

        Hi! I suggest adding the option to set a custom order in reports for the Blueprint field ‘Current Stage’. Currently, these fields can only be sorted in ascending or descending order. Thanks!

      • Zoho Sheets saying locked when not locked

        Zoho Sheets won't let me add more rows to sheet because it's saying the sheet is locked, but the sheet is not locked. I tried using a different browser but I still have the same issue.

      • No Zoho Support Response in Months

        I want to say that I love Zoho FSM, Books, and CRM, but the support is scary bad. About 2-3 months ago, I emailed Zoho FSM support with two specific issues I needed help with, and I have still not received one single response. I also submitted a support

      • Has anyone built a custom AI support agent inside Zoho (SalesIQ/Zobot)?

        Hi all, I’ve been experimenting with building my own AI support assistant and wanted to see if anyone here has tackled something similar within Zoho. Right now, I’ve set up a Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) pipeline outside of Zoho using FAISS. It

      • Null

        If a result is null how do I make it so that a custom error pops up instead of the default error? Can someone write an example as if I were using the script builder?

      • Introducing Zoho Creator's 2025 Release Projection 2

        Hello Creators! I'm Prakash, from the Creator product management team, and today I'm delighted to unveil our next set of features as part of Release Projection 2 for 2025. With thoughtful analysis and planning, we've curated powerful new capabilities

      • Zoho Expense and Chase Bank Visa credit cards - Direct Feed?

        Our company uses JP Morgan Chase Visa credit cards. We can't be the first to try and use a combination of Zoho Expense + Chase Bank + Visa Credit Cards --- anyone successful with this combination? 1. The direct feed automation isn't working. When I go

      • Slow uploads of large files

        I'm wanting to use Workdrive for transferring large images and video (we're talking things from 100MB-5GB). I'm running solo on a 500MBit/sec fiber connection. I'm getting upload speeds to Workdrive of no more than about 1-3Mbytes/sec when going through

      • Format a "return" message

        Good day, Is there a way to format the message of the "return" function in CRM deluge script?

      • Items Below Reorder Point Report?

        Is there a way to run a report of Items that are below the Reorder Point? I don't see this as a specific report, nor can I figure out how to customize any of the other stock reports to give me this information. Please tell me I'm missing something s

      • Change Last Name to not required in Leads

        I would like to upload 500 target companies as leads but I don't yet have contact people for them. Can you enable the option for me to turn this requirement off to need a Second Name? Moderation update (10-Jun-23): As we explore potential solutions for

      • Having Trouble Opening The Candidate Portal

        Recently am having trouble opening the Candidate Portal. It keeps loading but cannot display any widgets. Tried Safari, Chrome and Edge. Non of them work. Please solve the problem ASAP.

      • Dynamically catching new file creations

        I have a team folder with many subfolders, and in those folders we add new documents all the time. I'd like to have a workflow or script to notify me (and then take other actions) when a file is added anywhere in that structure that ends in "summary.txt".

      • Migrate Your Notes from OneNote to Zoho Notebook Today

        Greetings Notebook Users, We’re excited to introduce a powerful new feature that lets you migrate your notes from Microsoft OneNote to Zoho Notebook—making your transition faster and more seamless than ever. ✨ What’s New One-click migration: Easily import

      • Tip of the Week - Spot Risky Sales with Conditional Formatting

        In Zoho Analytics, small tweaks can lead to big insights. One such feature is Conditional formatting based on other columns, your key to instantly spotting where sales success is overshadowed by product returns. Our tip this week shows you how to apply

      • How do I duplicate / copy a campaign

        I am evaluation Zoho Campaigns and sent an email to one of my personal email accounts from Zoho Campaigns.  It went into my junk file in Hotmail. I want to duplicate that same (1-page) campaign and send it to another of my personal accounts to try to

      • For a Bill, can "Pay via Check" - Can we also "Pay via Check" when documenting refund for payment?

        We really like when we have a Bill in Zoho Books that we can record payment by selecting "Pay via Check" and that will cut the check for us from Zoho Books. However, when we have to write checks as a result of invoice overpayment, we can not select "Pay

      • Creator Change History: Ways to improve

        Hi Everyone, Recently been working in developing this change history(an idea from Zoho Forms) - unlike forms that you can this with a click but using Creator, we can use "old" keyword. The concept I come up with is to put the result in a table however,

      • Next Page