Paying Meta for WhatsApp
Meta bills your WhatsApp Business account directly and OmniBrand adds nothing: how to add a payment method and pick the billing currency in Meta Business Suite, where the invoices are, which messages Meta charges and which are free (your replies inside the 24-hour window, Utility templates inside it, the free entry point), error 131042, and how OmniBrand’s estimate compares with Meta’s invoice.
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Meta charges for WhatsApp messages, and Meta bills your own WhatsApp Business account directly, at Meta's official rates, through the payment method you add in Meta. OmniBrand does not charge for messages, does not resell them and adds nothing. Every cost OmniBrand shows is an estimate of Meta's charge, marked Estimated Meta charge. Meta bills your WhatsApp Business account directly; OmniBrand adds nothing.
Who bills whom
- Meta → you: Meta charges the WhatsApp Business account your number belongs to, in that account's billing currency, and sends the invoices to your Meta business portfolio.
- OmniBrand → you: only your OmniBrand plan (and add-ons such as bots). No WhatsApp message fees.
- Your WhatsApp Business account stays yours: the payment method, the invoices and the prices are between your business and Meta.
Add a payment method in Meta (step by step)
Someone with full control of your Meta business portfolio does this once per WhatsApp Business account:
- In OmniBrand, open Broadcasts → WhatsApp broadcasts → Number health (/app/whatsapp/health), or Set up → Accounts (/app/channels) and press Settings on the WhatsApp number's row.
- In the Paying Meta for WhatsApp box press Open Meta Billing Hub. It opens Meta Business Suite → Billing & payments (business.facebook.com/billing_hub) in a new tab, on your business when Meta told OmniBrand which one.
- In Billing & payments, open the WhatsApp Business accounts tab and choose the account of your number.
- Press Add payment method. Meta accepts bank-issued credit and debit cards; Meta may place a small verification charge that it reverses.
- Confirm your business country and the currency (next section), then save.
- Back in OmniBrand press Check now on Number health. If Meta reports the payment method, the box shows Payment method added. If OmniBrand cannot read it for your account, tick I added a payment method in Meta (an Owner or Admin); the box then shows Confirmed by you.
Choose the billing currency before the first charge
- Meta asks for the currency with the first payment method. Meta bills in several currencies, including SAR, AED and USD.
- Pick the currency you want your invoices in before any message is charged. Changing it later is hard: Meta has to migrate the account to the new currency.
- The Paying Meta for WhatsApp box shows Billing currency: ... once Meta reports it.
- OmniBrand's estimates can be shown in USD, EUR, GBP, INR, IDR, SAR or AED (Settings → General → Currency for WhatsApp message costs); that only changes how the estimate is shown, not how Meta bills you.
Where the invoices are
In Meta Business Suite → Billing & payments, choose the WhatsApp Business account and open its payment activity. Meta lists every charge and invoice there, in the account's currency. OmniBrand does not receive or store Meta's invoices.
What Meta charges (short)
- Delivered Marketing, Utility and Authentication templates, priced by category and by the recipient's country.
- Service messages, the replies you type inside the customer's 24-hour window, are free: Meta does not charge for any message that is not a template, and there is no monthly limit.
- Utility templates delivered while the customer's 24-hour window is open (the customer wrote to you in the last 24 hours) are free.
- Free entry point: when a customer messages you from a Click-to-WhatsApp ad or a Facebook Page button (on a phone) and you reply within 24 hours, everything you send them for the next 72 hours is free.
- Details: WhatsApp costs, limits and free windows.
If there is no valid payment method
- Meta refuses paid messages with error 131042 ("There was an error related to your payment method"). Meta's reasons include no payment account attached, a credit line over its limit, or the account's currency or time zone not set.
- Your replies inside the customer's 24-hour window are free, so this error is about paid templates.
- In OmniBrand:
- A WhatsApp broadcast pauses with Last error 131042: No valid payment method on your WhatsApp Business account and a red box No valid payment method on your WhatsApp Business account with Open Meta Billing Hub. Owners and admins get a notification.
- In the inbox, the failed message shows the same red box under it, with Add or fix it in Meta Business Suite → Billing & payments → WhatsApp Business accounts, then press Retry.
- Number health and the number's Settings on Accounts show Payment problem with the date and How to fix it.
- Fix it: press Open Meta Billing Hub, open WhatsApp Business accounts, choose the account, press Add payment method (or update the card Meta could not charge) and save. Then press I fixed the payment method in the Paying Meta for WhatsApp box, Resume a paused broadcast and Retry a failed inbox message.
The statuses in the Paying Meta for WhatsApp box
- Payment method added: Meta reports a payment method on the account.
- No payment method: Meta reports none. Add one (steps above), then press Check now.
- Confirmed by you: OmniBrand cannot read the payment method from Meta for this account, and an Owner or Admin ticked I added a payment method in Meta. Untick it to undo.
- Not confirmed: OmniBrand cannot read it and nobody ticked the box yet.
- Payment problem: Meta refused a message with 131042 in the last 7 days. It clears when an Owner or Admin presses I fixed the payment method, and comes back if Meta refuses again.
Only an Owner or Admin can tick the box or press I fixed the payment method; others see Only an Owner or Admin can confirm this. The tick applies to every number of the same WhatsApp Business account.
OmniBrand's estimate and Meta's invoice
- The estimate uses Meta's official rate card, entered by OmniBrand staff with the date each price takes effect, in the currency you choose.
- Meta's invoice can be lower: free windows (Utility templates delivered inside the 24-hour window, everything in a free entry point window) and Meta's volume discounts for Utility and Authentication (the price per message drops as your business portfolio sends more in a month) are not all known in advance.
- It can differ from the estimate in currency too: Meta bills in your account's billing currency, whatever currency you view the estimate in.
- When they disagree, Meta's invoice is what you pay.