What changes on 1 October 2026?
Meta starts billing for replies you type yourself. Until 30 September, a reply sent in your own words inside the 24-hour customer service window costs nothing. From 1 October, each business phone number gets 1,000 free replies a month. Reply 1,001 is charged at the utility rate for the customer's country. For a customer with a UAE number, that is $0.0157, about AED 0.058.
Two more changes land the same day. A utility template sent inside the window, such as a viewing confirmation, stops being free and is billed from the first one. And a marketing message to a UAE number rises from $0.0499 to $0.0576, up 15 percent.
What stays free: every message a customer sends you, and the 72-hour window that opens when a customer reaches you through a Click to WhatsApp ad or a Facebook Page button.
The rules above are Meta's own text. The UAE rates come from Meta's rate card as read by three trackers that agree with each other (HiQBot, On Cloud API and Voltade). These are the US dollar card rates. Meta also publishes a separate AED card, and an account billed in dirhams pays by that one, so treat the dirham figures here as indicative.
What does the change cost a Dubai brokerage?
For most numbers, nothing. A team that sends 600 replies a month on one number stays inside the free 1,000. The bill starts to show on a busy shared number, and it grows fastest when an AI agent is on it.
Take a brokerage that routes its portal enquiries to one shared number. Say 500 leads a month, and eight replies a lead inside the window. Those are example figures, so put your own in.
Every bubble is a message. Some agents split one answer into three short bubbles because it reads more naturally, and Meta counts three. The same 4,000 answers cost $47.10 as single messages and $172.70 as triples. The fix costs nothing: write the agent's answer as one fuller message.
A marketing broadcast is the other line to check. Sending to 1,000 UAE numbers cost $49.90 before 1 October and costs $57.60 after, a rise of $7.70. Nothing in the free allowance covers marketing.
Should the bill change how fast you reply?
No. Both big portals time your WhatsApp replies, and both clocks are shorter than Meta's window. Property Finder's SuperAgent badge asks for replies to WhatsApp leads within 2 hours, with a response rate above 80 percent. Bayut's Responsive Broker badge asks for a reply within 4 hours and a 70 percent response rate. Both sit well inside the 24-hour window, so a timely reply is a reply in your own words, and under 1,000 a month it is free.
The 72-hour ad window makes messages free. It does not extend the 24-hour window, so a reply in your own words still needs the customer to have written within the last day.
Do not swap free-text replies for templates to save money. Inside the window a utility template is now billed from the first message, while your own words are free for the first 1,000. Reach for a template only after the window has closed.
Bayut counts weekday messages between 9 AM and 9 PM toward your response rate, so evening and weekend replies help without hurting.
Which WhatsApp number should carry your leads?
The one your team shares, connected to your CRM. Meta gives the 1,000 free replies to each business phone number, not to each account. That shapes the choice, and each option has a price.
Personal phones cost nothing on Meta's invoice. They cost you the conversation history, which is the part a manager needs when a lead goes cold. On a regional property team where we implemented Salesforce, the result we stand behind is operational: follow-up lives in the org, not a personal inbox. The 1 October bill is small next to that, so it is a poor reason to keep leads on personal phones.
Add a number when a team crosses 1,000 replies a month and the split is real: one for sales enquiries, one for property management. Adding numbers only to collect more free replies leaves you with more inboxes to run.
What should you do before 1 October?
Five checks, in order.
- 01Confirm a payment method is on your WhatsApp Business account. Trackers quoting Meta's notice report that a number without one stops delivering after its 1,000th free reply.
- 02Pull last month's replies for each number, not for the account, and split replies in your own words from utility templates sent inside the window.
- 03Multiply the replies above 1,000 by $0.0157 for a UAE customer. That is the new line on your invoice.
- 04Count the bubbles your AI agent sends per answer. If it sends three, rewrite it to send one.
- 05Ask who invoices you. If Salesforce or a provider connects the number, find out whether they pass Meta's charge through at cost.
If a number is under 1,000 replies and sends no utility templates in the window, only the marketing rate changes for you. If a number is over, the fix is design: fuller messages, one number per team, and every chat logged in your CRM. Our WhatsApp or Slack agent page and the UAE agent work start from the number your customers already write to.
