Short answer
Messaging resellers set prices by taking their wholesale cost per destination and channel, adding a markup per route or customer tier, and publishing retail rate cards. SMS costs vary by country and operator and are usually charged per segment. WhatsApp charges are set by Meta per delivered message, by category and recipient market.
Build a rate card
- Export your wholesale cost per destination country and, where it differs, per operator.
- Choose a markup per route or per customer tier, rather than one flat percentage.
- Decide how WhatsApp is billed: pass Meta's charges through and add a platform or service fee, or bundle them.
- Add sender ID registration fees and any setup work you charge for.
- Publish the rate card per client sub-account and review it whenever wholesale rates change.
What drives cost on each channel
From 1 October 2026 Meta also charges service messages beyond 1,000 free per business phone number per month, and utility templates sent inside the customer service window.
| Channel | Billing unit | What moves the cost |
|---|---|---|
| SMS | Usually per segment | Destination country and operator, route type, Unicode messages using more segments |
| Per delivered message (Meta, since 1 July 2025) | Template category, recipient market and Meta's rate changes | |
| Platform | Your own fees | Console seats, support level and services you add |
Worked example: markup versus margin
Gulf Reach Marketing, a fictional agency, buys an SMS route at wholesale cost C and sells it at C x 1.25. That is a 25% markup but a 20% margin on the retail price. A 100-character Arabic message needs two Unicode segments, so both its cost and its price double. Quote margins on retail price to avoid this common confusion.
Protect the margin
- Update rate cards quickly when operator termination fees change.
- Use prepaid credit or postpaid caps, and suspend accounts that exceed them.
- Watch for SMS pumping on OTP traffic, which turns into unbillable costs.
- Check whether your provider bills on submitted or delivered messages.
- OmniChannels.ai gives resellers wholesale rates, their own retail pricing with per-route markup, a margin view and credit control, and charges WhatsApp at Meta's rate with zero markup.