WhatsApp Business API pricing in Saudi Arabia
Meta's per-message rates for recipients in Saudi Arabia, effective 1 October 2026, with volume tiers, free-message rules and a worked monthly example. OmniChannels.ai passes Meta's rate through with zero markup.
- Marketing
- $0.0576
- Utility
- $0.0107
- Authentication
- $0.0107
- Service (after 1,000 free)
- $0.0107
Short answer
A WhatsApp marketing message to Saudi Arabia costs $0.0576, a utility message $0.0107 and an authentication (OTP) message $0.0107 from 1 October 2026, charged by Meta per delivered message. The first 1,000 service messages per number each month are free. OmniChannels.ai charges Meta's rate with zero markup.
Rates by message category
| Category | USD per message | Per 1,000 messages | vs nearby average |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marketing | $0.0576 | $57.60 | −2% |
| Utility | $0.0107 | $10.70 | −43% |
| Authentication | $0.0107 | $10.70 | −43% |
| Authentication-international | $0.0598 | $59.80 | — |
| Service | $0.0107 | $10.70 | −43% |
Meta also publishes a Saudi Riyal (SAR) rate card; businesses billed in SAR pay those rates instead of the USD figures shown.
Free-message rules, how volume tiers are counted and Meta's price-change calendar are the same in every market: see the rules on the WhatsApp pricing hub.
WhatsApp or SMS in Saudi Arabia?
An authentication (OTP) template in Saudi Arabia costs $0.0107, 33% less than the cheapest SMS: $0.0160 on STC. We route SMS to 3 networks there (STC, Mobily and Zain KSA). A marketing template costs $0.0576, 3.6× that SMS rate, so promotions are where the gap is widest.
SMS in Arabic is UCS-2: 70 characters per segment, so a 120-character message bills as 2 SMS; WhatsApp bills 1 message.
Cost of 10,000 messages
| WhatsApp authentication | $107.00 |
| WhatsApp utility | $107.00 |
| WhatsApp marketing | $576.00 |
| SMS, list rate (STC) | $160.00 |
| SMS, list rate (Mobily) | $160.00 |
| SMS, list rate (Zain KSA) | $173.00 |
| SMS at the 5M+ volume tier | $96.00 |
| 120-character SMS in Arabic (2 segments) | $320.00 |
Sender identity and registration in Saudi Arabia
No sender ID to register for WhatsApp: Meta reviews your display name. SMS fallback follows CST rules:
- SMS sender formats
- CST · STC, Mobily, Zain KSA: Alphanumeric (Latin or Arabic), up to 11 chars
- SMS sender ID registration
- CST · STC, Mobily, Zain KSA: Required — one ID per legal entity per use case; CST + operator approval
- Typical lead time: 5-10 business days.
Consent and sending hours in Saudi Arabia
- Opt-in
- Verifiable opt-in required with PDPL-aligned consent capture. Source, timestamp, channel, and lawful-basis records retained for the life of the relationship.
- Opt-out
- STOP / ايقاف honoured network-wide. One-step opt-out, irreversible until the recipient re-consents. CST audits the audit trail.
- Sending hours
- CST's Regulations for Curbing SPAM Messages & Calls ban promotional messages from 22:00 to 09:00 daily, and from 01:00 to 12:00 during Ramadan. Transactional 24/7.
- The weekend in Saudi Arabia is Friday and Saturday: schedule promotional sends and agent cover around it.
- Time zone used for scheduling: Asia/Riyadh.
Template languages for Saudi Arabia
Customers in Saudi Arabia mostly read Arabic and English. Arabic is written right to left: preview templates on a phone, keep numbers, codes and links in their own variable, and do not mix scripts in one button label.
Volume tiers
utility
| Monthly messages | Rate | vs list |
|---|---|---|
| 0–100,000 | $0.0107 | list |
| 100,001–1,000,000 | $0.0102 | -5% |
| 1,000,001–4,500,000 | $0.0096 | -10% |
| 4,500,001–40,000,000 | $0.0091 | -15% |
| 40,000,001–80,000,000 | $0.0086 | -20% |
| 80,000,001+ | $0.0080 | -25% |
authentication
| Monthly messages | Rate | vs list |
|---|---|---|
| 0–300,000 | $0.0107 | list |
| 300,001–2,000,000 | $0.0102 | -5% |
| 2,000,001–10,000,000 | $0.0096 | -10% |
| 10,000,001–20,000,000 | $0.0091 | -15% |
| 20,000,001–40,000,000 | $0.0086 | -20% |
| 40,000,001+ | $0.0080 | -25% |
authentication international
| Monthly messages | Rate | vs list |
|---|---|---|
| 0–300,000 | $0.0598 | list |
| 300,001–2,000,000 | $0.0568 | -5% |
| 2,000,001–10,000,000 | $0.0538 | -10% |
| 10,000,001–20,000,000 | $0.0508 | -15% |
| 20,000,001–40,000,000 | $0.0478 | -20% |
| 40,000,001+ | $0.0449 | -25% |
Volume tiers at 2,000,000 utility messages
2,000,000 utility templates a month in Saudi Arabia: $19850.00 instead of $21400.00 at list, a blended $0.00992 per message (7% off).
| Messages in the month | Messages | Rate | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1–100,000 | 100,000 | $0.0107 | $1070.00 |
| 100,001–1,000,000 | 900,000 | $0.0102 | $9180.00 |
| 1,000,001–2,000,000 | 1,000,000 | $0.0096 | $9600.00 |
Worked example
An illustrative month for a business messaging customers in Saudi Arabia, at list rates before volume tiers:
| Marketing | 50,000 × $0.0576 | $2880.00 |
| Utility | 200,000 × $0.0107 | $2140.00 |
| Authentication | 100,000 × $0.0107 | $1070.00 |
| Service (1,000 free) | 29,000 × $0.0107 | $310.30 |
| Meta charges for the month | $6400.30 |
Illustrative volumes. Excludes taxes, platform fees and volume-tier discounts.
Which category drives the bill
In the example month, marketing is 45% of the bill in Saudi Arabia but only 13% of the messages: one marketing template costs as much as 5.4 utility templates. Moving order and account updates to utility templates, and answering inside the free service window, lowers the bill fastest.
Saudi Arabia compared with nearby markets
Marketing in Saudi Arabia ranks 2 of 5 in this group (1 = cheapest) and is 2% below the average of the other markets. Utility and authentication are 43% below their average.
| Market | Marketing | Utility | Authentication |
|---|---|---|---|
| Saudi Arabia | $0.0576 | $0.0107 | $0.0107 |
| United Arab Emirates | $0.0576 | $0.0157 | $0.0157 |
| Kuwait | $0.0792 | $0.0440 | $0.0440 |
| Qatar | $0.0341 | $0.0120 | $0.0120 |
| Egypt | $0.0644 | $0.0036 | $0.0036 |
Source: Meta's official WhatsApp Business Platform rate card (USD), effective 1 October 2026, retrieved 2026-10-10. Rates are set by Meta and can change; your quote confirms the current rate.
WhatsApp pricing in Saudi Arabia: questions
How much does a WhatsApp message cost in Saudi Arabia?
From 1 October 2026, Meta charges per delivered template message to recipients in Saudi Arabia: $0.0576 for marketing, $0.0107 for utility and $0.0107 for authentication, and $0.0598 for authentication-international. Rates are in USD.
Is WhatsApp cheaper than SMS in Saudi Arabia?
An authentication (OTP) template in Saudi Arabia costs $0.0107, 33% less than the cheapest SMS: $0.0160 on STC. We route SMS to 3 networks there (STC, Mobily and Zain KSA). A marketing template costs $0.0576, 3.6× that SMS rate, so promotions are where the gap is widest. SMS in Arabic is UCS-2: 70 characters per segment, so a 120-character message bills as 2 SMS; WhatsApp bills 1 message.
Which WhatsApp messages cost the most in Saudi Arabia?
In the example month, marketing is 45% of the bill in Saudi Arabia but only 13% of the messages: one marketing template costs as much as 5.4 utility templates. Moving order and account updates to utility templates, and answering inside the free service window, lowers the bill fastest.
What do 2,000,000 utility messages a month cost in Saudi Arabia?
2,000,000 utility templates a month in Saudi Arabia: $19850.00 instead of $21400.00 at list, a blended $0.00992 per message (7% off).
What is the authentication-international rate in Saudi Arabia?
$0.0598 per message, 5.6× the domestic authentication rate of $0.0107. Meta charges it only when an eligible business sends authentication templates to users in Saudi Arabia from outside its primary business location.
Which opt-in rules apply to business messages in Saudi Arabia?
Verifiable opt-in required with PDPL-aligned consent capture. Source, timestamp, channel, and lawful-basis records retained for the life of the relationship. STOP / ايقاف honoured network-wide. One-step opt-out, irreversible until the recipient re-consents. CST audits the audit trail.