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WhatsApp authentication-international rates

Some countries cost more for authentication templates. Meta calls the higher rate authentication-international, and it applies when the business sending the code is based outside the country receiving it. The business in question is whoever owns the WhatsApp Business Account the message goes out on.

Where the rate applies

Not every country has one, and the set changes. Meta's rate cards list both rates per country; what you pay through Bird is on the WhatsApp pricing page.
Note: on October 1st 2026 the set doubles from nine markets to eighteen, as Bangladesh, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Morocco, Nepal, Oman, Sri Lanka and Ukraine gain a rate. Since September 1st 2026 Meta has measured eligibility across all eighteen, so a business that was not eligible before may become so. See October 2026 pricing changes.

What Meta looks at

Meta assesses eligibility, the business’s primary location and the effective date for each destination market. An international destination alone does not establish which rate applies to your business.
Check the eligibility notice for the business portfolio that owns the sending account. Confirm the destination, the primary business location Meta has recorded and the country-specific start date. Use Meta’s current authentication-international reference for the applicable volume criteria and timing.

How to check your business

  1. Review the notices sent to the account administrators and the portfolio’s information in Business Settings.
  2. Confirm that the primary business location describes the company that owns the sending WhatsApp Business Account. Follow Meta’s review process if that information needs correction.
  3. Check the effective date for the destination before forecasting spend. Keep the ordinary authentication and authentication-international rates separate in the estimate.
  4. After sending, reconcile the applied category and charge in your billing records. Business verification alone does not determine the international rate.

Where to see what you spent

The Usage page breaks WhatsApp consumption down by destination country, so each affected market is its own row, and the Spend page is the wallet ledger, one row per charge with a running balance. Per message, read it back with GET /v1/whatsapp/messages/{message_id}: the cost object shows the message’s recorded charge projection, which can lag or remain incomplete. A null amount is not evidence of a free message. Use the billing records for financial reconciliation. The international premium sits in passthrough_amount, Meta's share, which can land from an applicable delivered or read callback and is priced under the category Meta itself reports rather than the one your template carries.

Shared senders and managed templates

For codes sent through shared senders on Verify, or managed authentication templates in the WhatsApp API, check the published rate for that managed route. The account behind the sender is not your connected business account, so your own business location does not establish the rate for that route. Bird's shared senders do not deliver to markets that carry an authentication-international rate, and from October 1st 2026 that refusal covers the nine new markets as well; sending to them needs a connected number of your own.

Next steps

Related resources

Continue with the documentation, guides and examples for this topic. Resources are in English.

Watch the guideConnecting WhatsApp to Bird: from buying a number to a live channelUnderstand the conceptWhat is the 24-hour customer service window on WhatsApp?Use the toolWhatsApp message builderExplore the capabilityWhatsApp
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