Set a max price for WhatsApp marketing messages
Overview
A max price is the most Meta can charge you for each WhatsApp marketing message it delivers. You set it once, when you create a Marketing template. Every message sent with that template then costs your max price or less.
A max price helps you control what you spend on marketing messages:
- Never pay more than you planned. Meta charges your max price or less for each delivered message.
- Reach more people at a lower cost per message by setting a price below Meta's standard rate.
- Deliver more messages at busy times, such as sales and festivals, by setting a price above Meta's standard rate.
It's a limit for each message, not a budget. If your max price is ₹0.80, Meta charges at most ₹0.80 for each message it delivers. So 1,000 delivered messages cost at most ₹800, not ₹0.80 in total.
Max price is a beta feature from Meta, so results can change while Meta improves it.
How max price works
- You create a Marketing template with a max price, for example 0.80.
- Each time a message with that template is sent, Meta checks whether it can deliver the message for your max price or less.
- If it can, Meta delivers the message and charges your max price or less.
- If it can't, Meta doesn't deliver the message, and you aren't charged for it.
A lower max price costs less per message, but fewer messages are delivered. A higher max price delivers more messages, but each one can cost more.
Yellow.ai sends messages that use a max price template through MM Lite, Meta's service for marketing messages. With MM Lite, Meta picks the best time to deliver each message, so a message may not arrive at exactly the time you scheduled.
Before you start
Make sure that:
- The template is a Marketing template. You can't set a max price on Utility or Authentication templates.
- Your sender number has MM Lite. Messages with a max price can only be sent through MM Lite. If your number doesn't have MM Lite yet, ask your Customer Success Manager (CSM) to set it up. Learn more about MM Lite.
- Meta has enabled max price for your WhatsApp Business Account. If it hasn't, creating a template with a max price fails. Contact your CSM.
- The people you message are in countries where max price works. A message with a max price to someone in an unsupported country fails, and you aren't charged for it. Meta lists the countries where its marketing message features are limited in its geographic availability guide. In November 2026, that list included the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea, Nigeria, South Africa, Thailand, Russia and Belarus.
Meta doesn't deliver marketing messages to people in the United States, with or without a max price.
Choose your max price
Enter the price for one message, in your WhatsApp Business Account's currency. That's the currency Meta bills you in. For example, enter 0.80 for ₹0.80, or 0.05 for 5 US cents.
Meta suggests these starting points:
| Your goal | Set your max price |
|---|---|
| Spend less, and deliver about as many messages as today | At Meta's standard rate for marketing messages |
| Reach more people at a lower cost per message | Below Meta's standard rate |
| Deliver more messages at busy times, such as sales and festivals | Above Meta's standard rate |
You can find Meta's standard rates on Meta's WhatsApp pricing page. To learn how Meta charges for WhatsApp messages, see how WhatsApp pricing works.
Try a few prices before you settle on one. Meta suggests sending the same message to four similar groups, about 10,000 messages each: one without a max price, one at the standard rate, one at 1.5 times the standard rate (1.2 times in India and Saudi Arabia), and one at 0.9 times the standard rate. Then compare how many messages each group received in the campaign reports, and what you spent in your Meta billing.
If your max price is very low, Meta may deliver almost none of your messages.
Create a template with a max price
- Go to Engage > Templates.
- Click Create new template > WhatsApp.
- Enter a Template Name, and choose a language in Select language.
- In Select category, choose Marketing. The Max price (optional) field appears next to Template Type.
- In Max price (optional), enter the most Meta can charge for each delivered message, for example 0.80. To use Meta's standard rate instead, leave the field empty.
- Build the rest of the template as usual. See Create WhatsApp template.
- Click Create template. Meta reviews the template as usual, and you can use it once it's approved.
- Keep a note of the price. Yellow.ai doesn't show a template's max price after you create it. A simple way to keep track is to put the price in the template name, for example
diwali_offer_maxprice_080. - You can't change it later. You can't add, change or remove the max price of an existing template in Yellow.ai. To use a different price, create a new template.
- If you see The template was created, but its max price wasn't saved, so Meta won't cap what it charges for it., the template has no max price and uses Meta's standard rate. Contact Yellow.ai support.
Send messages with a max price template
Use a max price template in campaigns, Flows and the Notification API, the same way as any other Marketing template. Yellow.ai sends these messages through MM Lite automatically, even when Meta Cloud is selected in API preference.
Campaigns
- Create the campaign as usual, and choose your max price template.
- Choose a sender number that has MM Lite. If the number doesn't have MM Lite, you see This template has a max price, which WhatsApp accepts only through MM Lite. Choose a sender number with MM Lite enabled. Choose another sender number to continue.
A/B test campaigns work too: each version of the message uses the max price of its own template.
Flows and the Notification API
You don't need to change anything. Yellow.ai checks the template before sending, and sends the message through MM Lite.
Some accounts have template checks turned off for the Notification API. For those accounts, Yellow.ai can't tell that a template has a max price, so the message follows your API preference. If this applies to you, set apiPreference to MM_Lite for these messages. Your CSM can tell you whether template checks are off for your account.
Check the results
Reports show what happened to each message. Delivered messages show their usual status. In the campaign report, a message that wasn't delivered or sent has an error code in the Error column, and the reason in the Comments column. The errors you may see with max price templates are listed in Troubleshooting.
Troubleshooting
| What you see | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| When you set up a campaign: This template has a max price, which WhatsApp accepts only through MM Lite. Choose a sender number with MM Lite enabled. | The sender number you chose doesn't have MM Lite. | Choose a sender number that has MM Lite, or ask your CSM to set up MM Lite for this number. |
| After you create a template: The template was created, but its max price wasn't saved, so Meta won't cap what it charges for it. | The template was created without a max price, so it uses Meta's standard rate. | Contact Yellow.ai support. |
| In the report: 1511 - Not delivered within the max price - WA: Error Code 131049 | Meta couldn't deliver the message within your max price, or the person has already had as many marketing messages as WhatsApp allows for now. Meta also never delivers marketing messages to people in the United States. You aren't charged. | To reach more people, create a new template with a higher max price. If the same person keeps failing, wait at least 24 hours before you send them another marketing message. |
| In the report: 1512 - Max price template needs MM Lite on the sender number | The sender number doesn't have MM Lite, so the message wasn't sent. | Ask your CSM to set up MM Lite for the number, or send a template that has no max price. |
| In the report: Meta error code 131065 | The person is in a country where Meta doesn't offer max price. | Message people in that country with a template that has no max price. |
| In the report: Meta error code 131061 | The message went through Meta Cloud, which doesn't accept max price templates. This happens when Yellow.ai doesn't know that the template has a max price, for example because the price was added in Meta's own tools. | Set your WhatsApp API preference to MM Lite, or use a max price template created in Yellow.ai. |
| Creating a template with a max price fails | This usually means Meta hasn't enabled max price for your WhatsApp Business Account. | Contact your CSM. You can still create the template without a max price. |
Limitations
- Max price works only with Marketing templates.
- You set the max price when you create a template, and you can't change it later in Yellow.ai.
- Yellow.ai doesn't show a template's max price after you create it.
- A template has one max price for every country. Yellow.ai doesn't support Meta's per-country or per-message price adjustments.
- Max price messages go through MM Lite, so Meta decides when each one is delivered.
- Yellow.ai doesn't detect a max price that was added in Meta's own tools. Create max price templates in Yellow.ai.
- Yellow.ai doesn't show Meta's reach estimate, which predicts how many messages you can deliver at each price.
FAQs
Is the max price per template or per message?
Per message. You set it once on the template, and it applies to every message delivered with that template. It isn't a total budget for the template.
Will I always pay my max price?
No. Meta charges your max price or less for each delivered message.
Am I charged for messages that aren't delivered?
No. You pay only for messages that Meta delivers.
What happens if I leave the max price empty?
The template uses Meta's standard rate, like any other Marketing template.
Can I set different prices for different countries?
Not in Yellow.ai. Create a separate template for each price, and send each one to the matching audience.
Can a max price change when my messages arrive?
Yes. Max price messages go through MM Lite, which lets Meta pick the best time to deliver each message.
How do max price messages show up on my Meta bill?
Since 1 November 2026, Meta bills max price messages separately from marketing messages at the standard rate. Meta's invoice is the final record of what you paid.
References
- Set a max price for marketing messages (Meta)
- Geographic availability of features (Meta)
- WhatsApp pricing (Meta)
- Max price billing SKU (Meta)