Meta’s AI agent for WhatsApp Business: what it does, what it costs

Which WhatsApp do you have?

There are three kinds of WhatsApp, and whether you get Meta’s agent, and what it costs, depends on which one you have. Personal WhatsApp is the app most people use to chat with family and friends. The WhatsApp Business app is a separate app built for small businesses. The WhatsApp Business Platform is the paid route that larger firms use through a provider.

In the 2026 edition of the index, just over half of the Bahamian businesses reachable on WhatsApp were on a WhatsApp Business account. The rest, close to half, were on personal WhatsApp. An outside number-checking service read each number’s account type in March and again in July 2026, as the methodology explains, so some of those businesses may have switched since.

That matters here because Meta’s webpages describe the agent in the WhatsApp Business app and on the Platform, and none of them puts it in personal WhatsApp. A number runs on one of the two apps at a time, and WhatsApp lets you move an account from personal WhatsApp to the Business app. So a business still on personal WhatsApp has one step to take before the agent is even an option.

Here are the three, and where Meta’s agent stands on each as of September 2026.

Personal WhatsApp. Meta’s agent is not offered here. Move the number to the WhatsApp Business app first.

The WhatsApp Business app. The agent is there in some countries, for some businesses. A monthly allowance is included, and Meta’s paid Meta One plans add more replies. The next section shows how to check your own app.

The WhatsApp Business Platform, through a provider. The agent is there for eligible businesses in countries Meta has approved, and Meta charges for its messages. Ask your provider whether you can use it.

Is Meta Business Agent in your app yet?

On 3 June 2026, Meta said it was expanding Meta Business Agent “to businesses of all sizes globally”. TechCrunch reported the same day that the agent was now available globally, after testing in countries such as India and Mexico.

WhatsApp’s own Help Center is more careful. As of 25 September 2026, its set-up webpage says the feature is “only available in limited countries to select businesses”. None of Meta’s webpages that we read lists the countries.

So the answer for your business is on your phone. Open the WhatsApp Business app and tap the Tools tab. If you see “AI agent”, the switch is there for your number. If you don’t, the set-up webpage links to a waitlist on Meta’s Business AI website. WhatsApp says: “If the waitlist isn’t offered to you after you open the link, Meta Business Agent isn’t being offered in your country yet.” It adds that joining the waitlist doesn’t guarantee access and comes with no set date. Meta also says the agent’s language is set by your business phone number, and that not every language is supported yet.

What the agent answers, and what to keep for yourself

Meta says the agent can answer questions about your hours and location, your products or services, recommendations, prices, and discounts, payment and shipping. It learns from what you give it: your catalogue, business description, address and hours, your public profiles and website. You can add documents, images and example answers under Your AI agent, then Knowledge. When you answer a chat yourself, it may save new facts from your reply, and you can review, edit or delete them. ChatGPT and Google’s AI answer customers from the same doors, so the hours and details you teach the agent should match what your Google listing and website say.

Meta also warns, in its own words: “Some AI messages may be inaccurate or inappropriate.” The customer reads the answer as coming from your business. Customers do see a notice that the business uses AI from Meta, and Meta says they can ask for a person at any time.

That is why we would split the work in two.

• Give the agent the questions you answer every day. These are questions like “Are you open?”, “Where are you?”, “Do you deliver?” and “How do I pay?”. Teach it facts that stay true, such as your hours, location, what you sell and how to pay. Leave out day-to-day prices and stock unless you will update them the same day.
• Keep money and promises with a person. That means complaints, refunds, deposits, delivery dates, and anything else your business would be held to. Meta says you can “set boundaries for what it should or shouldn’t answer”, so tell the agent to leave refunds, deposits and delivery dates to you.

Keep refunds, deposits and delivery promises with a person, and check the handoff list.

When the agent decides a customer needs you, it sends you a notification and puts the chat in an AI handoff list on the Chats tab. By default a chat leaves that list as soon as you reply, and a chat left quiet for seven days drops off it, so a customer who asked for you can slip off the list without an answer. The split only works if someone answers when a customer asks for a person, so check the list at least once a day.

How to try it before it answers on its own

Start with the reply setting called “Paused for new chats but learning”. In that setting the agent does not reply to new chats, but it keeps reading them to learn. When it spots a question it can answer, you can tap See AI reply and read its answer before anything is sent. Tapping Turn on AI replies sends that answer and lets the agent keep replying in that chat.

Then message your business number from another phone and ask the questions you get most. Read every answer as a customer would. When the answers are right, choose who the agent replies to. You can pick all new one-to-one chats, all of them except your saved contacts, or only chats that start from your Facebook or Instagram ads. It won’t step into a chat you’re already having unless that chat has been quiet for seven days.

What changes when you switch it on

• Greeting and away messages stop. One WhatsApp webpage says they are “automatically disabled” and that you must delete the agent to use them again. Another says away messages pause while the AI is active and come back once it leaves a chat. Plan for them being off.
• Some other tools may stop working. WhatsApp says the agent may stop you using disappearing messages and broadcast lists. A broadcast list sends one message to many customers at once, each as a private chat.
• Linked devices are disconnected. These are the computers, tablets and watches where you use your WhatsApp account alongside your phone. You can link most of them again, but not WhatsApp for Windows, Android tablets or WearOS watches.
• Meta collects the chats. Messages in chats where the agent is connected are collected by Meta “to improve AI at Meta”, even while the agent is muted. That includes the learning setting. When you set it up, WhatsApp asks whether the agent may learn from your chats from the past six months, and you can choose Ignore past chats. Deleting the agent stops the sharing. You can see what was shared from Tools, then Your AI agent, then Download your data, in the phone app only.

If customers send you private details on WhatsApp, weigh that last point before you switch the agent on.

What it costs: the monthly allowance, Meta One or per message

In the WhatsApp Business app. Meta says the app’s messaging and core tools are not changing, and the agent is included “each month up to an included allowance”. Meta doesn’t publish how big that allowance is. When you reach it, WhatsApp says you can buy a Meta One plan or wait for your limit to refresh.

Meta One is Meta’s new paid plan, announced on 15 September 2026. Meta’s newsroom lists four business plans, each “starting at” a monthly price in US dollars. Essential, at US$14.99, gives more access to the agent on WhatsApp and a verified badge once your business passes verification. Advanced, at US$49.99, adds “even more Meta Business Agent responses”. WhatsApp’s own plans webpage lists the extra agent access from Advanced up, so check what Essential includes in your app before you subscribe. Expert starts at US$149 and Max at US$499. A plan is bought for one business profile or phone number. Eligible new subscribers may get a 7-day trial, and the paid plan then starts automatically unless you cancel it.

Meta’s own webpages disagree on where Meta One is offered. Meta’s newsroom says Meta One plans “are now available globally”. WhatsApp’s Help Center says Meta One “is currently in limited testing”, and that buying a plan which lists the agent does not guarantee you can use the agent. The newsroom also says plans, prices and availability may vary by region, and we found no price for a Bahamian account on Meta’s webpages. To see what is offered to your number, and at what price, go to Settings, then Subscriptions.

On the WhatsApp Business Platform. Since 1 August 2026, Meta has charged for agent messages by the token. A token is a small piece of text the AI reads or writes. Meta’s rate is “one global rate of $2.00 USD per 1 million (M) tokens”, which it says comes to about 4 to 5 US cents a message. In Meta’s own example, a customer asking what time you open, with four messages back, costs about 16 to 20 US cents. Meta’s developer rules also leave finance, health, alcohol and gambling businesses, among others, off this route.

If you pay a firm for a WhatsApp AI chatbot, or one is pitching you. Ask the firm whether it runs on the WhatsApp Business Platform. If it does, know that since 1 October 2026 Meta has charged per message. The charge covers the “service” replies a business sends through the Platform, whether a person or another company’s AI writes them. Meta also said it would stop delivering those replies for accounts with no payment method on file by 30 September 2026. Ask the firm whether it has a payment method on file with Meta. Then ask whether the new charges are passed on to you, and at what rate for a Bahamian number.