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Overview

WhatsApp Team Inbox costs consist of infrastructure, WhatsApp conversation fees, and optional services. Here’s a complete breakdown.

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Cost Components

Infrastructure

Server, database, email services

WhatsApp

Conversation fees (pay-per-conversation)

Optional

Monitoring, support, integrations

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Sample Monthly Costs

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Small Team (500 conversations/month)

ServiceProviderCost
ServerRailway/Render$5-15
DatabaseSupabase Free$0
EmailSendGrid Free$0
WhatsAppMeta (500 conv)$8
MonitoringFree tier$0
Total$13-23/month
vs. Intercom: 39/month(basic)=∗∗Save39/month (basic) = **Save 16-26/month**

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Medium Team (2,000 conversations/month)

ServiceProviderCost
ServerRailway/Render$20-30
DatabaseSupabase Pro$25
EmailSendGrid Essentials$20
WhatsAppMeta (2,000 conv)$32
MonitoringSentry Team$26
Total$123-133/month
vs. Zendesk: 49/agent×3=49/agent × 3 = 147/month = Save $14-24/month

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Large Team (10,000 conversations/month)

ServiceProviderCost
ServerAWS EC2 t3.large$60
DatabaseAWS RDS$80
EmailSendGrid Pro$90
WhatsAppMeta (10,000 conv)$160
Redis CacheAWS ElastiCache$25
MonitoringDatadog$31
BackupAWS S3$15
Total$461/month
vs. Intercom: 99/month+overages=99/month + overages = 300+/month
Potential savings: Variable, but infrastructure is yours

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WhatsApp Conversation Pricing

WhatsApp charges per conversation (24-hour window):

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By Region

RegionUser-InitiatedBusiness-Initiated
North America$0.0085/conv$0.0160/conv
Western Europe$0.0158/conv$0.0298/conv
India$0.0040/conv$0.0110/conv
Latin America$0.0095/conv$0.0300/conv
Rest of WorldVariesVaries
Example calculation (North America):
  • 1,000 user-initiated conversations × 0.0085=0.0085 = 8.50
  • 500 business-initiated conversations × 0.0160=0.0160 = 8.00
  • Total: $16.50/month

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Cost Optimization

Free conversations:
  • Respond within 24 hours to user-initiated messages
  • Each 24-hour window is FREE if customer messaged first
Paid conversations:
  • Business-initiated messages (you contact first)
  • Template messages after 24-hour window
Learn to optimize →

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Infrastructure Costs

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Server Hosting

  • Railway
  • Render
  • AWS
  • DigitalOcean
Pricing:
  • Free: $5 credit/month
  • Pro: $5 base + usage
  • Typical: $15-30/month
Best for: Small to medium teams

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Database

  • Supabase
  • Neon
  • Railway PostgreSQL
  • AWS RDS
  • Free: 500 MB
  • Pro: $25/month (8 GB)
  • Team: $599/month (unlimited projects)

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Email Service

ProviderFree TierPaid Plans
SendGrid100/day$20-90/month
AWS SES62,000/month (with EC2)$0.10/1,000 emails
Mailgun5,000/month (3mo)$35+/month
Postmark100/month$15+/month

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Cost Comparison

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DIY Team Inbox vs. SaaS

Your Total Costs (Medium Team):
  • Infrastructure: $65-85/month
  • WhatsApp: $30-50/month (2,000 conversations)
  • Total: $95-135/month
SaaS Alternatives:
ProviderCostFeatures
Intercom74/month+74/month + 18/agentLimited WhatsApp
Zendesk$49/agent (min 5)$245/month
Freshdesk$15-49/agentLimited features
WhatsApp Business$0Single user only
Your Savings: $110-200/month 🎉

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Hidden Costs to Consider

Initial Setup: 4-8 hours Customization: 2-10 hours (optional) Maintenance: 1-2 hours/monthTime Value: Depends on your hourly rate One-time investment vs. ongoing SaaS fees
Team Training: 1-2 hours Documentation: Free and comprehensive Support: Community + GitHub issuesCompared to SaaS: Similar learning time
Linear scaling:
  • More conversations → Higher WhatsApp fees
  • More data → Larger database → Higher DB costs
  • More traffic → Bigger server → Higher hosting
Still cheaper than per-agent pricing

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Billing Alerts

Set up alerts to avoid surprises: 
{
  "alerts": {
    "whatsapp_monthly": {
      "threshold": 100, // dollars
      "action": "email_admin"
    },
    "infrastructure_monthly": {
      "threshold": 200,
      "action": "email_billing_team"
    }
  }
}

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Next Steps

Scaling Guide

Plan for growth and scale economically

Optimization Tips

Reduce costs without sacrificing quality

Deployment

Get started with deployment