Have you been thinking about using WhatsApp API for business in Singapore but are unsure how to get started or how much it costs? We have created this first-hand guide to answer all your questions about using WhatsApp Business API in Singapore. Here, you’ll learn all about pricing, how to choose a provider and set up your account, and see how Singaporean businesses are winning big with WhatsApp API.
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WhatsApp Usage in Singapore
WhatsApp is by far the most popular instant messaging app in Singapore. Studies show that 4.56 million Singaporeans are actively using WhatsApp, so if you’re not using WhatsApp for your business, you’re missing out.
If you’re already using the WhatsApp Business App for customer communication, that’s a great start. However, with the vast numbers of potential customers out there, the free business app may not be enough to handle them. That’s where WhatsApp API comes in.
What is WhatsApp API?
WhatsApp API, also known as WhatsApp Business Platform, is designed for medium to large companies looking to use WhatsApp for messaging at scale. Unlike the WhatsApp Business App, the API does not have a front-end interface and must be connected to a messaging software to send and receive messages.
This gives businesses the freedom to choose a software solution that fits their business needs and have access to advanced features, such as automating conversations and appointment booking, AI tools, sending broadcasts and more to create personalized customer journeys.
WhatsApp API vs WhatsApp Business App
The WhatsApp Business App is intended for micro to small businesses, as it comes with limited multiuser, broadcast and automation capabilities. This makes it difficult for you to handle high volumes of messages and contacts.
The API, on the other hand, supports unlimited users and high volumes of broadcasts. When paired with the right WhatsApp API software, businesses can manage conversations with advanced AI and WhatsApp automation and ensure smooth contact synchronization with e-commerce platforms and CRMs, among other advanced capabilities.
Is WhatsApp Business API free in Singapore?
As you can see, WhatsApp API offers many advantages over WhatsApp business, but is it free? No, it’s not. These are the costs you can expect: A phone number, a messaging inbox to receive and send messages and WhatsApp’s conversation-based pricing charges.
We’ll get into the conversation-based pricing below. You should also be aware that certain WhatsApp API providers charge additional fees.
WhatsApp Business API pricing for Singapore
WhatsApp doesn’t allow businesses to message customers anytime to prevent spam. That is why customers must message a business first, and only then can a business start conversations with customers who have previously messaged them. Business-initiated messages incur fees.
WhatsApp Conversation Based Pricing (before April 2025)
Service Conversations: User-Initiated Conversations
Service conversations are initiated by customers. When they message you, a 24-hour customer service window will open for you to reply to them. Once the 24-hour window ends, you can no longer reply to customers unless they send you a new message, which will reopen the window.
Businesses can send any type of message free of charge during the 24-hour window, provided they abide by WhatsApp’s Business Messaging Policy. To message customers outside the 24-hour window, they must use message templates.
Business-Initiated Conversations
Message templates are pre-approved messages used to reopen the 24-hour customer service window or start a new conversation. After 24 hours from the contact’s last incoming message, this is the only way businesses can initiate conversations.
However, there are limits to how many business-initiated messages you can send. If you just created your WhatsApp API account, you’ll start with 250 business-initiated conversations in a rolling 24-hour period.
Once you’ve verified your business, it’ll increase to 1,000 and can eventually reach unlimited sending capacity.
WhatsApp Business Pricing Changes: October 2024 Announcement
In October 2024, Meta announced changes to WhatsApp Business pricing, the first of which has already taken effect. In the past, only the first 1000 service conversations were free; as of November 2024, all service conversations are free!
As of April 2025, fees will apply to each template message rather than conversations. However, utility template messages (e.g., opt-ins, order management, account updates) within the service window will be free.
WhatsApp API Pricing Structure for Singapore
You must pay fees to use WhatsApp API in Singapore. These fees depend on factors like the type of conversation (service- and business-initiated conversations), region, the volume of messages sent and markup on WhatsApp API fees.
To avoid additional costs on top of WhatsApp’s compulsory charges, choose your BSP wisely. Respond.io offers WhatsApp API without charging any markups or additional fees. Next, let’s look in detail at the factors that affect WhatsApp API costs in Singapore.
Factors that Affect WhatsApp API Costs in Singapore
Country Rates
The conversation fees vary based on the country code of your customers. WhatsApp relies on your customers’ country calling code and network prefixes to determine their country.
Currency Conversion
WhatsApp conversation fees are based on US dollars, so for businesses in Singapore, the cost in Singapore dollars will vary depending on the current conversion rate.
Frequency and Volume of Conversations
Businesses sending frequent, high volumes of WhatsApp bulk messages, especially in the marketing category, should expect to spend more.
Calculate WhatsApp API Cost with our Pricing Calculator
To get an idea of the fees you’ll need to pay, you can use this WhatsApp API pricing calculator. Select ‘Rest of Asia Pacific’ for Singapore and estimate the number of each type of conversations you expect to have.
How to Apply for WhatsApp API in Singapore
While businesses in Singapore can get WhatsApp API access directly from Meta, the more popular and convenient way is to access it through WhatsApp Business Solution Providers (BSPs) that offer messaging software. This method, however, affects the pricing and application process.
2 Basic Requirements for a WhatsApp API Account in Singapore
It is compulsory for businesses to have a Meta Business Portfolio (formerly known as Meta Business account) and a phone number that is not tied to any WhatsApp Account when applying for WhatsApp API.
That’s all you need to get started. Most businesses will already have a Facebook business account. If you’ve been using a WhatsApp Personal or free WhatsApp Business account and want to use the same phone number, you must first delete your WhatsApp account to create a WhatsApp API account.
Choose a WhatsApp Business Solution Partner (BSP)
Once you have a phone number and a Meta Business Portfolio account, you need to choose a WhatsApp Business Solution Provider (BSP). It is a third-party company that helps you get access to WhatsApp API.
They are approved by WhatsApp and often provide solutions to enable businesses to send messages, manage customer interactions and integrate with other business tools. So, what do you need to know to pick one?
First, consider a BSP that integrates with WhatsApp Cloud API so that you can enjoy the latest WhatsApp API updates. You’ll also avoid expensive set-up, hosting and maintenance fees. Most importantly, choose a WhatsApp partner that doesn't apply markups on messaging.
Respond.io fits these criteria and is the perfect choice as a WhatsApp BSP. Other WhatsApp BSPs include Sleekflow, Wati and Trengo.
Respond.io is also a badged Meta Business Partner, which means it is recognized by Meta for its expertise in business messaging.
Next, we’ll show you the steps to set up a WhatsApp API account.
3 Steps to Set Up WhatsApp API Account in Singapore
Now, it’s time to set up a WhatsApp API account. We’ll show you how easy it is to set it up on respond.io.
- Connect Your Facebook Account and WhatsApp API Account Start by linking your Facebook account to the WhatsApp API account.
- Verify Your Number You'll need to verify your phone number via a phone call or text message.
- Start Messaging Once verified, you can begin messaging and responding to customers using the WhatsApp API.
If you need more guidance, explore our dedicated blog that explains the application process step-by-step.
Now that you’ve equipped yourself with everything that you need to know about WhatsApp API, let’s look at how Singaporean businesses won big with it.
WhatsApp API Singapore Case Studies: Real Results for Local Businesses
Sleek Gains 3X More Qualified Leads Over WhatsApp
Sleek is a Singapore-based, all-in-one digital platform that enables businesses to digitally and remotely sign legal documents, incorporate companies and file requests to a company secretary 24/7, among others. It serves clients in Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia and the United Kingdom.
The business struggled to get high-quality leads via web chat as contacts often entered fake details in contact forms. Sleek decided to switch its sales conversations to WhatsApp to instantly capture prospects’ names and phone numbers. With respond.io, it connected to WhatsApp API and brought in leads through WhatsApp chat links and QR codes.
This proved to be a tremendous success in Singapore and Hong Kong, where WhatsApp is immensely popular. Sleek noticed that clients tend to maintain relationships over WhatsApp in the long term, even sharing receipts and files for bookkeeping purposes over the channel.
The company reports 3.5x more sales inquiries over WhatsApp than it used to have over web chat. Prospects are less likely to drop off as they can instantly chat with agents instead of filling out a contact form first, removing friction from starting a chat. Sleek records 3x more qualified leads now as it acquires authentic contact information.
Homage Saves 50 Hours Per Month with WhatsApp Automation
Homage is an award-winning caregiving and health solution that presently operates in 3 markets – Singapore, Malaysia and Australia. It uses WhatsApp to broadcast outreach messages to healthcare professionals about urgent home visits for clients. Previously, the team typed out each message manually on the WhatsApp app, which proved to be immensely time-consuming.
For greater efficiency, Homage needed an advanced solution to automate these WhatsApp notifications. It connected a WhatsApp Business API account to respond.io as the first step in expanding its messaging capabilities and facilitating automation.
Then, Homage integrated its CRM with respond.io to retrieve real-time data when seeking the most suitable healthcare professionals for various use cases. With this new setup, it is now able to automate WhatsApp notifications with minimal effort.
They found respond.io's WhatsApp Business API to be an ideal choice, offering the benefits they needed without any additional fees. Using this API also allows Homage to manage its WhatsApp Business Account and access information such as billing from a single platform.
The transition from manual to automated WhatsApp notifications enabled a more agile and efficient outreach process to Homage’s healthcare professionals, significantly saving the team time. Now, Homage spends 50 fewer hours per month on its outreach process.
How Respond.io Can Help Singaporean Businesses as a WhatsApp BSP
These are just a couple of examples of how respond.io helps businesses in Singapore like yours achieve success with WhatsApp API. Here are more details on the benefits you’ll get from choosing respond.io as your WhatsApp BSP.
1. No Additional Connection Fees
Other BSPs charge monthly connection fees for each WhatsApp phone number. With respond.io, all you need to do is subscribe to the conversation management platform. There are no additional costs for connecting WhatsApp API.
2. Reliable Broadcasts
With respond.io as a BSP, you can create template messages, get them approved by Meta and start sending targeted broadcasts to your contacts. Schedule WhatsApp messages and rest assured they’ll be delivered with respond.io’s 99.999% reliability rate.
Broadcast reports are included in the platform to track messages sent, delivered and read. This helps you gauge whether recipients are engaging with your messages so you can adjust the content or frequency to improve performance.
3. Easy CRM Integration
Respond.io makes it easy to integrate WhatsApp with third-party tools such as CRM systems, e-commerce platforms, and automation software. These integrations can facilitate follow-ups, view the status of a customer in a lifecycle and automate tasks like lead capture.
It fills in the gaps to make your sales and WhatsApp marketing efforts holistic, ensuring that no customer falls through the cracks.
4. Automation and Powerful AI Features
If your business faces a large number of inbound messages, your agents might not be able to reply to all of them. To free up their time, use respond.io to automate WhatsApp replies to lead inquiries.
But that’s not all, you can also automatically qualify leads, route them to the right team, or even use AI agents to respond to their inquiries.
As a result, agents are free to perform more important tasks like closing sales or following up with prospects.
5. Ensure Security and Compliance with Singapore PDPA
When handling sensitive customer information, there’s no room for compromise. WhatsApp API is built with strict compliance and security standards, meeting the requirements of Singapore PDPA, and end-to-end encryption is used on all messages.
You’ll want to make sure the platform you choose as a BSP is equally compliant. Respond.io has ISO 27001:2022 certification so you know your data is secure. Additionally, we offer 2FA and Single Sign-On along with an email and phone number masking feature to prevent leaks due to human error or phishing attacks.
Boost Your Business with WhatsApp API in Singapore with Respond.io
Are you ready to take advantage of the opportunities WhatsApp API offers for your business in Singapore? Respond.io has helped thousands of businesses around the world generate leads and enable sales conversions through conversations.
Get started today with a free trial of respond.io or contact us for a customized demo. Our dedicated support team will walk you through the set up of WhatsApp API to get you onboard and set up for success.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is the cheapest WhatsApp API Partner?
There are multiple partners in the market, and the count keeps going up. To avoid incurring unnecessary costs, we suggest you work with a BSP that doesn’t add markups per message sent or received. Also, avoid BSPs with account setup or maintenance fees.
Is it hard to get a WhatsApp API account in Singapore?
Fortunately, it is getting easier and easier. Applying for an account through respond.io only takes a few minutes. If you face any blockers, our support team is here to help.
How many agents can share a WhatsApp API account?
This depends on your BSP’s plan. If you are a respond.io user, you can choose between 3 types of plans and pay only for what you need.
Can I use chatbots with WhatsApp API?
Indeed! Respond.io users can access Respond AI, which consists of an AI chatbot builder, AI Assist and AI prompts, which are a set of tools to help agents reply promptly, professionally and accurately.
Further Reading
We hope you found this ultimate guide useful. Check out these articles if you want to learn more about business messaging.
- Using WhatsApp Business for Multiple Users
- WhatsApp Green Tick: A Guide to Verifying Your WhatsApp Business
- Conversation-Led Growth: Where Conversations Drive Business Results
