WhatsApp has more than 3 billion monthly users, and more than 200 million people use the WhatsApp Business app each month. Every figure on this page links to its source, and where a popular number has no source we could find (like the "98% open rate"), we say so instead of repeating it.
Last updated October 24, 2026
Meta said on its Q1 2025 earnings call that more than 3 billion people use WhatsApp every month (TechCrunch, May 2025).
Meta said the WhatsApp Business app passed 200 million monthly users in June 2023 (Tech.co), its latest published figure.
Across all Mailchimp users, data last updated December 2023 (Mailchimp benchmarks). Average click rate: 2.62%.
Inbound or outbound, plus Meta's own per-message fee on templates (Twilio pricing, October 2026).
Wassuply's minimum warm-up before a new number's first campaign. 30 days is recommended.
Sending through regular WhatsApp numbers with a desktop app means no per-message fees.
More than 3 billion people use WhatsApp every month, according to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on the company's first-quarter 2025 earnings call, as reported by TechCrunch. WhatsApp first passed 2 billion in 2020. Use is deepest in markets such as India, Brazil, Indonesia and much of the Middle East, Africa and Europe, where WhatsApp is often the default way customers and businesses talk.
Meta's most recent published figure for the WhatsApp Business app is more than 200 million monthly users, announced in June 2023 (Tech.co). That counts the free Business app only, not companies on the paid WhatsApp Business API.
You will see "98% open rate" quoted on almost every WhatsApp marketing page. We could not find a primary study behind it, and WhatsApp does not publish open rates, so we do not use it. What you can measure is your own: Wassuply tracks delivered, read (blue tick) and replied per contact and per campaign. For a sourced comparison point, Mailchimp's benchmarks put the average email open rate at 35.63% and the average click rate at 2.62% (data from December 2023), and email opens are inflated by Apple Mail Privacy Protection.
We trace where the 98% came from, and what the measured 2026 read rates actually are, in the real WhatsApp open rate.
| Route | What you pay | Source |
|---|---|---|
| WhatsApp Business API (Meta) | A per-message fee for template messages, by category and country | Meta platform pricing |
| API through Twilio | $0.005 per message plus Meta's fee | Twilio WhatsApp pricing |
| Regular numbers with Wassuply | $397 once (early-bird lifetime), no per-message fees | Wassuply pricing |
The API is built for opt-in support and notifications, and every template needs Meta's approval. Sending through regular accounts with a tool like Wassuply removes per-message fees, which is why a one-time licence often costs less than a single month of API messaging at volume. Run your own numbers in the WhatsApp cost calculator.
WhatsApp does not publish a limit for regular accounts, and anyone quoting a precise ban rate is guessing. What raises the risk is well understood: brand-new numbers, sudden volume, identical text, machine-like timing and people reporting you. Wassuply's Health & Risk caps a number under three months old at 30 cold messages a day and raises the cap as the number ages. The full table is on WhatsApp sending limits, and the playbook is how to avoid a WhatsApp ban.
Sources are linked next to each figure. Figures are the latest each source has published; check the source for updates. Last updated October 24, 2026.
More than 3 billion people use WhatsApp every month, according to Meta's first-quarter 2025 earnings call, as reported by TechCrunch in May 2025.
There is no reliable published figure. The widely repeated 98% has no primary source we could find, and WhatsApp does not publish open rates. Measure your own read and reply rates instead.
For one-to-one outreach it usually gets more attention, because people read WhatsApp like personal messages. It also needs more care: warm your numbers, personalise every message and honour opt-outs, or the number gets reported and banned.
There is no fixed number. Wassuply's Health & Risk caps a number under three months old at 30 cold messages a day and raises the cap as the number ages and builds history.
Warm your WhatsApp numbers, send at a safe pace and watch every number's ban risk live, with one-time pricing.