The Marketing Messages API for WhatsApp, formerly MM Lite, is Meta’s API for marketing template messages, and it is the only Meta API where you can assign them a max price. Max price lets you cap what each delivery costs. It has been in open beta since October 1, 2026, and at general availability in Q2 2027 it becomes required in eligible countries, while fixed, published marketing rates stay only on the Cloud API. Switching keeps your existing templates and phone number and changes one endpoint. You also get delivery tuned to engagement (in Meta’s test, up to 9% more high-engagement messages delivered than on the Cloud API), plus conversion metrics, time-to-live and Android deep links, which the Cloud API doesn’t offer for marketing.
Key Takeaways
- The Marketing Messages API sends your approved marketing templates from your current number, with delivery tuned to engagement.
- Switching takes one step per business portfolio, the Meta account that groups your business’s WhatsApp and ad accounts. An admin accepts Meta’s terms once, with no new templates or phone numbers.
- Meta charges only for delivered messages at standard rate card pricing, and an optional max price lets you cap what each delivery costs.
- Conversion metrics, a time-to-live of 12 hours to 30 days, GIF headers, and Android deep links are marketing features only this API offers.
- Delivery optimization works outside a short list of countries that includes the European Economic Area and the UK, and no Meta API delivers marketing messages to US users.
What Is the Marketing Messages API for WhatsApp?
The Marketing Messages API for WhatsApp is Meta’s API for sending marketing messages on WhatsApp, and it optimizes delivery to reach more of the people most likely to find your messages relevant.[1] It belongs to Meta’s WhatsApp Business Platform and runs next to the WhatsApp Cloud API, Meta’s hosted API for sending and receiving WhatsApp messages.
Both APIs share one phone number, and the Marketing Messages API only sends; incoming messages and every other message type stay on the Cloud API.[2] A marketing template is a message in Meta’s marketing category that passes template approval before you can send it, and the same approved templates work on both APIs.
Meta called it the Marketing Messages Lite API, or MM Lite, until general availability on November 19, 2025.[3]
Automatic delivery optimization means Meta factors whether a message is high engagement into its delivery decisions. Meta reports this delivered up to 9% more messages than the Cloud API in an A/B test of about 12 million delivered marketing messages, sent by advertisers in India in January 2025 and measured on high-engagement messages only.[4]
At 360Dialog, our Performance Messaging team helps brands and agencies plan broadcast sendouts, Click-to-WhatsApp ads, and re-engagement flows on WhatsApp.
If you are planning campaigns that would gain from optimized delivery, talk to us about Performance Messaging.
How Does It Differ From Sending Marketing Templates on Cloud API?
The Marketing Messages API uses the same templates, phone number, and request format as the Cloud API, and adds delivery optimization plus marketing-only features, so switching changes where you send and what you can measure. Meta’s features comparison sets out the differences for marketing templates:
| Feature | Marketing Messages API | Cloud API (marketing templates) |
|---|---|---|
| Send endpoint | /<PHONE_NUMBER_ID>/marketing_messages | /<PHONE_NUMBER_ID>/messages |
| Message types | Marketing templates only | All templates and freeform messages |
| Templates and phone number | Your existing ones | Your existing ones |
| Delivery optimization | Factors engagement into delivery | No |
| Time-to-live | 12 hours to 30 days | Authentication and utility only |
| GIF header | Yes | No |
| Android deep links | Yes | No |
| Sent, delivered, read, and clicked metrics | Yes | Yes |
| Conversion metrics, benchmarks, and recommendations | Yes | No |
| Click event webhooks | Yes, limited availability | No |
If you are weighing what moving marketing sends to this API means for your plan and Meta’s fees, talk to us about pricing.
Endpoint and Request Body
Only the send address changes; your system posts the same template payload. An endpoint is the web address your system sends API requests to. Meta’s endpoint for this API accepts marketing templates only, and freeform, authentication, service, or utility messages sent to it return an error.[5]
The request uses the same fields as a Cloud API template send: messaging_product, recipient_type, the customer’s number in to, type set to template, and a template object with its name and language.[6] The optional product_policy field sets fallback behavior.
Cloud API Fallback Setting
The product_policy field decides what happens to a marketing message when the business has not yet met every onboarding requirement. With the default value, CLOUD_API_FALLBACK, those messages still go out through the Cloud API. With STRICT, the API never hands them to the Cloud API.
Features Set on the Template
Time-to-live and deep links belong to the template, so you configure them when you create or update it. Time-to-live (TTL) is how long WhatsApp keeps trying to deliver a message before dropping it. For marketing templates, the field message_send_ttl_seconds accepts 43200 to 2592000 seconds, which is 12 hours to 30 days, and the default is 30 days.[7]
A deep link opens your app on a customer’s Android device from a template’s URL button. Other devices open the website URL, and adding a deep link button to an existing template sends it through template review again.[8]
What Does It Cost?
Meta charges for marketing messages on this API only when they are delivered, under the same billing model as the Cloud API, and an optional max price lets you cap what each delivery costs.[9] Without a max price, a marketing template on this API uses standard rate card pricing. With one, you set the most you will pay per delivery, and Meta charges that amount or lower.
Max price entered open beta on October 1, 2026, and any partner can now enable it for its clients. Meta plans general availability for Q2 2027, when max price becomes required in eligible geographies and fixed, published rates for marketing messages apply only on the Cloud API.[10]
Rates per market sit on Meta’s rate cards, and our guide to WhatsApp Business API pricing explains how per-message charges add up.
Where Is It Available, and What Are the Limits?
Businesses that meet Meta’s eligibility rules can use the Marketing Messages API, and the location of the business and the customer decides which features apply.[11] Meta groups the exceptions by country:
- Limited features: In the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea, Nigeria, South Africa, and Thailand, messages sent from or to these countries get no delivery optimization and no click or conversion reporting. Per-user marketing message limits are inactive there too, so delivery is unaffected.
- United States: Since April 1, 2025, no Meta business messaging API delivers marketing messages to WhatsApp users in the US (error 131049). US business numbers can still message users elsewhere.
- Russia and Belarus: The API works, but businesses with a Meta business profile or payment address there get no delivery optimization, and click and conversion metrics are unavailable.
- Excluded regions: Businesses in Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, Venezuela, Crimea, Donetsk, and Luhansk cannot onboard, and messages cannot reach users there.
Meta’s platform now uses two account types in place of the familiar WhatsApp Business account (WABA): a WhatsApp account, which holds one business phone number, and a Messaging account, which holds your templates and billing details.[12] Eligibility requires an active WhatsApp account with no messaging restriction for policy violations, a Messaging account tax country and an owning business outside sanctioned regions, and a phone number registered on the Cloud API. For daily sending caps and how Meta releases new templates, see our article on messaging limits and template pacing.
How Do You Switch? Onboarding and Your First Send
You switch by having an admin accept Meta’s terms once for your business portfolio, then sending marketing templates to the new endpoint. 360Dialog, an Official Meta Solution Partner trusted by 100,000+ businesses, supports both steps through its WhatsApp Business API.[13]
- Check eligibility. Confirm your setup can send marketing templates: You need a business phone number registered on the Cloud API, an approved marketing template, and a subscription to the messages webhook. A webhook is the web address where WhatsApp delivers message and status events to your system.
- Accept the terms. Someone with full control of the business portfolio accepts Meta’s terms once. In WhatsApp Manager, open Overview, click Accept terms in the Alerts section, and finish signing. On 360Dialog, the Client Hub shows a banner with an Accept MM API terms button: Connect your Facebook account and complete the signup. The terms cover every Messaging account in the portfolio, and businesses with several portfolios repeat this step for each one.[14]
- Confirm onboarding. Meta tells your system when the terms are signed. You receive an account_update webhook with the event MM_LITE_TERMS_SIGNED for each Messaging account, and the Messaging account field marketing_messages_onboarding_status shows ONBOARDED.
- Send your first message. Point marketing sends at the new endpoint with the same template payload. On 360Dialog, the address is https://waba-v2.360dialog.io/marketing_messages, and you authenticate with your API key in the D360-API-KEY header.[15]
The request below sends an approved template with Cloud API fallback switched on:
POST https://waba-v2.360dialog.io/marketing_messages
D360-API-KEY: <YOUR_API_KEY>
Content-Type: application/json
{
"messaging_product": "whatsapp",
"recipient_type": "individual",
"to": "<CUSTOMER_PHONE_NUMBER>",
"type": "template",
"template": {
"name": "<TEMPLATE_NAME>",
"language": { "code": "en_US" }
},
"product_policy": "CLOUD_API_FALLBACK"
}Platforms that onboard their own clients can include the Marketing Messages API in Embedded Signup v4, which has supported it since October 8, 2025.
How Do You Measure Results?
Both APIs report sent, delivered, read, and clicked counts, and this API adds conversion metrics, benchmarks, and click event webhooks. Conversion metrics show how often a marketing message leads to an action such as a purchase on your website or app, and what each conversion costs.[16]
Conversions use the same events as Meta ads: a Meta Pixel or the Conversions API for websites, and the Meta Android SDK, the Conversions API, or a mobile measurement partner for apps. iOS app measurement is not supported yet. Templates that existed before onboarding have no conversion metrics.
You view these figures in WhatsApp Manager. Benchmarks compare your read and click rates with the 75th percentile of similar businesses in your country or region and industry over the past 30 days.[17]
Status webhooks work as on the Cloud API, with one marker: Messages sent through this API carry the pricing category marketing_lite, and messages that fell back to the Cloud API carry marketing. Click event webhooks report each click on a message’s body or call-to-action button. The feature is in limited availability and covers messages sent in the last 7 days.[18]
The switch itself takes one terms acceptance and one new endpoint. The open question for each campaign is whether the conversion data you gain changes which templates you keep sending.
If your marketing templates are approved and your portfolio admin is ready to accept the terms, get API access and send your first message through the Marketing Messages endpoint.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Is MM Lite?
MM Lite is the former name of the Marketing Messages API for WhatsApp, Meta’s API for sending marketing template messages with automatic delivery optimization. Meta called it the Marketing Messages Lite API until it became generally available on November 19, 2025. Some technical identifiers still use the old name, such as the marketing_lite pricing category and the MM_LITE_TERMS_SIGNED webhook event.
Is the Marketing Messages API Cheaper Than Cloud API?
The Marketing Messages API uses the same billing model as the Cloud API, and Meta charges only for delivered messages. Without a max price, marketing templates use standard rate card pricing. With the optional max price, in open beta since October 1, 2026, you cap what each delivery costs, and Meta charges that amount or lower.
Do I Need New Templates to Use the Marketing Messages API?
Your existing approved marketing templates work on the Marketing Messages API, and onboarding requires no template re-creation or new phone number registration. Two exceptions apply: Templates created before onboarding have no conversion metrics, and adding an Android deep link button to an existing template sends it through template review again.
Can I Keep Sending Marketing Messages on Cloud API?
Yes, the Cloud API keeps accepting marketing templates on its messages endpoint until you switch that off. After full onboarding, setting disable_marketing_messages_on_cloud_api to true makes the Cloud API reject marketing templates with error 131063, so every marketing send goes through the Marketing Messages API. The setting defaults to false.
Can I Use the Marketing Messages API Through 360Dialog?
Yes, 360Dialog provides the Marketing Messages API at https://waba-v2.360dialog.io/marketing_messages, authenticated with your API key in the D360-API-KEY header. A business portfolio admin accepts the terms once, through WhatsApp Manager or the Accept MM API terms banner in the 360Dialog Client Hub, and the request body follows Meta’s, including the product_policy fallback setting.
Sources
[1] Meta for Developers, “Marketing Messages API for WhatsApp” (overview). https://developers.facebook.com/documentation/business-messaging/whatsapp/marketing-messages/overview (accessed October 7, 2026)
[2] Meta for Developers, “Marketing Messages API for WhatsApp: Onboard.” https://developers.facebook.com/documentation/business-messaging/whatsapp/marketing-messages/onboarding/ (accessed October 7, 2026)
[3] Meta for Developers, “Marketing Messages API for WhatsApp: Changelog.” https://developers.facebook.com/documentation/business-messaging/whatsapp/marketing-messages/changelog/ (accessed October 7, 2026)
[4] Meta for Developers, “Marketing Messages API for WhatsApp: Features.” https://developers.facebook.com/documentation/business-messaging/whatsapp/marketing-messages/features/ (accessed October 7, 2026)
[5] Meta for Developers, “Send Marketing Messages.” https://developers.facebook.com/documentation/business-messaging/whatsapp/marketing-messages/send-marketing-messages/ (accessed October 7, 2026)
[6] Meta for Developers, “Marketing Messages API for WhatsApp” (API reference). https://developers.facebook.com/documentation/business-messaging/whatsapp/reference/whatsapp-business-phone-number/marketing-messages-api-for-whatsapp (accessed October 7, 2026)
[7] Meta for Developers, “Configure message time-to-live.” https://developers.facebook.com/documentation/business-messaging/whatsapp/templates/time-to-live/ (accessed October 7, 2026)
[8] Meta for Developers, “Marketing Messages API for WhatsApp: Deep links.” https://developers.facebook.com/documentation/business-messaging/whatsapp/marketing-messages/deep-links/ (accessed October 7, 2026)
[9] Meta for Developers, “Pricing on the WhatsApp Business Platform.” https://developers.facebook.com/documentation/business-messaging/whatsapp/pricing/ (accessed October 7, 2026)
[10] Meta for Developers, “Set a max price (BETA).” https://developers.facebook.com/documentation/business-messaging/whatsapp/marketing-messages/pricing/ (accessed October 7, 2026)
[11] Meta for Developers, “Marketing Messages API for WhatsApp: Get started.” https://developers.facebook.com/documentation/business-messaging/whatsapp/marketing-messages/get-started/ (accessed October 7, 2026)
[12] Meta for Developers, “WhatsApp accounts and Messaging accounts.” https://developers.facebook.com/documentation/business-messaging/whatsapp/whatsapp-business-accounts/ (accessed October 7, 2026)
[13] 360Dialog, “Performance Messaging.” https://360dialog.com/performance-messaging (accessed October 7, 2026)
[14] 360Dialog documentation, “Onboarding and sending messages.” https://docs.360dialog.com/docs/resources/marketing-messages/onboarding-and-sending-messages (accessed October 7, 2026)
[15] 360Dialog documentation, “Marketing Messages” (API reference). https://docs.360dialog.com/docs/messaging-api/api-reference/marketing-messages (accessed October 7, 2026)
[16] Meta for Developers, “Marketing Messages API for WhatsApp: Measure conversion.” https://developers.facebook.com/documentation/business-messaging/whatsapp/marketing-messages/measure-conversion/ (accessed October 7, 2026)
[17] Meta for Developers, “Marketing Messages API for WhatsApp: Viewing metrics.” https://developers.facebook.com/documentation/business-messaging/whatsapp/marketing-messages/view-metrics/ (accessed October 7, 2026)
[18] Meta for Developers, “Marketing Messages API for WhatsApp: Track click events.” https://developers.facebook.com/documentation/business-messaging/whatsapp/marketing-messages/track-click-events/ (accessed October 7, 2026)
