What Does a WhatsApp Chatbot Cost Per Month in Malaysia?

A managed WhatsApp chatbot in Malaysia costs a flat monthly subscription in RM, with no separate AI fee and no per-contact charge. The only additional cost to plan for is Meta’s own WhatsApp Business Platform messaging fee, which applies to every WhatsApp solution on the market, not just managed ones.

This post covers exactly what you pay, what is included, and what is not.

What does the monthly subscription cover?

With Polaris, the subscription is an all-in monthly fee billed in RM. It covers the chatbot software, the AI that powers the replies, onboarding support, and ongoing hosting. You are not assembling a stack of separate tools and paying each one individually.

The core value metric across all three tiers (Starter, Pro, Ultra) is the number of AI replies or conversations your bot handles each month. A small business answering a few hundred enquiries a week sits comfortably on a lower tier. A business running campaigns across multiple WhatsApp numbers with thousands of conversations a month would move up.

For the exact RM figures on each tier, check the WhatsApp chatbot pricing guide.

Is setup included, or does it cost extra?

Setup is included. You are not billed separately for connecting your WhatsApp number, loading your knowledge base, or configuring your bot flows. That work happens as part of onboarding.

This matters because some chatbot providers charge a separate one-time setup fee on top of the monthly subscription. With a managed service like Polaris, that cost is already covered, not a separate line item.

Does the AI cost extra?

No. The AI is bundled into your plan.

This is one of the most common points of confusion. Businesses sometimes assume they will receive a chatbot subscription bill and then a separate bill from an AI provider on top of it. With Polaris, that is not how it works. The AI is part of what you are paying for monthly. Your plan gives you a quota of AI replies. When your bot answers a customer, it draws from that quota. You do not pay per reply on top of your subscription.

All tiers also include unlimited active contacts. A salon with 3,000 customers in its contact list pays the same contact fee as one with 300: zero.

What is the one cost you still pay separately?

Meta’s WhatsApp Business Platform charges for certain message types. This fee is not set by Polaris or any other chatbot provider. It is Meta’s own pricing, and it applies to every business using the WhatsApp Business API, regardless of which tool they use to build their chatbot.

Here is how Meta’s pricing works in practice:

Service messages (free). When a customer sends you a WhatsApp message first and you reply within 24 hours, that reply is free. This covers most day-to-day chatbot interactions, such as answering a product question, confirming a booking, or resolving a complaint.

Marketing messages (paid). If your business sends a promotional message to a customer outside the 24-hour window, or initiates a conversation to send an offer, that is a marketing message and Meta charges for it. This is what most businesses use for broadcast campaigns and re-engagement flows.

Utility and authentication messages (paid). Order confirmations, appointment reminders, and OTP codes sent outside the free window also carry a fee.

The exact rate varies by country and message category. For the current Malaysia rate, see Meta’s official pricing page and the deeper breakdown in WhatsApp message fees explained for Malaysia.

For a business that mostly answers inbound enquiries (the chatbot replies to customers who message first), the Meta fee is often very small or zero for those conversations. For a business running weekly promotional broadcasts to a list of 5,000 contacts, the Meta fee becomes a real line item to track.

How to estimate your monthly total

Start with two numbers: your expected inbound conversations per month, and how many outbound marketing messages you plan to send.

If your main use case is answering enquiries and booking appointments, the Meta fee may be minimal. Most of your cost is the Polaris subscription.

If you plan to run regular broadcast campaigns to large lists, add the Meta per-message rate multiplied by your list size and send frequency. That gives you an approximate monthly Meta spend to budget alongside your Polaris subscription.

A real example: a Kuala Lumpur clinic running the bot to handle appointment bookings and answer insurance questions might pay the Polaris monthly fee and close to nothing in Meta fees, because almost every interaction starts with the patient messaging first. A fashion retailer sending weekly promotions to 8,000 opted-in customers would see a meaningful Meta charge on top of the subscription.

What you are actually buying

A managed chatbot subscription covers the software, the AI, the support, and the infrastructure. What it does not cover is Meta’s own per-message pricing, because that is controlled entirely by Meta.

Budget for both. The subscription is predictable and fixed each month. The Meta fee scales with how much you message out. For most businesses focused on inbound, it is a small addition. For outbound-heavy campaigns, plan it like you would plan an ad budget.

To see how the cost compares to what a well-configured bot actually saves, the WhatsApp chatbot ROI guide for Malaysia walks through the numbers for common business types.