Adnova Blog

Arabic SMS character count: why 70 characters, and a counter that shows the parts and cost

2026-10-31T06:00:03.513Z

An Arabic SMS fits 70 characters; an English one fits 160. Standard SMS uses the GSM 7-bit alphabet, which has no Arabic letters, so any message containing Arabic is sent in UCS-2 encoding instead, and fewer characters fit. Past 70 characters, the message is split into parts of 67, and each part is billed as a separate SMS. Paste your message into the Arabic SMS character count tool below to see its encoding, how many parts it will be sent as, and what the send costs at your price.

Arabic: 70 characters in one SMS, 67 in each part of a longer one. English: 160 and 153.
One character can change the encoding. A curly apostrophe, a long dash or an emoji turns an English message into a 70-character one.
One character over the limit doubles the cost. 71 Arabic characters are sent, and billed, as two messages.
Spaces, line breaks and diacritics count. So does a brand name typed into the text; the sender name shown above the message doesn’t.

Arabic SMS character count tool

Paste the message exactly as it will go out, with the link and the opt-out line, then add the number of recipients and your provider’s price per SMS part. If the counter finds a character that forces Unicode in an English message, it names it, and offers to replace the look-alikes.

SMS character counter for Arabic and English: encoding, parts and the cost of a send

SMS character limits for Arabic and English

Encoding	Used when	One SMS	Each part of a longer SMS
GSM-7	Every character is in the GSM alphabet (English letters, digits, common symbols)	160 characters	153 characters
UCS-2 (Unicode)	Any character outside it: every Arabic letter, emoji, curly quotes	70 characters	67 characters

Here is how length turns into parts. Each step past a limit adds one more billed message per recipient.

Arabic message length	Parts	English message length	Parts
1 to 70 characters	1	1 to 160 characters	1
71 to 134	2	161 to 306	2
135 to 201	3	307 to 459	3
202 to 268	4	460 to 612	4

Why Arabic SMS are shorter

One SMS carries 140 bytes of text. The GSM alphabet uses 7 bits per character, so 160 characters fit. Arabic needs UCS-2, which uses 16 bits per character, so 70 fit. When a message is longer, each part gives up a few bytes to a header that tells the phone how to join the parts back together, which is why each part holds 153 or 67 characters instead of 160 or 70.

140 bytes = 1,120 bits
GSM-7:  1,120 ÷ 7  = 160 characters (153 per part)
UCS-2:  1,120 ÷ 16 =  70 characters  (67 per part)

The switch is all or nothing. A single character outside the GSM alphabet moves the whole message to UCS-2, even if the rest is plain English.

The characters that quietly double your cost

In English messages

Curly quotes and apostrophes (‘ ’ “ ”), which word processors and phones insert automatically.
Long dashes (– —) and the ellipsis character (…).
Emoji. Each one takes two characters in UCS-2, and four with a skin-tone modifier, on top of switching the encoding.
A non-breaking space pasted from a document or a web page.
Any Arabic word, or the Arabic comma (،) in an otherwise English message.

The fix is usually a find-and-replace: straight quotes, a hyphen, three full stops. The counter’s “Replace look-alike characters” button does it for you.

In GSM-7 messages: characters that count twice

A few characters are in the GSM alphabet’s extension table and take two characters each: ^ { } \ [ ~ ] | €, and the page-break character. They keep the message in GSM-7 but use up the limit twice as fast.

In Arabic messages

An Arabic message is already UCS-2, so Arabic or Latin digits cost the same, and so do Arabic punctuation marks. What adds length is everything you can see and some things you can’t: diacritics (tashkeel) and the tatweel stretch (ـ) each count as characters. Emoji count as two.

Worked example: a White Friday SMS to 5,000 customers

A hypothetical store sends a White Friday offer to 5,000 customers in Arabic. The first draft is 82 characters:

First draft: 82 characters, 2 parts
عروض الجمعة البيضاء: خصم 25% على كل المنتجات حتى الأحد. اطلب الآن من example.sa/wf

At 82 characters it is sent as two parts, so the send is billed as 10,000 messages. Cutting the greeting and the call to action brings it to 58 characters and one part:

Shorter draft: 58 characters, 1 part
الجمعة البيضاء: خصم 25% على كل شيء حتى الأحد example.sa/wf

The calculator’s worked example: 24 fewer Arabic characters halve the send, and one emoji doubles the English one.

Draft	Characters	Encoding	Parts per recipient	Parts for 5,000 recipients
Arabic, first draft	82	UCS-2	2	10,000
Arabic, shortened	58	UCS-2	1	5,000
English	72	GSM-7	1	5,000
English with one emoji	74 (75 counted)	UCS-2	2	10,000

Whatever your provider charges per part, the shorter Arabic draft costs half as much to send, and so does the English one without the emoji.

How to write Arabic SMS that fit in one part

Put the offer first. “خصم 25% حتى الأحد” says more than a greeting and fits easily.
Drop greetings and sign-offs. The sender name above the message already says who it is from.
Use a short link. A tracked short link on your own domain is shorter than a full URL, and easier to trust.
One language per message. An English message with one Arabic word is limited to 70 characters. Send Arabic to customers who prefer Arabic and English to the rest.
No diacritics, tatweel or emoji. They add characters without adding meaning.
Count before every send. Paste the final version, with the opt-out line, into the counter.

SMS or WhatsApp?

SMS is billed per part, so length matters. WhatsApp Business messages are billed per message, whatever their length, and can carry images and buttons, but the customer needs WhatsApp and must have agreed to hear from you. Compare your SMS price × parts with Meta’s rates in our WhatsApp API pricing guide before you choose the channel for a campaign.

Register before you send
Promotional SMS in the UAE and Saudi Arabia go out under a registered sender name. Your SMS provider handles the registration and can tell you the local rules for promotional messages.

Messages that reach customers at the right moment

We connect SMS, WhatsApp and email to your CRM, so each customer hears from you once, in their language, at the right time. See CRM & Automation, or tell us what you send today.

How many characters are in an Arabic SMS?

70 characters in a single message. A longer Arabic message is split into parts of 67 characters, and each part is billed as one SMS.

Why is my Arabic SMS counted as two messages?

Because it is longer than 70 characters. Arabic uses UCS-2 encoding, which fits 70 characters in one SMS; from the 71st character it is sent as two parts of up to 67 each.

Do spaces count in an SMS?

Yes. Every space, line break and punctuation mark counts as a character, and in Arabic messages diacritics count too.

Does the sender name count towards the SMS length?

No. The sender name shown above the message is sent separately. A brand name you type into the message text does count.

How many characters does an emoji take in an SMS?

Two, and four with a skin-tone modifier. An emoji also switches an English message to UCS-2, so the limit drops from 160 to 70 characters.

How many characters are in a long SMS?

Each part holds 153 characters in GSM-7 (English) and 67 in UCS-2 (Arabic or Unicode), because part of every segment is used to join the parts back together.

Sources

3GPP TS 23.038 (ETSI TS 123 038 v19.0.0): the GSM 7-bit alphabet and its extension table
What is the SMS character limit?, Twilio: 160 and 153 in GSM-7, 70 and 67 in UCS-2, and the fallback to UCS-2
What is UCS-2 character encoding? and What is GSM-7 character encoding?, Twilio
Can I send and receive emoji?, Twilio Help Center: emoji take two characters, four with a skin tone

Character limits checked on 24 October 2026.

Snapchat ads cost in Saudi Arabia (2026): minimum budget and a planner

2026-10-30T06:00:23.649Z

Snapchat ads cost in Saudi Arabia starts at $5 a day (SAR 18.75), the minimum Snap allows, but Snap recommends $20 to $50 a day (SAR 75 to 187.50) so a new campaign can finish its learning phase. What you then pay for each view, swipe-up or lead is not fixed: Snap sells ads in an auction and publishes no rate card for Saudi Arabia, or for any other country. So the useful question is what your budget buys at your rates. The planner below answers it, and checks your plan against Snapchat’s and TikTok’s published minimums.

The floor is $5 a day. Snap recommends $20 to $50 a day for at least the first days, which it calls the Exploration Phase.
There is no official price list. A “Snapchat ad price” quoted online is someone’s own results, or a management fee, not what Snap charges.
Three rates decide your cost per lead: CPM, swipe-up rate and conversion rate after the swipe. The landing page moves the result as much as the ad does.
Snapchat reports 25.3 million ad audience in Saudi Arabia, according to DataReportal’s Digital 2026 report: ad reach, not unique users.

Snapchat ads cost in Saudi Arabia: plan your budget

Enter a budget and the rates from a past campaign: CPM and swipe-up rate from Snapchat Ads Manager, conversion rate from your site or form. No past campaign yet? Keep the example rates, then replace them after the first week. Switch to “My goal” to see the budget a number of leads or sales needs.

Snapchat, TikTok and Meta budget planner: reach, swipe-ups, leads and cost per lead at your own rates

What Snapchat publishes, and what it doesn’t

Snap publishes its minimum budget and how its auction works. It doesn’t publish what an impression or a swipe-up costs, because that depends on who else is bidding for the same audience at the same time. TikTok, Snapchat’s main rival for Saudi attention, works the same way.

	Snapchat	TikTok
Minimum daily budget	$5 (SAR 18.75)	Ad group: more than $20 (SAR 75). Campaign budget, if set: more than $50 (SAR 187.50)
Recommended daily budget	$20 to $50 (SAR 75 to 187.50)	Not published
How the price is set	Auction, with goal-based bids	Auction: “Target cost per result” or “Maximum Results”
Published CPM or price list	None	None
Ad audience in Saudi Arabia, late 2025	25.3 million	38.6 million aged 18 and over

The audience figures are what the platforms’ ad tools report, collected by DataReportal. They count ad reach, not people: TikTok’s figure is higher than Saudi Arabia’s adult population, which DataReportal itself flags. Use them to compare platforms, not to size your market.

Why we don’t print a “Saudi Snapchat CPM”
We could not find a Saudi CPM or cost per swipe published by Snap or by any independent source with a method behind it. A number from one advertiser’s account says little about yours: the audience, objective, season and creative all change it. Your own first week of data is a better benchmark.

How much budget a Saudi Snapchat campaign needs

Enough for the learning phase

Snap says its recommended $20 to $50 a day helps an ad complete the Exploration Phase, the period after launch when the system learns who responds, typically four days or more depending on the objective. For one campaign, that is roughly SAR 300 to 750 before you judge it. Judging a campaign on its first SAR 100 usually means judging the learning phase, not the ad.

Enough to reach a useful number of results

Work back from the goal: how many leads or sales do you need this month, and what did one cost last time? Our planner’s “My goal” mode does the sum. With the example rates (CPM SAR 25, 0.8% swipe-up rate, 3% conversion rate), 100 leads need about SAR 10,417.

Worked example: SAR 15,000 for a month

A hypothetical lead-generation campaign in Saudi Arabia, using the planner’s example rates, which are illustrations and not Saudi averages: SAR 15,000 over 30 days, CPM SAR 25, 0.8% swipe-up rate, 3% of swipe-ups becoming leads, each person seeing the ads three times on average.

The planner’s worked example. Each rate moves the cost per lead: a CPM 20% higher, or a swipe-up or conversion rate 20% lower, cuts leads to 115 to 120.

Step	Result	Cost
Budget, 30 days	SAR 500 a day	SAR 15,000
Impressions at CPM SAR 25	600,000	SAR 25 per 1,000
People reached (frequency 3)	200,000	–
Swipe-ups at 0.8%	4,800	SAR 3.13 each
Leads at 3%	144	SAR 104 each

If your rates turn out different	Leads	Cost per lead
CPM 20% higher (SAR 30)	120	SAR 125
Swipe-up rate 20% lower (0.64%)	115	SAR 130
Conversion rate 20% lower (2.4%)	115	SAR 130

The last two rows are the point: a weaker landing page costs as much as a worse ad. Before raising the budget, check what happens after the swipe.

What makes Snapchat ads cost more or less

Season. Ramadan, White Friday and national days bring more advertisers into the same auction. Budget for higher CPMs in those weeks, and plan them early: our Ramadan 2027 plan starts in December.
Audience. A narrow audience (one city, one age band, one interest) has fewer people to bid on, so each impression usually costs more.
Objective and bid. Optimising for leads or purchases buys different impressions from optimising for reach. Compare cost per result, not CPM, across objectives.
Creative. Snapchat is full-screen and fast. Ads that don’t fit the 9:16 frame or put text under the interface lose swipes; check yours against our social media ad sizes 2026 guide.
What happens after the swipe. A slow page, an English-only form or a long checkout cuts the conversion rate, and with it every lead you paid for.

How to know what your Snapchat ads really cost

Ads Manager reports cost per swipe-up or cost per lead. What matters is cost per customer. Install the Snap Pixel or Conversions API so purchases and leads are reported back, tag every lead with its source in your CRM, and compare platforms on cost per qualified lead or per sale. For online stores, set the cost per purchase you can afford with our break-even ROAS calculator.

Minimum budgets and audience figures checked on 24 October 2026. Snap and TikTok can change them: we update this page when they do.

Snapchat campaigns measured by what they earn

We run Snapchat, TikTok and Meta campaigns for brands in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, in Arabic and English, judged on cost per customer rather than cost per swipe. See Performance Advertising, or send us your last campaign’s numbers and we’ll tell you where the money went.

How much does a Snapchat ad cost in Saudi Arabia?

You can start from $5 a day (SAR 18.75), Snap’s minimum, and Snap recommends $20 to $50 a day (SAR 75 to 187.50) at first. What each impression or swipe-up costs is set in an auction and isn’t published, so plan with your own CPM and conversion rates.

What is the minimum budget for Snapchat ads?

Snap says the minimum spend is $5 a day, and recommends $20 to $50 a day so a new ad can complete its Exploration Phase, which typically lasts four days or more.

Is there an official price list for Snapchat ads in Saudi Arabia?

No. Snap sells ads in an auction and publishes no rate card or average CPM for Saudi Arabia. Prices quoted online are one advertiser’s results or a management fee.

How much should I spend on Snapchat ads per month?

Work back from your goal: leads or sales needed × the cost of one, using your own rates. At Snap’s recommended $20 to $50 a day, a month comes to about SAR 2,250 to 5,625.

What is the minimum budget for TikTok ads in Saudi Arabia?

TikTok requires an ad group daily budget of more than $20 (SAR 75), and a campaign budget, if you set one, of more than $50 (SAR 187.50).

Is Snapchat or TikTok cheaper in Saudi Arabia?

Neither publishes prices, and cost depends on audience, objective and creative. Run both with the same offer and compare cost per qualified lead or per sale after the learning phase.

Sources

Snapchat Ads pricing, Snap: the $5 minimum, the $20 to $50 recommendation and the Exploration Phase
About budgets, TikTok Ads Help: campaign and ad group minimums (updated July 2026)
Bidding strategies, TikTok Ads Help (updated September 2026)
Digital 2026: Saudi Arabia, DataReportal: platform-reported ad audiences, late 2025
Saudi Central Bank (SAMA): the riyal’s official rate of 3.75 to the US dollar

Social media ad sizes 2026: Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram and Facebook (with a checker)

2026-10-29T06:00:28.640Z

Social media ad sizes 2026, in short: vertical 9:16 for Snapchat, TikTok, Stories and Reels, and 4:5 for Instagram and Facebook feeds. Meta now recommends 1440 × 1800 pixels for feed ads and 1440 × 2560 for Stories and Reels, higher than the 1080-pixel sizes most guides still list. Snapchat ads are 1080 × 1920, and TikTok In-Feed videos need at least 540 × 960. Below are the full specs from each platform’s own pages, the safe zones to keep text out of, and a checker that reads your file and tells you where it fits.

One 9:16 master covers four placements: Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram and Facebook Stories, and Reels.
Make it 1440 × 2560. That meets Meta’s new recommendation and scales down cleanly to Snapchat’s 1080 × 1920.
Keep text between 15% and 65% of the height and 6% in from each side, and it stays clear of every platform’s buttons and of a 4:5 feed crop.
Arabic ads on TikTok have their own safe-zone file. TikTok publishes a separate one for the Arabic region.

Ad size checker: does your file fit?

Choose an image or a video, or type its size. The checker compares it with each placement’s published ratio, resolution, file size, format and length, and draws the safe zones. Your file is read by your browser and never uploaded.

Ad size checker for Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram and Facebook, with safe zones

Social media ad sizes 2026: the full table

These figures come from each platform’s own specification pages, checked on 24 October 2026. Where a platform publishes only a minimum, the table shows the minimum.

Placement	Ratio	Recommended size	Minimum	Max file size	Length
Snapchat Single Image or Video	9:16	1080 × 1920	720 × 1280 (images)	Image 5 MB, video 1 GB	3 s to 30 min
TikTok In-Feed video	9:16 (also 16:9, 1:1)	Not published	540 × 960 (9:16)	500 MB	Up to 10 min
Instagram Feed image	4:5 (accepts 4:5 to 1.91:1)	1440 × 1800	500 px wide	30 MB	–
Facebook Feed image	4:5	1440 × 1800	600 × 750	30 MB	–
Facebook Feed video	4:5	1440 × 1800	120 × 120	4 GB	1 s to 241 min
Instagram Stories video	9:16	1440 × 2560	250 px wide	4 GB	1 s to 60 min
Facebook Stories video	9:16	1440 × 2560	250 px wide	4 GB	1 s to 3 min
Instagram Reels	9:16	1440 × 2560	250 px wide (500 px from 30 s)	4 GB	Up to 15 min

File formats: Snapchat takes MP4 or MOV video encoded in H.264, and JPG or PNG images. TikTok takes MP4, MOV, MPEG, 3GP and AVI. Meta takes JPG or PNG images and MP4, MOV or GIF video. A Snapchat image becomes a 5-second video, and a Snapchat video shorter than 3 seconds is looped to 3.

Safe zones: where text and logos can go

Every vertical placement covers part of the screen with the platform’s own interface: the profile name, the call-to-action button, captions and the like and share icons. Text or a logo under them can’t be read. Each platform defines the area to keep clear differently.

Design inside the shared band and one master file works on Snapchat, Meta’s vertical placements and a 4:5 feed crop.

Platform	Keep clear	On a 1080 × 1920 frame
Snapchat	Top 150 px and bottom 330 px of a 1920 px canvas	Top 150 px, bottom 330 px
Meta Stories and Reels	About 14% of the top, 35% of the bottom and 6% of each side	Top 269 px, bottom 672 px, sides 65 px
TikTok	Depends on the ad and caption length: TikTok publishes downloadable safe-zone files	Use the file; the Arabic region has its own

The band that works everywhere

Put Snapchat’s and Meta’s zones on the same frame and add a centred 4:5 crop for the feeds. The area inside all three runs from about 15% to 65% of the height, with 6% kept clear on each side. On a 1440 × 2560 master, that is from pixel 380 to pixel 1664. Put the headline, offer, price and logo there, and let the background fill the rest.

Check the Arabic version separately
An Arabic headline often needs more height than its English equivalent at the same legibility, and reads from the right. Check the Arabic cut against the safe zone on its own, and on TikTok use the Arabic-region safe-zone file.

Text limits next to the creative

Platform	Field	Limit
Snapchat	Brand name	32 characters with spaces
Snapchat	Headline	34 characters with spaces
Instagram Feed	Primary text	125 characters
Instagram Feed	Headline	40 characters
Instagram Feed	Hashtags	Up to 30
Facebook Feed	Headline	27 characters
TikTok Spark Ads	Caption	Up to 4 lines shown, emoji included

Snapchat also asks that the brand name reflects the advertiser that pays for the ad and is not the same as the headline.

One master file, every placement

Shoot or design at 1440 × 2560 (9:16). It meets Meta’s recommendation for Stories and Reels and scales down to Snapchat’s 1080 × 1920 and above TikTok’s minimum.
Keep every word and logo inside the shared band: 15% to 65% of the height, 6% in from the sides.
Cut a 4:5 version for the feeds at 1440 × 1800, from the centre of the same frame. If you designed in the band, nothing important is lost.
Export to each platform’s format and size limit. Snapchat images stay under 5 MB, TikTok video under 500 MB.
Run every final file through the checker before upload, Arabic and English versions both.

If you are producing creative for White Friday, plan each discount first: our discount profit calculator shows which offers are worth putting on the frame. For the next big season, the Ramadan 2027 plan works back from the first day to when creative production should start.

Creative that fits and still sells

A file that passes every check can still be ignored. We produce ad creative in Arabic and English for Gulf audiences, cut for each platform from one master. See Social & Content, or talk to us about your next campaign.

What size is a Snapchat ad in 2026?

1080 × 1920 pixels, 9:16. Images are JPG or PNG up to 5 MB and at least 720 × 1280; videos are MP4 or MOV, H.264, up to 1 GB, 3 seconds to 30 minutes. Keep the top 150 px and bottom 330 px clear.

What size are TikTok ads?

TikTok In-Feed videos can be 9:16 (at least 540 × 960), 16:9 (at least 960 × 540) or 1:1 (at least 640 × 640). Files can be MP4, MOV, MPEG, 3GP or AVI, up to 500 MB and up to 10 minutes. 9:16 is the format TikTok recommends.

What is the best size for Instagram ads in 2026?

For the feed, 4:5 at 1440 × 1800 pixels; for Stories and Reels, 9:16 at 1440 × 2560. Images can be up to 30 MB and videos up to 4 GB.

What is the safe zone for Instagram Reels and Stories?

Meta suggests leaving about 14% of the top, 35% of the bottom and 6% of each side free of text, logos and other key elements, so the profile icon and buttons don’t cover them.

Can I use one video for every platform?

Yes, if it is 9:16 and you keep text inside the shared safe area: from about 15% to 65% of the height and 6% in from the sides. The same frame then works on Snapchat, TikTok, Stories and Reels, and a centred 4:5 crop works in the feeds.

Do TikTok In-Feed ads accept images?

TikTok’s video ad specifications page lists video formats only for In-Feed ads. Use a short video, even one made from still images.

Sources

Single Image or Video specifications, Snapchat Business Help Center
Single Image or Video creative best practices, Snapchat Business Help Center: the 150 px and 330 px safe zone
Video ads specifications, TikTok Ads Help (updated June 2026)
Instagram Feed image, Facebook Feed image and Facebook Feed video, Meta Ads Guide
Instagram Stories, Facebook Stories and Instagram Reels, Meta Ads Guide: sizes, lengths and the 14%, 35% and 6% safe zone

Specs checked on 24 October 2026. Platforms change their specs without notice; we update this page when they do.

Discount profit calculator for White Friday 2026 (UAE and Saudi stores)

2026-10-28T06:00:00.074Z

A discount pays for itself only when it brings in enough extra orders to replace the margin it gives away. The textbook rule: the sales increase you need = discount ÷ (margin − discount), both as a share of the price before the discount. A 20% discount on a product with a 40% margin needs twice the orders to earn the same profit; on a 25% margin it needs five times as many. The discount profit calculator below runs the same sum for a store in the UAE or Saudi Arabia, with the VAT inside your prices, shipping, payment fees and the sale’s own ad budget, which most calculators leave out.

White Friday falls on Friday 27 November 2026, the day after US Thanksgiving, and each retailer sets its own sale dates around it. That leaves about four weeks to choose a discount your margin can carry.

Every discount is paid for in volume. In our example, 25% off a 249 product needs 274 orders where 120 sold at full price: 128% more in Dubai.
VAT makes deep discounts riskier in Saudi Arabia. The same 25% off needs 158% more orders in Riyadh, and 50% off loses money on every order.
Fees fall with the price; product cost and shipping don’t. The fixed costs per order are what turn deep discounts into losses.
Advertised discounts need paperwork: a discount licence from the Ministry of Commerce in Saudi Arabia, a promotion permit in Dubai.

Discount profit calculator for UAE and Saudi stores

Pick the market, then replace the example with one of your products. Your supplier invoice, your courier’s rates and your payment provider’s statement have every number you need. The table under the results shows the same sum for other discounts, so you can see where the maths turns against you.

Discount profit calculator: orders needed at each discount, after VAT, costs, fees and the sale budget

The discount formula: how many more sales you need

Profit per order is what is left of the price after the costs of that order. A discount comes straight out of that profit, so you need more orders to make the same total. Ignoring VAT, fees and ad spend, the formula is:

sales increase needed = discount ÷ (gross margin − discount)

example: 40% margin, 20% discount
0.20 ÷ (0.40 − 0.20) = 1.00, so 100% more orders (double)

The table shows how quickly that grows. Read across your margin: the increase you need is never in proportion to the discount.

Gross margin	10% off	20% off	30% off
30%	+50%	+200%	Never: no profit left
40%	+33%	+100%	+300%
50%	+25%	+67%	+150%
60%	+20%	+50%	+100%

These are the best case. In a Gulf store, VAT, shipping, payment fees and the extra ad spend a sale needs all push the numbers up, which is what the calculator adds.

Why Gulf stores need more than the textbook formula

VAT is inside your shelf price

Consumer prices in both countries normally include VAT: 5% in the UAE and 15% in Saudi Arabia. A 249 price holds 11.86 of VAT in the UAE and 32.48 in Saudi Arabia, and that money goes to the tax authority, not to your margin. A discount lowers the VAT you collect too, but your costs stay the same, so the higher the VAT rate, the less margin a discount has to work with.

Shipping and product cost don’t move

A discount cuts the price but not what the product costs you or what the courier charges. On a cheaper basket, those fixed costs take a bigger share of every order. Payment fees are the exception: card, buy-now-pay-later and cash-on-delivery fees are a percentage of what the shopper pays, so they fall with the discount.

The sale has its own budget

White Friday ads cost more to run, because every store is bidding for the same shoppers in the same week. Add the extra ad spend, influencer fees and creative for the sale to the calculator’s budget field: the extra orders have to pay for those too.

Worked example: 25% off in Dubai and Riyadh

The calculator’s example: a product priced at 249 with VAT included, costing 90, with 18 for shipping and packing and 3% payment fees. At full price the store would sell 120 orders over the sale days, and it spends 3,000 on the sale.

The calculator’s worked example: past 30% off, the orders needed climb steeply, and in Riyadh 50% off loses money on every order.

Per order	Dubai (AED)	Riyadh (SAR)
Shelf price, VAT included	249.00	249.00
VAT inside that price	11.86	32.48
Sale price at 25% off	186.75	186.75
Profit per order at full price	121.67	101.05
Profit per order at 25% off	64.25	48.79
Orders needed (120 at full price)	274	311
Sales increase needed	+128%	+158%
Orders needed at 50% off	2,575	Never: loses 3.47 per order

Same product, same costs, same discount: the Saudi store needs 37 more orders than the Dubai store to break even, because 15% VAT leaves less margin to discount from. At 50% off, the Riyadh store loses money on every order before a single riyal is spent on ads.

Discount what you can afford, not what competitors show
A competitor’s 50% banner tells you nothing about your margin. Run each product you plan to discount through the calculator and use the deepest discount whose sales increase you’ve actually reached in a past sale.

How to choose a White Friday discount that still makes money

Start from your margin. For each product, find the discount where the sales increase in the table is one you can realistically reach. Last year’s White Friday or Ramadan orders are the best guide.
Discount the right products. High-margin products can carry a deeper discount. Slow-moving stock can too, because holding it also costs money.
Use thresholds and bundles. “Spend 300, save 50” or a bundle price raises the basket, so shipping and fees are spread over more revenue.
Compare free shipping with a percentage. Free shipping costs you the same amount on every order, whatever the price. On a high-priced product it can be cheaper than 10% off.
Set ad targets for the sale price. A discount lowers the profit per order, so your break-even ROAS goes up during the sale. Recalculate it with our break-even ROAS calculator before you raise budgets.
Confirm cash-on-delivery orders. Sale shoppers order more on impulse. A quick WhatsApp confirmation before dispatch filters out parcels that would come back; see what those messages cost in our WhatsApp API pricing guide.

White Friday 2026: dates and permits

	UAE	Saudi Arabia
White Friday	Friday 27 November 2026	Friday 27 November 2026
Who sets the sale dates	Each retailer	Each retailer
Permit for advertised discounts	Dubai: a permit is mandatory for any promotional offer. Other emirates set their own rules	A discount licence from the Ministry of Commerce, issued online
VAT	5%	15%

In Saudi Arabia, the Ministry of Commerce’s discount licence service asks for the list of discounted products and their prices before and after the discount, and lists a fee of 300 per store. In Dubai, the Department of Economy and Tourism (formerly Dubai Economy) issues promotion permits. Apply before your ads go live, and in the UAE right after White Friday, plan for the 55th Eid Al Etihad on 2 December.

Dates, permit pages and VAT rates checked on 24 October 2026.

When the discount isn’t the problem

A sale that looks busy and leaves the bank balance flat usually fails in this calculation: a discount deeper than the margin can carry, ads bought at full-price targets, or shipping nobody added back. We plan sale campaigns from the margin up. See Performance Advertising, or send us your product list and we’ll tell you which discounts pay.

How do I calculate how many more sales a discount needs?

Divide the discount by your gross margin minus the discount. With a 40% margin and 20% off: 0.20 ÷ (0.40 − 0.20) = 1, so you need 100% more orders. In the UAE and Saudi Arabia, also take VAT, shipping, payment fees and the sale’s ad budget into account, as the calculator does.

What is a good discount for White Friday?

The deepest discount whose sales increase you can realistically reach. If your margin is 40%, 10% off needs a third more orders and 30% off needs four times as many. Check the increase in the calculator against your last sale before you commit.

When is White Friday 2026?

Friday 27 November 2026, the day after US Thanksgiving. There is no official sale period: each retailer sets its own dates, and many run offers for several days around it.

Do I need a permit to run a discount in Saudi Arabia or the UAE?

In Saudi Arabia, advertised discounts need a discount licence from the Ministry of Commerce, issued online. In Dubai, a permit from the Department of Economy and Tourism is mandatory for any promotional offer. Other emirates have their own authorities and rules.

Does a discount lower the VAT I pay?

Yes. VAT is charged on the price the customer actually pays, so a discount on a VAT-inclusive price lowers the VAT you collect and pass on. Your product cost and shipping don’t fall, which is why your margin shrinks faster than the price.

Is free shipping better than a percentage discount?

It depends on the price. Free shipping costs you the same amount on every order, so on a high-priced product it often costs less than a percentage off. Compare the two per order: on a 249 product, 18 of shipping is about 7% of the price.

Sources

White Friday 2026, Salla seasons calendar: 27 November 2026
Discount licences, Ministry of Commerce, Saudi Arabia: e-service, required documents and fee
Dubai Media Office, 13 July 2020: permits for promotional offers in Dubai
Federal Tax Authority, UAE: VAT at 5%
Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority, Saudi Arabia: VAT at 15%

Ramadan 2027 marketing plan for the UAE and Saudi Arabia: dates, timeline and budget planner

2026-10-27T06:00:19.582Z

Ramadan 2027 is expected to begin on Monday 8 February 2027 and last 29 or 30 days, with Eid Al Fitr on Tuesday 9 or Wednesday 10 March, depending on the moon sighting. Working backwards, a Ramadan 2027 marketing plan for the UAE or Saudi Arabia should lock its offer and budget by 14 December 2026, start creative production by 28 December, have tracking and catalogues checked by 11 January 2027 and start warming up audiences on 18 January.

That is closer than it looks: the offer deadline is seven weeks from now. Below are the key dates, the plan phase by phase, starting budget splits, and a planner that turns your own start date, budget and production time into a dated plan you can add to your calendar.

8 February 2027: expected first day of Ramadan (projection reported by The National, citing the UAE’s Astronomy Centre).
22 February 2027: Saudi Founding Day falls in the middle of Ramadan this year.
28 February: the last ten nights begin (from the evening of 27 February).
9 or 10 March: Eid Al Fitr. Have creative ready for both dates.
Plan per market: the UAE and Saudi Arabia share the month, not the weekend, the language mix or the media costs.

Ramadan 2027 key dates for the UAE and Saudi Arabia

The plan at a glance. Dates are projections until the moon sighting.

Moment	Expected date	What it means for campaigns
Offer, budget and audiences locked	Monday 14 December 2026	8 weeks before the first day
Creative production starts	Monday 28 December 2026	6 weeks before; earlier for video and Arabic voice-over
Tracking, catalogue and templates checked	Monday 11 January 2027	4 weeks before, while there is still time to fix things
Warm-up starts	Monday 18 January 2027	Teasers, audience building, early offers
First day of Ramadan	Monday 8 February 2027	Subject to moon sighting the evening before
Middle ten days begin	Thursday 18 February 2027	Day 11
Saudi Founding Day	Monday 22 February 2027	A Saudi public holiday on day 15 of Ramadan
Last ten nights begin	Sunday 28 February 2027	Day 21 (from the evening of 27 February)
Eid Al Fitr	Tuesday 9 or Wednesday 10 March 2027	After 29 or 30 days of fasting

The start and end dates are projections; both countries confirm them by moon sighting the evening before. Plan for the projected date and keep the first and last days flexible by one day.

Ramadan campaign planner

Set the expected first day, how long Ramadan runs, your total budget, how many weeks your creative needs, and the kind of campaign. The planner builds the milestones and phases, shows the budget per phase and per day, and exports everything as a calendar file.

Ramadan 2027 campaign planner with budget split and calendar export

Your Ramadan 2027 marketing plan, working backwards

8 weeks before (by 14 December): lock the offer

Decide what you are selling, to whom, and at what price before anyone designs anything. A Ramadan offer is usually a bundle, a gift set, a family pack or a giving-back mechanic rather than a plain discount. Set the total budget and the split between markets now; the rest of the plan depends on it.

6 weeks before (by 28 December): start production

Brief the creative for every phase at once: warm-up, the first and middle ten days, the last ten nights and Eid. Write the Arabic natively rather than translating the English, and make vertical video for Snapchat, TikTok and Reels as well as static formats. If you shoot video or record voice-over, start earlier; the planner lets you set the lead time.

4 weeks before (by 11 January): check the plumbing

Test the pixel and server-side events, product catalogues, landing pages and the checkout on a phone, in both languages. If you use WhatsApp, get your marketing and utility templates approved now; marketing messages are the expensive category, so read our WhatsApp API pricing guide before you budget broadcasts.

3 weeks before (18 January to 7 February): warm up

Use the weeks before the month to build audiences you can retarget later: video viewers, engaged followers, site visitors and existing customers. Tease the offer, collect sign-ups and test which creative works while the auction is still calm.

Days 1 to 10 (8 to 17 February)

Launch the main offer. Routines change in the first days of the month, so watch hourly and daily results closely and move budget towards the hours that convert. Compare against your own data from Ramadan 2026 rather than anyone else’s schedule.

Days 11 to 20 (18 to 27 February)

Refresh creative before it tires and retarget the people who engaged in the first ten days. Saudi brands have a second moment here: Founding Day on 22 February. Decide early whether it gets its own creative or stays inside the Ramadan campaign.

The last ten nights (28 February to 8 or 9 March)

For gifting and e-commerce this is usually the busiest stretch: Eid shopping, gifts and outfits. Shorten delivery promises you can’t keep, show clear cut-off dates for delivery before Eid, and keep enough budget for the final week.

Eid Al Fitr (9 or 10 March)

Prepare Eid greetings and offers for both possible dates and switch them on when the moon sighting is announced. After Eid, thank new customers, ask for reviews and move them into your regular retention flows.

How to split a Ramadan budget

These are the starting splits the planner uses. They are planning assumptions, not industry averages: the right split is the one your own last Ramadan supports, so move money towards the phases that sold.

Phase	Balanced	E-commerce and gifting	Brand and awareness
Warm-up (3 weeks before)	15%	10%	25%
First ten days	25%	15%	30%
Middle ten days	20%	20%	20%
Last ten nights	25%	35%	15%
Eid (first three days)	15%	20%	10%

Split by market as well as by phase. A campaign that serves both countries from one budget lets the cheaper market take the spend, which is rarely where the profit is.

Know your ROAS floor before the auction gets busy

When more advertisers compete for the same audiences, costs can rise quickly. Decide in advance the lowest return each campaign may run at, per market, and pause what falls below it. The break-even ROAS calculator works it out with VAT (5% in the UAE, 15% in Saudi Arabia), cash-on-delivery refusals and payment fees included.

UAE vs Saudi Arabia: what to plan separately

	UAE	Saudi Arabia
Weekend	Saturday and Sunday	Friday and Saturday
VAT inside prices	5%	15%
Extra moment in Ramadan 2027	None	Founding Day, 22 February
Language	Arabic and English audiences side by side	Mostly Arabic-first audiences

Run separate campaigns, or at least separate ad sets, per country so you can see and steer each market’s results.

Ramadan 2027 checklist

Offer, budget and market split agreed by 14 December 2026.
Creative briefed for every phase, Arabic written natively, Eid versions for both dates.
Pixel, server events, catalogues and landing pages tested in both languages by 11 January 2027.
WhatsApp templates approved and a payment method on the account.
Break-even and target ROAS set per market.
Delivery cut-off dates for Eid agreed with your courier and shown on the site.
Daily reporting in place from day one, with someone who can act on it every day.

We plan and run Ramadan campaigns on Meta, Google, TikTok and Snapchat for brands in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, in Arabic and English. See Performance Advertising, or start the conversation before the December deadline.

When does Ramadan 2027 start in the UAE and Saudi Arabia?

Ramadan 2027 is expected to begin on Monday 8 February 2027, according to the projection reported by The National. The exact date is confirmed by moon sighting the evening before.

When is Eid Al Fitr 2027?

Eid Al Fitr 2027 is expected on Tuesday 9 or Wednesday 10 March 2027, depending on whether Ramadan lasts 29 or 30 days.

When should brands start planning Ramadan 2027 campaigns?

Lock the offer and budget about eight weeks before the first day, which is mid-December 2026 for a start on 8 February 2027. Start creative production about six weeks before, and earlier for video.

How should I split a Ramadan ad budget?

Start from a split per phase (warm-up, first ten days, middle ten days, last ten nights, Eid) and adjust it to what sold in your last Ramadan. E-commerce and gifting brands usually weight the last ten nights and Eid; brand campaigns weight the warm-up and the first days.

Does Saudi Founding Day fall in Ramadan 2027?

Yes. Founding Day is on 22 February, which is expected to be the 15th day of Ramadan 2027.

Sources

Ramadan 2027 in the UAE: expected dates and Eid Al Fitr holiday, The National (updated 6 October 2026), citing the UAE’s Astronomy Centre

Dates are projections and will be confirmed by moon sighting. We will update this plan when the official announcements are made.

Break-even ROAS calculator for UAE and Saudi stores (VAT, COD and BNPL included)

2026-10-26T06:00:10.339Z

Break-even ROAS is the return on ad spend at which an order pays for its own advertising and nothing more. The formula is order value ÷ what the order leaves you after every cost except ads. Generic calculators reduce that to price ÷ (price − product cost). For a store selling in the UAE or Saudi Arabia, that misses three things between the price and your margin: the VAT inside the price (5% or 15%), cash-on-delivery orders refused at the door, and payment or buy-now-pay-later fees. The break-even ROAS calculator below adds all three back.

With the example numbers, a product that a generic calculator says breaks even at 1.47x actually needs 2.15x in Dubai and 2.57x in Riyadh. Replace the examples with your own figures and you have the number to set in Ads Manager.

Ad platforms report revenue with VAT included. In Saudi Arabia, 13% of a VAT-inclusive price goes to ZATCA, not to you.
Refused COD orders count as purchases in Ads Manager but bring in no revenue and cost shipping both ways.
The same ROAS can be profitable in the UAE and loss-making in Saudi Arabia, because of the VAT gap alone.
Set three numbers before you scale: break-even ROAS, target ROAS and the most you can pay per purchase.

Break-even ROAS calculator for the UAE and Saudi Arabia

Pick the market, then replace the example figures with yours. Your shipping invoices, your courier’s COD report and your payment provider’s statement have every number you need.

Break-even ROAS calculator with VAT, cash on delivery, returns and fees

The break-even ROAS formula

ROAS is revenue divided by ad spend. You break even when the ad spend for an order equals what that order contributes after its other costs, so:

break-even ROAS = order value ÷ contribution per order
contribution per order = revenue kept − product cost − shipping − fees − failed and returned orders

simple version (no VAT, COD or fees):
break-even ROAS = 1 ÷ gross margin %

A product that sells for 200 and costs 80 has a 60% gross margin, so the simple version gives 1 ÷ 0.6 = 1.67x. That number is correct only if nothing else sits between the price and the margin, which is rarely true for a Gulf store.

Why the generic formula is wrong in the Gulf

VAT is inside your order value

Consumer prices in both countries are normally shown with VAT included, and that is the value your pixel sends to Meta, Google, TikTok or Snapchat. But the VAT isn’t revenue: in the UAE 5% is added to the price and passed to the Federal Tax Authority, and in Saudi Arabia 15% goes to ZATCA. On a 299 order, that is 14.24 of VAT in the UAE and 39.00 in Saudi Arabia. Your ROAS report counts both as sales.

Cash on delivery: purchases that never arrive

Ad platforms record a purchase when the shopper checks out. A cash-on-delivery order refused at the door stays in your ROAS report, but you collect nothing, pay to ship it out and pay again to bring it back. Measure your own refusal rate from your courier’s reports, split by city and by campaign if you can; it is often the biggest difference between two stores with the same ROAS.

Payment, buy-now-pay-later and COD fees

Card gateways, Tabby or Tamara, and couriers collecting cash each take a share of the order. The rates depend on your contract, so take them from your own agreements rather than an article. Enter the blended percentage across your payment methods.

Returns

A returned order gives the money back and costs return shipping and handling. The calculator assumes the product goes back into stock; if returns are usually damaged or unsellable, add their cost to the failed-order cost.

Worked example: the same product in Dubai and Riyadh

Here is the calculator’s example run for both markets with identical inputs: a 299 order with VAT included, product cost 95, shipping 22, 3% payment fees, 40% of orders on cash on delivery with 15% of those refused, 4% of delivered orders returned, and 20 to handle each refused or returned order.

The calculator’s worked example: the 10-point VAT gap alone moves break-even ROAS from 2.15x in Dubai to 2.57x in Riyadh.

Per order the platform reports	UAE (AED)	Saudi Arabia (SAR)
Order value (VAT included)	299.00	299.00
VAT inside that price	14.24	39.00
Revenue kept after refusals and returns	256.97	234.62
Product cost (kept orders)	85.73	85.73
Shipping	22.00	22.00
Refused and returned orders	1.95	1.95
Payment fees	8.43	8.43
Contribution before ads	138.86	116.51
Break-even ROAS	2.15x	2.57x
Target ROAS for 10% profit	2.64x	3.21x
Generic calculator	1.47x	1.47x

Now imagine one ad account selling into both countries and reporting a 2.4x ROAS. In the UAE each order leaves about AED 14 after ads. In Saudi Arabia each order loses about SAR 8. Same creative, same ROAS, opposite results. That is why we set ROAS targets per market, never per account.

Check what your pixel sends
Some stores send order values without VAT, or without shipping. Whatever your pixel sends, use the same definition in the calculator, or the break-even number won’t match what Ads Manager shows.

Break-even ROAS, target ROAS and maximum cost per purchase

Number	What it tells you	Where to use it
Break-even ROAS	The floor: below it, every order loses money	Pausing rules and the lowest ROAS you accept on a campaign
Target ROAS	The ROAS that leaves the profit you want	Value-based bidding targets, budget increases
Maximum cost per purchase	The most you can pay for one order and still break even	Cost-per-result bidding and campaigns without purchase values

Meta (ROAS goal), Google Ads (Target ROAS, entered as a percentage, so 2.57x is 257%) and TikTok’s value-based optimisation all let you bid towards a ROAS. Start new campaigns a little above break-even and move towards the target once they have enough conversions to learn from.

Five ways to lower your break-even ROAS

A lower break-even ROAS gives the ad platforms more room to find buyers, and it is usually cheaper to fix the economics than to squeeze the ads.

Raise the order value. Bundles and free-shipping thresholds spread shipping and fees over a bigger basket.
Confirm COD orders before dispatch. A short WhatsApp confirmation filters out shoppers who won’t accept the parcel. Utility messages cost a few fils or halalas each; see our WhatsApp API pricing guide.
Nudge shoppers to prepay. A small prepaid discount often costs less than the refused orders it prevents. Test it on one product first.
Renegotiate delivery. Ask couriers for pricing that reflects your volume and your refusal rate, and compare failed-delivery charges, not just the headline rate.
Stop advertising products that can’t break even. If a product needs a ROAS your ads never reach, sell it as an add-on instead of a hero product.

When the problem isn’t the ads

When a campaign looks fine in Ads Manager and the bank balance disagrees, the cause is usually in this calculation: VAT counted as revenue, refused orders counted as sales, fees nobody added up. We start every performance engagement there, before touching bids or creative. See Performance Advertising, or send us your numbers and we’ll tell you where the margin goes.

What is a good ROAS in the UAE or Saudi Arabia?

There is no single good ROAS. A good ROAS is one above your own break-even ROAS, which depends on your margin, VAT (5% in the UAE, 15% in Saudi Arabia), cash-on-delivery refusals, returns and fees. Use the calculator to find yours.

What is the break-even ROAS formula?

Break-even ROAS = order value ÷ contribution per order, where contribution is the revenue you keep minus product cost, shipping, fees and the cost of failed or returned orders. Without those extras it simplifies to 1 ÷ gross margin %.

Does ROAS include VAT?

Usually, yes. Most stores send the VAT-inclusive order value to their ad platforms, so reported ROAS includes VAT that belongs to the tax authority. Your break-even ROAS has to be calculated on the same basis.

How do cash-on-delivery refusals affect ROAS?

Ad platforms count a COD order as a purchase at checkout. If it is refused, the reported revenue never arrives and you pay shipping both ways, so your real return is lower than the ROAS in your reports.

Is a 2x ROAS profitable?

Only if your break-even ROAS is below 2. With the example numbers in this article, 2x loses money in both the UAE (break-even 2.15x) and Saudi Arabia (2.57x).

What is the difference between break-even ROAS and break-even CPA?

They describe the same point. Break-even CPA is the most you can pay for one purchase; break-even ROAS is the order value divided by that amount.

Sources

Federal Tax Authority, United Arab Emirates: VAT at 5%
Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority (ZATCA), Saudi Arabia: VAT at 15%

WhatsApp Business API pricing in the UAE and Saudi Arabia (October 2026)

2026-10-25T06:00:27.223Z

WhatsApp Business API pricing works per delivered message: Meta prices each message by the recipient’s country and the message category. For a UAE number billed in dirhams, a marketing message costs AED 0.2115 and a utility, authentication or service message AED 0.0576. For a Saudi number billed in riyals, marketing costs SAR 0.2159 and the other three SAR 0.0401. Since 1 October 2026, service replies beyond 1,000 a month per business number, and utility messages sent while a customer’s chat is open, are charged too.

Below are the full rates for both markets in AED, SAR and USD, what the October change means for your bill, and a calculator that estimates your month from your own volumes. We checked every rate against Meta’s published rate card on 24 October 2026.

You pay by the customer’s country, not yours. A Dubai business messaging Saudi customers pays Saudi rates.
Marketing is the expensive category: about 3.7 times the utility rate for UAE numbers and 5.4 times for Saudi numbers.
Service replies are no longer unlimited. Each business phone number gets 1,000 free service messages a month; the 1,001st is charged.
Chats that start from a Click-to-WhatsApp ad are free for up to 7 days, in every category.
Meta only changes rates on 1 January, 1 April, 1 July and 1 October, so a budget holds for a quarter at a time.

WhatsApp Business API pricing for UAE and Saudi numbers

Rates depend on two things: the country code of the person receiving the message (+971 or +966 here) and the currency your WhatsApp Business account is billed in. Since 1 April 2026 businesses can be billed in AED or SAR instead of US dollars. These are Meta’s list rates per delivered message; utility and authentication get cheaper at higher volumes (see the tiers further down).

Recipient	Billed in	Marketing	Utility	Authentication	Service
UAE (+971)	AED	0.2115	0.0576	0.0576	0.0576
UAE (+971)	SAR	0.2159	0.0588	0.0588	0.0588
UAE (+971)	USD	0.0576	0.0157	0.0157	0.0157
Saudi Arabia (+966)	SAR	0.2159	0.0401	0.0401	0.0401
Saudi Arabia (+966)	AED	0.2115	0.0393	0.0393	0.0393
Saudi Arabia (+966)	USD	0.0576	0.0107	0.0107	0.0107

Source: Meta’s WhatsApp Business Platform pricing and pricing documentation, checked 24 October 2026. Utility and authentication show the first volume tier. Taxes are not included.

Meta’s list rates per delivered message, first volume tier, checked 24 October 2026.

WhatsApp API cost calculator

Enter a typical month. The calculator applies the rates above, the volume tiers, the free 1,000 service replies per number and the free ad windows, and shows how much of the bill is new since October.

WhatsApp Business API cost calculator (AED, SAR, USD)

What changed on 1 October 2026

Meta moved WhatsApp from conversation-based pricing to per-message pricing on 1 July 2025. For the following fifteen months, two kinds of message were free: replies to customers who wrote first, and utility messages sent while the customer’s 24-hour window was open. The October 2026 update ended both, and raised marketing rates in both markets.

What the 1 October 2026 update changed, and what stayed free.

Service replies: 1,000 free a month per number

Each business phone number now gets 1,000 free delivered service messages a month. From the 1,001st, every reply is charged at the service rate (AED 0.0576 to a UAE number, SAR 0.0401 to a Saudi number). Unused messages do not roll over. A team that answers a few hundred enquiries a month notices nothing; a sales team replying to thousands of portal or ad leads sees a new line on the invoice.

Add a payment method
Without a payment method on the account, service replies stop once the free 1,000 are used. Check this before a busy month, not during it.

Utility messages inside an open chat are now charged

Order confirmations, booking reminders and delivery updates sent while the customer’s chat window was open used to cost nothing. They are now charged at the normal utility rate. Utility messages sent outside the window were already paid, so the change matters most to businesses that confirm things in the middle of a conversation.

Marketing rates went up in both markets

Meta’s changelog lists marketing rate increases for the UAE on 1 October 2025 and again on 1 October 2026, and for Saudi Arabia on 1 April 2026 and 1 October 2026. If you budgeted campaigns on last year’s rate, rebuild the budget with the current one.

How each message category is priced

Every message a business sends first has to use an approved template, and each template belongs to one category. The category sets the price, so the way a template is written decides what it costs.

Category	What it is for	How it is charged
Marketing	Offers, launches, new listings, win-back messages	One rate per delivered message, no volume discount
Utility	Confirmations, reminders, delivery and payment updates about something the customer started	Per delivered message, cheaper in monthly volume tiers
Authentication	One-time passwords and login codes	Per delivered message, cheaper in monthly volume tiers
Service	Free-form replies when the customer wrote first, within 24 hours	1,000 free a month per number, then per delivered message

Keep confirmations clean
A delivery update with a discount code tacked on reads like marketing, and marketing costs several times more. Keep utility templates about the order and send offers separately, to people who asked for them.

Free messages: ad windows and the service allowance

There are two ways to send WhatsApp messages without paying for them. The first is the free entry point window: when someone starts a chat from a Click-to-WhatsApp ad, the window can stay open for up to 7 days, and marketing, utility, authentication and service messages inside it are all free. The second is the service allowance of 1,000 replies a month per business number.

For businesses that already run Meta ads, the first one is the bigger lever. Leads who arrive through a Click-to-WhatsApp ad can be qualified, sent brochures and reminded about viewings inside that window at no message cost, which changes the maths of a lead-generation campaign.

Volume tiers for utility and authentication

Utility and authentication messages get cheaper as monthly volume grows. The tiers count charged messages across your whole business portfolio and reset every month; each message is charged at the rate of the tier it falls in. Messages sent free inside an ad window don’t count towards a tier.

Utility messages charged this month	UAE recipients (AED)	Saudi recipients (SAR)
Up to 100,000	0.0576	0.0401
100,001 – 1,000,000	0.0547	0.0381
1,000,001 – 4,500,000	0.0518	0.0361
4,500,001 – 40,000,000	0.0490	0.0341
40,000,001 – 80,000,000	0.0461	0.0321
Over 80,000,000	0.0432	0.0301

Authentication uses the same rates with wider bands: the first tier runs to 300,000 messages, then 2 million, 10 million, 20 million and 40 million.

Worked example: a hypothetical Dubai brokerage

Take a brokerage with two WhatsApp numbers, one for sales and one for leasing, messaging UAE numbers and billed in AED. In a month it sends 6,000 marketing messages about new launches, 4,000 utility messages for viewing confirmations (60% of them while the chat is open) and 9,000 service replies to portal and ad leads. About 15% of its messages happen inside Click-to-WhatsApp ad windows.

Marketing: 5,100 charged messages × AED 0.2115 = AED 1,078.65
Utility: 3,400 charged messages × AED 0.0576 = AED 195.84
Service: 7,650 charged replies, minus 2,000 free (1,000 per number) = 5,650 × AED 0.0576 = AED 325.44
Total to Meta: about AED 1,600 a month, of which about AED 443 did not exist before October (the service replies and the in-window utility messages)

Marketing is two-thirds of that bill. Cutting marketing sends to people who never engage would save more than any change to the service replies.

Seven ways to keep the bill down

Template by category. Keep utility templates strictly about the customer’s order or booking; put promotions in marketing templates sent only to people who opted in.
Use the ad window. Run Click-to-WhatsApp ads for lead generation and handle qualification inside the free 7-day window.
Answer completely. Every delivered message counts once the free 1,000 are used. One complete reply with the brochure, price and next step costs less than four short ones.
Give each team its own number. Separate sales and support numbers each get 1,000 free service replies, and customers get a clearer line to call.
Segment marketing sends. Send fewer, better-targeted marketing messages; at 3.7 to 5.4 times the utility rate, every unread broadcast is expensive.
Check your billing currency. AED, SAR and USD rates are set separately. The currency is chosen when the account is created and can only be moved with Meta’s currency migration.
Budget by quarter. Meta changes rates only at the start of a quarter, with at least a month’s notice for rate card updates. Put the next review in the calendar now.

Meta’s rates vs. what your provider charges

Everything above is what Meta charges. Most businesses reach the API through a solution provider or a CRM, and many add a monthly platform fee or a markup per message. When you compare quotes, ask for Meta’s rates to be passed through at cost and for the provider’s fee to be shown separately. The calculator has a field for that fee so the comparison stays honest.

The bigger cost is usually not the messages but the leads that get no reply. If your team answers Property Finder, Bayut or Meta leads on WhatsApp, we connect WhatsApp to the CRM so every chat is logged, routed to the right person and followed up. See CRM & Automation, or tell us about your setup.

How much does the WhatsApp Business API cost per message in the UAE?

For UAE numbers billed in AED, Meta charges AED 0.2115 per marketing message and AED 0.0576 per utility, authentication or service message, as of 24 October 2026. Utility and authentication get cheaper above 100,000 and 300,000 messages a month.

How much does the WhatsApp API cost in Saudi Arabia?

For Saudi numbers billed in SAR, Meta charges SAR 0.2159 per marketing message and SAR 0.0401 per utility, authentication or service message, as of 24 October 2026.

Are WhatsApp service messages still free?

Partly. Since 1 October 2026 each business phone number gets 1,000 free service messages a month. From the 1,001st, replies are charged at the service rate, and unused messages do not roll over.

Is pricing based on my country or my customer’s?

Your customer’s. Meta prices each message by the recipient’s country code, so a UAE business messaging Saudi customers pays Saudi rates, in its own billing currency.

Are messages from Click-to-WhatsApp ads free?

Yes, inside the free entry point window. When a customer starts a chat from a Click-to-WhatsApp ad, the window can stay open for up to 7 days, and marketing, utility, authentication and service messages in it are free.

When does Meta change WhatsApp prices?

Only on 1 January, 1 April, 1 July or 1 October. Meta gives at least one month’s notice for rate card updates and longer notice for changes to the pricing model.

Sources

WhatsApp Business Platform pricing, Meta: rates by market and currency (checked 24 October 2026)
Pricing on the WhatsApp Business Platform, Meta for Developers: per-message pricing, the 1 October 2026 changes, free entry points, volume tiers and rate change dates

Rates checked on 24 October 2026. Meta’s next possible rate change is 1 January 2027; we will update this page when it happens.