WhatsApp ordering for restaurants in Egypt

An Egypt restaurant can take orders on its own WhatsApp number with no delivery-app commission. With Menuthere, the customer sends "Hi", taps Order Now, orders from your menu in Egyptian pounds and gets each update in the same chat. You pay your plan and Meta's message fees — nothing to Menuthere per message. Egypt is billed in US dollars, and Meta prices each message by its category and by the country of the customer's number.

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How Meta bills WhatsApp messages for an Egypt restaurant

Meta charges per delivered message. The price depends on the message type and on the country of the customer's number, not on where your restaurant is. Three things matter for budgeting in Egypt:

• Order updates are utility templates and are always billed from October 1, 2026, even inside the 24-hour window. Menuthere sends each update (placed, accepted, ready, dispatched, completed) as an approved utility template.
• Only service messages have a free tier: 1,000 a month per business number, which covers the reply to "Hi".
• Marketing (offers, broadcasts) costs more than a utility update. Broadcast only to customers who opted in.

Egypt is billed in US dollars; Meta publishes no Egyptian pound card. Meta can change prices only on January 1, April 1, July 1 or October 1, and publishes the current per-market rates itself. Because the exact Egypt figure moves on those quarterly dates, read the live rate for an Egyptian (+20) number — and model a full month — in our WhatsApp cost calculator before you commit to a message flow.

How a WhatsApp order works with Menuthere

1. The customer sends "Hi" to your number, from your Instagram bio, Google listing or a sticker on the bag.
2. Your number replies with an Order Now button. The link signs them in automatically.
3. They order from your web menu: photos, sizes, add-ons, prices in EGP, delivery or pickup.
4. Updates arrive in the same chat: order placed, accepted, ready, dispatched with a Track Order button, and completed.

The reply to "Hi" is a service message; each update is a utility template. For the full setup route, see how to get the WhatsApp Business API (the connect flow is the same across the region).

Keep the flow lean to control cost

Because every order update is billed, switch on only the updates your customers need:

• Welcome ("Hi" → Order Now) — the way in; a service message, inside the 1,000 free.
• Order placed — confirms the order went through.
• Order dispatched — with the Track Order button, so the customer checks progress on a page at no message cost.
• Order completed — optional; drop it to save one update per order.

A lean flow of the Welcome plus three updates roughly halves the message cost of a full five-update flow, whatever the current Egypt rate.

Paying for WhatsApp orders in Egypt

Egypt is a cash-first delivery market, which suits WhatsApp ordering well. Stripe doesn't open accounts in Egypt, so there's no online card checkout through Menuthere yet, and WhatsApp's own in-chat payments aren't available here either. Customers pay:

• Cash on delivery, the default for most Egyptian delivery orders.
• Card on delivery where your rider carries a card machine.
• Pay at pickup at the counter.
• Your own payment link, if you use a local gateway.

If you use an Egyptian gateway such as Paymob, Fawry or a bank gateway, add it to the request list in Settings → Payments & tax; requests decide which we add next. Never ask for card numbers inside the chat — WhatsApp's policies forbid it.

Delivery apps and WhatsApp in Egypt

Most Egypt restaurants keep the delivery apps for discovery and move their regulars to WhatsApp to cut commission. See what talabat charges on our talabat Egypt commission page. Menuthere takes no commission on a WhatsApp order; you pay only the Meta message fees and your plan.

Worked example: a Cairo kitchen's WhatsApp month

Say 500 regulars a month order on WhatsApp at an average of EGP 300 (EGP 150,000 in sales), all paying cash or card on delivery, on a lean flow (the "Hi" reply plus three updates). Your message bill is the 500 "Hi" replies (inside the 1,000 free) plus 1,500 utility updates at the current Egypt rate, which our cost calculator totals for you — a small, fixed cost next to app commission on EGP 150,000. Compare the commission on our talabat Egypt page.

Local checklist for Egypt restaurants

• Prices in EGP, with 14% VAT included where you're VAT-registered.
• Arabic names on your best sellers (every plan); the whole-menu language button is on Lite and up.
• Welcome and update messages written in the Arabic your customers use.
• A payment method added in Meta's billing, or service replies stop once the free 1,000 are used.
• The current Egypt message rate checked in the WhatsApp cost calculator.
• Order link printed as a QR sticker with the WhatsApp QR code maker, and a pre-filled "Hi" link with the WhatsApp link generator.

More context: our Egypt online ordering system.

How to start

1. Create your free ordering page and import your menu from a photo or PDF.
2. Upgrade to Pro (7-day free trial; a card is needed to start, and nothing is charged until it ends).
3. Connect your number with Facebook sign-in under Sales channel → WhatsApp, then switch on the Welcome and order-update flows.
4. Send yourself a test "Hi" from another phone.