WeChat marketing cost: account, ads, Mini Program, and WeCom

Ask what WeChat costs and you’ll usually get one number. There isn’t one. WeChat (微信) bills in small, separate pieces, each with its own rules.

For every line, the table below shows what Tencent charges and who sets the rest. Each figure is sourced further down, and every source was checked twice in October 2026. Already running an account? Use it as an audit.

Cost line	What Tencent charges	Who sets the rest	How often
Official Account	99 US dollars per verification (overseas)	Nobody	Every year
Content	Nothing	Your team or agency	Every month
Moments ads	From 1,000 yuan a day, or 50,000 per booking	You set the budget	Per campaign
Mini Program	99 US dollars per verification (overseas)	Your developer	Build; verify once
WeChat Pay sales	0.6% to 1% of each transaction	Nobody	Every sale
WeCom	300 yuan to verify (mainland); 2,000 contacts free	Your tool provider	Every year
Agency fees	Nothing	The agency	Every month

What WeChat marketing cost covers: four doors, four bills

First, the reach you’re paying for.

WeChat and its international version had 1.418 billion combined monthly active accounts at the end of 2025, up 2% from a year earlier. Source: Tencent Holdings 2025 results, reported by Tencent News (腾讯新闻), March 2026. https://news.qq.com/rain/a/20260318A07APT00

You reach that audience through four products, each billed on its own. You publish through an Official Account (公众号) and buy ads through Tencent Ads (腾讯广告). If you sell, you’ll want a Mini Program (小程序), the store or app that lives inside WeChat. And WeCom (企业微信) is where your staff message customers one to one.

You don’t need all four on day one. Most brands open with the account and content. Ads come once the account has something worth showing. A Mini Program comes when they’re ready to sell. Still deciding whether WeChat or Xiaohongshu gets the first budget? Our WeChat vs Xiaohongshu guide gives the decision rule.

Official Account: verification fee, renewal, and the overseas route

Your Official Account (公众号) has one fee that matters: verification. For a foreign company it isn’t optional.

The route depends on where your company is registered. Register outside the mainland and you file as an overseas entity, paying in dollars.

An overseas entity pays 99 US dollars per verification application. The fee is charged whether or not the review succeeds. Source: Tencent customer service (腾讯客服), overseas entity verification FAQ, confirmed September 2026. https://kf.qq.com/faq/190723aQvMR31907233IF7FV.html

A company registered in mainland China pays in yuan.

A WeChat Official Account pays 300 yuan per verification application, and verified status lasts one year. The fee is not refunded if the review fails. Source: Tencent customer service (腾讯客服), platform documentation, confirmed September 2026. https://kf.qq.com/faq/161219JvMNvi161219raieiY.html

There is a second difference, and it matters more than the fee. An overseas entity gets one account, and only one type.

An overseas entity can register one account, and overseas regions support the service account type only. The account can be used only after verification. Source: Tencent customer service (腾讯客服), overseas service account registration, confirmed September 2026. https://kf.qq.com/faq/180312zQjeYV180312FNNbmA.html

Your company is registered in	Account type	Verification fee	Review time	Renewal
Mainland China	Subscription or service	300 yuan	1 to 3 working days	Every year
Outside mainland China	Service only	99 US dollars	7 to 15 working days	Every year

An overseas verification is reviewed within 7 to 15 working days after complete documents are submitted. Source: Tencent customer service (腾讯客服), overseas entity verification FAQ, confirmed September 2026. https://kf.qq.com/faq/190723aQvMR31907233IF7FV.html

A mainland verification is reviewed in 1 to 3 working days. Source: Tencent customer service (腾讯客服), registration review times, confirmed September 2026. https://kf.qq.com/faq/120911VrYVrA1312123qyyqI.html

For most readers of this page, then, the account costs 99 US dollars a year. Put the renewal date in a shared calendar. Lapsed verification is an avoidable mess. For the documents, the review steps and what an overseas account can’t do, see our WeChat Official Account setup guide.

Once the account runs, our WeChat open rate benchmark shows what a normal open rate looks like for a service account.

Content production: what drives the cost of an article

Tencent charges nothing for content. You pay for all of it.

No dated public source puts a yuan price on one WeChat article, so this page won’t invent one. What it can show you is what the price depends on.

The first limit is volume. A service account (服务号) can push an article to its followers four times a month.

A service account, verified or not, can send the follower push notification 4 times per calendar month. The count resets at month end and unused pushes do not carry over. Source: Tencent customer service (腾讯客服), mass messaging rules, confirmed September 2026. https://kf.qq.com/faq/120911VrYVrA131025QniAfu.html

That works out to about one pushed article a week. Each one needs copy written in Chinese, not translated. Add images and layout in the WeChat editor. Then comes a compliance read before it goes out (a claim that’s fine in Europe can break China’s Advertising Law). The price moves mostly with who does each step. Approval rounds at head office add to it, and so does original photography.

When you compare quotes, compare the same unit: characters per article, images per article, rounds of revision, and who signs off on compliance.

Ours is published.

TheRedScroll’s packages include one WeChat article a week, up to 1,500 Chinese characters with three images. Real-life photo and video shoots in China are quoted separately. Source: TheRedScroll pricing page, September 2026. https://www.theredscroll.com/pricing/

The prices for that scope are on our pricing page, not here.

Advertising: Moments, Official Account, and Channels, with minimums

All WeChat ads are bought through one system, Tencent Ads (腾讯广告). Opening the account is free. The floors sit in the campaigns.

Tencent advertises free account opening for WeChat ads. Moments ads bought by bidding start at a 1,000-yuan daily budget and a 30-yuan CPM. Scheduled buys start at 50,000 yuan per placement. Local promotion ads start at 1,000 yuan a day. Source: Tencent Ads (腾讯广告), WeChat advertising product page, confirmed October 2026. https://e.qq.com/topic/marketing/industry/weixin/

Those floors are old and stable. Tencent’s 2016 self-serve guide gave the same three numbers.

The daily budget for a bidding campaign may not be set below 1,000 yuan, the bid must exceed 30 yuan per thousand impressions, and a scheduled buy may not be set below 50,000 yuan. Scheduled buys book traffic 5 to 28 days ahead. Source: Tencent (腾讯), WeChat Moments ads self-serve guide, February 2016. https://wximg.qq.com/wxp/temp/MomentsAdsGuidingBook.pdf

The catch is on the same page. Tencent splits Moments (朋友圈) cities into core, key, and other. The cheaper bidding route is open only in the “other” group.

Moments bidding buys are open only in other cities; core and key cities are not supported. Bidding applies to the image-and-text format only. Source: Tencent Ads (腾讯广告), WeChat advertising product page, confirmed October 2026. https://e.qq.com/topic/marketing/industry/weixin/

If your buyers live in core cities, Moments means the scheduled route. That starts at 50,000 yuan a booking.

Official Account ads run inside articles as banners, image-and-text units, and cards. Tencent’s page lists the formats but gives them no separate floor. They’re bought through the same Tencent Ads system.

Channels (视频号), WeChat’s short-video feed, is newer. Tencent has not published a current minimum. The only dated figure is from the launch.

WeChat Channels feed ads launched on July 18, 2022. Contract buys then had a minimum budget of 10,000 yuan, with CPM set at 100, 75, or 50 yuan by city tier. Source: Niaoge Biji (鸟哥笔记), September 2022. https://www.niaogebiji.com/article-186733-1.html

Get today’s floor from Tencent Ads or your agency in writing.

Placement	How you buy it	Published floor	Date of the figure
Moments, bidding	Daily budget, CPM bid	1,000 yuan a day, 30-yuan CPM; other cities only	Confirmed 2026
Moments, scheduled	Booked 5 to 28 days ahead	50,000 yuan per placement	Confirmed 2026
Moments, local	Radius around a store	1,000 yuan a day	Confirmed 2026
Official Account	Through Tencent Ads	None published	n/a
Channels	Contract or bidding	10,000 yuan at launch; none current	September 2022

For a format-by-format walk-through, see our WeChat advertising guide.

Mini Program: what you pay Tencent, and what you pay a developer

A Mini Program (小程序) has two kinds of cost: small, published platform fees, and a build quoted by whoever writes the code.

Verification first. Overseas companies pay the same 99 US dollars as for the account, but only once: for now, an overseas Mini Program has no yearly renewal.

Every overseas Mini Program verification costs 99 US dollars per application, charged whether or not it succeeds. Review takes 7 to 15 working days after complete documents are submitted. Source: Tencent customer service (腾讯客服), overseas Mini Program verification FAQ, confirmed October 2026. https://kf.qq.com/faq/190712yYfY7v190712u2YjQ3.html

Overseas Mini Programs currently need neither filing nor an annual review. Source: Tencent overseas Mini Program team (小程序境外专项), WeChat Open Community, August 2025. https://developers.weixin.qq.com/community/minigame/doc/00044a834b47f83e94c35fbee6b809

There is a shortcut. A verified service account can register and verify a Mini Program without paying again.

A verified service account can quick-register a Mini Program with no 300-yuan fee for mainland entities and no 99-dollar fee for overseas ones. Source: Tencent customer service (腾讯客服), quick registration FAQ, confirmed October 2026. https://kf.qq.com/faq/170705YVZFZZ170705eyI7Rr.html

Then the build. Developer price lists are sales material, so this page leaves them out. Public award notices are dated and independent, and they show the range.

Zhejiang Economic and Trade Polytechnic paid 199,800 yuan for a lecture Mini Program. Source: China Government Procurement Network (中国政府采购网), award notice, November 2025. http://www.ccgp.gov.cn/cggg/dfgg/zbgg/202511/t20251120_25730500.htm

The Maritime Safety Administration paid 2.288 million yuan for its “Haishitong” Mini Program. Source: China Government Procurement Network (中国政府采购网), award notice, May 2025. http://www.ccgp.gov.cn/cggg/zygg/zbgg/202505/t20250516_24611552.htm

Those are public contracts, not private quotes, and none of them prices a shop or a loyalty build. The table below shows what moves a quote, and which fees come on top.

Tier	What it does	What moves the quote	Platform fees on top
Simple	Brand pages, store finder, sign-up form	Number of pages, design work	Verification
Commerce	Catalog, cart, checkout	Product count, stock, order links	Verification, WeChat Pay fee on every sale
Custom	Membership, points, CRM, phone login	Systems it connects to, data rules	All of the above, plus per-use component fees

Our pricing page lists membership Mini Programs as a custom quote, for the same reason.

Selling adds a fee on every order, paid through WeChat Pay (微信支付).

WeChat Pay charges no application fee. Merchants pay a service fee on each transaction, generally 0.6% to 1% depending on business category. The application asks for a business license and a corporate bank account. Source: WeChat Pay (微信支付), merchant onboarding guide, confirmed October 2026. https://pay.weixin.qq.com/static/applyment_guide/applyment_detail_store.shtml

That business license is a Chinese one. An overseas company can still take payment in its Mini Program through cross-border WeChat Pay, with the merchant ID in the same company’s name. Tencent’s cross-border pages don’t publish its service charge, so get the rate in writing.

Overseas merchant IDs come with Mini Program payment switched on. The Mini Program must belong to the same company as the merchant ID. Source: WeChat Pay (微信支付), cross-border payment FAQ, February 2025. https://pay.weixin.qq.com/doc/global/v2/en/4013665012

If you’d rather sell through a mainland entity, read our guide to setting up a Chinese entity for social media first.

Some brands skip the build and open a WeChat Store (微信小店) instead.

Opening a WeChat Store is free, and new merchants can trial with zero deposit in more than 3,000 categories. The platform charges a technical service fee on each sale, 1% to 5% in most categories, with no monthly or annual fee. Source: Tencent Marketing (腾讯营销), WeChat Store FAQ, August 2026. https://e.qq.com/faq/wechat-store/growth/faq-zcjc-008/

One small fee trips up developers. Logging in with a phone number costs money each time.

Since August 28, 2023, the phone-number quick verification component has been paid: 0.03 yuan per successful call, after 1,000 free trial calls per Mini Program. Source: WeChat Open Platform (微信开放文档), phone number component documentation, August 2023. https://developers.weixin.qq.com/miniprogram/dev/framework/open-ability/getPhoneNumber.html

Our WeChat Mini Program cost guide breaks the build price down by type, from 21 public award notices, and lists three cases where you should not build one.

WeCom: licensing, setup, and the people cost

That covers selling. Talking to customers one by one is a separate bill.

WeCom (企业微信) is where one-to-one selling happens. Your staff add customers as contacts, run groups, and send offers. It has three platform costs.

Verification comes first, and it renews yearly.

WeCom verification costs 300 yuan per application for a company, not refunded if it fails. Companies with 1,001 to 10,000 members add a 2,700-yuan member-scale fee, and above 10,000 members 29,700 yuan. Verification is reviewed every year at the same fee. Source: WeCom help center (企业微信帮助中心), verification fees and annual review, confirmed October 2026. https://open.work.weixin.qq.com/help2/pc/18372

Then the contact cap. This is the one that grows with success.

Each company gets 2,000 external contacts free. Beyond that it buys a capacity tier, valid for one year. An unverified company can add only 100 customers. Source: WeCom help center (企业微信帮助中心), external contact capacity, confirmed October 2026. https://open.work.weixin.qq.com/help2/pc/21326

When the cap took effect on May 19, 2023, 5,000 contacts cost 500 yuan a year and 20,000 contacts cost 2,000 yuan a year. Source: Sanyi Shenghuo (三易生活) via Tencent News (腾讯新闻), April 2023. https://news.qq.com/rain/a/20230425A07YD600

Those are launch prices. Check the current tiers in your WeCom admin console before you budget.

Third, the tools. Most brands run WeCom through a CRM tool from a third-party provider. WeCom charges that provider a license for each staff seat, and the provider collects it from you.

WeCom interface licenses are priced per account per year. For 1 to 5 accounts, a basic account costs 5 yuan and a customer-contact account 50 yuan; for 1,001 to 10,000 accounts, 1 yuan and 10 yuan. A new app gets a 90-day free trial. Source: Tencent HiFlow (腾讯云HiFlow), WeCom app pricing, rules in force since May 2022. https://hiflow.tencent.com/docs/applications/qiwei-agent-app-shoufeishuoming/

WeCom cost line	Price	Paid to
Verification	300 yuan a year (mainland), more above 1,000 staff	Tencent
Contacts above 2,000	Tiered, yearly (500 yuan for 5,000 at 2023 prices)	Tencent
Tool license per seat	5 to 50 yuan a year at the smallest tier	Tencent, via the provider
The tool itself	Set by the provider	The provider
Staff time	Your payroll or your agency	Your team

Where you register matters here too.

WeCom accounts registered as overseas companies verify with a registration certificate in 1 to 3 working days, but some functions are not supported, including external payment collection, conversation archiving, and the third-party app marketplace. Source: WeCom help center (企业微信帮助中心), overseas company verification, confirmed October 2026. https://open.work.weixin.qq.com/help2/pc/16535

The largest WeCom cost is staff time, and Tencent doesn’t bill it. A license runs a few yuan a seat. A fluent person on shift who knows your products costs far more. Budget the hours first and the software second. Our WeCom guide covers the setup itself.

Agency fees: three models and three questions

Last line, and the murkiest. Agency fees are the line with the least public information. Fixed prices are rare.

0 out of 37 agencies analyzed offer fixed-price packages. Source: TheRedScroll competitive analysis, April 2026.

Fees come in three shapes. A monthly retainer pays for a set scope. A percentage of ad spend pays for running campaigns. And some agencies earn on the media itself, through rebates from the platform.

Rebates aren’t a rumor. Tencent’s own contract covers them.

Tencent alone sets and adjusts its rebate and bonus-inventory policy. The non-cash part of an ad account, including bonus credit and rebates, cannot be refunded. Source: Tencent Ads (腾讯广告), advertiser cooperation agreement, confirmed September 2026. https://e.qq.com/contract.html

Before you sign, ask three questions. Whose name is the ad account in? Who keeps any rebate? And is ad spend paid to Tencent directly or through the agency?

The same goes for the Official Account. It should be registered to your company, not the agency’s. Our WeChat agency page puts that in writing.

Our own answer on ad spend is on our pricing page: it’s paid directly to the platform, not through us. We don’t quote our fees in articles. The full rate card is on that page.

Three worked budgets: presence, growth, and commerce

Put the pieces together for an overseas company and three shapes of budget appear. The platform figures are the ones sourced above. The agency line points to a rate card rather than a number, because rates differ.

Cost line	Presence	Growth	Commerce
Who it fits	Not yet launched in China	Account live, needs reach	Ready to sell inside WeChat
Tencent’s fixed share	99 US dollars	99 US dollars, plus media	Verification fees, plus a cut of each sale
Official Account	99 US dollars a year	99 US dollars a year	99 US dollars a year
Content	4 pushed articles a month	4 pushed articles a month	4 pushed articles a month, plus product content
Ads	None	Moments bidding, 30,000 yuan for 30 days at the floor	Set by sales targets
Mini Program	None	None	Build quote; verification once (overseas)
Sales fees	None	None	0.6% to 1% via WeChat Pay, or 1% to 5% via WeChat Store
WeCom	Optional	2,000 contacts free	Verification, contact tiers, tool seats
Agency	Content scope, see the rate card	Content and ads scope, see the rate card	Full scope, see the rate card

The presence budget is mostly content. Tencent’s share is 99 US dollars.

Growth is where media comes in. Moments (朋友圈) bidding at its floor, run every day for a month, is 30,000 yuan. Remember the city rule: if your buyers are in core cities, the scheduled route starts at 50,000 yuan a booking.

Selling changes the math again: a build up front, then a fee on every sale. On 100,000 yuan of sales, WeChat Pay (微信支付) takes 600 to 1,000 yuan at the mainland rate. A WeChat Store (微信小店) takes 1,000 to 5,000 yuan on the same sales, but you skip the build. Ten thousand phone-number logins, after the 1,000 free ones, cost 300 yuan.

If you already run an account, check one thing before you add spend: when each verification renews. The account and a mainland WeCom renew every year, each on its own date. An overseas Mini Program, for now, verifies once.

The costs that surprise people

None of these is large. Each is easy to miss until it bites.

• Failed verifications are not refunded. The 99 dollars or 300 yuan is gone if your documents are wrong. Get them right the first time.
• Renewals run on their own clocks. The account verifies every year, and so does a mainland WeCom. An overseas Mini Program, for now, verifies once.
• The cheap ad route skips core cities. Moments bidding is closed in Tencent’s core and key city groups.
• Ad credit is one-way. Bonus credit and rebates in a Tencent ad account can’t be refunded. Find out who gets them.
• Success costs money on WeCom. Past 2,000 contacts, you buy capacity every year.
• An overseas WeCom does less. No third-party app marketplace, no conversation archive.
• Logins aren’t free. Phone-number sign-in costs 0.03 yuan a time.
• Pushes are capped. A service account alerts followers four times a month. Extra articles still appear on the profile, but nobody is notified.

Our guide to China marketing hidden costs lists twelve lines like these across WeChat, Xiaohongshu, Douyin and Weibo.

When comparing quotes, our guide to choosing a WeChat agency explains how to check Mini Program development, WeCom licenses, and account access.

FAQ

How much does a WeChat Official Account cost per year?

For an overseas company, 99 US dollars a year in verification fees, charged per application whether or not it passes. A mainland company pays 300 yuan. That is Tencent’s whole bill for the account. The real yearly cost is content: about four pushed articles a month, written in Chinese. That part depends on who writes them.

What is the minimum WeChat ad budget?

Opening a Tencent Ads account is free. Moments ads bought by bidding start at a 1,000-yuan daily budget with a 30-yuan CPM floor, but only outside Tencent’s core and key cities. Scheduled Moments buys, open everywhere, start at 50,000 yuan per placement. Tencent publishes no current floor for Channels ads, so ask before you plan.

How much does a WeChat Mini Program cost to build?

Quotes vary with scope. Public award notices from 2025 and 2026 run from 199,800 yuan for a simple content Mini Program to over 2 million for a multi-function one. The platform fees are small. An overseas company pays 99 US dollars once to verify, a cross-border WeChat Pay service charge on each sale, and 0.03 yuan per phone-number login. Our Mini Program cost guide gives the full breakdown by type.