HighLevel Updates: New Features for September 14-18, 2026

The week of September 14 through 18, 2026 paired a rare pricing cut with a batch of practical platform controls: messaging costs fall in every market, AI agents connect to automation, and useful changes land across contacts, ecommerce, permissions, and the page builder.

WhatsApp Messaging Now Bills at Meta's Exact Rate

From October 1, 2026, the 5% processing fee on outbound WhatsApp messages is removed in every market and every message category, and billing matches Meta's published rate card to the cent. A marketing message to the United States or Canada drops from $0.0263 to $0.0250, and one to the United Kingdom from $0.0667 to $0.0635. Nothing needs to be enabled. For agencies reselling WhatsApp messaging, that means quoting a client with Meta's own public numbers and being able to prove them, so review your rebilling multiplier under Agency dashboard, Reselling, WhatsApp, Manage before the date.

Two free categories become billable the same day. Service messages, meaning free-form replies inside an open 24-hour customer service window, are charged per message, as are in-window utility messages. Conversations opened from a Click to WhatsApp ad or a Facebook Page button still get a 72-hour Free Entry Point window where every message type stays free, and nine more markets move onto their own rate card line.

AI Agents Move Into Workflows and Ask AI

A new Invoke Managed Agent action hands a contact and its context to a published agent, which uses its own instructions, tools, and CRM capabilities to finish the task before the workflow continues. Add the Invoked from a workflow trigger in Agent Studio, publish the agent, then select it in the Workflow Builder and write the instruction. An agency can now automate judgment-heavy steps such as qualifying an inbound lead without hard-coding every branch, then use the agent's response to update records or branch.

Ask AI can also call the Workflow AI agent, so a full workflow can be built or edited from a prompt without opening the builder. It renders as a live preview, any step can be inspected, and conversational edits apply in place before one click opens it in the builder. Because Ask AI runs on WhatsApp, an automation can be started from a phone. Both Ask AI and Managed Agents gained rebuilt thumbs up and thumbs down ratings that stay attached to each reply.

Payment Retries and Pickup in Store

Failed subscription payments can now be retried by hand from the Subscription Details page for NMI, Authorize.Net, Square, and Mercado Pago. Open any subscription marked Unpaid or Past due, retry the oldest unpaid payment with a saved or new card, and optionally make it the subscription default. Three attempts are allowed per card before a 24-hour cool-down. For any business on recurring billing, that is a direct route to recovering revenue once automatic retries run out.

Stores can also offer Pickup in Store as a fulfillment option. Locations are set up under Settings, Shipping and Delivery, Pickup and Store with an address, instructions, preparation time, cost, and taxes, and customers pick a method at checkout. Pickup details carry into order details, transactions, receipts, and workflow custom values.

Six New Custom Field Types for Contacts

Custom fields gained six types: URL fields with allow or block lists for domains, date and time fields that can be limited to future dates, past dates, or a range, rich text fields with formatting, Users fields that attach team members and grant follower-level access, and image support on checkbox and radio options. For a small business this replaces the habit of dumping detail into plain text notes and keeps records usable for segmentation and reporting later. Formula fields and roll up fields are named as the next additions.

Bulk Email From Companies and Custom Objects

Companies and Custom Objects that carry a Contact association now support a Send email bulk action. Select the records, pick the association labels that define the audience, and choose the most recently associated contact, the earliest, or all of them. Company and object fields work as merge fields, and the send uses the same tools as Contacts, including Smart Builder, templates, scheduled sends, batch mode, and UTM tracking.

An insurance agency can select Policies approaching renewal and merge in the policy number, premium, and renewal date without rebuilding the audience under Contacts.

Builder Controls for Pages, Tablets, and Media

Pages in Websites and Stores can be reordered by dragging cards in the Pages grid, with store pages such as Cart and Checkout locked in sequence to protect the purchase flow. The builder also gained device-specific row and column widths for tablet, so a tablet layout can be tuned without overwriting the desktop. These are the ordinary controls that a dedicated funnel platform has long had, and their absence used to force a rebuild. Media Storage now edits .txt, .css, .json, .sql, and .rtf files in place, and saving keeps the existing public URL so anything pointing at it still works.

Permissions, Moderation, and Outbound Calling

WhatsApp settings now have a dedicated permission module with seven per-action scopes covering templates, flows, the business profile, phone numbers, and disconnecting the integration. All seven are granted by default, so access is tightened by switching toggles off, and blocked actions are rejected by the API. Gift Cards received comparable controls, including a separate permission for revealing a full card code. Community admins can also flag keywords, phrases, or domains so matching posts are held for review before going live, with instant alerts to admins.

Local presence dialing was rebuilt with postal code distance matching across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia, consistent caller ID on repeat attempts, coverage across the web dialer, mobile app, and desk phones, and up to 50 reserved numbers per sub-account. A new App QR Code type routes each scanner to the App Store, Play Store, or a fallback URL based on their device.

Smaller Improvements Worth Noting

• .church domains: The .church top-level domain is now registered, renewed, and transferred natively at standard registrar cost.
• Snapshot default dashboards: Mark one copied dashboard as the default for every destination sub-account during a snapshot load, instead of editing each one.
• SaaS card sync: Updating the primary card on a SaaS V2 sub-account now updates its active subscription too, not just wallet recharges.
• Video testimonial automation: A Video Testimonial Received trigger with consent and collector filters, plus optional manual approval before a testimonial shows on a widget.
• Marketplace app pages: Ratings, install counts, white-label support, pricing tiers, grouped permissions, and reviews now sit in clear sections.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to do anything before the WhatsApp pricing change?

The fee removal applies automatically on October 1, 2026. If you resell WhatsApp, check your rebilling multiplier and audit sub-accounts that lean on free-form support replies, since those messages start carrying a per-message cost.

How many WhatsApp service messages are free each month?

The first 1,000 service messages from each WhatsApp phone number each calendar month. The allowance is per number, not per sub-account or contact, and unused volume does not roll over.

Which features are not generally available yet?

The AI Agency Assistant Plan and automatic company creation by email domain are in Labs, while social comments in Conversations and a project management capability were previewed as coming soon. Our beta watch page tracks what is still in testing, and the September 2026 roundup collects the full month.

Try These Features Yourself

Everything above is live now, apart from the Labs and coming-soon items. Start a free 30-day GoHighLevel trial and test agent invocation from a workflow, the new field types, and bulk email from Companies against your own data. If you are moving off another system, the migration comparison is a sensible starting point, and our feature overview covers what each plan level includes.