Spaces vs Bird
Bird is a developer platform of APIs for email, SMS, WhatsApp, Apple Messages and voice, with verification, lookup, a free shared Inbox, an SDK, a CLI and a hosted MCP server, priced per product and mostly pay as you go. Spaces is messaging infrastructure for AI agents: one REST API and one MCP server that let the agent you already use — in Claude, Grok, ChatGPT, Cursor or your own code — read and answer customer chats on Instagram, WhatsApp, LinkedIn and Messenger.
In one line: Bird is how your product sends messages; Spaces is how your agent works inside a business's chat inboxes. Here is how they differ, and when each is the better choice. On WhatsApp alone, Bird is slightly cheaper — we show that below.
| Spaces | Bird | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Messaging API + MCP server for AI agents | Communications APIs: email, SMS, WhatsApp, Apple Messages, voice, verify, lookup, mailbox |
| Built for | Developers and agent builders whose agent must answer customers on chat apps | Developers sending transactional and marketing messages, codes and calls from their product |
| Channels | Instagram, WhatsApp, LinkedIn and Messenger (inbox). TikTok posts and comments are live. Facebook Pages coming soon. | Email, SMS, voice, WhatsApp and Apple Messages. Instagram, Messenger and LinkedIn are not listed. |
| The number you already use, linked by QR code, and it keeps working on your phone. No templates and no Meta message fees. New chats only to people who wrote before or opted in; no broadcasts. | Official WhatsApp API: bring your own number or rent one; templates approved by Meta. Coexistence links a WhatsApp Business App number by QR scan in the app, so it stays on the phone (Meta caps it at 20 messages a second). | |
| Broadcasts | No — template broadcasts belong on the official platform | Templates on every plan; broadcasts from the $15 Startup deposit up |
| MCP | Included on every plan, including Free. Built for conversations: read, reply, schedule, routines, approvals, pause. | Hosted MCP at mcp.bird.com (OAuth): send on every Bird channel, set channels up, inspect the workspace. Tools free; usage billed. |
| Safety | Per-account daily limits, pacing, four-week warm-up, read-only keys, pause, optional human approval | API rate limits by plan and Meta's rules for WhatsApp |
| Price | Free: $0, 1 account, 50 actions a day, no card. Pay as you go: $9 per connected account a month, with 1,000 actions a month per account (pooled), then $5 per 1,000 (less at high volume). Reading messages is always free. No seats, no yearly option. | WhatsApp pay as you go: $0.005 per outbound message (Bird fee) + Meta's fee — US totals $0.0084 service and utility, $0.030 marketing. Incoming messages free. Optional deposits from $15 a month. Inbox software free. |
| 5 WhatsApp numbers, 5,000 US service replies a month | $45 a month (5 × $9, 5,000 actions pooled) | About $42 a month at Bird's listed rates ($25 Bird fee + $17 Meta fee) — about $25 if Meta's first 1,000 free service messages per number apply |
| Mixed: 2 WhatsApp, 1 Instagram, 1 Messenger, 1 LinkedIn | $45 a month | Not on Bird alone — Instagram, Messenger and LinkedIn are not listed |
Example assumes five connected accounts and 5,000 outbound replies a month to US recipients. On WhatsApp alone, Bird is slightly cheaper, and Bird's own fee ($0.005 a message) equals Spaces' overage rate per action. Bird's $42 uses its listed US rates without any Meta free allowance. 360dialog's and Gupshup's docs say Meta makes the first 1,000 service messages per number a month free; Bird's pricing page doesn't say so either way. If that applies here (5 numbers × 1,000 = 5,000 replies), Meta's share is $0 and Bird is about $25. Rates differ by destination and category. Spaces' advantage is the other three inboxes in the same API, not price on WhatsApp. The Spaces price does not include what your own AI agent costs to run.
Choose Bird if
- You need email, SMS, voice, OTP verification or Apple Messages — Spaces does none of them.
- You send WhatsApp templates and opted-in campaigns on the official API.
- Your workload is WhatsApp-only, where Bird's per-message pricing is at or below Spaces'.
- You want one vendor and one balance for all of a product's notifications, with high API throughput.
Choose Spaces if
- Your AI agent must answer customers on Instagram, LinkedIn and Messenger as well as WhatsApp — Bird does not list them.
- You want to link an existing WhatsApp number by QR code without moving it onto the WhatsApp API.
- The work is replies, hand-offs and follow-ups that stop on reply, not campaigns.
- You want per-account daily limits, pacing, warm-up, approvals and pause built in.
About how WhatsApp connects
For up to 24 hours after a WhatsApp account connects, reconnects, or is disconnected and connected again, Spaces does not start new chats or outreach. Replies in chats that already exist still go out. Other channels have no reply-only window: the warm-up limits apply from the first day, and replies to people who wrote in go out immediately.
Both can keep the business on the number customers know. Bird runs the official WhatsApp API; with Coexistence, a number on the WhatsApp Business App (version 2.24.17 or later) links to Bird by a QR scan in the app and one-to-one messages mirror between phone and API. Bird lists the trade-offs: group chats stay in the app, broadcast lists in the app stop working, and Meta caps the number at 20 messages a second.
Spaces does not use the WhatsApp API. It links the number you already use by QR code, the way you link WhatsApp on a computer. That number stays under WhatsApp's own automation rules: Spaces keeps every account inside limits, which lowers the risk without removing it. For large template broadcasts, the official platform is the right tool. Sending limits · How Spaces keeps accounts safe · WhatsApp Business Platform vs QR code
Looking at other options too? See the best Bird alternatives.
Facts about Bird were checked on 11 November 2026 from Bird WhatsApp pricing (US), Bird pricing, Bird Coexistence, Bird MCP docs and Bird llms.txt. Spaces facts are from spacesos.com/pricing, WhatsApp API and llms.txt. Prices and features change; their sites have the current version. Bird is a trademark of its owner.