WhatsApp Business API pricing in India, explained with real numbers.
What Meta charges per message, what changed on 1 October 2026, which messages are still free, and how to tell whether your platform is adding to Meta’s price. With a calculator for your own volumes.
Two companies can charge you. Know which is which.
Using WhatsApp through the official API means two bills: Meta, for each message delivered, and your platform, for the software. Most surprises come from the platform quietly setting the first bill too.
Meta: per message
Priced by category and country, charged per delivered message. Same rate for every business — if Meta bills you directly.
Platform: per month
The software: inbox, broadcasts, automation, AI. A flat fee — plus, on many platforms, a margin on every message.
Four categories. The category decides the price.
Per delivered message, for recipients in India, since 1 October 2026. Meta reviews the category of every template you submit.
Offers, announcements, first messages to new leads, cart nudges, win-backs, anything promotional.
Always charged. Meta also limits how many marketing messages one person receives a day.
Order and shipping updates, appointment reminders, payment receipts, confirmations of something the customer did.
Must contain no promotion — or Meta can treat it as marketing.
One-time passwords and login codes.
Strict format: the code, and little else.
Free-form replies inside the 24-hour window after a customer messages you — typed by a person, a chatbot or an AI.
Since 1 Oct 2026: first 1,000 a month per number free, then the utility rate.
What doesn’t cost anything.
After the October 2026 change, fewer things are free than before — but these still are.
Incoming messages
A customer messaging you never costs you anything.
Your first 1,000 replies a month
Per number, inside the 24-hour window. Most small businesses stay under it.
Replies after a Click-to-WhatsApp ad
Meta keeps replies free for 72 hours when a customer reaches you from a Click-to-WhatsApp ad.
Your monthly Meta bill.
Enter what you send in a typical month. We’ll show Meta’s charge at its own rate — and what the same sending costs at the marked-up rates on other platforms’ pricing pages.
Meta’s India rates per delivered message. Replies: first 1,000 a month per number free. Platform rates for marketing messages from their public pricing pages or BSP disclosures, checked 28 October 2026. Platform fees not included.
Sources: Meta’s WhatsApp pricing · AiSensy pricing · Interakt pricing · Wati pricing · Gallabox pricing.
Three businesses, three Meta bills.
Typical months, at Meta’s India rate. The pattern: reminders and updates are cheap; promotions are where the bill is.
A clinic
600 appointments a month, two reminders each, plus a care note
A D2C brand
3,000 cart nudges, 2,000 orders with three updates each, 1,800 support replies
A real-estate developer
1,500 new leads, a first message and one follow-up each
Five habits that cut a WhatsApp bill.
- 01
Keep utility messages utility.
A reminder with an offer in it can be priced as marketing — seven times the cost.
- 02
Let customers start conversations.
A click-to-chat link or QR code puts the first message on their side, and replies inside the window are cheap or free.
- 03
Send smaller, better-aimed broadcasts.
Delivered messages are what you pay for. Fewer, relevant sends cost less and earn more replies.
- 04
Reply inside the window.
Within 24 hours of a customer’s message you can reply without a template, and the first 1,000 replies a month are free.
- 05
Get billed by Meta, not through a platform.
Connecting your own Meta Business account means paying Meta’s rate, not a marked-up one.
WhatsApp API pricing, answered.
The questions behind most surprise bills.
The API itself has no fee from Meta, but messages do: Meta charges per delivered template message by category, and since 1 October 2026 charges replies beyond 1,000 a month per number. Platforms like NudgeBolt charge separately for the software.
₹0.8631 per delivered message at Meta’s rate. Many platforms bill a higher figure because they add a markup — ₹0.95 to ₹1.09 on the pricing pages we checked.
Incoming messages are free. Your replies within 24 hours are service messages: the first 1,000 a month per number are free, then charged at the utility rate.
No. Meta charges per delivered message.
If Meta bills the platform and the platform bills you, the platform sets your rate — usually with a margin. If you connect your own Meta Business account, Meta bills you directly at its own rate.
Meta’s invoices to Indian businesses carry tax as Meta applies it, and platform fees carry GST. Check both invoices; your accountant can claim input credit where eligible.
Pay Meta’s price. Nothing on top.
Connect your own Meta account and NudgeBolt shows the cost of every send before you press it.
