Pricing
How WhatsApp Business API Pricing Works in India
Meta Charges per Message, Not per Conversation
Until 2025 WhatsApp Business pricing was conversation-based: you paid once for a 24-hour window of back and forth. That model is gone. Meta now charges per message, and the price depends on the category of the message you send.
There are four categories that matter for a business in India:
- Marketing covers promotions, offers and product announcements.
- Utility covers transactional updates: order confirmations, delivery updates and reminders.
- Authentication covers one-time passwords and account verification.
- Service covers the replies your team sends inside the 24-hour customer service window.
The India Rates on Meta's Card
Meta publishes a rate card per market. These are the India list rates from Meta's own card, effective 2026-10-01:
| Message category | Meta's rate per message |
|---|---|
| Marketing | ₹0.86 |
| Utility | ₹0.12 |
| Authentication | ₹0.12 |
| Service (after the free tier) | ₹0.12 |
Meta bills these charges directly on your Meta payment method. The rates on Meta's card vary by recipient country, so a message to a customer in another market is billed at that market's rate.
What Changed on October 1, 2026
Two changes matter if you are budgeting right now:
- Service messages are chargeable again. Meta gives every business phone number 1,000 free service messages each month, then charges the service rate above. The allowance resets monthly and does not carry over.
- Utility messages inside the customer service window are chargeable too. A utility template is billed the same whether or not a customer wrote to you first.
Messages sent inside a free entry point window, which opens for 72 hours after a customer messages you from a Click to WhatsApp ad, stay free across categories.
Where a Platform Fee Fits
A WhatsApp Business API platform sits between your team and Meta's API. At Wassapp we charge a flat platform fee of ₹0.20 per template message sent from a campaign. That is the whole platform fee. There is no subscription and no percentage markup.
A marketing template sent to an Indian number therefore costs ₹0.86 to Meta plus ₹0.20 to us. Before you confirm a campaign, the cost screen shows the two parts separately and the total.
Replies carry no platform fee from us. You top up a prepaid wallet with any amount, and recharges from ₹1,000 earn bonus credit.
Check the Numbers Yourself
Rates change. We check Meta's card and update this post and our pricing page together; the current data was last checked on 2026-10-13. You can always read the source on Meta's pricing documentation for the WhatsApp Business Platform.
Written by the Wassapp team
We run a pay-per-message WhatsApp Business API platform for Indian businesses. These posts document how the pricing works, how to send well, and what we build next.
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