An Indian business that asks "what does the WhatsApp API cost?" usually gets a plan price from a vendor: ₹999, ₹1,500, ₹2,999 a month. That number is real, but it is rarely the biggest line on the invoice. The biggest line is usually the per-message charge, and every rupee of both is billed with GST on top.
This guide works through the bill in rupees, using Meta's India rate card effective July 1, 2026 and the prices four Indian platforms published on 25 September 2026. Rates change every quarter, so treat every figure as a dated snapshot and verify current pricing before you commit.
Meta's India rates, per message
Meta charges for each template message a business sends to an Indian number, and the price depends on the category of the template. Replies inside a conversation the customer started (the 24-hour service window) are free. Everything else is a template, and templates are where the money goes.
Meta publishes these rates in rupees for Indian businesses and reviews them at the start of each quarter, so the October card can differ from the July one. Check Meta's own pricing page for the current quarter before you budget.
| Template category | Meta rate to India (July 2026 card) | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| Marketing | ₹0.8631 | Offers, festival sales, catalogue shares, restock alerts, re-engagement |
| Utility | ₹0.1150 | Order confirmations, delivery updates, appointment reminders, payment receipts |
| Authentication | ₹0.1150 | One-time passwords and login codes |
| Service | Free | Your replies within 24 hours of the customer's last message |
Meta's INR rate card effective July 1, 2026, read on 25 September 2026. Meta reprices at quarter starts; verify current pricing on developers.facebook.com.
From 1 October 2026 Meta gives each number 1,000 free service messages a month, then charges for service messages beyond that. A support-heavy team that has always treated replies as free should check how its platform passes this on.
The category decides the bill, not the length
A marketing template costs about seven and a half times a utility template (₹0.8631 against ₹0.1150). Meta decides the category when it approves the template, and a message that mixes an order update with "also check out our Diwali collection" is a marketing message.
For Indian businesses this matters most in three places: order and COD confirmation messages that grow a promotional line, appointment reminders that add an offer, and fee or EMI reminders that include a new course or product. Keep transactional templates purely transactional and they stay in the cheaper category.
What Indian platforms charge on top
You cannot send API messages without software, so every business also pays a platform. Indian platforms price in three different ways: per seat (the plan covers a set number of users), per plan with unlimited agents, and with a markup on each message above Meta's rate. Most use two of the three.
| Platform | Plan price (monthly, before GST) | Marketing message to India |
|---|---|---|
| WATI | Growth ₹2,999 (3 users), Pro ₹6,499 (5 users) | INR rate card per plan; Meta's ₹0.8631 is the floor |
| Interakt | Starter ₹999, Growth ₹2,499, unlimited agents | ₹0.958 on Growth, about 11% above Meta |
| AiSensy | Free plan; Basic ₹1,500, Pro ₹3,200 | ₹1.09 from a prepaid wallet, about 26% above Meta |
| Gallabox | Basic ₹2,999, billed quarterly (3 users) | ₹0.9926 from 1 October 2026 |
Prices as published on each vendor's own pricing page on 25 September 2026. Yearly billing lowers most plan prices. They change often; verify current pricing on the vendor's site before you buy.
Related: WATI pricing in India, in rupees · Interakt pricing in India · AiSensy pricing in India · Gallabox pricing in India
Add 18% GST
Software subscriptions sold in India normally carry 18% GST, and Indian platforms show it that way: Interakt lists its plans "+taxes" and AiSensy quotes its virtual number "+ GST". If your business is GST-registered, ask for a tax invoice with your GSTIN so you can claim the input credit.
In a budget, add 18% to the plan price and read your platform's invoice to see whether the message charges are taxed on top as well.
A worked example: a Diwali month in rupees
A home-decor brand with four people on WhatsApp sends one Diwali offer to 10,000 opted-in customers, a second reminder to 5,000 who clicked, and 3,000 order and delivery updates. Customers reply with questions and the team answers within the day.
- 1
Marketing templates
15,000 messages at Meta's ₹0.8631 is ₹12,947. On a platform charging ₹0.958 it is ₹14,370; at ₹1.09 it is ₹16,350.
- 2
Utility templates
3,000 order and delivery updates at ₹0.1150 is ₹345, if every template is approved as utility.
- 3
Service replies
Free inside the 24-hour window. From October 2026 the first 1,000 a month per number stay free under Meta's new rule; check how your platform applies it.
- 4
Platform and GST
On Interakt Growth: ₹2,499 plan + ₹14,370 marketing + ₹450 utility (at its ₹0.150 rate) = ₹17,319 before GST, about ₹20,440 with 18% GST on everything. On a per-seat plan, four people can also mean the next plan tier.
The plan fee is about a seventh of this month's bill. The campaign size is what moves it, so estimate your message count first and compare platforms on the total.
TRAI, DPDP and Meta's rules: what changes the advice
- TRAI's DLT does not cover WhatsApp. The TCCCPR rules, amended again in 2025, govern commercial SMS and voice calls: sender headers, template registration on a DLT platform, consent scrubbing. WhatsApp messages do not go through DLT, so there is no header or DLT template to register. Moving a campaign from SMS to WhatsApp does not remove the need for consent, it moves you under Meta's rules instead.
- Meta requires opt-in. The WhatsApp Business Policy only allows messages to people who gave you their number and agreed to hear from you on WhatsApp. A list bought or scraped for SMS is not a WhatsApp opt-in list, and blocks and reports lower your number's quality rating and sending limits.
- Meta limits marketing messages per person. A customer who receives many marketing templates from businesses may not be sent yours, so a campaign to 10,000 numbers can deliver fewer than 10,000 messages. Check how your platform reports undelivered messages.
- The DPDP Act applies to your customer list. The Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 and its Rules, notified in November 2025 and coming into force in phases, make consent and a way to withdraw it central to using personal data for marketing. Record where each opt-in came from and honour "STOP" everywhere.
- Regional languages are supported. Meta approves templates in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Punjabi and Urdu, among others, at the same per-message price as English. A template in the customer's language costs nothing extra.
This is general information, not legal advice. For consent wording and record-keeping under the DPDP Act, speak to your own adviser.
Related: Bulk WhatsApp message senders in India: what is allowed
When an Indian business does not need the API
The API is built for businesses that start most conversations themselves: order notifications at scale, OTPs, big festival campaigns to opted-in lists, a verified business account. For those, the per-message bill is the price of a lane that works.
Many Indian businesses are the other way round. A clinic, a coaching centre, a wholesaler, a real-estate office: customers message the number printed on the board, and the work is answering them. Spun connects to that existing number by QR code as a linked device, like WhatsApp Web, and puts the whole team on one shared inbox with AI replies, summaries and voice-note transcription in Hindi and other Indian languages. It costs ₹1,999 a month, or ₹3,999 for heavier AI use, plus applicable tax, with unlimited team members and no per-message charges.
The honest limits: Spun is not the API. There is no green tick, no approved templates, no catalogue or payment integration (you paste your UPI or Razorpay link as a normal message), and campaigns go out at a paced, human rate rather than thousands a minute. If your month looks like the Diwali example above, the API is the right tool.
Related: Spun pricing in India, in rupees · WhatsApp Business API pricing explained (worldwide) · Free WhatsApp link generator · Free WhatsApp QR code generator