Promotions and broadcasts. No volume discount at any scale.
WhatsApp rate card · India
WhatsApp Business API pricing in India — the ₹ rate card, at cost
Short answer
What does the WhatsApp Business API cost in India in 2026?
Meta charges per delivered template message, by category and recipient country. In India the list rates are ₹0.8631 for a marketing template and ₹0.1150 for a utility or authentication template, plus 18% GST. Marketing rose about 10% on 1 January 2026, from ₹0.7846. Since 1 October 2026 free-form service replies and utility templates sent inside the 24-hour customer service window are also charged at ₹0.1150; only the 72-hour window opened by a Click-to-WhatsApp ad remains free. On top of Meta’s charge you pay your provider. Markups vary and are often bundled into message credits — AiSensy, for example, publishes ₹1.09 per marketing message, about 26% above Meta’s list rate. sendlz charges a flat monthly platform fee of ₹0 to ₹7,999 instead and passes Meta’s rate through unchanged.
- Marketing
- ₹0.8631
- Utility
- ₹0.1150
- Authentication
- ₹0.1150
- sendlz markup
- ₹0.00
Rates verified against Meta’s published rate card, September 2026.
The four rates, and when each one applies
Order, payment and account updates. Volume tiers apply.
OTP, registration and recovery. Tiers reset monthly.
Free until 1 Oct 2026, then charged at the utility rate. Model it now.
Meta’s charges only, before 18% GST, verified against Meta’s published rate card in September 2026. Rates are set by Meta per recipient country and change — verify before budgeting.
Changed 1 October 2026
The free service window is over. Here is what it costs you.
Since 1 October 2026, two things that used to be free are billed at the utility rate of ₹0.1150. Free-form replies inside the 24-hour customer service window are charged, and so are utility templates sent while that window is open — a concession that had stood since July 2025.
The practical effect lands hardest on support-heavy teams. A shared inbox handling 40,000 conversations a month with three replies each went from a ₹0 message line to roughly ₹13,800 before GST. Resolution rate is now a cost metric, not just a CSAT one.
One window survived. The 72 hours opened by a Click-to-WhatsApp ad or a Facebook page CTA click are still free, which makes paid social the cheapest remaining entry point into a WhatsApp conversation in India.
How the 72-hour window works →The five terms that decide your bill
Most WhatsApp pricing confusion is vocabulary, not arithmetic. These are the terms Meta’s own documentation uses.
- Per-message pricing
- Meta’s billing model since 1 July 2025. You are charged once per delivered template message, priced by its category and by the recipient’s country. It replaced conversation-based pricing, under which a single 24-hour conversation carried one charge however many messages it contained.
- Message category
- Marketing, utility or authentication. Meta assigns the category at template review based on what the copy actually says, not what you select. In India marketing costs ₹0.8631 and the other two cost ₹0.1150, so category is the largest single variable in your bill.
- Customer service window
- The 24 hours that open when a customer messages you, during which you can reply without a template. Since 1 October 2026 those replies are charged at the utility rate rather than being free.
- Entry-point window
- The 72 hours that open when someone clicks a Click-to-WhatsApp ad or a Facebook page CTA. Messages inside it are not charged, and this window was unaffected by the October 2026 change — which is why paid social is now the cheapest way into a WhatsApp conversation in India.
- BSP markup
- The amount a Business Solution Provider adds to Meta’s per-message rate before billing you. It is often hidden inside bundled message credits. Ask for it as a percentage over Meta’s published rate for the category and country you send to.
What your provider adds on top
Meta charges every provider the same rate. What differs is what the provider charges you for passing it on.
ProviderPer marketing messageOver Meta listBilling model
sendlz₹0.8631NoneFlat monthly platform fee. Meta’s rate appears on your invoice unchanged.
Meta list rate₹0.8631—What Meta charges per delivered marketing template in India, before 18% GST.
AiSensy₹1.09≈26%Per-message rate above Meta’s, plus a plan and separately charged add-ons.
WatiNot published per messageUndisclosedSeat-based plans with a country rate card; per-message uplift is not stated on the pricing page.
Credit-bundle providersNot comparableUndisclosedMessage credits sold in blocks, which makes the per-message uplift hard to isolate. Ask for it as a percentage over Meta’s published rate.
Figures marked in green were read directly from a primary source in September 2026: Meta’s published rate card and AiSensy’s public pricing page. Providers that sell bundled message credits do not publish a comparable per-message rate, so none is asserted here. Vendors change pricing often — verify before you sign. All trademarks belong to their owners; no affiliation or endorsement implied.
What 26% costs, by volume
Marketing volumeAt Meta’s rateAt a 26% markupExtra per month
10,000 / month₹8,631₹10,875₹2,244
50,000 / month₹43,155₹54,375₹11,220
200,000 / month₹1,72,620₹2,17,500₹44,880
500,000 / month₹4,31,550₹5,43,750₹1,12,200
Excludes 18% GST. The markup scales with your volume, which is why it is worth asking for it as a percentage rather than accepting a credit-bundle price.
Model your own WhatsApp volume
Move the sliders. This is the same maths as your invoice — Meta rate card, SES rate, platform fee, tax.
Four real monthly bills
Meta charges only, before GST and before any platform fee. Every figure below is the message mix multiplied by the India rate card — no bundling, no estimate.
D2C brand, ₹2 crore revenue
18,000 marketing · 40,000 utility · 0 auth
₹20,136 / month, Meta charges
Order and shipping updates carry the volume; marketing is reserved for launches.
Edtech, 50,000 students
40,000 marketing · 60,000 utility · 15,000 auth
₹43,149 / month, Meta charges
Counsellor handoff runs on the free 72-hour ad-referral window, not on templates.
Clinic chain, 12 locations
3,000 marketing · 45,000 utility · 0 auth
₹7,764 / month, Meta charges
Appointment reminders are utility, so the whole programme costs less than one marketing blast.
Fintech, OTP-heavy
0 marketing · 20,000 utility · 900,000 auth
₹1,05,800 / month, Meta charges
Above 750,000 authentication messages a month, Meta’s volume tiers begin to apply.
Volume tiers, precisely
Discounts exist, but not where most teams assume. Marketing — the expensive category — has no volume discount at any scale.
The same message, five markets
Pricing follows the recipient’s country, not yours. Segmenting by market is worth more than any copy change once you send outside India.
MarketMarketingUtilityAuthTax
India₹0.8631₹0.1150₹0.1150GST 18%
UAE≈$0.0816≈$0.0285≈$0.0492VAT 5%
Singapore≈$0.0871≈$0.0300≈$0.0405GST 9%
Indonesia≈$0.0271≈$0.0036≈$0.0198—
United Kingdom≈£0.0382≈£0.0157≈£0.0220VAT 20%
The messaging windows
- 24-hour customer service window
- A customer message opens 24 hours in which you can reply free-form. Those replies are free until 1 October 2026; after that Meta charges each one at the utility rate — ₹0.1150 in India.
- 72-hour ad-referral window
- A click on a Click-to-WhatsApp ad or a Facebook page CTA opens 72 hours in which messages are not charged. This window survives the October change, which makes paid social the cheapest remaining entry point in India.
- Utility inside the window — ending 1 October 2026
- Utility templates sent while a service window is open have been free since July 2025. From 1 October 2026 they are charged like any other utility send, so “reply first, template second” stops being a discount and becomes just good sequencing.
Five ways to cut the bill
- Reclassify eligible marketing templates as utility where the content genuinely is transactional. At ₹0.8631 against ₹0.1150 that is a 7.5× difference, and it is the only lever that survives every pricing change.
- Route authentication volume by market to reach Meta’s discount tiers, which begin at 750,000 authentication messages a month and reset monthly.
- Re-model every support-heavy journey before 1 October 2026, when in-window service and utility messages stop being free.
- Move re-engagement to Click-to-WhatsApp ads: the 72-hour entry-point window stays free after October, unlike the 24-hour service window.
- Use Meta’s max-price option on marketing sends to cap what you pay per delivered message.
WhatsApp pricing questions
Each answer stands alone, with the numbers repeated so it can be quoted accurately.
What is WhatsApp Business API pricing in India in 2026?
Meta bills per delivered template message. India list rates are ₹0.8631 for marketing and ₹0.1150 for both utility and authentication, plus 18% GST. Marketing is roughly 7.5× utility, so template category is the single biggest cost lever you control. Marketing rose about 10% on 1 January 2026, from ₹0.7846.
Is it still charged per conversation?
No. Meta retired conversation-based pricing on 1 July 2025. You are now charged per delivered template message, by category and recipient country. Any provider still quoting you a per-conversation price is describing a model Meta stopped using more than a year ago.
What changed on 1 October 2026?
Two things stopped being free. Free-form service replies inside the 24-hour customer service window are now charged at the utility rate — ₹0.1150 in India — and utility templates sent inside that window, which had been free since July 2025, are charged the same way. The 72-hour window opened by a Click-to-WhatsApp ad is unaffected and still costs nothing.
Which messages are still free?
Messages inside the 72-hour entry-point window opened by a Click-to-WhatsApp ad or a Facebook page CTA click. That is now the only genuinely free messaging window on the platform.
Do volume discounts exist?
Yes, for utility and authentication only, stepping from roughly 6% to 30% as monthly delivered volume per market crosses Meta’s thresholds. Authentication discounts begin at about 750,000 messages a month; utility stays at the ₹0.1150 list rate up to around 25 million. Marketing is excluded entirely, and tiers reset each month.
Do I need DLT registration for WhatsApp in India?
No. TRAI’s DLT registration governs SMS and voice, not WhatsApp — Meta’s own template approval process takes its place. You do still need demonstrable opt-in under the DPDP Act 2023 before marketing sends, and the SMS leg of any mixed programme still needs DLT.
Why is my authentication bill higher than ₹0.1150 a message?
You are probably sending to numbers outside India. Meta prices by the recipient’s country, and the authentication-international rate is around $0.035 — roughly twenty times the Indian domestic rate. Split authentication traffic by recipient country and report on it separately before it surprises you.
What does sendlz add on top of Meta’s rate?
Nothing per message. We charge a flat monthly platform fee of ₹0 to ₹7,999 and the message lines on your invoice equal Meta’s published rates for the categories and countries you sent to. For comparison, AiSensy publishes ₹1.09 per marketing message against Meta’s ₹0.8631 — about 26% above list.
How much is GST on top?
18%, applied to both Meta’s charges and our platform fee. A ₹0.8631 marketing message is about ₹1.0185 all in. Meta’s charges are imported services, so depending on how your wallet is structured you may also need to handle reverse charge — we tell you which applies to your account.
Can I be billed in rupees?
Yes, but the WhatsApp Business Account has to be created with INR selected as its billing currency. Meta does not convert an existing USD account, so decide before onboarding. INR invoices with GST are the default for Indian entities on sendlz.
The details that catch teams out
Do I need DLT registration to send WhatsApp messages in India?
No. TRAI’s DLT (Distributed Ledger Technology) registration governs SMS and voice in India, not WhatsApp. WhatsApp uses Meta’s own template approval process instead. You do still need demonstrable opt-in under the DPDP Act 2023 before sending marketing messages, and mixed SMS-and-WhatsApp programmes still need DLT for the SMS leg.
Why is my authentication rate higher than ₹0.1150?
You are almost certainly sending to numbers outside India. Meta prices an authentication template by the recipient’s country, and the authentication-international rate is roughly $0.035 — about twenty times the Indian domestic rate. A fintech verifying NRI customers on the same template set can see its OTP bill multiply without any change in volume. Split authentication traffic by recipient country and report on it separately.
Can I pay Meta in rupees rather than dollars?
Yes, but only if the WhatsApp Business Account was created with INR selected as its billing currency. Meta does not convert an existing USD account, so this is a decision you make once, before onboarding. Tell your provider before the WABA is created — on sendlz, INR billing with an 18% GST invoice is the default for Indian entities.
Is WhatsApp actually cheaper than SMS in India?
For authentication, usually yes at scale: ₹0.1150 per WhatsApp authentication template against typical Indian transactional SMS rates, with no DLT header and template friction. The catch is coverage — the number must be on WhatsApp — so keep an SMS fallback for the small share that fails. For marketing the comparison flips: ₹0.8631 per marketing template is well above promotional SMS, and WhatsApp earns its rate through read and reply rates rather than through unit cost.
What is the real cost of a BSP markup?
It scales with your success, which is the problem. AiSensy publishes ₹1.09 per marketing message against Meta’s ₹0.8631 list rate — about 26% — which adds roughly ₹2,244 a month at 10,000 marketing messages and ₹1,12,200 a month at 500,000. Most other Indian providers do not publish a per-message figure at all, so ask every vendor for their markup as a percentage over Meta’s published rate rather than accepting a bundled credit price. Rates checked September 2026.
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