Every WhatsApp Business API provider in India bills you Meta's message fee plus something. We put six providers' published rates next to Meta's official rate card to show exactly how much that something is.
Ask a WhatsApp Business API provider what a message costs and you get a number. Ask what Meta charges for the same message and the answer gets vaguer. We build WhatsApp chatbots on Meta's Cloud API, so reading these rate cards is part of the job. Here is what six providers publish for India, side by side with Meta's own rates, and what the gap means for your monthly bill.
WhatsApp API pricing in India: Meta's rates first
Every provider's price starts from Meta's rate card. From 1 October 2026, Meta charges these amounts per delivered message to an Indian number, on its official INR rate card:
| Message category | Meta's rate (INR) | What it is for |
|---|---|---|
| Marketing | ₹0.8631 | Offers, launches, abandoned cart, re-engagement |
| Utility | ₹0.1150 | Order, booking and payment updates |
| Authentication | ₹0.1150 | OTPs and login codes |
| Service | ₹0.1150 | Free-form replies, after 1,000 free per number each month |
Messages customers send you are free, and chats that start from a click-to-WhatsApp ad open a free window of up to 7 days. Our WhatsApp API pricing calculator has Meta's rates for all 47 markets if your customers are outside India.
What WhatsApp API providers in India charge per message
These are the India rates each provider publishes on its own pricing page or rate card, checked on 2 November 2026. The markup column is our arithmetic against Meta's rates above.
| Provider and plan | Marketing | Markup | Utility | Markup |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Meta list rate | ₹0.8631 | 0% | ₹0.1150 | 0% |
| Interakt (range across plans) | ₹0.949 to ₹0.970 | 10.0% to 12.4% | ₹0.140 to ₹0.160 | 21.7% to 39.1% |
| WATI Business | ₹0.9667 | 12.0% | ₹0.1380 | 20.0% |
| WATI Pro | ₹0.9926 | 15.0% | ₹0.1495 | 30.0% |
| Gallabox | ₹0.9926 | 15.0% | ₹0.1323 | 15.0% |
| WATI Growth | ₹1.0357 | 20.0% | ₹0.1495 | 30.0% |
| AiSensy | ₹1.09 | 26.3% | ₹0.145 | 26.1% |
Two patterns stand out. First, the markups are round percentages: WATI's Growth plan is Meta plus exactly 20% on marketing and 30% on utility, and Gallabox is Meta plus 15% on both. Providers price as a percentage of Meta, so when Meta changes a rate, theirs follows. Second, the markup usually shrinks as the plan gets more expensive. You pay for a cheaper message with a bigger subscription.
Providers that add a flat fee or no markup
- Twilio publishes no subscription. It passes Meta's rate through and adds its own fee of $0.005 per message, inbound or outbound. On an Indian marketing message that takes $0.0118 to $0.0168, about 42% more. On a utility message it takes $0.0014 to $0.0064, more than four times Meta's rate, and you also pay $0.005 for every message a customer sends you.
- 360dialog says it adds no markup on Meta fees. Instead it charges a subscription, from €49 per number per month on its Regular plan and €99 on Premium.
- Interakt's Enterprise plan lists "No Markup Charges". Its price is on request.
A flat per-message fee hurts most on utility and authentication messages, because Meta's rate there is so small. A percentage markup hurts most on marketing, because that is where the big rate sits. Which model is cheaper depends on what you send.
Monthly plan fees, before any messages
| Provider | Entry plan | Higher plans | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Interakt | ₹2,799 a month (Growth) | ₹3,799 (Advanced), Enterprise on request | Plus taxes |
| WATI | ₹2,699 a month (Growth) | ₹5,799 (Pro), ₹16,799 (Business) | Billed quarterly; 7-day free trial |
| Gallabox | ₹2,999 a month (Basic) | ₹6,999 (Essential), ₹16,999 (Advanced) | Billed quarterly |
| 360dialog | €49 per number a month | €99 (Premium) | No markup on Meta fees |
| Twilio | None | None | Pay per message |
| AiSensy | Not readable on its page when checked | Has a free plan |
A real monthly bill: 10,000 marketing and 5,000 utility messages
Take a business in India sending 10,000 marketing messages and 5,000 utility updates a month, with service replies inside the free 1,000. Message charges only, before plan fees and GST:
| Provider and plan | Messages per month | Plus plan fee |
|---|---|---|
| Meta's rates (direct on Cloud API, or 360dialog) | ₹9,206 | None direct; €49 on 360dialog |
| WATI Business | ₹10,357 | ₹16,799 |
| Interakt | ₹10,190 to ₹10,500 | ₹2,799 or ₹3,799 |
| Gallabox | ₹10,587.50 | ₹2,999 |
| WATI Growth | ₹11,104.50 | ₹2,699 |
| AiSensy | ₹11,625 | Plan fee not published on the page we read |
At this volume the markups add ₹1,000 to ₹2,400 a month, and the plan fee usually matters more than the markup. At 100,000 marketing messages a month the picture flips: a 20% markup on marketing alone is about ₹17,000 a month, and a no-markup setup starts to pay for itself. Put your own numbers into the WhatsApp API pricing calculator to see Meta's side of the bill.
How to choose a WhatsApp Business API provider in India
- Price your real message mix. A business that mostly sends OTPs and order updates should compare utility and authentication rates, not marketing.
- Ask for Meta's rate and the provider's fee as separate lines. Every provider in this table publishes enough to work it out, so a provider that will not show it is telling you something.
- Check whether service replies past the free 1,000 carry a markup. Since 1 October 2026 they are charged, and a support-heavy business sends a lot of them.
- Look at what the subscription buys: shared inbox, agents, broadcasts, chatbot builder, CRM sync. If you need those tools, the markup is the price of them. If you only need a bot that answers, you may not.
- Make sure the WhatsApp Business account and phone number sit in your own Meta business portfolio, so you can move providers without losing your number.
When a provider is worth it, and when to go direct
A platform like WATI, Interakt, AiSensy or Gallabox earns its markup when a team of people works the inbox every day, runs broadcasts and wants a ready-made dashboard. Going direct to Meta's Cloud API makes sense when an AI chatbot does most of the talking, when volumes are high enough that 15% to 30% is real money, or when WhatsApp has to connect to your own CRM, booking system or database. That is the kind of WhatsApp chatbot we build: on your own Meta account, so Meta bills you at its own rates and there is no message markup from us.
How we checked these prices
Every figure comes from the provider's own pricing page or rate card, read on 2 November 2026, and from Meta's official INR rate card effective 1 October 2026. Where a page split rates by plan without saying which is which, we quote the range rather than guess. Gupshup's pricing pages returned an error and DoubleTick's rate table did not load, so neither is listed. Prices change, usually when Meta updates its rate card on 1 January, 1 April, 1 July or 1 October, so check the provider's page before you sign.
- Meta: WhatsApp Business Platform pricing and rate cards
- AiSensy pricing
- Interakt pricing
- WATI pricing and rate cards
- Gallabox WhatsApp rate card
- Twilio WhatsApp pricing
- 360dialog pricing
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FAQ
Frequently asked questions
On per-message price alone, the cheapest options are the ones that pass Meta's rates through without a markup, such as 360dialog or a direct Cloud API setup, where an Indian marketing message costs Meta's ₹0.8631. Among the Indian platforms we checked on 2 November 2026, Interakt published the lowest marketing rate, from ₹0.949 depending on the plan. The cheapest total bill still depends on the monthly plan fee and on your mix of marketing, utility and service messages.
Between 10% and 30% on the per-message rate for the Indian platforms we checked, against Meta's official rates from 1 October 2026. WATI's Growth plan adds 20% on marketing and 30% on utility, Gallabox adds 15% on both, AiSensy adds about 26%, and Interakt adds about 10% to 12% on marketing. Twilio instead adds a flat $0.005 per message, and 360dialog says it adds none.
All three charge a monthly plan plus a per-message rate built on Meta's. On 2 November 2026, AiSensy listed ₹1.09 per marketing message and ₹0.145 per utility message, Interakt listed ₹0.949 to ₹0.970 for marketing and ₹0.140 to ₹0.160 for utility depending on plan, and WATI listed ₹1.0357 for marketing and ₹0.1495 for utility on its Growth plan, falling to ₹0.9667 and ₹0.1380 on Business. Interakt's plans start at ₹2,799 a month and WATI's at ₹2,699, billed quarterly.
Yes. Twilio passes through Meta's per-message rate for India and adds its own fee of $0.005 per message, for messages you send and messages customers send you. For an Indian utility message that means $0.0064 in total against Meta's $0.0014. Twilio has no monthly subscription, and its page says its prices were current as of September 2026.
Yes. Meta's Cloud API lets a business connect directly, add its own payment method and be billed by Meta at the published rates. You then need your own software to send and receive messages: a chatbot, an inbox or an integration with your CRM. Providers sell that software as a ready-made product, which is what their subscription and markup pay for.
Not as far as the pages say. Interakt marks its plans "+taxes", and the other pricing pages we read did not state whether GST is included. Budget GST on top for an Indian business, and check each invoice line for Meta's charges and the provider's own fee.
Meta changes its rates only on 1 January, 1 April, 1 July or 1 October, with at least a month's notice. Providers that price as a percentage of Meta's rate usually update theirs on the same dates. The figures in this article were checked on 2 November 2026, against Meta's rate card effective 1 October 2026.
Written by
Kavion Solutions Team
The senior team behind Kavion Solutions. We build websites, apps, AI tools and cloud setups, and run the SEO and ads that bring in customers, so everything here comes from work we have actually shipped.
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