WhatsApp Business API pricing in India: Meta's rates from 1 October 2026

Every WhatsApp Business API provider in India quotes Meta's message rates, and they rarely agree. The reason is simple: Meta does not print India's rates on a web page. It publishes them in a downloadable rate card, and the card changes by date. This guide takes the figures straight from Meta's own INR rate card, effective 1 October 2026, and explains what each one means for an Indian business.

What Meta charges per message in India

Meta charges per delivered message. The rate depends on the message's category and on the recipient's country code, so every message to a +91 number is charged India's rate.

These are Meta's list rates as printed on its card. Check your Meta invoice for taxes.

A template message is charged when it is delivered, not when it is sent. A message that fails or never reaches the phone costs nothing. Messages a customer sends to you are never charged.

What changed on 1 October 2026

Until 30 September 2026, every reply inside the 24-hour customer service window was free. Since 1 October 2026, Meta counts those replies as service messages and charges for them, with an allowance: each business phone number gets 1,000 free service messages a month. The allowance does not roll over, and it resets every month. From the 1,001st reply on a number, each one costs ₹0.115 in India.

For a team that answers a few hundred chats a month on one number, nothing changes. For a busy support desk, replies are now a line on the bill, which makes it worth knowing who is replying, how often, and whether a conversation could have been closed in fewer messages.

Volume tiers for utility and authentication

Marketing messages cost the same however many you send. Utility and authentication messages get cheaper as monthly volume grows. Meta counts the messages across every WhatsApp account in your business portfolio, counts only messages that were charged, and resets the count each month.

Utility messages to India

Authentication messages to India

Only the messages above each threshold get the lower rate. If you send 3 crore utility messages in a month, the first 2.5 crore cost ₹0.115 each and the next 50 lakh cost ₹0.1081 each.

When Meta does not charge

There are two cases.

The free entry point window. When a customer messages you from a click-to-WhatsApp ad using the WhatsApp app on Android or iOS, and you reply inside the customer service window, that reply is free and it opens a free entry point window. While the window is open, for up to 7 days, Meta does not charge for marketing, utility, authentication or service messages to that customer. This is the cheapest way to start a sales conversation on WhatsApp.

The monthly service allowance. The first 1,000 service messages each month on each business number are free, as described above.

Three worked examples

A festive campaign. A brand sends one marketing template to 4,600 customers in India and all of them are delivered. Meta charges 4,600 × ₹0.8631 = ₹3,970.26.

Order updates. A store sends 20,000 shipping updates in a month, outside any service window. All are utility messages under the first tier: 20,000 × ₹0.115 = ₹2,300.

A support desk. One number sends 3,000 service replies in a month. The first 1,000 are free; the other 2,000 cost 2,000 × ₹0.115 = ₹230.

Billing in rupees

Meta launched billing in rupees for India on 1 January 2026, for businesses and providers whose Sold-To country in Meta's Billing Hub is India. Meta says those accounts must move every WhatsApp messaging account to INR by 31 December 2026, because from 1 January 2027 it will no longer deliver messages from their non-INR accounts. If your account still bills in US dollars, this is the month to check.

How often the rates change

Meta has published a pricing calendar. It may change rates only on the first day of a quarter: 1 January, 1 April, 1 July or 1 October, with notice in advance. India's recent changes followed it:

The next date on which India's rates can change is 1 January 2027. We update this page when the card changes.

What software adds on top

Meta's rate is only part of the bill. The software you send through adds its own price, and there are two ways to do it: pass Meta's rate through at cost and charge a platform fee, or add a margin to each message. Both are legitimate, but the vendor's pricing page should tell you which. If a provider's per-message figure for India is higher than the rates above, the difference is its margin.

Source

Rates, tiers and rules on this page are from Meta's WhatsApp Business Platform pricing page and its INR rate card and volume tier card effective 1 October 2026, read on 4 October 2026: developers.facebook.com/docs/whatsapp/pricing.