WhatsApp Business API pricing in India, explained

Part 1: Meta's charges

Meta sets the price of every message sent through the WhatsApp Business Platform, and it is the same whichever provider you use. Since 1 July 2025 it charges per delivered template message rather than per 24-hour conversation. Indian businesses can be billed in INR.

• Marketing templates — offers, announcements, re-engagement. The highest rate.
• Utility templates — order confirmations, delivery updates, payment reminders. Lower rate, and free when sent inside an open customer service window.
• Authentication templates — one-time passwords. The lowest rate for most uses.
• Service messages — your free-form replies within 24 hours of the customer's last message. Free.

Meta publishes its current rate card on its developer site and can change rates only at the start of each quarter. Higher-volume utility and authentication senders automatically move into cheaper volume tiers.

Part 2: the provider's platform fee

Your provider charges for the software you use on top of the API: shared inbox, broadcasts, template manager, chatbots, catalogues, integrations and support. This is usually a monthly or yearly subscription, sometimes with a one-time setup fee for Meta onboarding. Ask any provider to quote the platform fee separately from Meta's charges.

How to estimate your monthly bill

1. List the template messages you'll send each month by category — for example, 5,000 order updates (utility) and two promotional broadcasts to 3,000 customers (marketing).
2. Remove utility messages that will be sent while a customer is already chatting with you — those are free.
3. Multiply each category's count by Meta's current INR rate for India.
4. Add your provider's platform fee.

Ways to keep costs down

• Reply quickly. Answers inside the 24-hour service window are free, and so are utility templates sent then.
• Use the right category. Order and payment updates should be utility templates, not marketing.
• Use click-to-WhatsApp ads and Facebook Page buttons, which open a free entry-point window when customers start the chat.
• Segment broadcasts. Sending offers only to interested customers cuts cost and protects your number's quality rating.
• Watch delivery reports. You are charged for delivered messages, so clean invalid numbers from your lists.

What SICI charges

On ChatYug, our WhatsApp Business platform, Meta's message charges are billed separately and transparently, and the platform plan covers the inbox, broadcasts, chatbots and commerce features. For custom integrations we quote a fixed-scope project fee. Either way, you see exactly which part of the cost is Meta's.

Want a cost estimate for your use case? Tell us roughly how many order updates, OTPs and promotional messages you send each month.