What does the WhatsApp Business API cost per message in India (October 2026)?

What does one message cost in India, by category?

This page was checked on 12 October 2026 against Meta's pricing page, which Meta marks as updated on 30 September 2026 and as reflecting changes effective 1 October 2026¹. Meta has five categories. Marketing, utility and authentication are template messages. Service means non-template replies inside a 24-hour window, whether a person or a third-party AI sends them. Meta Business Agent means replies powered by Meta's own agent¹.

India per-message rates, before GST and any provider fee. USD figures use about Rs 96.6 to the dollar (RBI reference rate, 9 October 2026) and are our arithmetic⁵:

• Marketing: Rs 0.8631, about 0.9 US cents¹.
• Utility: Rs 0.115, about 0.12 US cents¹.
• Authentication: Rs 0.115. Authentication-international: Rs 2.4971, about 2.6 US cents¹.
• Service: Rs 0.115, charged after the first 1,000 a month for each business number¹.
• Meta Business Agent: $2.00 per million tokens. One message typically uses 20,000 to 25,000 tokens, which Meta puts at about 4 to 5 US cents a message, or roughly Rs 4 to Rs 5¹.

What changed on 1 October 2026?

Service messages are charged again. Service conversations had been free since 1 November 2024, and utility messages sent inside an open customer service window had been free since 1 July 2025. From 1 October 2026 both are charged, with a free tier of 1,000 service messages a month for each business phone number. Meta charges from the 1,001st¹. Guides written before October describe service replies as free. Now they are free only up to the monthly tier.

The India rates themselves did not move on 1 October. India's marketing rate last rose on 1 January 2026 and its authentication-international rate on 1 April 2026, and India is not in the 1 October change list¹. Meta also says a business without a payment method in Billing Hub gets no delivery of service messages after the free tier¹.

What do GST and providers add on top?

GST. An Indian messaging provider's explainer says 18 percent GST applies to both Meta's per-message charges and the provider's platform fees². At that rate Rs 0.8631 becomes about Rs 1.02, so 1,000 marketing messages cost about Rs 1,018 with GST (our arithmetic from Meta's rate and that GST figure). Confirm the treatment with your accountant.

Platform fees. Interakt lists its Growth plan at Rs 2,799 a month and Advanced at Rs 3,799 a month, plus taxes³. AiSensy lists a chatbot builder add-on at Rs 2,500 a month and an AI agent builder add-on at Rs 1,350 a month including 1,000 AI messages⁴.

Markup. Interakt's per-message rates run Rs 0.949 to Rs 0.970 for marketing against Meta's Rs 0.8631, a gap of roughly Rs 0.09 to Rs 0.11, and Rs 0.140 to Rs 0.160 for utility against Meta's Rs 0.115. AiSensy lists Rs 1.09 for marketing and Rs 0.145 for utility, authentication and service, effective 1 October 2026³⁴. Interakt says its Enterprise plan has no template markup³.

What does 10,000 messages cost?

At Meta's rates, 10,000 marketing messages cost Rs 8,631, about $89, or about Rs 10,185 with 18 percent GST, about $105. Ten thousand utility messages cost Rs 1,150, about $12, or Rs 1,357 with GST, about $14¹²⁵. These are our calculations from the rates above. Add your provider's markup and monthly fee. Replies inside a free entry point window cost nothing, and the first 1,000 service messages each month are free¹.

When can the price change next, and what about INR billing?

Meta says it can change pricing only on 1 January, 1 April, 1 July or 1 October, with at least one month of notice for a rate card update, so the next possible change date is 1 January 2027¹. Eligible India-billed businesses must move all their messaging accounts to INR by 31 December 2026, and from 1 January 2027 Meta stops delivering messages from the non-INR accounts of eligible customers¹. Ask your provider whether your account is already in INR.