Short answer: Meta charges Indian businesses per delivered template message. In 2026 a marketing message costs about ₹0.86, and a utility or authentication message about ₹0.115, before 18% GST. Customers messaging you is free, each business number gets 1,000 free service replies a month, and chats that start from a click-to-WhatsApp ad are free for a limited window. Your software provider may add its own markup on top; some, like Sales Daddy, pass Meta’s charges through at cost.
Meta changes rates at the start of a quarter, with notice, so treat the figures here as a guide and check the live rate card in WhatsApp Manager before you budget. We last checked on 19 October 2026 and will update this page when Meta’s India rates change.
How Meta charges: per message, by category
Since 1 July 2025 Meta has billed per delivered template message rather than per 24-hour conversation. Every template you create is reviewed and placed in one of three paid categories, and the category decides the price.
- Marketing: offers, launches, festival greetings, re-engaging old leads, anything promotional. The most expensive category, with no volume discount.
- Utility: updates about something the customer already started — order and delivery updates, appointment reminders, payment confirmations, a quotation they asked for.
- Authentication: one-time passwords for login or verification.
- Service: free-form replies inside the 24-hour window that opens when the customer messages you. Each number gets 1,000 free service messages a month; beyond that Meta charges its published service rate.
| Message type | Approximate charge before GST | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Marketing template | about ₹0.86 per message | Raised about 10% on 1 January 2026 (from about ₹0.78) |
| Utility template | about ₹0.115 per message | Volume tiers lower the rate at high monthly volume |
| Authentication template | about ₹0.115 per message | Volume tiers apply |
| Service reply (inside 24 hours) | First 1,000 a month free per number | Charged from the 1,001st message since 1 October 2026 |
| Customer messages to you | Free | Incoming messages are never charged |
What changed in 2026
Three changes matter for Indian businesses this year. First, the marketing rate for India went up on 1 January 2026. Second, from 1 October 2026 the service window is no longer unlimited: each business phone number gets 1,000 free service messages a month, and utility templates sent inside an open service window are now charged at the utility rate (they were free from July 2025 until then).
Third, Meta launched rupee billing for India on 1 January 2026. Businesses still paying Meta in another currency have to move their WhatsApp account to INR billing by 31 December 2026; Meta has said messages from accounts that have not moved will stop being delivered from 1 January 2027. If you pay Meta with a card in dollars today, sort this out before December.
Free messages you can plan around
Not every message costs money. A sales process designed around the free windows spends far less than one that pushes templates at every step.
- Customer-initiated chats: when a buyer messages you, the service window opens for 24 hours and your replies count against the 1,000 free service messages.
- Click-to-WhatsApp ads: when someone messages you from a click-to-WhatsApp ad on their phone, Meta opens a free entry-point window (Meta says it can stay open for up to 7 days) in which your messages are not charged.
- Replies beat templates: answering quickly inside the window is both cheaper and more effective than sending a marketing template the next day.
Markups: what your software provider adds
You can pay Meta in two ways. Some business solution providers (BSPs) bill you for messages themselves and add a margin per message — anything from a few paise to more than a rupee on a marketing message, depending on the provider. Their published per-message prices can therefore be higher than Meta’s rate card.
The other way is to pay Meta directly, with your own payment method on your WhatsApp Business account, while the software only charges for itself. That is how Sales Daddy works: our plan covers the CRM and the WhatsApp connection, and Meta bills you at its own rate with no markup from us. Whichever tool you choose, ask one question in writing: “Is the per-message price on your page Meta’s rate, or Meta’s rate plus your margin?”
Worked example: 1,000 leads a month
Say a coaching institute gets 1,000 new enquiries a month. Each enquiry gets one welcome template with the course brochure (marketing), and two reminders about a demo class the student booked (utility). Students also reply, and the counsellors answer inside the 24-hour window.
| Messages | Count | Approximate rate | Approximate cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Welcome template (marketing) | 1,000 | ₹0.86 | ₹860 |
| Demo reminders (utility) | 2,000 | ₹0.115 | ₹230 |
| Counsellor replies (service) | up to 1,000 | free allowance | ₹0 |
| Total before GST | about ₹1,090 |
Five ways to keep WhatsApp costs down
None of these needs special software — only a little discipline in how templates are used.
- Reply fast. A reply inside the window is free up to the monthly allowance; a template the next morning is not.
- Write utility templates for utility jobs. Reminders and confirmations the customer asked for belong in utility, which costs a fraction of marketing. Meta re-categorises templates that are really promotional, so keep them factual.
- Clean your lists. Every marketing template to a wrong or uninterested number costs money and hurts your quality rating.
- Use click-to-WhatsApp ads where they fit; the conversations that start there are free for a while.
- Watch the monthly total. Check the WhatsApp Manager billing page each month and compare it with the number of leads you closed.
Key takeaways
- Meta charges per delivered template message: about ₹0.86 for marketing and about ₹0.115 for utility or authentication in India in 2026, before GST.
- Since 1 October 2026 each number gets 1,000 free service replies a month, and utility templates inside the window are charged.
- Move your Meta WhatsApp billing to rupees before 31 December 2026.
- Ask every provider whether their per-message price includes a markup; Sales Daddy passes Meta’s charges through at cost.