How much does it cost to send a WhatsApp message through the API?

The price of one message, by type

Meta, which owns WhatsApp, sets the price of every message a business sends through the API. It depends on two things: what kind of message it is, and the country of the phone number it goes to. For a number in India:

Source: Meta's WhatsApp pricing page (updated 30 September 2026) and Meta's INR rate card effective 1 October 2026, checked 13 October 2026. Meta charges only for delivered messages. Rates for other countries differ.

Replies became chargeable on 1 October 2026. See what changed on 1 October for the new rules, and for what happens to your replies if Meta has no payment method on file.

Who decides which type a message is

Meta does, from the wording of the template you submit. It matters, because the category decides whether a message costs ₹0.115 or ₹0.8631.

Three rules catch people out. A message that mixes an update with an offer — "your order has shipped, and here is 10% off your next one" — is marketing. A reminder about items left in a cart is marketing, even if the customer asked for it. And Meta can change the category of a template you already use, so a message that cost ₹0.115 last month can cost ₹0.8631 this month without you editing a word.

Keep updates plain. Send offers separately, to the people likely to want them. Order updates in particular should stay in the utility category.

What a whole conversation costs

Customers rarely send one message, so it helps to price a conversation. These use Meta's India rates and count only what you send; everything the customer sends is free.

The messages that cost nothing

• Anything a customer sends you.
• The first 1,000 replies a month on each business phone number. They reset on the first of the month and do not roll over.
• What you send for up to 7 days after you reply to someone who wrote to you from a click-to-WhatsApp ad on Android or iPhone — offers and updates included; only Meta Business Agent replies are charged. Meta calls this the free entry point window.

That window is the only time an offer costs you nothing to send. If you advertise, every reply to an ad lead inside it is free, so reply quickly to open it — see how click-to-WhatsApp ads work in Endelir.

What your provider adds

Your provider is the company whose software you use to send and receive messages. Every provider charges for that software, and they pass on Meta's charges in one of two ways. Some have Meta bill your business directly, at Meta's own rate. Others bill messages through their own rate card, which can be higher than Meta's.

Your cost per message is Meta's charge plus anything your provider adds. Before signing up, ask: who bills me for messages, and at what rate per message? Also check whether the plan charges per person or per workspace — one price for the whole team. A team of five pays five times on a per-person plan.

Endelir is priced per workspace, and Meta bills you directly with nothing added. Our plans start at ₹1,499 a month plus GST, and you can see how we compare with other providers.

What an AI reply costs

To Meta, a reply written by AI is a service message like any other: free within the first 1,000 a month, then ₹0.115. Meta's pricing page explicitly counts replies written by people or by a third-party AI as service messages.

The AI has its own cost on top. On Endelir that is included in the plan: Growth includes 2,000 AI calls — each time the AI is asked to work on a reply — in any 30 days, and Scale 15,000. After that the AI carries on with your own account at an AI company such as OpenAI or Google, if you have added its key, billed by that company. Meta also sells its own AI, Meta Business Agent, at $2.00 per million tokens (the small chunks of text AI is billed by). Meta estimates a typical message uses 20,000 to 25,000 tokens, about 4 to 5 US cents, and it is charged even inside the free window.

Weighing AI for your WhatsApp? See where AI helps and where it should not.

Paying Meta in rupees

Meta has offered rupee billing to businesses billed in India since 1 January 2026, and it wants every such WhatsApp account moved to rupees by 31 December 2026. From 1 January 2027 it stops delivering messages from accounts that still bill in another currency. If yours still bills in dollars, ask your provider about it now.

Meta also lowers utility and authentication rates at higher monthly volumes, counted across all of a business's numbers. And add a payment method in Meta's Billing Hub before the free 1,000 replies are used: without one, replies stop.

Questions

About the author

Hardik Datanwala is the founder of Endelir, a shared WhatsApp inbox with an AI teammate for businesses in India, built by Mosorb India LLP in Goa. Endelir is a verified Meta Tech Provider: it connects businesses to the WhatsApp Business API through Meta's own signup.

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