WhatsApp message charges in India from 1 October 2026: what changed
From 1 October 2026 AiSensy lists marketing messages at ₹1.09, and only the first 1,000 service messages a month are free. Rates by vendor, with a worked cost.
- Written by
- By WavesFlo team
- Published
- Published
- Reading time
- 3 min read
From 1 October 2026, two vendor help pages describe the same change in how Meta bills messages sent through the Cloud API: service messages are free only for the first 1,000 a month, and utility messages sent inside the 24-hour window are now chargeable. AiSensy lists India rates of ₹1.09 for a delivered marketing message and ₹0.145 for utility and authentication. Interakt prints rates by plan from ₹0.949 to ₹0.970 for marketing.
What do the vendors list?
| Vendor | Marketing | Utility | Authentication | Service |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AiSensy | ₹1.09 | ₹0.145 | ₹0.145 | First 1,000 free a month, then ₹0.145 |
| Interakt Starter | ₹0.970 | ₹0.160 | ₹0.129 | First 1,000 free, then ₹0.129 |
| Interakt Growth | ₹0.958 | ₹0.150 | ₹0.128 | First 1,000 free, then ₹0.128 |
| Interakt Advanced | ₹0.949 | ₹0.140 | ₹0.127 | First 1,000 free, then ₹0.127 |
| WATI | By category, from a rate card | By category | By category | First 1,000 free service conversations a month per WhatsApp Business account |
| Gallabox, DoubleTick | Vary by country; separate rate pages | Vary by country | Vary by country | Vary by country |
| respond.io, Wassenger | Meta's charge, not in the plan | Meta's charge | Meta's charge | Meta's charge |
What changed on 1 October 2026?
- Service messages: the first 1,000 a month are free; after that each is charged. AiSensy says the free count is per WhatsApp Business number, and WATI says per WhatsApp Business account.
- Utility messages sent inside the 24-hour customer service window are chargeable.
- Chatbot and AI replies count as service messages, according to AiSensy.
- Customer-initiated messages are not charged, and replies within the 72-hour window after a Click-to-WhatsApp ad are free, according to AiSensy.
What does a month of marketing cost?
At 10,000 marketing messages delivered, AiSensy's rate comes to ₹10,900 and Interakt's Growth rate to ₹9,580. At 100,000 it is ₹109,000 against ₹95,800. These are rate-only totals: each vendor's plan fee, add-ons and tax come on top, and the rates are those the vendors printed, which may sit on different bases.
What does the same send cost at three volumes?
| Messages | AiSensy | Interakt Starter | Interakt Advanced |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10,000 | ₹10,900 | ₹9,700 | ₹9,490 |
| 50,000 | ₹54,500 | ₹48,500 | ₹47,450 |
| 250,000 | ₹272,500 | ₹242,500 | ₹237,250 |
The rates are what each vendor printed and may sit on different bases, so treat the gap as a reason to ask, not as a verdict. At 250,000 messages a month the message line is the budget, and the plan fee is a rounding error beside it.
Where does WavesFlo fit?
Against those per-message lines, WavesFlo charges nothing per message: what holds volume back is pacing, with a daily and hourly ceiling on each number, a cooldown per person and quiet hours, none of it billed. The annual quote is set instead on the numbers and team members you bring into one shared inbox.
Questions
How much is a WhatsApp marketing message in India in 2026?
AiSensy lists ₹1.09 per delivered message from 1 October 2026. Interakt prints ₹0.949 to ₹0.970 depending on plan. Other vendors point to rate pages.
Are WhatsApp service messages free?
The first 1,000 a month are free; after that each is charged, according to AiSensy, Interakt and WATI.
Is a utility message free inside the 24-hour window?
Not any more, according to AiSensy: utility messages sent in the window are chargeable at the utility rate.
Who pays WhatsApp's message charges?
On Cloud API tools, you do, through the vendor, usually from a prepaid balance.