Pricing guide · October 2026
WhatsApp Business API pricing in India
Using the WhatsApp Business API costs two things: Meta’s charge for each delivered message, and your platform’s fee. In India, Meta charges about ₹0.8631 for a marketing template and ₹0.115 for a utility or authentication template, and since 1 October 2026 the same ₹0.115 for each free-form service reply, plus GST. On Fliok the platform fee is ₹0, ₹1,500 or ₹3,200 a month plus GST, with no markup on Meta’s charges.
Meta’s rules checked against Meta’s documentation on 4 October 2026.
What Meta charges
Meta charges per delivered message. The price depends on the message’s category and the country of the person receiving it, and you pay only when a message is delivered. For numbers in India, these are the base rates (Meta’s India per-message rates, effective 1 July 2026):
| Category | What it is for | Per delivered message | Free when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marketing | Offers, announcements, re-engagement | ₹0.8631 | Inside the 72-hour free entry-point window |
| Utility | Order, booking and account updates | ₹0.115 | Inside the 72-hour free entry-point window |
| Authentication | One-time passcodes | ₹0.115 | Inside the 72-hour free entry-point window |
| Service | Free-form replies inside the 24-hour window | ₹0.115 (the utility rate) | Inside the 72-hour free entry-point window |
GST is added to Meta’s invoice. Meta also lowers utility and authentication rates once a business portfolio sends enough of them in a month; the figures above are the base rates, before any volume discount. Meta publishes the full rate cards on its pricing page and rate card site, and those are the only authority on what a message costs.
What changed on 1 October 2026
Two kinds of message that used to be free are now charged, according to Meta’s pricing for non-template messages (read on 4 October 2026):
- Service messages. Every free-form reply sent inside the 24-hour customer service window is now charged per message, at the same rate as utility and authentication messages in that market. That includes replies typed by your team and replies written by an AI agent.
- Utility templates inside the window. A utility template delivered while the customer’s 24-hour window is open used to be free. It is now charged at the utility rate.
What did not change:
- The 72-hour free entry-point window stays free. When someone messages you from a Click-to-WhatsApp ad or a Facebook Page button and you reply within 24 hours, everything you send them for the next 72 hours is free. See the 72-hour free window.
- Incoming messages from customers cost nothing.
- Meta still charges on delivery: a message that is never delivered is not billed.
Note: Several WhatsApp providers describe a monthly allowance of free service messages per number. We could not find that allowance in Meta’s documentation when we checked on 4 October 2026, so the calculator below charges every service reply. If Meta applies an allowance to your account, your bill will be lower than the estimate.
Calculator
Estimate your monthly cost
Pick a plan and enter what you expect to send in a month. Everything is in rupees and includes GST.
Messages a month, to numbers in India
Offers, announcements, re-engagement.
Order, booking and account updates. Charged inside the 24-hour window too.
One-time passcodes.
Free-form replies inside the 24-hour window (service messages).
₹0.10 each from the AI wallet, plus Meta’s service charge.
Leave out messages that are free: anything sent inside the 72-hour free entry-point window that follows a Click-to-WhatsApp ad, and messages customers send you.
Estimated monthly cost
₹3,313.56
Including GST. An estimate for planning, not a bill.
How it is worked out
- Plan = ₹1,500.00 + 18% GST
- Meta = (1,000 × ₹0.8631) + (500 × ₹0.115) + (0 × ₹0.115) + (1,500 + 1,000) × ₹0.115 + 18% GST
- AI wallet = 1,000 × ₹0.10 + 18% GST
What Fliok charges
The platform fee is a flat monthly price. It never depends on how many messages Meta delivers, and we add no markup to Meta’s charges: Meta bills them directly to the payment method on your own WhatsApp Business account.
| Plan | Monthly | Billed annually | Outgoing messages a month | AI agent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free Forever | ₹0 | ₹0 | 100 | Not included |
| Basic | ₹1,500 + GST | ₹1,350 a month (₹16,200 a year) + GST | 10,000 | ₹0.10 per AI reply |
| Pro | ₹3,200 + GST | ₹2,880 a month (₹34,560 a year) + GST | 100,000 | ₹0.10 per AI reply |
- GST at 18% is added to the plan fee at checkout, and shown as its own line on the invoice.
- Annual billing works out about 10% cheaper per month.
- A 7-day free trial comes with your first upgrade to Basic or Pro. It covers the plan fee, not Meta’s charges or AI usage.
- AI replies are on Basic (₹1,500 a month + GST) and above, paid from a prepaid wallet separate from the plan: ₹0.10 for each reply sent, with 18% GST added when you top up. See how AI replies are billed.
- The monthly message allowance caps how many messages Fliok sends for you. It is not a bundle of Meta messages and does not change what Meta charges.
Enterprise has no limits and is priced by contract. Every plan is on the pricing page.
How to keep the bill down
- 1Reply to ad leads within 24 hours. It opens the 72-hour free entry-point window, in which everything you send that person is free.
- 2Use the honest category. Order updates and booking confirmations are utility, at a fraction of the marketing rate. Meta reviews categories and can reclassify a promotion, so do not dress offers up as utility.
- 3Send fewer, better marketing messages. Meta limits how many marketing messages one person receives, and a message stopped by that limit fails with error 131049. Fliok holds back further marketing templates to that person for a day, and keeps 48 hours between two marketing templates to the same person.
- 4Let the AI answer what it can, and your team the rest. Each reply costs the same at Meta whoever writes it, so the saving is in your team’s time, not in Meta’s fee.
- 5Watch the failure breakdown. A template that fails costs nothing at Meta, but it also reaches nobody. Fliok groups failures by the reason Meta gave.
Two separate charges. Meta charges per delivered message: about ₹0.8631 for a marketing template and ₹0.115 for a utility template, an authentication template or a free-form service reply, plus GST. The platform you use charges its own fee; on Fliok that is ₹0 on Free, ₹1,500 a month on Basic or ₹3,200 a month on Pro, plus 18% GST.
Not since 1 October 2026. Meta now charges free-form service replies per message at the utility rate (₹0.115 in India), and charges utility templates delivered inside an open window too. Messages inside the 72-hour free entry-point window that follows a Click-to-WhatsApp ad stay free.
No. Meta bills its message charges directly to the payment method on your own WhatsApp Business account. Fliok charges only its plan fee and, on Basic and above, the AI replies you use from the prepaid wallet.
Yes. An AI reply is a free-form reply, so Meta charges it as a service message, the same as a reply your team types. On top of that, Fliok charges ₹0.10 per AI reply sent from the prepaid AI wallet.
Meta’s charges go on the payment method you attach to your WhatsApp Business account in Meta Business Manager. Fliok’s plan fee and AI wallet top-ups are paid to Fliok through Razorpay, by card, UPI or net banking, with a GST invoice for each payment.
It uses Meta’s base India rates and your own message counts. Your real bill can be lower with Meta’s volume discounts on utility and authentication, messages in the free 72-hour window, or any free allowance Meta applies, and higher if you message people in other countries. Meta’s invoice is the authority.
Keep reading
Related guides
- Marketing message pricing and error 131049Why some marketing messages are never delivered, and what Fliok does about it.Read more
- The 72-hour free windowHow Click-to-WhatsApp ad leads can be messaged free for three days.Read more
- How AI replies are billedThe prepaid wallet, its rate card and GST at top-up.Read more
- The free WhatsApp Business API planWhat Fliok’s Free plan includes and its limits.Read more
- Compare FliokSide-by-side with AiSensy, Wati and Interakt, from their own pages.Read more
- Fliok pricingEvery plan, limit and feature in one table.Read more
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