WhatsApp Business API pricing in India
Meta's per-message rates for recipients in India, effective 1 October 2026, with volume tiers, free-message rules and a worked monthly example. OmniChannels.ai passes Meta's rate through with zero markup.
- Marketing
- $0.0118
- Utility
- $0.0014
- Authentication
- $0.0014
- Service (after 1,000 free)
- $0.0014
Short answer
A WhatsApp marketing message to India costs $0.0118, a utility message $0.0014 and an authentication (OTP) message $0.0014 from 1 October 2026, charged by Meta per delivered message. The first 1,000 service messages per number each month are free. OmniChannels.ai charges Meta's rate with zero markup.
Rates by message category
| Category | USD per message | Per 1,000 messages | vs nearby average |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marketing | $0.0118 | $11.80 | −82% |
| Utility | $0.0014 | $1.40 | −77% |
| Authentication | $0.0014 | $1.40 | −77% |
| Authentication-international | $0.0304 | $30.40 | — |
| Service | $0.0014 | $1.40 | −77% |
Meta also publishes a Indian Rupee (INR) rate card; businesses billed in INR pay those rates instead of the USD figures shown.
Free-message rules, how volume tiers are counted and Meta's price-change calendar are the same in every market: see the rules on the WhatsApp pricing hub.
WhatsApp or SMS in India?
An authentication (OTP) template in India costs $0.0014, 36% less than the cheapest SMS: $0.0022 on Reliance Jio. We route SMS to 3 networks there (Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vi). A marketing template costs $0.0118, 5.4× that SMS rate, so promotions are where the gap is widest.
SMS in Hindi is UCS-2: 70 characters per segment, so a 120-character message bills as 2 SMS; WhatsApp bills 1 message.
Cost of 10,000 messages
| WhatsApp authentication | $14.00 |
| WhatsApp utility | $14.00 |
| WhatsApp marketing | $118.00 |
| SMS, list rate (Reliance Jio) | $22.00 |
| SMS, list rate (Bharti Airtel) | $24.00 |
| SMS, list rate (Vi) | $26.00 |
| SMS at the 5M+ volume tier | $13.20 |
| 120-character SMS in Hindi (2 segments) | $44.00 |
Sender identity and registration in India
No sender ID to register for WhatsApp: Meta reviews your display name. SMS fallback follows TRAI rules:
- SMS sender formats
- TRAI / DLT · Jio, Airtel, Vi, BSNL: Header registered on DLT; operators currently issue 6-character headers, letters for transactional and service traffic and digits for promotional (TRAI's definition allows up to 11 characters); the network appends -P, -S, -T or -G to show the category
- SMS sender ID registration
- TRAI / DLT · Jio, Airtel, Vi, BSNL: Mandatory — header + every message template registered on DLT before send
- Typical lead time: 3-7 business days (DLT header registration).
Consent and sending hours in India
- Opt-in
- TRAI TCCCPR 2018 requires verifiable opt-in. DPDP Act 2023 adds explicit consent capture and data-subject rights on top. Consent source, timestamp, and channel logged per-recipient.
- Opt-out
- Recipients block promotional messages, fully or by category, in the preference register (SMS or call 1909, USSD, IVRS, an approved app or an OTP-verified web portal), and operators add the details needed to revoke consent to every promotional message. Preferences and revoked consents are scrubbed on DLT before delivery.
- Sending hours
- Under TCCCPR 2018 the time bands outside 10:00–21:00 IST are off by default for promotional traffic, and recipients can block further time bands. Transactional messages are not blocked by these preferences.
- Time zone used for scheduling: Asia/Kolkata.
Template languages for India
Customers in India mostly read Hindi, English, Tamil, Telugu, Bangla and Marathi. With 6 languages in common use, pick the template language from the customer's stored preference, not from the phone number's country code.
Volume tiers
utility
| Monthly messages | Rate | vs list |
|---|---|---|
| 0–25,000,000 | $0.0014 | list |
| 25,000,001–50,000,000 | $0.0013 | -6% |
| 50,000,001–100,000,000 | $0.0012 | -12% |
| 100,000,001–200,000,000 | $0.0011 | -18% |
| 200,000,001–300,000,000 | $0.0011 | -24% |
| 300,000,001+ | $0.0010 | -30% |
authentication
| Monthly messages | Rate | vs list |
|---|---|---|
| 0–750,000 | $0.0014 | list |
| 750,001–15,000,000 | $0.0013 | -6% |
| 15,000,001–20,000,000 | $0.0012 | -12% |
| 20,000,001–50,000,000 | $0.0011 | -18% |
| 50,000,001–100,000,000 | $0.0011 | -24% |
| 100,000,001+ | $0.0010 | -30% |
authentication international
| Monthly messages | Rate | vs list |
|---|---|---|
| 0–750,000 | $0.0304 | list |
| 750,001–15,000,000 | $0.0286 | -6% |
| 15,000,001–20,000,000 | $0.0268 | -12% |
| 20,000,001–50,000,000 | $0.0249 | -18% |
| 50,000,001–100,000,000 | $0.0231 | -24% |
| 100,000,001+ | $0.0213 | -30% |
Volume tiers at 100,000,000 utility messages
100,000,000 utility templates a month in India: $127500.00 instead of $140000.00 at list, a blended $0.00128 per message (9% off).
| Messages in the month | Messages | Rate | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1–25,000,000 | 25,000,000 | $0.0014 | $35000.00 |
| 25,000,001–50,000,000 | 25,000,000 | $0.0013 | $32500.00 |
| 50,000,001–100,000,000 | 50,000,000 | $0.0012 | $60000.00 |
Worked example
An illustrative month for a business messaging customers in India, at list rates before volume tiers:
| Marketing | 50,000 × $0.0118 | $590.00 |
| Utility | 200,000 × $0.0014 | $280.00 |
| Authentication | 100,000 × $0.0014 | $140.00 |
| Service (1,000 free) | 29,000 × $0.0014 | $40.60 |
| Meta charges for the month | $1050.60 |
Illustrative volumes. Excludes taxes, platform fees and volume-tier discounts.
Which category drives the bill
In the example month, marketing is 56% of the bill in India but only 13% of the messages: one marketing template costs as much as 8.4 utility templates. Moving order and account updates to utility templates, and answering inside the free service window, lowers the bill fastest.
India compared with nearby markets
Marketing in India ranks 1 of 5 in this group (1 = cheapest) and is 82% below the average of the other markets. Utility and authentication are 77% below their average.
| Market | Marketing | Utility | Authentication |
|---|---|---|---|
| India | $0.0118 | $0.0014 | $0.0014 |
| Pakistan | $0.0473 | $0.0150 | $0.0150 |
| Bangladesh | $0.0732 | $0.0037 | $0.0037 |
| Nepal | $0.0732 | $0.0034 | $0.0034 |
| Sri Lanka | $0.0732 | $0.0020 | $0.0020 |
Source: Meta's official WhatsApp Business Platform rate card (USD), effective 1 October 2026, retrieved 2026-10-10. Rates are set by Meta and can change; your quote confirms the current rate.
WhatsApp pricing in India: questions
How much does a WhatsApp message cost in India?
From 1 October 2026, Meta charges per delivered template message to recipients in India: $0.0118 for marketing, $0.0014 for utility and $0.0014 for authentication, and $0.0304 for authentication-international. Rates are in USD.
Is WhatsApp cheaper than SMS in India?
An authentication (OTP) template in India costs $0.0014, 36% less than the cheapest SMS: $0.0022 on Reliance Jio. We route SMS to 3 networks there (Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vi). A marketing template costs $0.0118, 5.4× that SMS rate, so promotions are where the gap is widest. SMS in Hindi is UCS-2: 70 characters per segment, so a 120-character message bills as 2 SMS; WhatsApp bills 1 message.
Which WhatsApp messages cost the most in India?
In the example month, marketing is 56% of the bill in India but only 13% of the messages: one marketing template costs as much as 8.4 utility templates. Moving order and account updates to utility templates, and answering inside the free service window, lowers the bill fastest.
What do 100,000,000 utility messages a month cost in India?
100,000,000 utility templates a month in India: $127500.00 instead of $140000.00 at list, a blended $0.00128 per message (9% off).
What is the authentication-international rate in India?
$0.0304 per message, 21.7× the domestic authentication rate of $0.0014. Meta charges it only when an eligible business sends authentication templates to users in India from outside its primary business location.
Which opt-in rules apply to business messages in India?
TRAI TCCCPR 2018 requires verifiable opt-in. DPDP Act 2023 adds explicit consent capture and data-subject rights on top. Consent source, timestamp, and channel logged per-recipient. Recipients block promotional messages, fully or by category, in the preference register (SMS or call 1909, USSD, IVRS, an approved app or an OTP-verified web portal), and operators add the details needed to revoke consent to every promotional message. Preferences and revoked consents are scrubbed on DLT before delivery.