WhatsApp Business API Free Tier & Cost Limits in India

Where the window ends and billing begins

The window is a service window, not a billing unit — an important distinction. It does not "contain" a bundle of paid messages; it simply defines when you can send free-form session messages without a template (each charged per message since 1 October 2026). Once 24 hours pass since the customer's last message, the window closes. To re-engage, you send a pre-approved template, and that template is billed by its category the moment it is delivered. Marketing templates are the most expensive because they carry promotional value; authentication templates (OTPs, login codes) are the cheapest; utility templates sit in between — and since 1 October 2026 they are billed whether or not they land inside an open window (until 30 September 2026, in-window utility was free). So the window now decides what you may send without a template, not whether a utility template is billed. Volume math follows directly: estimate how many conversations start with an inbound message (answered with low-cost service replies) versus how many you must reopen with a template (billed by category).

What you actually pay per category (indicative ₹)

Meta publishes a per-message rate card by country and category, and it updates it periodically, so treat every figure here as indicative. In India, marketing messages are the headline cost at roughly ₹0.94 per delivered message; authentication messages are far cheaper at roughly ₹0.14; utility messages are inexpensive at roughly ₹0.19; and session replies inside the service window have cost ₹0.145 each since 1 October 2026. Your monthly Meta cost is simply the count of delivered billable messages in each category multiplied by that category's rate. Because session replies inside each window bill at the low service rate rather than a template rate, businesses that structure conversations well often find their effective per-customer cost is a fraction of a naive "rate × total messages" estimate. The second half of your bill is your provider's platform pricing.

• Marketing: highest per-message cost — use for promotions and re-engagement
• Utility: low cost per delivered message, inside or outside the service window (since 1 October 2026)
• Authentication: lowest per-message cost — OTPs and login codes
• Service/session replies: charged per message inside the 24-hour window since 1 October 2026 (free until 30 September 2026)

How InfiQ prices it on top of Meta

Meta's per-message charge is only one line of your invoice; the platform you build on is the other. InfiQ applies transparent ₹ pricing, quoted ex-GST, with plans starting from ₹999/month. You see the Meta category rate and the InfiQ platform component clearly, so there are no surprise per-message inflations buried in the total. That transparency matters most at low volume, because the low cost of service-window replies is defeated if a platform quietly marks up Meta's per-message rates. With InfiQ you also get full ownership of your WhatsApp assets — your WABA, your phone number, your templates, and your BSUID (Business-Scoped User ID, relevant to the 2026 WhatsApp usernames change) — so nothing about your number or identity is held hostage to a plan.

Five ways businesses overpay (and how to fix it)

Most "my WhatsApp bill is too high" complaints trace back to a handful of avoidable patterns that quietly convert cheap traffic into expensive traffic. Fixing them is usually a template-configuration and timing exercise, not a pricing negotiation.

• Sending transactional alerts as marketing templates — recategorise them as utility so they bill at the lower utility rate
• Opening a fresh template instead of replying inside an already-open 24-hour window
• Letting the service window lapse before a scheduled follow-up, forcing a template to re-open it
• Over-messaging, which raises cost and damages your quality rating and delivery
• Not segmenting audiences, so paid marketing templates go to people who will not respond