360dialog pricing explained: API access from €49 a number, what each plan includes, and who should pick it

Chitra Venkataraman runs operations for a dental chain with four clinics in Coimbatore. The chain has its own appointment software, written by a two-person tech team, and she wants it to send WhatsApp reminders and take replies. A consultant told her to look at the 360dialog WhatsApp API. Her question was the usual one: what does it cost, and what do we get for it?

We make Conecxt, one of the products compared here. Every 360dialog figure below is from 360dialog’s own pricing page and client docs as read on 7 October 2026.

What does 360dialog charge?

360dialog charges a monthly subscription per WhatsApp number, starting at €49 per number per month, and Meta’s messaging fees come on top. Its docs put it this way: each channel “generates two categories of cost”, a fixed licence fee for infrastructure, hosting and platform access, and variable usage costs “determined by Meta”.

Plan	Price as listed	What the page says is included
WhatsApp API, Regular	€49 per number per month	24/7 human support, first response within 4 hours, a Meta escalation path, Zapier, Make and n8n integrations
WhatsApp API, Premium	€99 per number per month	Regular, plus first response within 30 minutes, business verification in 48 hours, a Messaging MCP, and four add-ons: Inbox, Sendout, Automation, Measurement
WhatsApp API, Scale	€500 per number per month	Premium, plus a 30-day assessment programme, migration support and up to 1,000 messages a second
Marketplace	€99 per number per month	Number hosting, 80 messages a second, and a messaging tool from a matched partner
Partner Platform	From €250 a month plus €49 per regular channel	For software companies managing many client accounts; 5 regular channels on Starter

Prices as listed on 7 October 2026. Every plan in the table carries the line “+Meta WhatsApp Messaging Fees”.

The docs add four details the pricing page leaves out:

• Dollar prices: 59 USD for the Regular tier and 119 USD for Premium. A “Higher Throughput” upgrade is 249 EUR or 299 USD a month.
• Subscription billing “supports EUR and USD only”. No rupee subscription price is published.
• A subscription is billable from activation, renews on the first day of each month, and stays active until you cancel it.
• Cards are the primary payment method, and a 4% processing fee applies to licence fee invoices.

For Chitra’s one clinic number on Regular, that’s €49 a month, or €50.96 with the card fee. At a round ₹100 to the euro (an illustrative rate, so check today’s) it’s about ₹5,100 before any message is sent.

Does 360dialog add a markup on messages?

360dialog’s pages describe message charges as Meta’s, set by Meta’s rate cards, with one surcharge named in the docs. The docs say usage-based costs “are set by official Meta rate cards” and that message pricing is supported in EUR, USD and INR. The pricing page describes the Partner Platform as having “zero message markup”. We found no per-message 360dialog fee listed for the direct plans.

The surcharge: the docs say sending marketing content through the standard messages endpoint, instead of the dedicated Marketing Messages API, “adds a 7% surcharge to Meta’s standard rate”. If your software will send promotions, ask which endpoint it should use before the first campaign.

The docs also refer to a “360dialog prepaid credit balance” that billed messages draw from. So message fees appear to be paid to 360dialog in advance and settled with Meta by them. Ask how top-ups work and what happens to sending when the balance runs out.

Meta’s India card, for reference: ₹0.8631 per delivered marketing message and ₹0.115 for utility, authentication and service messages, before GST. Service replies are charged after the first 1,000 per business number each month. Our cost guide has worked monthly bills.

Does 360dialog come with an inbox?

On the Regular plan, no. On Premium, yes: the docs say the Inbox “is available to 360dialog direct clients on the Premium plan, at no extra charge”.

The docs describe four ways to use it. The one a front desk would care about is the hosted inbox, “a ready-to-use web app” where conversations “can be assigned to a person, tagged, searched and resolved”. The other three (an API, an MCP server for AI agents, and an open-source front end you host yourself) are for developers.

The pricing page lists Sendout and Automation among the Premium add-ons without describing their limits. If campaigns or journeys matter to you, ask for specifics in writing: how many recipients, what triggers, what reporting.

So the fair summary is two products under one name. Regular is API access for software you already have. Premium is API access with a hosted inbox on top, at about twice the price per number.

Three routes to the WhatsApp Business Platform

There are three ways to get on the Platform: an API provider plus your own software, Meta’s Cloud API directly, or an all-in-one tool. They differ mostly in who does the technical work.

	API provider (360dialog Regular)	Meta’s Cloud API directly	All-in-one tool (Conecxt Basic)
Fixed monthly fee	€49 per number	None listed on Meta’s pricing page	₹2,499, including 2 WhatsApp numbers
Message charges	Meta’s rate cards, paid through 360dialog	Billed by Meta at its rate card	Billed by Meta to your own payment method at its rate card
Team inbox	Your own software, or Premium at €99 per number	You build it	Included, 5 team members
Support with Meta	24/7 support and an escalation path, per the plan	Meta’s documentation and your own developers	From the tool’s team
Technical work	Integrate their API with your system	Build and host everything	None
Subscription currency	EUR or USD	Not applicable	INR

A note on the middle column. Meta’s pricing page lists per-message charges and no platform subscription, so the direct route has the lowest fixed cost of the three. It also has the most work: registering the number, hosting webhooks, template management, opt-outs, and an inbox if people will reply. Our WhatsApp Business API guide covers what onboarding involves.

Whichever route you take, check where your number sits. Meta’s current account model says the WhatsApp account holding your number is owned by your business. 360dialog’s Marketplace page makes a similar promise in its own words: “You own your WhatsApp number forever. Switch tool anytime.”

Who should pick 360dialog?

Pick 360dialog when you already have the software and need a dependable pipe into WhatsApp with someone to call. Chitra’s chain is that case. Her appointment system knows every patient and every slot; all it lacks is a way to send and receive. One number on Regular, integrated by her own team, is a reasonable fit, and nothing in an all-in-one tool would replace the software she already has.

It also suits:

• Software companies. If you sell a CRM or a booking product and want WhatsApp inside it for your customers, the Partner Platform is built for that and nothing in this article competes with it.
• Teams that connect systems with Zapier, Make or n8n, which the Regular plan lists.
• Businesses that want a named first-response time. Four hours on Regular and thirty minutes on Premium are published commitments.

Who should look at the alternatives?

Look elsewhere if nobody on your team writes code and what you need is a place to reply. An API with no software around it does nothing visible. You’d be paying €49 a month for a connection and still have no screen to answer customers from.

In that case the comparison is between 360dialog Premium at €99 per number and an all-in-one tool. Count your numbers and your people. Two numbers on Premium are €198 a month. Ask what the hosted inbox allows per seat, because the pages we read don’t publish a seat limit or a seat price.

And if you have strong developers and want no company between you and Meta, the Cloud API is the direct route. You give up the provider’s support desk and gain one fewer invoice.

If your plan depends on driving WhatsApp from your own software, as Chitra’s does, an API provider or the Cloud API is the right shape and a ready-made tool is the wrong one.

Questions to put in writing first

Before paying anyone, 360dialog and us included, send these and keep the replies:

1. Which currency will the subscription and the message charges each be billed in, and is GST added?
2. How is the message balance funded, and what happens to sending when it’s empty?
3. Which endpoint will my marketing messages go through, and does any surcharge apply?
4. Whose business portfolio holds my number, and who owns the messaging account with my templates?
5. If I need an inbox later, what does it cost per number and per person?

The longer list, with the reasoning behind each question, is in how to choose a WhatsApp Business API provider in India. If a term above is unfamiliar, the glossary defines it.

Chitra’s next step is small. Her tech team opens a sandbox, sends one reminder template to their own phones, and times how long the integration takes. That afternoon tells her more than any pricing page.