The cheapest WhatsApp Business API in India: Meta direct, nine provider plans and one month

Nilesh Zaveri sells sarees wholesale from a shop in Surat’s textile market, and two of his staff spend most of the day on WhatsApp with retailers across Gujarat and Maharashtra. He wants to move them onto the API so both can reply from one number, and his first question was the one most owners ask: what is the cheapest WhatsApp Business API? (Nilesh and his business are invented for this guide.)

The honest answer has two parts. The cheapest route is Meta’s own Cloud API with no provider in between, which has no platform fee at all. The cheapest provider depends mostly on how many people reply and how much marketing you send. We read nine providers’ pricing pages on 25 October 2026 and priced one month of Nilesh’s messages on each.

We make Conecxt, one of the products compared here.

Can you use the WhatsApp API without a provider?

Yes. Meta’s Cloud API is open to any business: you create a Meta app, register your own number and pay Meta for each delivered message. Meta’s pricing page lists per-message rates and no fee for using the Cloud API itself, so “WhatsApp Cloud API direct from Meta” is the cheapest line on any comparison.

Meta even makes the first step free. Its About the platform page says the test account and test number created for every new developer “have relaxed messaging limits and don’t require a payment method on file in order to send template messages”. That’s genuinely free, and genuinely only for testing.

What you don’t get is software. The API has no screen. Before production, Meta’s webhook page says you “must create and configure your own webhook endpoint on a public server”, with a valid TLS certificate. On top of that sit the parts a team uses: a shared inbox, template tools that show Meta’s approval status, opt-in records, delivery tracking and retries. A separate article in this batch walks through a developer’s first hour with the API in Python, and our explainer on the WhatsApp Business API in India covers access and limits.

So the direct route is cheapest in rupees and dearest in hours. It suits a business whose messages come from its own system (an order confirmation fired by the billing software) and where nobody needs to reply from a shared screen.

What Meta charges, whichever route you take

Every route below pays Meta’s message charges, directly or folded into a provider’s rate. Meta’s INR list rates, effective 1 October 2026 and linked from its pricing page (Updated 30 Sep 2026), per delivered message to an Indian number before GST: ₹0.8631 for marketing and ₹0.1150 for utility or authentication. Service replies cost ₹0.1150 each after the first 1,000 per business number per month, utility templates sent inside the 24-hour window are charged, and a chat opened from a click-to-WhatsApp ad stays free for up to 7 days.

That’s the floor. Our October cost guide works it into monthly bills, whether WhatsApp Business is free or paid sorts out what still costs nothing, and the glossary defines service messages and template categories.

The lowest published plan of each provider, read on 25 October 2026

The lowest listed prices run from no plan fee at all (Gupshup and Twilio charge per message) to ₹3,500 a month billed quarterly. We loaded each pricing page in a headless Chrome browser set to an Indian locale, clicked every billing toggle, and followed the rate card each page links to. Prices are as listed, before taxes.

Provider	Lowest plan that sends on WhatsApp, as listed	Billing	People included	WhatsApp numbers	Per-message charge above Meta’s, as the page puts it
Meta Cloud API, direct	No platform fee	Meta bills per delivered message	None: you build the inbox	Each number you register	None; Meta’s list rate
Gupshup self-serve	No plan fee	Per message	Not listed on the self-serve page	Not listed	”a standard 0.001 USD per message fee” on outgoing and incoming messages, plus a “Markup over non-MM Lite marketing messages” of $0.000708
Twilio	No plan fee	Per message	No inbox on the WhatsApp pricing page	No number fee on that page	”Twilio’s message handling fee: $0.005 per message”, inbound or outbound
360dialog Regular	€49 per number per month	Monthly	Not published	Priced per number	”+Meta WhatsApp Messaging Fees”. Its docs add a 7% surcharge on marketing sent outside the Marketing Messages API
AiSensy Basic	₹1,500 a month. Free Forever is ₹0 but has no broadcasting	Monthly; ₹1,425 a month quarterly, ₹1,350 yearly	1 owner + 5 agents	Not published	Own rates: ₹1.09 marketing, ₹0.145 utility
Interakt Starter	₹3,499 a quarter (+taxes), WhatsApp as the one channel. The ₹999 monthly Starter is Instagram only	Quarterly; ₹11,999 a year	”Unlimited agents (Owner Roles)“	Not published	Own rates: ₹0.970 marketing, ₹0.160 utility. Enterprise lists “No Markup Charges”
Conecxt Basic	₹2,499 a month	Monthly; ₹6,799 a quarter, ₹23,999 a year	5 team members	2, plus web chat	None in the plan; Meta bills the business at its rate card
Wati Growth	₹2,999 a month	Monthly; ₹2,699 a month quarterly, ₹2,199 annual	3 users, “No additional users”	Not published as a count; extra numbers ₹2,499 a month each	Growth rate card: ₹1.0357 marketing, ₹0.1495 utility
Gallabox Basic	₹2,999 a month, billed quarterly	Quarterly; ₹2,399 a month billed annually; no monthly option	3 users (hard cap)	1	Docs rate card: ₹0.9926 marketing, ₹0.1323 utility. Page: Meta’s fees are “reflected on your invoice with our markup”
DoubleTick Starter	₹3,500 a month, billed quarterly (+GST)	₹10,500 a quarter; ₹3,000 a month billed yearly	5 agents	1 WhatsApp Business Account	Linked sheet: ₹0.99 marketing, ₹0.1294 utility

The three per-message providers are a different product. Gupshup’s self-serve page lists fees only, Twilio’s page sells an API, and 360dialog’s Regular plan is API access for software you already have. Like the direct route, they need someone to build or buy the screen your staff reply from.

What one month costs a two-person shop

For Nilesh’s month the rupee-priced bills run from ₹4,316.33 to ₹6,664.10 before taxes, against ₹2,761.80 for Meta’s charges alone. His example month: two catalogue offers to 1,500 opted-in retailers (3,000 marketing templates) and 1,500 utility templates for dispatch and payment updates, all to Indian numbers.

At Meta’s list rates that is 3,000 × ₹0.8631 = ₹2,589.30 plus 1,500 × ₹0.1150 = ₹172.50, so ₹2,761.80. We left replies out: Meta’s first 1,000 service messages per number each month are free, and two staff answering retailers may stay under that. Gupshup and Twilio charge their own fee on every reply and incoming message, so their rows grow with chat volume.

Route and plan	Plan, per month	Messages	Month, before taxes	Paid up front
Meta Cloud API, direct	None	₹2,761.80	₹2,761.80, plus your build and hosting	Nothing
Interakt Starter, WhatsApp, quarterly	₹1,166.33 (₹3,499 ÷ 3)	₹2,910.00 + ₹240.00 = ₹3,150.00	₹4,316.33	₹3,499 + taxes
AiSensy Basic	₹1,500	₹3,270.00 + ₹217.50 = ₹3,487.50	₹4,987.50	₹1,500
Conecxt Basic	₹2,499	₹2,761.80, billed by Meta	₹5,260.80	₹2,499
Interakt Growth	₹2,799	₹2,874.00 + ₹225.00 = ₹3,099.00	₹5,898.00	₹2,799 + taxes
Gallabox Basic, quarterly	₹2,999	₹2,977.80 + ₹198.45 = ₹3,176.25	₹6,175.25	₹8,997
Wati Growth	₹2,999	₹3,107.10 + ₹224.25 = ₹3,331.35	₹6,330.35	₹2,999
DoubleTick Starter, quarterly	₹3,500	₹2,970.00 + ₹194.10 = ₹3,164.10	₹6,664.10	₹10,500 + GST
Gupshup self-serve	None	$37.50 to Meta + $6.62 to Gupshup	$44.12, plus $0.001 per incoming message	Not stated
Twilio	None	$37.50 to Meta + $22.50 to Twilio	$60.00, plus $0.005 per incoming message	Not stated
360dialog Regular	€49	₹2,761.80 at Meta’s rate; ₹2,943.05 with the 7% marketing surcharge	€49 + ₹2,943.05	€49 a month

Gupshup and Twilio list both Meta’s India fee and their own in US dollars: $0.0118 per marketing and $0.0014 per utility message, the same figures as Meta’s USD rate card. We haven’t converted them; at an illustrative ₹90 to the dollar, $44.12 is about ₹3,970 and $60.00 about ₹5,400.

Conecxt comes fourth among the rupee bills, and we’d tell Nilesh so. Interakt’s quarterly Starter and AiSensy’s Basic both cost him less this month. The order changes with marketing volume: Conecxt Basic passes AiSensy Basic at about 4,200 marketing messages a month with the same utility load, because the gap between ₹1.09 and ₹0.8631 is ₹226.90 on every thousand. Against Interakt’s Starter it would take about 11,800 marketing messages, which is more than Conecxt Basic’s 10,000-message monthly cap allows.

Where cheap bites

The headline price hides five things. Check each before you sign.

Seats come first. Wati Growth includes three users with “No additional users”, and Gallabox Basic has a hard cap of three. A fourth person means the next plan up, which is ₹6,499 a month on Wati and ₹6,999 billed quarterly on Gallabox. AiSensy adds agents at ₹750 a month each, and Conecxt five team members for ₹1,999. Interakt lists unlimited agents.

Numbers come next. Gallabox Basic includes one WhatsApp channel and sells no add-on channels, and DoubleTick’s plans include one WhatsApp Business Account. Wati sells extra numbers at ₹2,499 a month each. AiSensy and Interakt don’t publish a number count, so ask. A shop that wants one number for retailers and one for retail customers should price the second number before anything else.

The per-message rate is the third. On 10,000 marketing messages, Wati Growth’s ₹1.0357 costs ₹1,726 more than Meta’s list rate, and AiSensy’s ₹1.09 costs ₹2,269 more. At Nilesh’s volume the gap is a few hundred rupees; at a festival-season send it can pass the plan price.

Billing period matters because the monthly figure isn’t always what you pay. Gallabox and DoubleTick offer no monthly billing, and Interakt’s Starter with WhatsApp is quarterly or yearly. DoubleTick’s lowest commitment is ₹10,500 up front.

Then caps. AiSensy’s Free Forever plan can’t broadcast. Gallabox Basic lists a 10K broadcast contact limit a month and Wati Growth 15k broadcasts. Conecxt Basic caps contacts at 5,000 and messages at 10,000 a month, and a busier month needs a +5,000 messages add-on at ₹799 or the Growth plan.

When each cheaper option is the right choice

Every route in the table is the cheapest for somebody, and the match matters more than the rupee figure.

• Meta direct: you have a developer, messages start in your own system, and nobody replies from a shared inbox.
• Gupshup or Twilio self-serve: a developer wants a provider’s billing and support with no monthly fee, and volumes are low. Both charge on incoming messages too, so a chatty support number costs more than a quiet notification number.
• 360dialog Regular: you already have software that speaks the API and want per-number pricing with the escalation path its plan lists.
• AiSensy Free Forever: you only need to answer incoming chats on the API, with no campaigns. Its Basic plan suits a team of up to six logins that sends little marketing.
• Interakt Starter: the lowest WhatsApp plan fee here with unlimited agents, if one channel is enough and a quarter up front is fine.
• Wati Growth: its page lists Instagram, TikTok and Facebook in the same inbox and two commerce or CRM integrations, for a team of three or fewer.
• Gallabox Basic: one WhatsApp number, one Instagram handle and a website widget in one plan, for three users.
• DoubleTick Starter: five agents, with access on mobile and web, if paying a quarter or a year ahead suits you.

Conecxt fits a small team that wants two numbers on the entry plan and Meta’s own rate on every message. It has gaps a buyer should weigh: Basic caps contacts at 5,000 and messages at 10,000 a month, the free trial doesn’t include AI agents or the campaign builder, and Conecxt has no CRM connectors.

What changed since our October reads

Nothing that moves a total. We checked every figure above against our 7 October audit of eight provider pricing pages and 10-person monthly bill, and the vendor pieces read on 9 and 11 October. Plan prices, seats, rate cards and per-message fees were the same on 25 October.

Two small differences. Our 7 October comparison of Wati, AiSensy and Interakt mentioned a ₹999 one-time pay-as-you-go plan on Wati; we didn’t find it on Wati’s pricing page on 25 October. And 360dialog’s docs list a third tier at 249 EUR or 299 USD a month, while its pricing page lists Scale at €500 per number; we used the pricing page.

Pricing pages can show different prices by visitor location and change without notice, and we didn’t test any invoice against its page. The twelve questions to ask a provider will get the missing lines in writing, starting with the price of a second number and whose Meta account the number sits in.

For Nilesh the next step is short. Count the people who will reply, decide whether he needs a second number, and estimate his marketing messages in the busiest month of the year, not the quietest. Then price those three numbers on two or three of the rows above. If you work at one of these companies and we’ve misread your page, write to us through the contact page and we’ll correct it with a date.