We read eight WhatsApp provider pricing pages a week after Meta's 1 October change. Here is what each one says.

WhatsApp Business API pricing changed on 1 October 2026: Meta began charging for service messages, the free-form replies a business sends inside the 24-hour window, after the first 1,000 on each number each month. A week later we wanted to know what a buyer in India would actually read on provider pricing pages. So we read eight of them, plus our own.

We make Conecxt, one of the products compared here.

What does Meta charge per WhatsApp message in India?

Meta’s list rate to Indian (+91) numbers is ₹0.8631 per delivered marketing message and ₹0.1150 per utility, authentication or service message, before GST. That is from the rupee rate card on Meta’s pricing page, which shows “Updated: Sep 30, 2026” and says it “reflects pricing updates that became effective as of October 1, 2026”.

Two lines on that page matter for everything below. On the free allowance: “For each business phone number, Meta provides 1,000 free service messages per month, which do not roll over but reset monthly.” On utility templates sent inside the 24-hour window, which were free from July 2025, Meta lists them under “Charging for messages that were previously free”. Our October pricing explainer works through what that does to a bill.

What each pricing page listed on 7 October 2026

Five of the eight publish their own rupee rates for India, on the pricing page or one click from it. Zoko and 360dialog publish none and point to Meta, and Twilio lists Meta’s fee in dollars beside its own. Every figure is per message to an Indian number, as listed on 7 Oct 2026, before taxes. Where a provider prices by plan, the plans run in the order named.

Provider	Marketing	Utility	Authentication	Service	1 October change on the page	Older wording still on the page	Date shown
Meta (list rate)	₹0.8631	₹0.1150	₹0.1150	₹0.1150 after 1,000 free per number	Source of the change	None	”Updated: Sep 30, 2026”
Wati (Growth / Pro / Business rate cards)	₹1.0357 / ₹0.9926 / ₹0.9667	₹0.1495 / ₹0.1495 / ₹0.1380	₹0.1495 / ₹0.1495 / ₹0.1380	₹0.1380 / ₹0.1380 / ₹0.1231	Yes, on the rate cards: “Every business gets 1000 free service messages every month"	"72-hr free remarketing window” on the plan comparison page	Rate cards: “October 1, 2026”. Pricing page: none
AiSensy	₹1.09	₹0.145	₹0.145	₹0.145 after 1,000 free per number	Yes, with the date, on every plan card	”72-hour free entry point window"	"effective 1 October 2026”
Interakt (Starter on quarterly billing / Growth / Advanced)	₹0.970 / ₹0.958 / ₹0.949	₹0.160 / ₹0.150 / ₹0.140	₹0.129 / ₹0.128 / ₹0.127	₹0.129 / ₹0.128 / ₹0.127	Yes: “Charges applicable after the 1000 free service messages are exhausted”	None found	None
Gallabox	Not on the pricing page. Linked docs: ₹0.9926	Docs: ₹0.1323	Docs: ₹0.1323	Docs: ₹0.1323 after 1,000 free per phone number	Docs: yes. Pricing page: no mention	Pricing page calls the charge “WhatsApp conversation fees”	Docs: rates “take effect October 1, 2026”
DoubleTick	Not on the pricing page. Linked sheet: ₹0.99	Sheet: ₹0.1294	Sheet: ₹0.35	Sheet: ₹0.1294. Free 1,000 not mentioned	Sheet has a Service column. Pricing page: no mention	FAQ: “The per conversation cost varies”	Sheet: “effective Oct 1, 2026”
Zoko	Not listed. “WhatsApp: rate card”, linking to Meta	Not listed	Not listed	Not listed	No mention	Its own fee is charged per “conversation”	None
360dialog	Not listed. “+Meta WhatsApp Messaging Fees”	Not listed	Not listed	Not listed	Pricing page: no mention. Docs: service messages billed; free 1,000 not mentioned	”Meta’s messaging fees vary by country and conversation type”	Pricing page: none
Twilio (from its linked CSV)	$0.0118 Meta fee + $0.005 Twilio fee	$0.0014 + $0.005	$0.0014 + $0.005	$0.0014 + $0.005	Stated in the explainer text; the calculator and FAQ say otherwise for utility	See below	”Pricing current as of September 2026”
Conecxt	Not listed. Links to Meta’s rate card	Not listed	Not listed	Not listed	Yes: replies “free for the first 1,000 each month, per number”	None	None

Where the listed rates differ from Meta’s list rate

The five rupee rate cards all sit above Meta’s list rate for marketing, by different amounts. AiSensy’s page lists ₹1.09; Meta’s list rate is ₹0.8631. Wati’s Growth rate card lists ₹1.0357 and its Business card ₹0.9667. Gallabox’s docs and Wati’s Pro card both list ₹0.9926, DoubleTick’s sheet ₹0.99, and Interakt between ₹0.949 and ₹0.970 depending on plan. The pages do not say how each rate divides between Meta’s fee and the provider’s own charge.

Three smaller things stood out:

• Interakt prices utility above authentication on every plan (₹0.150 against ₹0.128 on Growth). Meta’s list rate for both is ₹0.1150.
• DoubleTick’s sheet lists authentication at ₹0.35, with utility and service at ₹0.1294.
• Wati and Interakt price per plan, so the same message costs less on a higher plan. Interakt’s Enterprise column says “No Markup Charges”, and Gallabox’s FAQ says Meta’s fees are “reflected on your invoice with our markup”. Those are their words.

Twilio is the only one of the eight that shows the two parts separately on its own page: Meta’s fee, passed through, and “Twilio’s per-message fee for WhatsApp is $0.005, inbound or outbound”.

Is the free 1,000 per number or per business?

Meta’s page says per business phone number. AiSensy says “Every WhatsApp Business number gets 1,000 free service messages each month”, and Gallabox’s docs say “each business phone number”. Both match Meta.

Wati’s rate cards say “Every business gets 1000 free service messages every month”, and its help article says Meta provides “1,000 free service conversations per month for each WhatsApp Business Account”. Interakt’s page refers to “the 1000 free service messages” without saying per what. A business with one number will see no difference. One with three numbers should ask which reading its invoice follows.

DoubleTick’s rate sheet and 360dialog’s docs don’t mention the allowance. 360dialog’s page on free and billed messaging says “The Free Entry Point Window is the only window that makes a message free.” Meta’s page says: “There are two instances where Meta does not charge”, and the second is the monthly 1,000.

Which pages still describe an older model?

We found no pricing page among the eight that still says service replies are free. What remains is older wording in specific places.

The free window after an ad click. AiSensy’s page says replies “inside the 72-hour free entry point window from Click-to-WhatsApp ads stay free”. Wati’s plan comparison lists a “72-hr free remarketing window”. 360dialog’s docs say “A 72-hour window opens”, although a table on the same page says “Up to 7 days from the ad or CTA click”. Meta’s page says: “The FEP window may remain open for up to 7 days.” We cover that window in the click-to-WhatsApp ads guide.

Utility templates inside the 24-hour window. Twilio’s page says two things. Its explainer reads: “During a customer service window, Meta charges for utility template messages and non-template outbound service messages.” Its calculator line for India reads “$0.0014/message Meta fee outside the customer service window, no charge for messages during the customer service window”, and its FAQ says utility templates “do not incur Meta per-template fees when sent within an open customer service window”. Meta’s page lists those messages, effective October 1, 2026, among the ones it now charges for. The page is marked “Pricing current as of September 2026”.

The word “conversation” survives on several pages as a label. Gallabox’s pricing page links its per-message rate card under “Conversation pricing”. DoubleTick’s rate page sits at a URL ending in conversation-cost. Zoko meters its own platform fee per conversation, which it defines as “24-hour increments, or ‘sessions’, that start whenever the first message from a business is delivered”, and its rate card link goes to Meta’s older documentation address. Meta has charged per message since 1 July 2025. If the terms are new to you, the glossary has them.

What about WhatsApp chatbot pricing?

Chatbot and AI agent prices were listed in five different shapes, so compare them on your own expected volume. As listed on 7 Oct 2026:

Provider	Chatbot or AI agent, as listed
AiSensy	Chatbot flows ₹2,500 a month for 5 chatbots. AI agent ₹1,350 a month, including 1,000 AI messages. Both sold on top of any plan
Interakt	”WhatsApp AI Agents @ 3000 INR” add-on for Growth and Advanced. The page does not state the billing period
Wati	In the plan: 1 AI agent and 2,000 AI credits on Growth, 2 and 5,000 on Pro, unlimited agents and 20,000 credits on Business
Gallabox	In the plan: 500, 2,000 or 8,000 AI credits a month. Top-up ₹1,000 per 5,000 credits. AI agents on WhatsApp from Essential
DoubleTick	Pro is ₹5,200 a month and Pro + AI ₹9,200 a month, both billed quarterly. Pro + AI includes up to 10 AI agents and 3,500 AI credits a month
Zoko	$24.99 a month per AI agent, plus $0.09 per resolution after the first 100
360dialog, Twilio	None listed on these pricing pages
Conecxt	In the plan: 1, 2 or 3 AI agents with 750, 1,500 or 3,000 AI credits a month (1 credit = ₹1)

Whatever the bot costs, its replies are service messages. AiSensy’s page says so directly: chatbot and AI agent replies are charged “after your 1,000 free service messages each month”. Meta’s page defines service messages as non-template messages that “can be powered by a 3rd-party AI solution or people”.

Where another provider’s page does this better than ours

AiSensy’s page is the most explicit of the nine about the change. It gives the date, the rate, the allowance per number and the rule on utility templates, on every plan card. Interakt puts the rate for each plan on the pricing page itself, and Twilio offers its whole price list as a download. Our own pricing page shows no per-message rate and no date; it sends you to Meta.

There’s a practical point too. Providers that bill messages themselves give you one invoice for the platform and the messages. With Conecxt you get two bills, one from us and one from Meta.

How we did this

• When: all pages were loaded on 7 October 2026, between 00:25 and 00:40 IST.
• How: a headless Chrome browser set to an Indian locale and the Asia/Kolkata time zone, with no login. We saved the visible text of each page, and clicked billing-period toggles and FAQ rows where the page had them.
• What counted: the provider’s public pricing page, and a rate card, sheet or docs page only when the pricing page links to it. Those are named in the table as “linked docs”, “linked sheet” or “rate cards”. Wati’s three rate cards are PDFs; DoubleTick’s is an embedded Google Sheet; Twilio’s India figures come from the CSV its page offers for download, and its calculator showed the same $0.0014 utility fee when set to India.
• What didn’t: sales calls, logged-in dashboards, invoices, review sites and anything we remembered from before.
• Reference: Meta’s rupee list rates for India, from the rate card on its pricing page.
• Limits: pricing pages can show different prices by visitor location. We recorded what an Indian-locale browser was shown. A page can also change the day after we read it.

We did not test whether any provider’s invoices match its page. For the questions to put to a provider in writing, see how to choose a WhatsApp Business API provider. For the same pages turned into a monthly bill, see one scenario priced on eight providers.

Corrections

If you work at one of these companies and we have misread your page, or it has changed since 7 October 2026, write to us through the contact page with the link. We’ll check it, correct this article and date the correction.