Free toolWhat will WhatsAppactually cost you?
Put in your own numbers. See Meta's charges, the platform fee and GST, separately.
Your monthly WhatsApp cost
Cost per conversation: ₹0.30. That is the total divided by every conversation, free ones included — the number worth comparing across providers.
With a 25% markup on Meta's charges, the same volume would cost ₹1,698 a month — ₹340 more, or ₹4,080 a year.
WhatsApp Business API in India costs about ₹0.8631 per marketing conversation and ₹0.115 per utility, authentication or service conversation, plus 18% GST. The first 1,000 service conversations on each number are free every month. At 1,000 marketing, 2,000 utility and 1,500 service conversations a month, Meta's charges come to ₹1,358 including GST — before any provider markup or platform fee.
What Meta charges
per conversation in India
These are the rates the calculator uses. Every message inside one 24-hour conversation is covered by a single charge.
| Category | Rate per conversation (INR) | What it covers | When you use it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marketing | ₹0.8631 | Promotions, offers, product announcements, win-back, cart recovery | Any message whose purpose is to sell or promote |
| Utility | ₹0.115 | Order confirmations, shipping updates, payment reminders, appointment reminders | Follow-ups on a transaction the customer already started |
| Authentication | ₹0.115 | One-time passwords and verification codes | Login and verification flows |
| Service | ₹0.115 | Replies to customer-initiated conversations | Any conversation the customer started — first 1,000 per number per month are free |
All rates exclude GST at 18%. Rates are set by Meta and are the same for every provider — what differs is whether your provider adds a margin on top.
How is a WhatsApp bill worked out?
The calculator does exactly this, in this order. Each line is rounded to the nearest rupee before it is added.
Step 1 · Meta's charges
Meta's charges = (M × ₹0.8631) + (U × ₹0.115) + (A × ₹0.115) + (max(0, S − 1,000 × W) × ₹0.115)
M = marketing conversations a month
U = utility conversations a month
A = authentication conversations a month
S = service conversations a month
W = WhatsApp numbers — each gets its own free service allowance
Step 2 · Monthly total
Monthly total = (Meta's charges + markup + platform fee) × 1.18
Markup = Meta's charges × your provider's markup percentage
1.18 = adds GST at 18% to everything
Step 3 · The number to compare
Cost per conversation = monthly total ÷ (M + U + S + A)
Note = the free service conversations are counted, so the figure reflects everything you actually handle
Four worked examples,
with the arithmetic shown
Meta's charges only, with no markup and no platform fee, so you can see how the category mix drives the bill.
Example 1
A small D2C brand
- 2,000 marketing conversations (campaigns and cart recovery) × ₹0.8631 = ₹1,726
- 3,000 utility conversations (order and shipping updates) × ₹0.115 = ₹345
- 1,500 service conversations, first 1,000 free, 500 × ₹0.115 = ₹58
Subtotal ₹2,129. With 18% GST: ₹2,512 per month to Meta.
Example 2
A B2B distributor
- 500 marketing conversations (win-back and reorder prompts) × ₹0.8631 = ₹432
- 4,000 utility conversations (quotations, payment reminders, order updates) × ₹0.115 = ₹460
- 2,500 service conversations, first 1,000 free, 1,500 × ₹0.115 = ₹173
Subtotal ₹1,065. With 18% GST: ₹1,257 per month to Meta.
Example 3
A service business — a clinic or salon on one number
- 400 marketing conversations (offers to clients who have not booked in a while) × ₹0.8631 = ₹345
- 3,000 utility conversations (appointment confirmations and reminders) × ₹0.115 = ₹345
- 2,200 service conversations, first 1,000 free, 1,200 × ₹0.115 = ₹138
Subtotal ₹828. With 18% GST: ₹977 per month to Meta.
Example 4
A high-volume ecommerce store on two numbers
- 20,000 marketing conversations (campaigns, cart recovery and win-back) × ₹0.8631 = ₹17,262
- 40,000 utility conversations (order, shipping and delivery updates) × ₹0.115 = ₹4,600
- 5,000 authentication conversations (login and cash-on-delivery verification codes) × ₹0.115 = ₹575
- 12,000 service conversations across two numbers, first 2,000 free, 10,000 × ₹0.115 = ₹1,150
Subtotal ₹23,587. With 18% GST: ₹27,833 per month to Meta.
The B2B business sends more conversations and pays less, because most of its volume is utility rather than marketing. Category mix matters more than volume.
At the ecommerce store's volume, markup stops being a rounding error. A 25% markup adds ₹5,897 to ₹23,587 of Meta's charges, which with GST takes the bill from ₹27,833 to ₹34,791 — ₹6,958 a month, or ₹83,496 a year.
How to reduce your WhatsApp bill
Four levers, and none of them is sending less to the people who want to hear from you.
- (01)
Keep utility messages clean
One promotional line in an order update turns a ₹0.115 utility conversation into a ₹0.8631 marketing one. Keep offers out of transactional messages.
- (02)
Get customers to message you first
Click-to-WhatsApp ads, website chat buttons and QR codes start service conversations — the cheapest category, with 1,000 free per number each month.
- (03)
Send to segments, not to everyone
A broadcast to 10,000 contacts is 10,000 marketing conversations. A send to the 800 showing buying intent is 800, and usually sells more.
- (04)
Bundle within the 24-hour window
Everything inside one 24-hour window is one charge. A conversation that resolves fully in one window costs the same as a single message.
Questions about using the calculator
From Meta's published rate card for India: ₹0.8631 per marketing conversation and ₹0.115 for utility, authentication and service conversations, with 1,000 free service conversations per number each month. They are the same whichever provider you use. Meta revises its rates from time to time, so check its own documentation before you commit to a large budget.
Start from what you already send. Each person who receives a campaign or offer is one marketing conversation; each order, shipping or payment update is one utility conversation. Count one per customer per 24 hours, not one per message. If you are new to WhatsApp, last month's order count is a fair guide to utility, and list size times campaigns a month to marketing.
Yes, and then check it against a real invoice. A provider that passes charges through at cost shows Meta's charges as their own line, matching these rates. If your bill for the same volumes comes out higher than the calculator's figure at zero markup, the difference is a markup, whatever the invoice calls it.
Because GST at 18% applies to the whole service you are billed for — Meta's conversation charges, any margin your provider adds and the software fee. The calculator shows it as one line so the total is what actually leaves your account each month. If your business is GST-registered, you can usually claim it back as input tax credit.
Cost per conversation. It folds Meta's charges, any markup, the platform fee and GST into one figure, divided by every conversation including the free ones. Two quotes with different fees and markups become directly comparable. Put each provider's fee and markup in, keep your volumes the same, and the cheaper option is the lower figure.
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