WhatsApp Per-Message Pricing 2026 Explained (India Rates + Examples)
WhatsApp billing is now per template message rather than per 24-hour conversation window. For Indian businesses this is mostly good news: utility and service messages got cheaper, and marketing spend became easier to forecast.
The four message categories
Every outbound template falls into one category, and the category decides the rate.
- Marketing — offers, launches, re-engagement (highest rate)
- Utility — order, payment, delivery, appointment updates (low rate)
- Authentication — OTP and login codes (low rate)
- Service — your replies inside a user-initiated chat (free in most cases)
What it costs in India
Indian rates are among the lowest globally. On Tizyy, messaging is billed at Meta's official published rates, and utility/service traffic often costs a fraction of a marketing send.
- Customer-initiated service replies are typically free
- Utility templates cost far less than marketing templates
- Volume tiers reduce your effective per-message price
Cost example: 50,000 messages a month
A D2C brand sending 20,000 marketing, 25,000 utility and 5,000 authentication messages pays a blended rate well below SMS, while getting read rates above 80%.
Five ways to cut your bill
Category choice is the biggest lever — moving eligible messages from marketing to utility can halve spend.
- Send order and delivery updates as utility templates, not marketing
- Clean your list: remove bounced and inactive numbers monthly
- Segment so offers go to buyers most likely to convert
- Answer inside the free service window instead of resending templates
- Use click-to-WhatsApp ads to bring users to you (user-initiated is cheaper)
Forecast before you send
Tizyy shows estimated campaign cost before you hit send and tracks live spend per campaign, so nothing surprises you at month end.
FAQ
Questions people ask about this
Short, practical answers.