If you last looked at WhatsApp Business pricing before mid-2025, most of what you remember has changed. Meta moved from charging per 24-hour conversation to charging per message, made customer-service replies free, and raised India's marketing rate in January 2026. There's also a hard deadline for Indian businesses to move to INR billing.

This guide covers what applies today, in plain terms. Rates change, so treat the numbers as a snapshot and check the rate card in your WhatsApp Business Manager before budgeting.

01 · The basicsTemplates vs. free-form messages.

WhatsApp has two kinds of business messages:

  • Free-form messages. Normal replies — text, images, documents, buttons. You can only send these within 24 hours of the customer's last message to you. That period is called the customer service window.
  • Template messages. Pre-written messages submitted to Meta for approval, with placeholders for things like a name or order number. These are the only messages you can send to start a conversation, or to reach someone after the 24-hour window has closed.

So the rule of thumb is simple: if the customer spoke last within the past day, reply freely. If not, you need an approved template.

02 · CategoriesThe three template categories.

Every template is assigned one category, which decides both its price and how strictly it's reviewed:

  1. Marketing. Promotions, offers, product announcements, re-engagement, abandoned-cart nudges. Anything meant to sell or bring someone back. Always charged.
  2. Utility. Updates about something the customer already started: order confirmations, shipping and delivery updates, appointment reminders, payment receipts, account changes. Charged outside the 24-hour window, free inside it.
  3. Authentication. One-time passcodes for logins and verification. Always charged, with discounts at high volume.

Meta reviews every template and can change its category if the content doesn't match. A "shipping update" that ends with a discount code is a marketing message, and will be priced as one. Keep utility templates strictly transactional.

Common mistake
Adding "PS: 10% off your next order!" to an order confirmation. It turns a cheap, often-free utility message into a marketing one — and marketing messages are also the ones Meta rate-limits per customer.

03 · What's freeThe two free windows.

Two situations make messages free:

  • The 24-hour customer service window. When a customer messages you, you can reply with free-form messages for 24 hours at no charge, and any utility templates you send in that window are free too. This is why fast replies matter financially, not just for customer experience.
  • The 72-hour free entry point window. When someone messages you from a Click-to-WhatsApp ad or a Facebook Page call-to-action button (on the mobile app), and you reply within 24 hours, every message — including marketing templates — is free for 72 hours.

For a business that mostly answers inbound questions, Meta's bill can be very small. The costs come from business-initiated messages: campaigns, reminders and follow-ups sent after the window closes.

04 · IndiaIndia's rates, in rupees.

Rates are set by the recipient's country code, so these apply when you message Indian (+91) numbers. As of Meta's 1 January 2026 update, published figures put them at approximately:

₹0.86/msgMarketing template (raised 1 Jan 2026)
₹0.12/msgUtility template, outside the 24-hour window
₹0.12/msgAuthentication template
18%GST added on top of Meta's charges

Utility and authentication get cheaper as your monthly volume grows, through volume tiers that reset each month. Marketing messages don't get volume discounts. Meta only changes rates on 1 January, 1 April, 1 July or 1 October, with at least a month's notice — so if you're budgeting, check the rate card at the start of each quarter.

Two worked examples

  • A festive campaign to 10,000 opted-in customers: 10,000 × ₹0.86 ≈ ₹8,630, or about ₹10,190 with GST. Every reply those customers send opens a free 24-hour window for your answers.
  • Delivery updates to 20,000 customers outside the window: 20,000 × ₹0.115 ≈ ₹2,300, or about ₹2,710 with GST — less at higher volume tiers. Sent while the customer's window is open, they cost nothing.

05 · DeadlineThe INR billing switch.

Since 1 January 2026, Meta has offered billing in Indian rupees for eligible businesses whose sold-to country is India. It isn't optional for long: eligible businesses must move every WhatsApp Business Account in their portfolio to INR by 31 December 2026. From 1 January 2027, Meta says it will stop delivering messages from non-INR accounts belonging to eligible customers.

If you're on the API through a provider, ask them now whether your accounts have been migrated. If you manage your own billing, check your WhatsApp Business Manager's currency setting before December.

06 · DeliverabilityWhy some marketing messages never arrive.

Meta limits how many marketing templates any one person receives from businesses in a given period. When a customer has hit that limit, your message fails with a "healthy ecosystem engagement" error and isn't delivered — even though your template was approved.

You can't see or change the limit, but you can work with it:

  • Send fewer, better campaigns to people who've actually engaged, rather than blasting your whole list.
  • Segment by behaviour — recent buyers, people who asked about a product, customers due for a service — so each message is relevant.
  • Use utility templates for transactional updates, which aren't subject to the same marketing caps.
  • Make replies easy. A message with a quick-reply button gets answered more often, and every answer opens a free window.

07 · In practiceGetting templates approved first time.

  • Pick the honest category. Mislabelling is the most common reason for rejection or re-categorisation.
  • Give placeholders sample values so reviewers can see the finished message.
  • Don't start or end with a placeholder, and don't stack several in a row.
  • Keep the brand obvious — the customer should know who's messaging them from the first line.
  • Avoid anything that looks like it's requesting sensitive data such as full card numbers or passwords.

Once approved, templates need to be in sync with whatever tool you send from. In Cloodot, templates come straight from your WhatsApp Business account and only approved ones can be sent — pending and rejected templates are flagged so nothing goes out early. See how Campaigns handles segments, scheduling and delivery tracking.