WhatsApp Replies Are No Longer Free for API Users: A Short Briefing

WhatsApp Business pricing change from October 2026

If your company sends WhatsApp messages through a CRM, a chatbot or a messaging provider, your bill may look different this month. From 1 October 2026, Meta charges businesses on the WhatsApp Business Platform (the API) for service replies and utility messages that used to be free inside the 24-hour customer service window.

What changed

  • Each business number gets 1,000 free service messages a month. Replies beyond that are charged.
  • Utility templates, such as order confirmations and delivery updates, are now charged even inside the 24-hour window.
  • Business Standard reported the India rate as Rs 0.115 per delivered message for service, utility and authentication messages, before GST.
  • The marketing message rate was reported as unchanged.

Rates can change, so confirm the current figures on Meta's pricing page or with your provider.

Who should look closely

  • Busy support desks such as banks, NBFCs, ecommerce firms, hospitals, utilities and government helplines.
  • Teams with chatbots that send many short messages in a row.
  • Firms whose ERP, HRMS or billing software sends a lot of alerts.

Ordinary WhatsApp users still pay nothing, and businesses that only use the free WhatsApp Business phone app are reportedly not affected. A small business with light chat volume may stay inside the free allowance. The key is to know your numbers before the first invoice arrives.

The original guide gives a seven-step action list, starting with pulling last month's message report and estimating the new monthly cost.

Read the full WhatsApp pricing guide here: WhatsApp Business Pricing Change: What Firms Must Do

Published by Affix Center, a Mumbai-based IT services company. See our Data and AI services.

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