WhatsApp API costs
WhatsApp Business API pricing calculator
Your monthly volume
Marketing
Promotions, offers, cart reminders, win-backs. The most expensive category in every country.
messages / month
Utility
Order updates, shipping notices, payment receipts. Charged per message, including inside a 24 hour service window since 1 October 2026.
messages / month
Authentication
One-time passcodes for login, signup and account recovery.
messages / month
Service
Your replies inside a customer-initiated 24 hour window. The first 1,000 a month per business phone number are free, then each one is charged. This estimate assumes one number.
messages / month
Estimated monthly cost
₹6,071.00
Breakdown
- Marketing ₹5,450.00
- Utility ₹414.00
- Authentication ₹207.00
- Service ₹0.00
Rates are Spur's standard per-message rate card. Utility and authentication get cheaper as monthly volume rises, so your real bill lands at or below this.
That is what sending costs. Answering is the other half.
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How to use it
- 01
Pick the country you message
The rate follows where your customer's number is registered, not where your business is.
- 02
Enter volume per category
Split your monthly sends across marketing, utility and authentication.
- 03
Read the breakdown
Each category shows its own line, so you can see which one is actually driving the bill.
What changed
Until July 2025
One charge per 24 hour conversation.
Now
One charge per delivered message.
Since then
- July 2026 Six markets moved to their own rates. Italy, Spain and the UK got dearer marketing.
- October 2026 Nine more leave their regional groups.
- October 2026 Utility templates inside a service window are now charged, and service replies are charged after the first 1,000 a month per business phone number.
The four categories
Meta prices what a message is for, not what it says. Same words, wrong category, several times the cost.
Marketing
₹1.09Promotions, offers, cart reminders, win-backs. The most expensive category in every country.
Utility
₹0.207Order updates, shipping notices, payment receipts. Charged per message, including inside a 24 hour service window since 1 October 2026.
Authentication
₹0.207One-time passcodes for login, signup and account recovery.
Service
₹0.207Your replies inside a customer-initiated 24 hour window. The first 1,000 a month per business phone number are free, then each one is charged. This estimate assumes one number.
India · INR
A worked month
The same numbers you entered above, laid out as a bill. Sent is what you send; billable is what is left after the free service allowance.
| Category | Sent | Billable | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marketing | 5,000 | 5,000 | ₹5,450.00 |
| Utility | 2,000 | 2,000 | ₹414.00 |
| Authentication | 1,000 | 1,000 | ₹207.00 |
| Service | 0 | 0 | ₹0.00 |
| Estimated monthly total | ₹6,071.00 | ||
Rates change a lot by country
Meta prices every market separately, and the gap is wide.
Most expensive
- Netherlands ₹18.7325
- Germany ₹16.0117
- Chile ₹10.4216
- Malaysia ₹10.0859
- Rest of Central & Eastern Europe ₹10.0795
Least expensive
- India ₹1.09
- Turkey ₹1.2782
- Colombia ₹1.4658
- Rest of Africa ₹2.6395
- North America ₹2.9301
What you are not charged for
The first 1,000 service replies each month
Each business phone number gets 1,000 free service replies a month. The allowance resets monthly and does not roll over. Since 1 October 2026, utility templates inside the window are charged.
The free entry point window, up to 7 days
When a chat starts from a click-to-WhatsApp ad and you reply within 24 hours, a free window of up to 7 days opens (72 hours before 28 September 2026). Every template, marketing included.
Undelivered messages
You are charged on delivery, so messages that never arrive are not billed and real spend usually lands under the estimate.
Four ways to lower the bill
In rough order of how much they move the number.
- 01
Answer in fewer replies
Each business phone number gets 1,000 free service replies a month. Resolving chats in fewer replies keeps more of your volume inside that allowance.
- 02
Get the category right
An order update approved as utility costs a fraction of the same words approved as marketing.
- 03
Run click-to-WhatsApp ads
Reply within 24 hours and chats opened that way get a window of up to 7 days where every template is free, marketing included.
- 04
Stop paying for dead numbers
Marketing to someone who has not opened a message in months is billed exactly the same as marketing that converts.
What this estimate leaves out
The rate is exact. These are not.
Platform fees
This is the message cost only. Your Spur plan is billed separately.
Local taxes
Tax depends on your billing country and is applied after the message cost.
Volume discounts
Utility and authentication rates fall as monthly volume rises. This uses the standard rate, so read it as a ceiling.
Questions about WhatsApp pricing
What you pay for, what is free, and what changed.
There is no fixed price. You pay per message, and the rate depends on the category of the message and the country of the number you send it to. Marketing is the most expensive; utility, authentication and service cost less. Each business phone number gets 1,000 free service replies a month. Use the calculator above with your own volumes to get a number.
Per message, since 1 July 2025. Under the old model everything you sent inside a 24 hour window was one charge. Now every message is charged on its own. Since 1 October 2026 that includes utility templates sent inside a customer service window, and service replies after the first 1,000 a month per business phone number.
Some things are free. Each business phone number gets 1,000 free service replies a month; after that each reply is charged. If the chat began with a click-to-WhatsApp ad and you reply within 24 hours, a window of up to 7 days opens in which every message is free, marketing included. Messages that fail to deliver are never billed.
Marketing for promotions and re-engagement, utility for order and payment updates tied to a transaction, authentication for one-time passcodes, and service for your replies inside a customer-initiated window. Meta assigns the category when it approves your template, so you cannot pick a cheaper one for the same content. Marketing costs the most; utility, authentication and service share one lower rate in each market.
Only the first 1,000 each month. Since 1 October 2026 each business phone number gets 1,000 free service replies a month, and Meta charges for every reply after that at the service rate for the customer's country. The allowance resets each month and unused replies do not roll over.
No. The business pays. Your customer only uses their own data or wifi, exactly as they would messaging anyone else on WhatsApp.
Meta publishes a separate rate per market and the spread is wide. The rate is decided by the country code of the number you are messaging, not by where your business is registered, so an Indian business messaging UK customers pays the UK rate.
Move whatever you can out of marketing: an order update as a utility template is a fraction of the same message as marketing. Run click-to-WhatsApp ads: reply within 24 hours and they open a window of up to 7 days where everything is free. Keep service chats short, since each business phone number gets 1,000 free replies a month. Watch your monthly volume, since utility and authentication rates drop as it rises. And stop sending marketing to numbers that have not opened a message in months.
Now the other half. The rate is fixed. What you send is not.
Spur runs your WhatsApp sending from one place: broadcasts, an AI agent for the questions you answer every day, and every reply in one inbox.
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