WhatsApp Service Messages Are No Longer Free: The Full INR Rate Card

Last updated: 3 September 2026

For the last two years, replying to a customer on WhatsApp cost you nothing. Someone messaged your store asking where their order was, your agent typed back, and there was no bill for it. That ends on 1 October 2026.

Meta is reintroducing per-message charges for service messages — the free-form replies your team or your chatbot sends inside the 24-hour customer service window. The final country-specific rates are now published, so we know exactly what this costs.

There is one significant piece of relief, and most Indian SMBs will land inside it.

The free tier: 1,000 service messages per number, every month

Meta is introducing a free monthly allowance of 1,000 service messages per phone number. Only the 1,001st message onward is charged.

Three details matter here:

• It resets monthly. Every calendar month you get a fresh 1,000.

• It does not roll over. Unused messages disappear. There is no banking them for a busy Diwali month.

• It is per phone number, not per WhatsApp Business Account. If you run three numbers under one WABA — say, sales, support, and returns — that is 3,000 free service messages a month in total.

And as always, incoming messages from your customers remain completely free. You are only ever charged for what your business sends.

What actually changes on 1 October

Before October, a service reply inside the 24-hour window was free, unlimited, forever. After October:

• Every free-form reply your business sends is billed as a service message.

• Service messages are priced at the same rate as utility and authentication templates in that market.

• There are no volume discounts on service messages. Utility and authentication templates still get cheaper as your volume grows; service messages stay flat. Ten thousand replies cost exactly ten times a thousand replies.

• A message is billed as one category only. A free-form reply that happens to contain a promotional line is charged as a service message — no marketing charge is stacked on top.

The 24-hour window itself has not gone anywhere. You still need a template to start a conversation, and a customer message still opens the window. What changed is that the window is no longer free real estate.

What this costs an Indian business

The service message rate for India is ₹0.1380 — one of the cheapest on the entire card, which is good news if your customer base is domestic.

Here is the monthly maths for a single Indian phone number:

A small D2C brand handling a few hundred support conversations a month will pay nothing. A mid-sized brand doing 10,000 replies picks up a line item roughly the cost of one team lunch. It is a support-heavy operation at high volume — a clinic chain, a logistics desk, a marketplace seller with thousands of daily order queries — that will actually feel this.

The picture changes if you serve customers abroad. A service reply to a customer in Germany is ₹4.8386. The Netherlands is ₹4.3987. That is roughly 35× the India rate for the same message.

The complete rate card, in INR

All rates are per message, in Indian Rupees. Billing is determined by the recipient's country code, not where your business is registered.

The Utility, Authentication, and Service columns carry identical rates in every market — that is by design, since service messages are pegged to the utility rate.

A dash means the Authentication–International rate does not apply in that market; standard Authentication pricing is used instead. Markets not listed individually fall into the nearest regional bucket, or into Other.

Rates are shown to four decimal places. Wallet deductions are calculated per message and rounded at invoice level, so your statement total may differ by a few paise from a straight multiplication.

Four things to do before 1 October

Split your numbers deliberately. Because the free tier is per phone number, a business running separate sales and support numbers gets 2,000 free service messages instead of 1,000. If you have been consolidating onto a single number for simplicity, run the numbers again — the split may now pay for itself.

Audit how many replies a conversation actually takes. Most support threads carry two or three messages that exist only to keep the conversation moving. "Sure!" and "One moment please" now cost the same as a real answer. Tightening reply patterns is the single cheapest lever available.

Use the 72-hour entry point window. Conversations opened from Click-to-WhatsApp ads and Facebook Page call-to-action buttons keep free message delivery for 72 hours, and that has not changed. If you are already spending on Meta ads, that window is worth routing traffic into.

Reforecast before the invoice arrives. If WhatsApp support has been a ₹0 line in your budget, it will not be in October. Pull last month's outbound service message count from your Splashify Pro dashboard, subtract 1,000 per number, and multiply by your market rate. Better to know now.

Frequently asked questions

When do WhatsApp service messages start being charged?

From 1 October 2026. Before that date, free-form replies sent inside the 24-hour customer service window remain free.

How many free service messages do I get?

1,000 per phone number, per month. The allowance resets at the start of each month and does not roll over. Only the 1,001st message onward is billed.

Is the free tier per phone number or per WhatsApp Business Account?

Per phone number. A WABA with four registered numbers receives 4,000 free service messages in total each month, 1,000 against each number.

Do I get charged when a customer messages me?

No. Incoming messages from end-users are free and always have been. You are billed only for messages your business sends.

What is a service message, exactly?

Any free-form, non-template message your business sends in reply to a customer inside the open 24-hour service window — whether it is typed by a human agent or generated by your chatbot or AI assistant.

How much does a service message cost in India?

₹0.1380 per message. After the 1,000 free messages, 10,000 replies in a month would cost roughly ₹1,242.

Do volume discounts apply to service messages?

No. Utility and authentication templates still qualify for lower rates as your monthly volume grows, but service messages are charged at a flat rate regardless of how many you send.

Does the 24-hour customer service window still exist?

Yes. The window still opens when a customer messages you, and you still need an approved template to start a conversation outside it. What changed is that messages sent inside the window are now billable rather than free.

Are utility templates still free inside the service window?

No. In-window utility templates were free from July 2025 and become chargeable from 1 October 2026 alongside service messages.

Sending WhatsApp at scale in India? Splashify Pro gives you a published per-message rate card, wallet-based billing with no monthly platform fee, and the volume reporting to see exactly where your service message spend is going. Talk to us about your setup.