The short answer: Meta charges for every marketing template you send on WhatsApp, and India's marketing rate went up on 1 January 2026. A broadcast to your whole list is no longer "free reach". It is an ad buy, and it should be judged like one. The good news: three kinds of WhatsApp conversation are still free, and most brands use none of them properly.
This guide gives you the pricing rules in one table, a formula to check any campaign before you send it, and the five campaigns we would spend on first.
What you actually pay for
Since 1 July 2025, Meta bills per delivered template message, not per 24-hour conversation. What you pay depends on the message category.
| Message | Example | Do you pay? |
|---|---|---|
| Marketing template | "New collection is live", "20% off this weekend", "You left something in your cart" | Yes, the highest rate |
| Utility template | Order confirmed, out for delivery, payment received | Yes, a low rate. Free if sent while a customer service window is open |
| Authentication template | One-time password | Yes, a low rate |
| Your reply to a customer | Any free-form message within 24 hours of their last message | Free |
At the time of writing, rate cards shared by Meta's partners put India's marketing rate at about ₹0.86 per message and the utility rate at about ₹0.12. Your WhatsApp provider usually adds its own fee on top. Meta changes these rates through the year, so confirm the current figure on its rate card (linked at the end) before you budget.
The three free windows most brands waste
1. The 24-hour customer service window. Whenever a customer messages you, a 24-hour window opens. Inside it, every free-form reply costs nothing, and so do utility templates. A customer asking "is this in stock?" has just given you a free day of conversation. Most brands answer the question and stop.
2. The 72-hour window after an ad click. When someone taps a click-to-WhatsApp ad (or the WhatsApp button on your Facebook Page) and you reply within 24 hours, Meta opens a 72-hour window in which every message is free, including marketing templates. You have already paid for the click. The three days of follow-up are included.
3. Customer-started chats from your own channels. A WhatsApp button on your product pages, a QR code inside the parcel, a "message us for your size" line in your Instagram bio. Each one turns a paid message into a free one, because the customer spoke first.
Rule of thumb: before paying to start a conversation, ask whether you can get the customer to start it.
The maths: will this broadcast pay for itself?
Here is the only formula you need.
Break-even conversion rate = cost per message ÷ profit per order
Profit per order is your average order value multiplied by your gross margin, after discounts.
A worked example, with round, made-up numbers:
- Average order value: ₹900
- Gross margin after the offer: 50%, so profit per order is ₹450
- Cost per marketing message, including provider fee: ₹0.95
Break-even = 0.95 ÷ 450 = 0.21%. You need roughly one order from every 475 messages just to cover the cost of sending.
Now compare two ways of spending on the same list of 20,000 contacts in a month.
| Blast everyone, weekly | Segment and trigger | |
|---|---|---|
| Messages sent | 80,000 (4 sends × 20,000) | About 9,000 (see the five campaigns below) |
| Cost at ₹0.95 | ₹76,000 | About ₹8,550 |
| Orders needed to break even | 169 | 19 |
| What usually happens to the list | Blocks and "stop" replies climb, quality rating drops | Stays healthy, because people get messages that concern them |
The blast can still be profitable. But you only know if you run the number first, and the second column almost always produces more profit per rupee because it goes to people with a reason to buy.
Run the same sum for a low-priced product and you will see the problem quickly: at a ₹60 profit per order, break-even is 1.6%, which few broadcasts reach. For low-margin products, WhatsApp should be mostly free windows and utility messages.
Five campaigns worth paying for
Ranked by how reliably they pay back. All of them go to small, specific groups.
1. Abandoned cart, within the hour. Who: anyone who added to cart and left. Why it works: the intent is minutes old. "Hi Priya, your Rose Face Serum is still in your cart. Want us to hold it? Reply YES and we will keep it for 24 hours." Asking for a reply matters. If she answers, the conversation becomes free.
2. Back in stock. Who: people who asked to be told. They opted in for exactly this message. "Good news: the 200 ml Rose Serum you asked about is back. We only got a small batch. Order here: [link]"
3. Time to refill. Who: buyers of anything that runs out, timed to the usual gap between orders (30 days for a 30 ml serum, for example). "Hi Priya, you should be about a week from finishing your serum. Reorder in one tap: [link]"
4. Win-back at 60 to 90 days. Who: customers who bought once and went quiet. Send one message, with a real reason to return, not a monthly nudge.
5. Early access for your best customers. Who: your top 5 to 10% by spend. A launch or sale preview a day before everyone else. Small list, highest order value.
Then, and only then, a broad broadcast for genuinely big moments: a major launch or a festive sale. Two or three a quarter, not four a month.
Three ways brands burn money on WhatsApp
Dressing up a promotion as an order update. Add "and here is 10% off your next order" to a delivery message and Meta can re-classify the template as marketing. You then pay the marketing rate on every order notification you send.
Sending to the whole list because it is there. Every block and report counts against your quality rating. A low rating reduces how many people you are allowed to message at all, right when you need the reach for a sale.
Measuring delivery instead of revenue. "98% delivered, 70% read" tells you nothing about return. Track revenue per message sent and cost per order, campaign by campaign, the same way you would for Meta or Google ads.
A 30-day plan
- Week 1: Tag every contact by last order date, order count and total spend. Check how each one opted in.
- Week 2: Set up the three automated messages: abandoned cart, back in stock and refill reminder.
- Week 3: Add free entry points: a WhatsApp button on product pages, a QR code in parcels, and one click-to-WhatsApp ad with a planned 72-hour follow-up.
- Week 4: Send one segmented campaign. Work out revenue per message and compare it with your break-even number.
After a month you will know your own figures, which are worth more than any benchmark.
Where this fits
WhatsApp is the retention channel that sits behind your ads and your store, which is why we plan it together with performance marketing: the same customer should not be paid for twice. If you sell on marketplaces as well, it is also the one place where the customer relationship is fully yours; see marketplace management. How we set it up is on our WhatsApp marketing page.
