Gupshup WhatsApp API Pricing 2026: ₹0.09/Msg + Hidden Fees

Gupshup WhatsApp API pricing is $0.001 per message, sent or received, charged on top of Meta's own fee. At ₹94.94 to the dollar on 16 October 2026 that is about ₹0.095 a message (₹0.09 rounded to two decimals). Since 1 October 2026 Meta also charges for utility templates sent inside the 24-hour window and for service replies beyond each business number's first 1,000 a month, at the utility rate of ₹0.115 in India.

What you pay per 1,000 messages through Gupshup

Prices checked on 2026-10-16: Meta's rupee rate card effective 1 October 2026 (₹0.8631 marketing, ₹0.115 utility, authentication and service), Gupshup's self-serve price page with India selected ($0.001 a message, plus $0.000708 on marketing not sent through MM Lite), $1 = ₹94.94 (XE mid-market rate, 16 October 2026) and 18% GST. Gupshup's page lists no exemption from its own fee in the free entry point window, so we have charged it there. Sources are at the end.

We sell PayPerWA, a rival product. At ₹0.20 a message, GST included, it costs more per message than Gupshup, and we show where.

To price your own mix, try our WhatsApp marketing cost calculator, or jump to what a month costs.

What changed on 1 October 2026

Meta changed what it charges for on 1 October 2026. This is what it means on a Gupshup bill, based on Meta's non-template pricing page (updated 28 September 2026) and Meta's rate cards effective 1 October 2026.

What Meta now charges for

• Service replies. Free-form replies inside the 24-hour customer service window are now charged per message once a business phone number has used its 1,000 free service messages for the month. These had not been charged since 1 November 2024. In India the rate is the same as utility and authentication, ₹0.115, and Meta says it will not offer volume tiers for service messages.
• Utility templates inside the window. An order update or payment reminder sent while a customer's 24-hour window is open had been free since 1 July 2025. It is now charged at ₹0.115.

What stays free on Meta's side

• Messages customers send you. Meta charges only for messages from a business to a user, and only when they are delivered.
• The free entry point window. When someone messages you from a click-to-WhatsApp ad and you reply within 24 hours, Meta opens a window, which it says may stay open for up to 7 days, in which marketing, utility, authentication and service messages carry no Meta fee. Our guide to click-to-WhatsApp ads in India explains how that window opens.
• The first 1,000 service messages each month. Meta gives each business phone number 1,000 free service messages a month; see the note below.

What did not change

• Gupshup's own fee. Still $0.001 per message, in both directions.
• Meta's India marketing rate. Still ₹0.8631 on the rupee card. It last went up on 1 January 2026.

A note on the free service tier. Meta's main pricing page (updated 30 September 2026) gives each business phone number 1,000 free delivered service messages a month from 1 October 2026, and Gupshup's India price row mentions the tier too. Unused messages do not roll over, Meta charges from the 1,001st, and if your account has no payment method Meta stops delivering service messages once the 1,000 are used. The bills on this page assume one business number and apply the tier. Gupshup's own $0.001 applies to every reply either way.

What a month on Gupshup costs: 1,000, 10,000 and 1 lakh messages

Your bill depends on your mix of message types far more than on Gupshup's fee. To show the arithmetic, here is a made-up example mix, not a real customer's:

• of the messages you send, 60% are marketing, 30% are utility (order updates, reminders) and 10% are service replies;
• customers send you back 10% as many messages as you send;
• marketing goes through MM Lite, so Gupshup's marketing markup does not apply;
• everything goes out from one business phone number, so Meta's 1,000 free service messages a month apply once.

Worked through for 10,000 messages a month:

• Meta: 6,000 marketing x ₹0.8631 = ₹5,178.60; 3,000 utility x ₹0.115 = ₹345; 1,000 service replies, all within the 1,000 free for the month = ₹0. Total ₹5,523.60.
• Gupshup: 10,000 sent + 1,000 received = 11,000 messages x $0.001 = $11, and $11 x ₹94.94 = ₹1,044.34.
• Before GST: ₹6,567.94. GST at 18%: ₹1,182.23. Total: ₹7,750.17.

At 1,000 messages the 100 service replies are also free of Meta's fee. At 1 lakh there are 10,000 replies: the first 1,000 are free and 9,000 x ₹0.115 = ₹1,035, so Meta's fee is ₹51,786 + ₹3,450 + ₹1,035 = ₹56,271.

Prices checked on 2026-10-16.

If your marketing goes through the regular Cloud API instead of MM Lite, add Gupshup's $0.000708 markup on each marketing message: about ₹40, ₹403 and ₹4,033 a month before GST at these three volumes.

The same month on three routes

Prices checked on 2026-10-16 for Gupshup and Meta. Prices checked on 2026-10-18 for PayPerWA's fee and its GST treatment. *The direct column is Meta's fee alone, plus whatever it costs you to build and run the setup. The PayPerWA column is Meta's fee plus ₹0.20 on each message you send, service replies included: for 10,000, ₹5,523.60 + ₹2,000 = ₹7,523.60. Our ₹0.20 already includes GST, so the figure in brackets adds 18% to Meta's fee only: ₹5,523.60 × 1.18 + ₹2,000 = ₹8,517.85. We did not add a fee on messages you receive. If your PayPerWA quote also charges for them, add ₹20, ₹200 or ₹2,000.

Where PayPerWA is not cheaper: on this mix, at every volume in the table. Gupshup's fee is ₹0.0949 a message (about ₹0.112 with GST) against our ₹0.20, which already includes GST, so with GST counted Gupshup's bill is lower by about ₹77 at 1,000 messages, ₹768 at 10,000 and ₹7,677 at 1 lakh. The gap is widest for utility-heavy senders, because a ₹0.20 fee on a ₹0.115 message nearly triples it, while Gupshup's fee nearly doubles it.

Where PayPerWA can still make sense: only if the tools and support it includes would otherwise cost you more than that gap; the PayPerWA page lists what the fee covers.

To try your own mix of marketing, utility and service messages, use our WhatsApp marketing cost calculator.

Gupshup WhatsApp API pricing plans and fees, line by line

Gupshup publishes one self-serve price list for its WhatsApp API. Enterprise features and pricing go through its sales team, and there is no public enterprise rate card. These are the lines on the self-serve price page with India selected, checked on 16 October 2026 (gupshup.io/pricing redirects to it).

Prices checked on 2026-10-16.

A few more facts from Gupshup's own pages:

• Wallet. Gupshup's self-serve wallet documentation counts credits in dollars (one credit equals $1), allows recharges of $10 to $10,000, and says credits are non-transferable and non-refundable. Its documentation for Converse, a separate Gupshup console product, says wallets there can be in rupees (after KYC with your business GSTIN or PAN) or dollars.
• How the markup is set. Gupshup's historical Meta pricing page says its charge on top of Meta's price is a fixed amount unless it is stated as a percentage, and that Meta's prices can change.

Why OTP and order-update senders feel the fee most. Gupshup's ₹0.0949 is about 83% of Meta's ₹0.115 utility rate but only 11% of the ₹0.8631 marketing rate. If you mostly send OTPs and order updates, Gupshup nearly doubles your cost per message (₹0.115 becomes ₹0.21). If you mostly send marketing, it adds about a tenth.

Gupshup is a Business Solution Provider (BSP): it connects your number to Meta's API, handles templates and billing, and passes Meta's fee through. Our WhatsApp Business API guide explains what a BSP does and how the setup works.

Meta's India rates that Gupshup passes on

Meta sets these rates, and every provider, Gupshup included, passes them through. From Meta's rate cards effective 1 October 2026:

Prices checked on 2026-10-16.

• Volume discounts will not reach most small senders. On the rupee card, the first utility discount (₹0.1081, 6% off) starts after 2.5 crore messages in a month, and the first authentication discount after 7.5 lakh. Below that you pay the list rate.
• Meta has billed per message since 1 July 2025. It charges for each delivered message a business sends, by category and the recipient's country, and nothing for messages users send to you.
• Rupee card or dollar card makes a real difference. Gupshup's self-serve page, with India selected, shows Meta's fees in dollars, at the same values as Meta's dollar card: $0.0118 per marketing message. At ₹94.94 that is about ₹1.12, against ₹0.8631 on the rupee card. On the 10,000-message example, Meta's fee would be $75.00 (about ₹7,121) instead of ₹5,523.60, or ₹1,597 more. Ask Gupshup which card your wallet is charged on.
• The rupee billing deadline. Meta's pricing page and help centre say Solution Providers and directly connected businesses whose billing country in Meta's Billing Hub is India must move every WhatsApp Business account to rupee billing by 31 December 2026. From 1 January 2027 Meta will stop delivering messages from their non-rupee accounts. Meta has offered a Currency Migration API since 1 June 2026 to make the move easier. If your Gupshup account is old, ask when it moves.
• Authentication-international is a higher OTP rate that Meta applies in some markets, India included, under eligibility rules on its authentication-international page. Check those rules if your business is registered outside India and sends OTPs to Indian numbers.

If you send OTPs by SMS as well, our Gupshup SMS pricing post covers that side.

Costs people miss on a Gupshup bill

1. Messages customers send you. Gupshup's session fee covers outgoing and incoming text. 3,000 customer messages a month cost about ₹285 before GST (3,000 x ₹0.0949).
2. Service replies and in-window utility templates. Free on Meta's side until 30 September 2026, now ₹0.115 each plus Gupshup's fee, except that each number's first 1,000 service replies a month stay free of Meta's fee. A support team sending 5,000 replies a month from one number pays Meta ₹460 (4,000 x ₹0.115 after the free 1,000) and Gupshup about ₹475 before GST.
3. GST on both layers. Meta's help centre says WhatsApp invoices from Facebook India carry 18% GST (IGST, or CGST plus SGST if your billing address is in Haryana). Plan for GST on Gupshup's fee as well, and check that its invoice shows your GSTIN so a GST-registered business can usually claim input tax credit.
4. The dollar rate. Gupshup's fee is set in dollars. The FBIL reference rate was ₹96.61 on 9 October 2026; XE's mid-market rate was ₹94.94 on 16 October. On the $110 of Gupshup fees in the 1 lakh example, a gap of that size is about ₹184. If you top up a dollar wallet by card, your bank may add a foreign-currency charge too.
5. Wallet money you cannot get back. Gupshup's wallet documentation says credits are non-transferable and non-refundable. Top up in line with what you actually send.
6. Marketing outside MM Lite. $0.000708 extra per marketing message, about ₹67 per 1,000.
7. Voice calls. Gupshup charges $0.0001 a second ($0.006 a minute) on calls in both directions. Its page lists Meta's business-initiated call rate for India at $0.0053 a minute, billed in 6-second pulses, and user-initiated calls as free of Meta's fee. A 3-minute call you place costs about $0.034, or ₹3.22.
8. Enterprise commitments. Enterprise pricing is quote-only. If a quote includes a monthly minimum, you pay it in quiet months too, so ask before you sign.

Is Gupshup free to use?

No, though some messages carry no Meta fee. With no setup fee or monthly plan on the self-serve page, your first charge comes with your first message. From then on Gupshup's $0.001 applies to every message in both directions, and its page lists no free allowance for its own fee. The free parts are all on Meta's side: messages customers send you, messages inside a free entry point window after a click-to-WhatsApp ad, and the first 1,000 service messages each month on each business phone number.

Gupshup vs going direct to Meta's Cloud API

Going direct is cheaper per message because nobody adds a fee on top of Meta's. On the example mix you would skip Gupshup's ₹104, ₹1,044 or ₹10,443 a month. What you take on instead:

• Setting up the WhatsApp Business account in Meta Business Manager, verifying your business and adding a payment method in Meta's Billing Hub (in rupees, if your billing country is India).
• Submitting templates and handling rejections.
• A server to receive Meta's webhooks for deliveries, reads and incoming messages.
• Storing opt-ins, plus a way to send campaigns and answer chats, whether you build it or buy a tool.
• Keeping up with Meta's pricing changes, like the one on 1 October, yourself.

If you already have a developer, going direct at 1 lakh messages saves about ₹10,443 a month before GST on this mix; whether that is worth their time is your call. Our WhatsApp marketing cost guide covers the direct route, and the WhatsApp green tick guide covers verification, which Meta handles whichever route you choose.

Gupshup AI pricing

Gupshup does not publish prices for its AI products. Its WhatsApp API page promotes Gupshup AI Agents, and its price page carries an early-access banner for Gupshup Superagent, but the self-serve price list has no AI line (checked 16 October 2026). Ask sales for a written quote, and ask whether it is priced per message, per conversation or per seat.

Two Meta costs apply whatever you choose. A reply written by any third-party AI is a service message, so Meta charges it at ₹0.115 once the number has used its 1,000 free service messages for the month, plus Gupshup's fee. A reply from Meta's own Business Agent is charged per token instead: $2.00 per million tokens, which Meta estimates at about 4 to 5 US cents a message.

Who Gupshup suits, and who should look elsewhere

What to ask Gupshup before you top up

1. Is my wallet in rupees or dollars? Gupshup's self-serve wallet docs describe dollar credits; its Converse docs also describe rupee wallets, which need KYC with your GSTIN or PAN.
2. Which Meta rate card am I charged on? The rupee card's ₹0.8631 per marketing message, or the dollar card's $0.0118 (about ₹1.12)?
3. Has my WhatsApp Business account moved to rupee billing ahead of Meta's 31 December 2026 deadline?
4. Will I get a GST invoice with my GSTIN covering both Meta's fee and Gupshup's fee?
5. Does the $0.001 apply to every incoming message, and inside the free entry point window?
6. Do my marketing messages go through MM Lite, or will the $0.000708 markup apply?
7. For an enterprise quote: is there a monthly minimum, and what happens to an unused balance?

Want a second opinion on your WhatsApp bill?

Send us your monthly volume or last Gupshup invoice; we'll show the same month on PayPerWA and on direct Cloud API, and tell you if Gupshup is still cheaper. On the example mix on this page it is, and if that holds for your numbers we will say so.

If you also want WhatsApp connected to your CRM, see our guide to WhatsApp CRM integration and our custom CRM and software development service.

Use the form below or the WhatsApp button at the end of this page. We reply within 2 hours (Mon-Sat 10:00-19:00 IST); free quote in 24 hours.

About the author

Ashish Sharma founded Codingclave in Lucknow in 2017 and still leads it. Codingclave has delivered 200+ projects since 2017, is rated 4.9 on Google from 92 reviews, and 5.0 from 37 Upwork reviews. Codingclave makes PayPerWA, its pay-per-message WhatsApp platform, which competes with Gupshup.

Sources

All checked on 16 October 2026.

• Gupshup WhatsApp API self-serve pricing, India selected: $0.001 template and session fee, media above 64KB free, voice $0.0001 a second, $0.000708 markup on non-MM Lite marketing messages, Meta's India fees shown in dollars.
• Gupshup: Historical Meta pricing: how Gupshup's charge on top of Meta's price is set.
• Gupshup docs: wallet: self-serve dollar credits, recharge limits, non-refundable credits. Gupshup Converse console docs: wallet overview: rupee and dollar wallets on Converse, KYC.
• Gupshup: About us and Gupshup terms: company background and contracting entities.
• Inc42: Gupshup company profile: founding year and founders.
• Meta: non-template pricing page (updated 28 September 2026): service replies and in-window utility templates charged from 1 October 2026, no volume tiers for service messages.
• Meta: pricing on the WhatsApp Business Platform (updated 30 September 2026): the INR and USD rate cards and volume tiers effective 1 October 2026, 1,000 free service messages a month per business phone number, the free entry point window of up to 7 days, and the rupee billing deadline.
• Meta Business Help Centre: billing localisation in India: 18% GST on Facebook India invoices, 31 December 2026 deadline.
• XE: USD to INR mid-market rate: ₹94.94 at 18:08 UTC on 16 October 2026. FBIL reference rates: ₹96.6149 on 9 October 2026.
• AiSensy pricing and Interakt pricing: plan fees and per-message marketing, utility and authentication prices.