Gupshup Pricing vs Wati, Interakt, AiSensy: Per Message 2026

Gupshup pricing vs WATI, Interakt and AiSensy: the per-message numbers

Gupshup charges $0.001 (about ₹0.095) per WhatsApp message on top of Meta's rate, with no monthly subscription. WATI starts at ₹2,999 a month plus ₹1.0357 per marketing message, Interakt at ₹3,499 a quarter plus ₹0.970, and AiSensy at ₹1,500 a month plus ₹1.09. Underneath all of them sits Meta's India rate: ₹0.8631 per marketing message and ₹0.115 per utility, authentication or service message, before GST. Which of them is the cheapest WhatsApp API provider depends on two things: how many messages you send, and whether you have a developer.

I'm Ashish Sharma, founder of Codingclave in Lucknow. I read every price below on the vendor's own pricing page on 29 October 2026 and linked each one, so you can re-check them. We also make PayPerWA, which charges a flat ₹0.20 per message, GST included, on top of Meta's rate and nothing else, so I've applied the same maths to it and marked where it loses.

Disclosure: Codingclave makes PayPerWA, which is compared here. Every provider is priced on its published fees at the same message volumes, and every source is linked.

Real bills: the cheapest WhatsApp API provider at your volume

Monthly bills with 18% GST, Meta's charge included, prices checked on 29 October 2026:

How these are worked out: Meta's rupee rates from its rate viewer (₹0.8631 marketing, ₹0.115 utility); each provider's cheapest plan that can broadcast, on the shortest billing cycle it sells (Interakt's WhatsApp Starter is sold by the quarter, ₹3,499, about ₹1,166 a month); its published India rates; and 18% GST on all of it. PayPerWA's ₹0.20 already includes GST, so GST is added to Meta's part only: ₹0.8631 × 1.18 + ₹0.20 = ₹1.2185 a marketing message. Gupshup's dollar fee is converted at ₹95.13 to the dollar and assumes your wallet is charged on Meta's rupee card. Nothing here counts the free entry point window, which would make ad-led chats cheaper on every option.

Want this worked out for your own volume? WhatsApp Ashish on +91 92771 84741 with your monthly marketing, utility and reply counts, and I'll send back the bill on each provider, GST included, even if PayPerWA isn't the answer.

Plan fees and per-message rates for 8 options (checked 29 October 2026)

Per-message prices are for messages to Indian numbers, Meta's charge included, before GST.

Three things the table hides:

• WATI now shows its rates. Its pricing page links a rate card (a PDF titled for the Growth plan, in INR, dated 1 October 2026). India works out to Meta plus 20% on marketing (₹0.1726) and plus 30% on utility (₹0.0345). Pro and Business get an "additional discount" on the card that WATI doesn't quantify, so I treat Pro as costing at most the Growth rate.
• Gupshup's page shows Meta's India fees in dollars: $0.0118 per marketing message, about ₹1.12, against ₹0.8631 on Meta's rupee card. If your wallet is charged on the dollar card, a marketing message costs about ₹1.22 before GST, more than PayPerWA's ₹1.06. Ask which one you're on before you compare.
• Plan limits move the answer. WATI Growth stops at 15,000 broadcasts a month, Gallabox Basic at 10,000 broadcast contacts and 3 users, and AiSensy Basic includes the owner plus five agents. Bigger senders are pushed onto the next plan, which the volume tables below account for.

Gupshup pricing in 2026: $0.001 per message and no subscription

Gupshup's self-serve WhatsApp API has the simplest price list here: Meta's fee "billed at actuals" plus a Gupshup fee of $0.001 per message from a prepaid wallet (Gupshup pricing). At ₹95.13 to the dollar on 29 October that is about ₹0.095. The fee applies to template messages and to session messages in both directions, so a customer's reply costs you ₹0.095 as well. Media above 64KB is free, voice calls are $0.0001 a second, and there is no subscription, setup fee or volume commitment. Enterprise and managed plans with account management are quoted by sales.

What a typical month costs, before GST, on Meta's rupee card:

• 10,000 marketing + 5,000 utility messages, 2,000 incoming replies: Meta ₹8,631 + ₹575, Gupshup ₹1,427 on outgoing + ₹190 on incoming. About ₹10,823, or ₹12,771 with GST.
• 1,000 marketing messages: Meta ₹863 + Gupshup ₹95 = ₹958, or ₹1,131 with GST.

The catch is that self-serve is an API. You bring your own campaign tool, inbox and developer, or buy them from Gupshup's managed tiers at a quoted price. My Gupshup WhatsApp pricing breakdown walks through the wallet, the dollar and rupee cards and the enterprise tiers. For OTP traffic, compare it with plain SMS first: the Gupshup SMS pricing post covers that side, which many searchers land here for.

Gupshup vs WATI: which is cheaper in 2026

Gupshup is cheaper at every volume on fees. WATI is cheaper on your team's time. Marketing messages to Indian numbers, Meta's charge and 18% GST included. WATI Growth stops at 15,000 broadcasts, so the 20,000 and 1 lakh rows use Pro at the Growth rate card, the most it can cost.

How to read the gap: at 20,000 messages WATI costs up to ₹9,500 more each month. If a developer would need more than a few days a month to run broadcasts, an inbox and a bot on Gupshup's raw API, WATI pays for itself. If you already have that developer, or you only send transactional messages from your own software, Gupshup wins.

Pick WATI when a marketing or support team without developers needs a shared inbox, broadcasts and a no-code bot this week, with Shopify (a USD 4.99 add-on), HubSpot (Pro) and Salesforce (Business) connectors. Pick Gupshup when you have developers, want the lowest per-message fee, or need SMS and RCS from the same vendor. The feature-by-feature verdict is in WATI vs Gupshup 2026.

Cheapest WhatsApp API provider in India by monthly volume

There is no single cheapest provider; the answer flips with volume and with whether a developer is available. Monthly bills for marketing messages to Indian numbers, Meta's ₹0.8631 included, with 18% GST, each provider on its cheapest plan that can send that volume, on the shortest billing cycle it sells.

Bold marks the cheapest option that comes with a campaign tool and inbox, so no developer is needed. The verdict by volume:

• Up to about 18,600 marketing messages a month: PayPerWA. The crossover with Interakt Starter is where Interakt's plan fee with GST, ₹1,376 a month (₹1,166 × 1.18), equals the per-message difference with GST, ₹1.2185 − ₹1.1446 (₹0.970 × 1.18) = ₹0.0739, at about 18,600 messages. On Interakt's yearly Starter price (₹11,999) the crossover drops to about 16,000.
• 18,600 to about 1.25 lakh a month: Interakt Starter. Above about 1.25 lakh, Interakt Advanced's lower rate (₹0.949) outweighs its higher fee.
• AiSensy and WATI never beat PayPerWA on marketing-only traffic. Their per-message rates with GST (₹1.2862 and ₹1.2221) are above PayPerWA's ₹1.2185 before their plan fee is added. They win on other things: AiSensy on utility rates and ad tools, WATI on inbox depth.
• Any volume with a developer: Gupshup self-serve (on Meta's rupee card), and the direct Cloud API if you can build and host the software.
• Utility-heavy traffic: not PayPerWA. See the order-updates section below.

What your monthly WhatsApp bill is made of

The WhatsApp Business app on your phone is free; the API is not. An API bill has four layers: Meta's per-message charge, your provider's fee (a subscription, a markup, a flat per-message fee, or a mix), add-ons, and 18% GST.

Meta's WhatsApp rates in India in 2026: what every BSP passes through

Meta switched from per-conversation to per-message billing on 1 July 2025, and you are charged only when a message is delivered (Meta pricing documentation, updated 30 September 2026). Rates below are from Meta's rate viewer for India in rupees, read on 29 October 2026; Meta's 1 October 2026 rate changes did not include India, and its marketing rate last rose on 1 January 2026, from ₹0.7846 to ₹0.8631.

What changed on 1 October 2026

Two charges came back:

• Service messages cost the same as utility messages, ₹0.115 in India, with no volume tiers, after each business phone number's free 1,000 a month. A helpdesk sending 10,000 replies a month from one number now pays Meta for 9,000 of them: ₹1,035 before GST. Gupshup's fee also applies to all 10,000 (about ₹951 plus GST) and so does PayPerWA's (₹2,000, GST included).
• Utility templates sent inside an open window, free from July 2025 to September 2026, are charged per message. Order updates sent as replies are no longer free.

If you connect to the Cloud API yourself, check that your WhatsApp Business account has a payment method: without one, Meta stops delivering service replies once the free 1,000 are used.

What's still free

• Messages your customers send you. Meta never charges for them (Gupshup's own fee does).
• The first 1,000 service messages a month on each business phone number. They reset monthly and do not roll over.
• The free entry point window. When someone messages you from a Click to WhatsApp ad on WhatsApp's Android or iOS app and you reply within the 24-hour window, Meta charges nothing for marketing, utility, authentication or service messages in that window, which may stay open for up to 7 days. AiSensy's pricing page still describes it as 72 hours; Meta's own page says up to 7 days. Our WhatsApp ads cost breakdown covers the ad spend side.
• Undelivered templates. Meta charges only on delivery.

GST: compare like for like

Meta's ₹0.8631 and Interakt's plans ("+taxes") are quoted before GST. WATI's rate card and AiSensy's page don't say, so I treat them as before GST, the dearer case. PayPerWA's ₹0.20 fee is the exception: it already includes GST. So on PayPerWA you add 18% to Meta's part only, and a marketing message costs ₹0.8631 × 1.18 + ₹0.20 = ₹1.2185. Setting our GST-inclusive fee against other providers' pre-GST prices would overstate our bill, so every total in this guide counts GST on both sides.

WhatsApp Business API provider types: four ways you're charged

Subscription plus markup (WATI, Interakt, AiSensy, Gallabox, DoubleTick). A monthly or quarterly plan plus a per-message rate above Meta's: about ₹0.09 to ₹0.23 on a marketing message here. Suits steady volume and teams that live in the inbox; watch for quiet-month fees, seat caps and broadcast caps.

A tiny flat fee, both directions (Gupshup self-serve). Meta's rate plus $0.001 per message, sent or received. Cheap, but you get an API, not a tool; our WATI vs Gupshup comparison shows when the developer time pays back.

Pay-per-use with ready tools (PayPerWA, ours). ₹0.20 per message, GST included, on every message you send, replies included, plus Meta's rate, and no subscription. Campaigns, a team inbox and a chatbot builder are included. Best for low or seasonal volume.

Meta's Cloud API directly. Meta's rate only; you build and run everything yourself, and you deal with Meta's billing and policy changes without a provider in between.

WATI pricing India 2026: ₹2,999 a month plus a ₹1.0357 marketing rate

WATI's pricing page on 29 October 2026 listed three plans in INR (WATI pricing), with "7 days free trial, zero setup fees":

Every plan says "additional charges apply for template messages". The linked Growth rate card for India, dated 1 October 2026, lists ₹1.0357 per marketing message, ₹0.1495 per utility or authentication message and ₹0.1380 per service message, with 1,000 free service messages a month and chats from Click to WhatsApp ads free. Extra WhatsApp numbers cost ₹2,499 a month each, and the Shopify integration is a USD 4.99 monthly add-on.

What you buy for the fee: a finished shared inbox with AI features, broadcast scheduling, a no-code chatbot and connectors (two on Growth, five including HubSpot on Pro, unlimited including Salesforce on Business). If you are already on WATI and want it wired into your stack, that is what our WATI integration service does. The full plan-by-plan breakdown is in WATI pricing India 2026.

Interakt pricing India 2026: ₹3,499 a quarter and ₹0.970 per marketing message

Interakt, Jio Haptik's WhatsApp tool for D2C brands, publishes both its plan fees and its per-message rates (Interakt pricing):

All plans include unlimited agents, and service messages are charged after the first 1,000 a month. Interakt's markup over Meta is the smallest of the subscription tools here, about ₹0.11 on a marketing message on Starter, which is why it wins the volume table from about 18,600 messages up. WhatsApp AI Agents are a ₹3,000 add-on on Growth and Advanced. Its strength is the Shopify app: abandoned cart, COD confirmation, order and shipping updates and review requests are switched on, not built. Stores on other platforms usually need our Interakt integration or a custom webhook layer. Plan-by-plan detail is in Interakt pricing India 2026.

AiSensy pricing India 2026: ₹1,500 a month and ₹1.09 per marketing message

AiSensy's prices on 29 October 2026 (AiSensy pricing):

Messages to Indian numbers come from a prepaid wallet at ₹1.09 per marketing message and ₹0.145 per utility, authentication or service message. The ₹0.23 gap to Meta's ₹0.8631 is the highest marketing markup here, but AiSensy's utility rate is among the lowest. Its strengths are Click to WhatsApp ad tools and a quick setup; our AiSensy integration connects it to CRMs and stores. Real bills at three volumes are in AiSensy pricing India 2026.

Gallabox and DoubleTick: two more subscription options

Gallabox sells quarterly or yearly only: Basic is ₹2,999 a month billed quarterly (₹2,399 yearly), with a hard cap of 3 users and 10,000 broadcast contacts a month; Essential is ₹6,999 (₹5,599 yearly) with 6 users and 500,000 contacts (Gallabox pricing). Its India rates, from its rupee rate card, are ₹0.9926 per marketing message and ₹0.1323 per utility, authentication or service message. More in Gallabox pricing India 2026.

DoubleTick Starter is ₹10,500 a quarter (₹3,500 a month) or ₹36,000 a year, plus GST, with 5 agents (DoubleTick pricing). Its India sheet, effective 1 October 2026, lists ₹0.99 marketing, ₹0.1294 utility and service, and ₹0.35 per authentication message, three times Meta's rate, so OTP-heavy senders should look elsewhere. Our PayPerWA vs DoubleTick comparison runs the totals.

PayPerWA: ₹0.20 a message and no subscription (our product)

Disclosure first: PayPerWA is built and run by Codingclave. It is a campaign tool, two-way inbox and chatbot builder on Meta's Cloud API that charges ₹0.20 per message as its only fee: no subscription, no setup fee, no minimum, and failed messages are refunded to the wallet. Meta's rate is passed through unchanged, so a marketing message costs ₹1.0631 and a utility message ₹0.315, or ₹1.2185 and ₹0.3357 once 18% GST is added to Meta's part. Our ₹0.20 already includes GST and applies to every message, replies included. The head-to-head with AiSensy, the closest low-entry alternative, is in our PayPerWA vs AiSensy comparison, and the WATI one in PayPerWA vs WATI.

Where it wins:

• Under about 18,600 marketing messages a month, it is the cheapest option that comes with a sending tool, counting GST. At 1,000 messages you pay ₹1,218, against ₹2,521 on Interakt Starter and ₹4,761 on WATI Growth.
• Seasonal or lumpy volume. A brand that sends 30,000 messages in October for Diwali and 2,000 in February pays for exactly that. Subscription plans bill the quiet months too.
• Testing the API. 100 marketing messages cost about ₹122: ₹86 to Meta, ₹16 GST on that, and ₹20 in our fee.

Where it loses, and I'd rather you hear it from me:

• Order updates and OTPs. ₹0.3357 per utility message with GST is about double Interakt Starter's ₹0.189 or AiSensy's ₹0.171. A store sending mostly utility traffic should use Interakt, AiSensy or Gallabox.
• Above about 18,600 marketing messages a month, Interakt Starter is cheaper, and with a developer Gupshup or the direct API is cheaper still.
• Large support teams. WATI and Interakt have more agent-management depth.

See PayPerWA pricing and worked monthly bills.

If you mostly send order updates and OTPs

Flat per-message fees hurt here. Monthly bills for 20,000 utility or OTP messages, with 18% GST:

At this volume the plan fee still matters; at 1 lakh utility messages a month AiSensy Basic (₹18,880) and Interakt Starter (₹20,256) cost about ₹13,000 to ₹15,000 less than PayPerWA (₹33,570). If OTPs dominate, price plain SMS too: Gupshup SMS pricing breaks down the per-route costs, and many teams send OTPs on WhatsApp first with SMS as the fallback through MSG91.

A realistic mixed month after 1 October

Most bills mix traffic. Take 5,000 marketing, 10,000 utility and 3,000 replies from one business number (plus 3,000 incoming messages, which only Gupshup charges for). The first 1,000 replies fall in Meta's free tier; providers' service rates apply to the other 2,000, and PayPerWA's and Gupshup's fees apply to all 3,000. Totals with 18% GST:

• Meta direct: ₹6,721 plus your build: (₹4,316 marketing + ₹1,150 utility + ₹230 replies) × 1.18
• Gupshup self-serve: ~₹9,078
• Interakt Starter: ₹9,292
• AiSensy Basic: ₹10,254
• PayPerWA (ours): ₹10,321: ₹5,696 to Meta × 1.18 = ₹6,721, plus 18,000 messages × ₹0.20 = ₹3,600
• Interakt Growth: ₹11,027
• Gallabox Basic: ₹11,269
• WATI Growth: ₹11,739
• DoubleTick Starter: ₹11,803

With heavy utility traffic, PayPerWA lands mid-table. Ask every provider whether its own fee applies to replies; on PayPerWA it does, on every reply.

Break-even: when a subscription beats pay-per-use

Break-even messages = plan fee with GST ÷ (PayPerWA's rate with GST − the plan's rate with GST)

PayPerWA's marketing rate with GST is ₹1.2185. For Interakt Starter: ₹1,166 × 1.18 = ₹1,376, divided by (₹1.2185 − ₹0.970 × 1.18 = ₹0.0739), is about 18,600 messages.

Seasonal senders should use their yearly total, not their peak month. Say you send 2,000 messages a month for ten months and 30,000 in each of two festive months, 80,000 in all. With GST, PayPerWA costs ₹97,477 for the year (80,000 × ₹1.2185), Interakt Starter on yearly billing ₹1,05,727 (₹89,599 × 1.18) and Interakt Growth on yearly billing ₹1,21,586.

Not sure where your volume lands? WhatsApp Ashish on +91 92771 84741 with your monthly marketing and utility counts, and I'll run these numbers for your mix. You'll hear back from me, not a sales script.

Direct Meta Cloud API: ₹0 platform fee, but you build the software

Connecting to Meta's Cloud API without a provider removes every platform fee: ₹0.8631 per marketing message, ₹0.115 per utility message, nothing else. At 1 lakh marketing messages a month that is ₹1,01,846 with GST, against ₹1,13,071 on Gupshup, ₹1,15,836 on Interakt Starter and ₹1,21,846 on PayPerWA.

What you take on instead:

• Template creation and approval tooling, webhook handling, a sending queue with retries, opt-in and opt-out storage, an inbox and reporting. Our estimate for a custom build is ₹1.5 lakh to ₹5 lakh up front, depending on scope (a Codingclave estimate, not a market survey), then hosting and a few developer hours a month. Add a bot and the budget grows; see what a chatbot costs to build.
• Meta Business verification, phone number and display-name approval, payment setup and quality-rating management, with no provider support desk to call.
• The rupee billing deadline: directly connected businesses whose Sold-To country in Meta's Billing Hub is India must move every WhatsApp Business account to INR billing by 31 December 2026; from 1 January 2027 Meta stops delivering messages from their non-INR accounts.

The break-even is simple: against the cheapest tool with an inbox, direct saves about ₹14,000 a month at 1 lakh messages (Interakt Starter) and ₹2,000 a month at 10,000 (PayPerWA). At 10,000 a month a ₹1.5 lakh build takes over six years to pay back; at 2 lakh against PayPerWA, about four months before hosting. Having built PayPerWA on the Cloud API ourselves, I can say sending is the easy part; the ongoing work is webhook failures, rejected templates and Meta's pricing changes. Our WhatsApp Business API guide explains the setup steps.

Twilio for Indian businesses

Twilio bills in dollars and adds its own per-message fee on top of Meta's rate, with SMS, voice and email on the same account. It suits Indian SaaS companies serving customers abroad who want one vendor for every channel. For an India-only business it lacks the rupee plans, UPI collection and Indian store and CRM connectors the local tools ship.

Setup fees, hidden costs and free trials

The costs that are not on any price list are in time: number and display-name approval, template reviews and rejections, and a quality-rating drop if you import an old SMS list without fresh opt-in, which caps how many people you can message a day. Free trials: WATI offers 7 days, Interakt and Gallabox let you start free, AiSensy has a Forever Free plan without broadcasts, and DoubleTick offers demos.

Which WhatsApp provider to pick, by business type

Who should not choose PayPerWA: a business sending steady volume above about 18,600 marketing messages a month, or one whose traffic is mostly order updates and OTPs. On published prices, Interakt or AiSensy will cost you less.

Whichever you choose, the AI layer is a separate line: a chatbot on OpenAI or Claude sits on top of any provider, and our AI chatbot cost guide prices that part. For the marketing side of the bill, see WhatsApp marketing cost in India 2026 and how brands cut acquisition cost with WhatsApp.

5 ways to cut your WhatsApp bill with any provider

1. Categorise templates correctly. An order update sent as utility costs ₹0.115 at Meta; sent as marketing, ₹0.8631.
2. Use the free entry point window that opens from Click to WhatsApp ads; Meta says it may stay open for up to 7 days.
3. Clean your lists. Meta charges only for delivered templates, but not every provider refunds its own fee on failures. PayPerWA refunds failed messages to your wallet; ask yours what it does.
4. Choose yearly billing only when volume is stable. Interakt saves 20%, and WATI's Growth plan drops from ₹2,999 to ₹2,199 a month, but you pay for twelve months regardless.
5. Keep your numbers under one business portfolio so utility and authentication volume tiers add up, and ask before you switch providers: Meta supports moving a number between providers, but check that templates and verified status carry over and export your chat history first.

How Codingclave helps with WhatsApp API pricing and integration

Codingclave Development LLP has shipped 200+ projects from Lucknow since 2017, rated 4.9 on Google across 92 reviews and 5.0 from 37 Upwork reviews. We do not resell BSP licences. We help you pick the provider whose fee structure fits your volume, then build the integration: BSP setup and templates, store and CRM connectors, Razorpay payment flows inside WhatsApp, multi-language broadcast systems and direct Cloud API builds. And when the maths says PayPerWA is the wrong tool for you, I will say so.

Get your WhatsApp API bill estimated

Send me your industry, monthly message mix (marketing versus utility versus replies) and current platform, and I'll reply with the cheapest provider for your volume and the total monthly bill, GST included.

WhatsApp Ashish for a free pricing estimate

Or book a 30-minute call

Related reading:

• Gupshup WhatsApp pricing India 2026
• WATI pricing India 2026
• WATI vs Gupshup 2026
• WATI vs Interakt vs AiSensy 2026
• WhatsApp marketing cost calculator
• WhatsApp Business API guide India 2026

About the author

Ashish Sharma is the founder of Codingclave, a Lucknow development agency founded in 2017 with 200+ shipped projects, and the maker of PayPerWA. He works with Indian D2C brands, EdTech, fintech and SaaS founders on WhatsApp integrations across Gupshup, WATI, Interakt, AiSensy and Meta's Cloud API. Reach him on LinkedIn, Upwork or WhatsApp.

Sources

All read on 29 October 2026 unless noted.

• Meta: pricing on the WhatsApp Business Platform (updated 30 September 2026): per-message billing, 1,000 free service messages a month per number, the free entry point window of up to 7 days, the October 2026 rate changes and the INR billing deadline.
• Meta: WhatsApp Business Platform rate viewer, India in INR: marketing ₹0.8631; utility, authentication and service ₹0.1150.
• Gupshup self-serve WhatsApp API pricing, India selected: $0.001 per template and session message, incoming included; Meta's India fees shown in dollars ($0.0118 marketing, $0.0014 utility).
• WATI pricing and its linked Growth plan rate card for India (dated 1 October 2026).
• Interakt pricing, monthly, quarterly and yearly views.
• AiSensy pricing, monthly, quarterly and yearly views.
• Gallabox pricing and Gallabox's WhatsApp rate card (INR).
• DoubleTick pricing and DoubleTick's conversation cost sheet (effective 1 October 2026).
• US dollar to rupee: ₹95.13, Google's currency converter (Morningstar data), 29 October 2026.