WhatsApp chatbot cost in India for a small business (2026)
Three bills: Meta per message, a platform fee and a build. One shop, 40 enquiries a day: about ₹5,200 a month with GST — 90% of it is software.
A WhatsApp chatbot is not one price. It is three separate bills — Meta's charge per message, a platform subscription, and an optional one-time build — and for a single shop answering 40 enquiries a day, the running cost works out to about ₹5,200 a month including GST, of which less than a tenth is Meta's messages.
Before you pay any of it, check what the free WhatsApp Business app already does. For a lot of shops it is most of the job, for ₹0.
The three bills inside one chatbot
| Bill | Who you pay | What it is | Typical size for one shop |
|---|---|---|---|
| Messages | Meta, through your platform | ₹0.115 per reply after the first 1,000 a month; ₹0.115 per order update; ₹0.8631 per promotional message | Hundreds of rupees a month |
| Platform | The provider whose dashboard you log into | Monthly subscription, often with the "chatbot" or "AI" sold as an add-on | Thousands of rupees a month |
| Build | Whoever sets the bot up — you, the provider, or an agency | Writing the menus, answers, catalogue and order messages | Once, from ₹0 to tens of thousands |
Then 18% GST on all of it.
Most quotes show you one of the three. A platform's pricing page shows its subscription. An agency quotes the build. Meta's rate card shows the messages. Nobody puts the three in one line, which is why two quotes for "a WhatsApp chatbot" can be ₹3,000 and ₹30,000 a month and both be honest about the part they show.
What the cost guides on Google say
These are the pages Google India shows for "whatsapp chatbot price india small business", read on 21 October 2026. Every one of them is written by a company that sells chatbots.
| Guide | One-time build | Monthly | What it says about replies |
|---|---|---|---|
| Innovatrix Infotech (updated 19 Oct 2026) | ₹0–₹15,000 for a basic FAQ bot; ₹50,000–₹1,50,000 integrated with an online store | ₹3,000–₹35,000 "for a typical D2C brand" | Free inside the 24-hour window |
| Helo.ai (14 May 2026) | ₹15,000–₹50,000 | ₹3,000–₹15,000 | Free for the first 24 hours |
| MNB Research (updated 5 Sep 2026) | Not given | ₹400–₹900 entry; ₹3,000–₹5,000 "most popular SME tier"; ₹8,000–₹15,000 growth | Not stated |
| Orbixel Labs (no date) | ₹15,000–₹1,00,000+ | ₹2,000–₹15,000 | "Service conversations: Free" |
| Secuodsoft (30 Mar 2026) | ₹50,000–₹1,50,000 for a small business | "from ₹30,000 monthly for small businesses" | First 1,000 free, then ₹3.50–₹4.50 each |
The ranges are wide because the guides are pricing different things — a menu bot on a shop's phone number and a custom AI system for a brand doing ten thousand orders a month both get called "a WhatsApp chatbot". But the reply charge is not a matter of opinion. Meta's own India rate card, effective 1 October 2026, is ₹0.115 per reply after the first 1,000 a month per business number. At least two of the guides also still describe Meta billing "per conversation", which ended on 1 July 2025. One rate table puts a marketing message at ₹8.50 to ₹10; Meta's rate is ₹0.8631.
The rates themselves, and what changed in October, are in WhatsApp Business API pricing in India.
What a platform actually charges
Most platforms do not publish a full price list. AiSensy, which tops Google for this search, does — so here it is as one worked example, read on its own pricing page on 21 October 2026, before GST:
| AiSensy | Price |
|---|---|
| Free Forever plan | ₹0 — WhatsApp API on your number, no broadcasts |
| Basic plan | ₹1,500 a month |
| Pro plan | ₹3,200 a month |
| Chatbot Flows add-on (menu and keyword bot, catalogue, cart) | ₹2,500 a month |
| AI Chat Agent add-on | ₹1,350 a month for 1,000 AI messages; more charged separately |
| Extra team login | ₹750 a month each |
| Reply / order update / promotion | ₹0.145 / ₹0.145 / ₹1.09 per message |
Two things in that table matter.
The chatbot is an add-on. The ₹1,500 plan is the inbox and broadcasts. A bot that answers on its own is another ₹2,500 a month, and an AI that writes its own replies is another ₹1,350 on top, for its first 1,000 messages. AiSensy says the add-ons can be bought "on top of any plan"; if that includes the free plan, a menu bot alone would be ₹2,500 a month. Ask before you buy.
The per-message rate is not Meta's. ₹0.145 against Meta's ₹0.115 for a reply or an order update, and ₹1.09 against ₹0.8631 for a promotion — 26% over in both cases. That is normal and legal; providers either mark up the message or charge a bigger subscription. It is worth knowing which one you are looking at. AiSensy does pass on Meta's 1,000 free replies a month, on every plan, and says so clearly.
One shop, worked through
The saree shop from our automation stories: 40 WhatsApp enquiries a day, most of them a photo and the word "price?".
- 40 a day for 30 days is 1,200 enquiries a month.
- The bot answers each in three messages — a menu, the price with a photo, and "want to order or talk to us?" That is 3,600 replies.
- The first 1,000 are free. 2,600 are charged.
- Six orders a day, each getting "order confirmed" and "dispatched", is 360 order updates.
On AiSensy's Basic plan with the Chatbot Flows add-on:
| Line | Working | Per month |
|---|---|---|
| Basic plan | ₹1,500 | |
| Chatbot Flows add-on | ₹2,500 | |
| Replies | 2,600 × ₹0.145 | ₹377 |
| Order updates | 360 × ₹0.145 | ₹52 |
| Subtotal | ₹4,429 | |
| GST at 18% | ₹797 | |
| Total | ₹5,226 |
That is about ₹62,700 a year. The messages are ₹429 of the ₹4,429 — under 10%. At Meta's own rates the same messages would be ₹340. The software is what you are paying for.
If the shop wanted the bot to write its own answers with AI instead of following a menu, the add-on covers the first 1,000 AI messages for ₹1,350. This shop would send 3,600. AiSensy does not publish the price beyond 1,000, so that is a question to ask in writing. Meta's own AI agent, sold separately as "Meta Business Agent", is billed at $2 per million tokens — Meta's estimate is 4 to 5 US cents a message, which for 3,600 replies is $144 to $180 a month, and none of it falls inside the free 1,000.
Put your own numbers in. The calculator adds GST and takes off the free 1,000 replies:
What Meta will bill you for WhatsApp
Nothing you type here leaves your phone. There is no server behind this — the sums run in your browser.
Marketing messages are 15.0× your utility bill. Utility templates — order updates, delivery notices — cost a fraction as much and get read more, because people asked for them.
Default rates are Meta's published India per-message rates, checked 21 October 2026: marketing ₹0.8631 and utility ₹0.115 per delivered message, and since 1 October 2026 ₹0.115 for each reply you send inside the 24-hour window after the first 1,000 a month per business number, which Meta does not charge. Replies were free until 30 September 2026. The rates are editable above because rate cards change — Meta raised the India marketing rate about 10% from ₹0.7846. Your provider may add their own margin on top of these, and many do without saying so.
This calculator has its own page, if you want to send it to someone: WhatsApp Business API cost calculator for India
Before you pay: what the free WhatsApp Business app already does
The WhatsApp Business app on your phone costs nothing, and replies sent from it are not billed per message. Its built-in tools, from WhatsApp's own help pages:
- Greeting message — sent automatically when someone messages you for the first time, or after 14 days of no chat with you. "Hi, thanks for messaging us. Send a photo of the saree you like and we will reply with the price."
- Away message — sent automatically always, on a schedule you set, or only outside your business hours. "We are closed now. We open at 11am and reply to every message in order."
- Quick replies — up to 50 saved answers, photos and videos included, sent with a short keyboard shortcut. Your price list, your address, your delivery charges, each one two taps away.
- Catalogue — your products with photos and prices, which customers can browse inside the chat.
What it cannot do is answer different questions differently on its own. There are no menus, no "reply 1 for prices", and no automatic price for a photo. Every real answer still needs a person, and broadcast lists only reach people who have saved your number. Meta is adding its AI agent to the app, but its help page says it is available only to select businesses in limited countries for now, and that switching it on turns your greeting and away messages off.
So the honest test is simple. If the greeting, the away message and ten good quick replies get your evening down from an hour to fifteen minutes, you do not need a chatbot yet. If customers are still waiting until morning for a price, and some of them buy elsewhere, the ₹5,000 a month above is the price of fixing that — and you can compare it with the sales you are losing.
The questions people ask Google
How much is a WhatsApp chatbot?
For one small business, most of the guides above say ₹2,000 to ₹15,000 a month — the outliers are ₹400 and ₹30,000 — plus ₹0 to ₹50,000 to set up a simple bot. The worked example above — a menu bot on a published plan, 40 enquiries a day — comes to about ₹5,200 a month including GST. An AI bot that writes its own replies costs more, mainly because AI messages are charged by volume.
How much does a chatbot cost in India?
It depends almost entirely on what is being built. A menu bot on a platform's dashboard is a monthly subscription and a few hours of setup. A bot connected to your online store, stock and payments is a project, quoted from ₹50,000 to ₹1,50,000 in the guides above. A custom AI agent for a large brand runs into lakhs. Ask any quote which of the three bills it covers.
Is there a cost for WhatsApp for business?
The WhatsApp Business app is free. The WhatsApp Business API — what chatbots run on — is billed by Meta per delivered message: ₹0.8631 for a promotional message, ₹0.115 for an order update, and ₹0.115 for a reply after the first 1,000 replies each month, plus 18% GST. Your platform's subscription comes on top.
Is a WhatsApp chatbot free?
The app's greeting message, away message and quick replies are free, and they cover more than most people expect. A real chatbot — one that reads a question and picks an answer — needs the API and a platform, and those cost money every month.
How do I send 10,000 messages on WhatsApp?
Not from the free app: a broadcast list there holds 256 contacts. Ten thousand promotional messages through the API cost 10,000 × ₹0.8631 = ₹8,631, plus 18% GST, about ₹10,185, before your platform's fee or markup. The full working is in WhatsApp Business API pricing in India.
Three questions to ask before you sign
- Which of the three bills is in this price? Messages, platform, build — get each as its own line.
- What is your per-message rate for a reply and for an order update, next to Meta's ₹0.115? And do you pass on Meta's 1,000 free replies a month?
- Whose name are the WhatsApp account and the platform account in? If it is not yours, leaving means starting again on a new number.
Where we stand
We build these, so weigh what follows accordingly. A WhatsApp bot from us is quoted per project after we have seen your message volume, because a menu bot for 40 enquiries a day and a store-connected bot are different jobs. Before you agree to anything you get all three bills on one page — Meta's messages, the platform, our build — with GST. The WhatsApp account and the platform are set up in your name and paid by you directly, so Meta's charges are never our margin and the bot keeps working if you stop working with us.
And if the free app's quick replies would do the job, we will tell you that and quote nothing.
Sources, all checked on 21 October 2026: Meta's INR rate card for the WhatsApp Business Platform, effective 1 October 2026 (India: marketing ₹0.8631; utility, authentication and service ₹0.115; Meta Business Agent $2.00 per million tokens); Meta's developer page "Pricing on the WhatsApp Business Platform", updated 30 September 2026, for the free tier of 1,000 service messages per business phone number per month and the Meta Business Agent estimate of 4–5 US cents a message; AiSensy's pricing page; the cost guides by Innovatrix Infotech, Helo.ai, MNB Research, Orbixel Labs and Secuodsoft, each read on its own page; WhatsApp Help Center articles "How to use greeting messages", "How to use away messages", "How to use quick replies" and "About using Meta Business Agent to chat with customers". The 256-contact broadcast limit is from our WhatsApp pricing post. The saree shop is an illustration, not a client. Providers change prices without notice; check the live page before you rely on any one of them.
Questions are free, whether or not you hire anyone. Ask on WhatsApp or write to shyam@orderzone.in.
Written by Shyam Patra, who runs Orderzone from Kolkata. If something here is wrong or out of date, tell me and I will fix it — the date at the top changes when I do.