The WhatsApp Business API has two bills, and confusion between them causes most budgeting mistakes. Meta charges for conversations; the platform you use charges a subscription. This guide explains both, tells you what Waki plans cost today, and shows how to estimate a month before you commit.
Read alongside this guide: WhatsApp marketing software and Meta Business Verification guide.
Key takeaways
- Meta charges per conversation and category; the platform charges a plan. Both exclude GST.
- Waki plans run from ₹699 to ₹2,999 a month, with two months free on yearly billing.
- On your own Meta account, Meta bills you directly; on a Waki number, a wallet pays.
- Estimate conversations by category, then replace the estimate with a pilot month’s invoice.
Two bills, two payees
Meta charges for the conversations your business has with customers on the platform. Separately, a platform such as Waki charges a plan for the software around it: templates, campaigns, the inbox, automation, the API and reports. Plan prices exclude GST. Neither bill includes the other, and a quoted price that mixes them is hiding something.
How Meta charges
Meta prices conversations, not individual messages. A conversation falls into a category (marketing, utility, authentication or service) and Meta publishes a rate card per country and category that changes from time to time. Several messages inside one open conversation cost no more than the conversation itself, which is why a quick two-way exchange is good value and a one-way blast is not. Check Meta’s current rate card rather than a figure quoted on a blog.
What Waki plans cost
Waki publishes its prices in rupees on the pricing page and renders them from live plan data. Today the Chhotu Plan is ₹699 a month with one channel, up to five hundred contacts and one workflow; Professional is ₹1,499 a month with three channels, up to five thousand contacts, ten workflows, AI auto-reply and up to five team members; Enterprise is ₹2,999 a month with unlimited channels, contacts, automations, API requests and team members plus a knowledge base for AI replies and priority support. Paying yearly gives two months free, prices exclude 18% GST, the first month or year is paid at checkout with auto-pay optional, and you can cancel from the app.
Who pays Meta
If you connect your own WhatsApp Business Account through embedded signup, Meta bills the conversation charges to you directly. If you use a Waki-provided number, a prepaid wallet in Waki pays the per-message charges, and GST applies to wallet top-ups. Either way the plan is separate.
Costs that are not on either bill
Budget for the time to write and get templates approved, to staff the inbox when campaigns go out, to connect your store or CRM through webhooks or Pabbly Connect, and to clean your contact list. A poor list is the most expensive item of all: it costs conversation charges and your quality rating.
Estimating a month
Take the plan that fits your contacts and team. Estimate how many conversations you will start in each category and multiply by Meta’s current rate for India; add conversations customers will start with you. Add GST. Then run one month as a pilot with a small segment and replace the estimate with the invoice before scaling.
Next steps
Conclusion
Keep the two bills separate in your head and in your spreadsheet. The plan is predictable; the conversation charges depend on how selectively you send. A pilot month tells you more than any estimate.