Stay on the free WhatsApp Business app, which began adding AI replies for eligible Indian businesses in May 2026, until one phone and one person cannot keep up. Then move to the API for team access, CRM links and templates. Replies inside the 24-hour window are free; messages you start are charged.
Use the free WhatsApp Business app until one phone and one person can no longer answer every enquiry quickly, then move to the Business API, now called the WhatsApp Business Platform, to connect WhatsApp to a team inbox, your CRM and in-chat forms. Replies to a customer who messaged you are free for 24 hours; messages you start must be templates, which Meta charges per delivered message.
The stakes are high in India. A 2025 Kantar study cited by Meta found that 91 per cent of online adults here chat with a business every week, and Business Today reported more than 500 million WhatsApp users in India by 2023. The free app is catching up too: in May 2026 Meta began rolling out Business AI, an in-app assistant, to eligible Indian small businesses.
- Online adults in India who chat with a business weekly (Kantar, 2025)
- 91%
- Online adults in India who chat with a business weekly (Kantar, 2025)
- WhatsApp users in India by 2023, its largest market
- 500M+
- WhatsApp users in India by 2023, its largest market
- Window in which replies to a customer are free
- 24 hrs
- Window in which replies to a customer are free
- Unique people a new business account can message first in 24 hours
- 250
- Unique people a new business account can message first in 24 hours
01
Business app or Business API: which do you need?
The free WhatsApp Business app suits an owner or small team handling one-to-one chats: a business profile, a catalogue, quick replies, and greeting and away messages. In September 2024 Meta added two paid extras for Indian small businesses: customised messages, such as appointment reminders, at under a rupee each, and Meta Verified, a badge subscription from about ₹639 a month.
Business AI raises the ceiling. Switched on from the Tools tab, it answers questions round the clock using what you have already added to your profile and catalogue, captures leads and books appointments in all native Indian languages, and you can take over any chat. Its launch post gave no price, and on 3 June Meta said businesses would access its new Meta Business Agent through paid subscriptions in the coming months, so do not assume AI replies stay free.
The API, usually reached through a solution provider, makes sense when several staff must reply from one number or chats must flow into your CRM. You can keep the app: through coexistence, a partner connects your number to the Cloud API, one-to-one chats continue in the app, and up to six months of one-to-one chat history can sync across.
| Question | Business app | Business Platform (API) |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | An owner or small team on one phone | Teams needing shared access, automation or CRM links |
| What Meta charges | Nothing for normal chats; optional paid extras | Per delivered template; replies within 24 hours free |
| Automation | Greeting and away messages; Business AI if eligible | Bots, Flows and integrations, with a route to a human |
| Messaging people first | Customised messages to your customers | Approved templates to opted-in users, within limits |
02
What the API costs in 2026
Meta made two big changes to how it charges between late 2024 and mid-2025, both in favour of businesses that mostly reply. Service conversations, meaning replies to a customer who wrote to you, became free on 1 November 2024. From 1 July 2025 Meta charged per delivered template, and utility templates, such as an order update, became free inside an open service window.
Paid templates are marketing, utility and authentication, priced by the recipient's country and the category. On 1 January 2026 Meta raised India's marketing rate and began billing eligible Indian businesses in rupees. Meta publishes its rates on its pricing page and may change them only on the first day of a quarter, so check the current rate card and ask your provider what it adds on top. Chats started from a Click-to-WhatsApp ad open a free entry point window in which Meta does not charge for your messages.
1 Nov 2024
Replies become free
Service conversations are free for all businesses.
1 Jul 2025
Per-message pricing
Charged per delivered template; in-window utility templates become free.
1 Jan 2026
Rupee billing
Billing in INR for eligible Indian businesses; India's marketing rate rises.
May 2026
Business AI in the free app
Eligible Indian small businesses get an assistant that answers, qualifies and books.
03
The rules that get numbers restricted
Most problems come from treating WhatsApp like a bulk SMS gateway. The Business Messaging Policy lets you contact only people who gave you their number and lawfully opted in, and you must honour every request to stop, on WhatsApp or off it. Meta's opt-in guidance adds that the opt-in must name your business, and recommends consent covering each kind of message you plan to send, offers included.
Two limits then shape your reach. A new business portfolio can message only 250 unique people in a moving 24 hours outside open service windows; verifying your business is one way to lift that to 2,000. WhatsApp may also hold back marketing templates from people less likely to engage, failing them with error 131049. Wait at least 24 hours before resending; marketing messages sent within 24 hours of a customer's reply do not count towards their limit.
04
Automate the first reply, not the whole relationship
Most service businesses need four parts: an instant acknowledgement with a next step, a short flow capturing the need, locality and preferred time, automated answers only where the answer never changes, and a handover to a person who can see the whole chat.
WhatsApp's policy agrees. It allows automation inside the 24-hour window but requires prompt, clear and direct escalation paths, such as a transfer to a person in the chat, a phone number or email. Flows handle qualifying with menus and forms, and our guide to chatbot guardrails covers stopping an assistant from inventing answers.
Heard that WhatsApp banned AI chatbots? From 15 January 2026, updated terms restrict AI providers, the companies that develop or provide AI such as large language models, from offering general-purpose assistants on the platform. Meta told TechCrunch the change does not affect businesses using AI to serve their customers on WhatsApp, so a clinic's assistant answering its own patients is not the target.
05
Payments, calls and the trust badge
For businesses that sell, the chat can close the sale. Since September 2023 customers in India can fill a cart in a WhatsApp chat and pay by UPI app or card, with Razorpay and PayU as launch partners, and Meta says Business AI will soon take UPI payments too. In September 2025 Meta said in-app calling, which lets customers phone a business with one tap, was available to all businesses on the Business Platform in India.
Customers also need to know they have the real business. Meta Verified adds a badge, impersonation protection and better account support. On the API, a number with a verified business portfolio, two-step verification, an approved display name and 30 days on the platform can request an Official Business Account badge, which Meta can refuse.
India is leading the world in terms of how people and businesses embrace messaging, a better way to get things done.
06
What to do this month
- Pick the right tier. A manageable flow of chats: stay on the app, complete the profile, catalogue and away message, and try Business AI if eligible. Several staff or unanswered enquiries: move to the API through a provider, keeping the app through coexistence.
- Write the first reply and a three-question qualifier. Thank the customer, say when a person will respond, then ask need, locality and preferred time as buttons or a Flow.
- Automate only what never changes. Hours, location, parking. Route price, eligibility and complaints to a person with the chat history, and test AI replies in your customers' languages.
- Fix your opt-in. Add a consent line naming your business to every form and counter sign-up, and act on stop requests the same day.
- Send templates sparingly. Reminders and order updates first, offers second, and check your quality rating after every campaign.
- Measure weekly. First-response time, the share of enquiries that become conversations, and Click-to-WhatsApp leads, logged in your CRM so you can attribute them later.
Sources
Current as of 12 June 2026. Confirm rates on Meta's pricing page before budgeting, as they can change each quarter.