WhatsApp marketing cost in India has three layers: the per-message fee Meta charges for each template you send, the subscription or markup the platform you send through adds on top, and the cost of the offer itself. Meta's fee for a marketing message is under a rupee in India at the time of writing, with utility messages such as order updates priced at a fraction of that. The platform layer is where quotes vary the most, from flat monthly plans to per-message markups to per-user seats.
This post separates the layers so you can compare quotes on the same basis, and works through what a real campaign costs a restaurant per order, not just per message.
Layer one: what Meta charges per message
Meta bills business-initiated messages sent through the WhatsApp Business API. Since mid-2025 the charge is per template message delivered, filed under the template's category. The three categories and their price positions in India:
- Marketing: offers, launches, reminders to reorder. The highest rate, under a rupee per message on Meta's India rate card at the time of writing.
- Utility: confirmations, delivery updates, payment receipts for an order the customer already placed. A small fraction of the marketing rate.
- Authentication: one-time passcodes. Similar to utility; rarely used by restaurants.
Replies you send inside the 24-hour window after a customer messages you are free-form and, under Meta's current pricing, not charged. For a restaurant that takes orders on WhatsApp, this covers most of the conversation: the customer messages, you confirm and update, nothing is billed. The charged messages are the ones you start days later. Rates change, and Meta publishes them by country, so check the current rate card before budgeting. The full mechanics are in WhatsApp Business API pricing in India.
Layer two: what the platform adds
You cannot send through the API without a platform in between, and this is where two quotes for the "same" campaign can differ by a factor of three. The common models:
| Pricing model | How it works | Who it suits | What to check |
|---|---|---|---|
| Subscription plus Meta cost at cost | Flat monthly fee; messages billed at Meta's rate from a prepaid wallet | Businesses sending regularly who want predictable platform cost | Whether the wallet is charged per message sent or per message delivered |
| Subscription plus per-message markup | Flat fee plus a few paise or more added to every message | Low-volume senders where the markup stays small in total | The markup per category; it compounds at 10,000 messages |
| Per-user seats | Priced by number of staff logins, messages extra | Support teams with many agents | Whether a restaurant with 3 staff is paying for a 10-seat tier |
| Bundled with ordering | Campaign tool included in an ordering platform plan | Restaurants that want orders and marketing on one number | Whether campaigns are included or an add-on, and any per-order fee |
Chat-first tools such as Wati, Interakt and AiSensy generally sell a monthly subscription with message charges on top, with details on their pricing pages. Ordering platforms tend to fold campaigns into the plan. Neither is wrong; the question is whether you are buying a chat inbox or a way to get orders.
Worked example: a 5,000-customer weekend offer
To keep the arithmetic simple, assume a rounded ₹1 per marketing message, which is above Meta's actual India rate, and a platform plan already paid for the month.
| List size | Message cost at ₹1 each | Orders if 2 in 100 order | Revenue at ₹400 average order | Message cost per order |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000 | ₹1,000 | 20 | ₹8,000 | ₹50 |
| 5,000 | ₹5,000 | 100 | ₹40,000 | ₹50 |
| 10,000 | ₹10,000 | 200 | ₹80,000 | ₹50 |
The 2-in-100 conversion and ₹400 average order are assumptions to show the shape of the calculation; replace them with your own numbers after the first send. Even at ₹50 of messaging per order, the comparison that matters is with the alternative. A ₹400 order through Zomato or Swiggy commonly carries 18 to 30 percent commission, which is ₹72 to ₹120 on the same order, every time, with no list of your own at the end of it.
Two things move the cost per order more than the message rate. A tighter list of recent customers converts better than a wide one, so 2,000 well-chosen recipients can produce more orders than 10,000 random ones at a fifth of the cost. And a weak offer can take conversion down to a fraction of a percent, at which point cost per order climbs past what any discount can justify. How to measure this properly is in WhatsApp marketing ROI.
The costs that do not show up on the rate card
- The discount itself. 20% off on 100 orders of ₹400 is ₹8,000 of margin given away, more than the ₹5,000 of messages that produced it. Decide the offer with the same care as the list.
- Quality rating. Sending to people who did not opt in produces blocks and reports. Meta lowers your messaging tier in response, and a paused template costs you the campaign you planned around it.
- Staff time. Replies come in bursts after a send. If no one is watching, the orders do not happen and the message money is spent anyway.
- Utility messages billed as marketing. If your order updates go out as marketing templates, you are paying the highest rate for messages customers expect for free. File them correctly.
How WhatsApp compares with SMS and email on cost
Per message, SMS is cheaper than a WhatsApp marketing message, and email is close to free at restaurant volumes. Per order, the picture flips, because what matters is how many people read the message and can act on it. WhatsApp messages are generally reported to be opened at far higher rates than email, and a WhatsApp message can hold a menu button and a payment link where an SMS holds 160 characters. We go through both comparisons in detail in WhatsApp vs SMS marketing for restaurants and in our complete guide to WhatsApp marketing.
Keeping cost per order down
- Send marketing to segments, not the whole list. Recent customers first, lapsed customers with a separate message, everyone else rarely.
- Use utility templates for anything about an existing order, and keep offer language out of them.
- Put the action in a button. One tap to the menu converts better than "visit our website".
- Send one campaign a week at most, so each one is worth reading.
- Count orders per campaign, not reads, and drop the message formats that do not produce orders.
What this looks like on Tezzu
Tezzu bundles campaigns with ordering. The plans are Starter at ₹999 a month, Growth at ₹1,999 and Enterprise at ₹3,999, with ₹100 a month off on yearly billing and a 7-day free trial on every plan. Orders are unlimited and carry a flat ₹10 per order with zero commission, whether they come from a campaign, the ordering bot or your free store page.
Campaigns run from a prepaid wallet in the dashboard: you top it up, compose the message, choose the customers and send, and the message charges are drawn from the wallet. Your list is built from real orders, since every customer who orders on your WhatsApp number or store page is already in the dashboard with their order history. On the Growth plan you can also run WhatsApp Status posts and Click-to-WhatsApp ads from the same place.
How the plans, the wallet and the per-order charge fit together is covered in Tezzu pricing explained and in Tezzu billing explained.
See what a plan costs next to what you pay in commission
Plans from ₹999 a month, ₹10 per order, no commission, campaigns included. Compare it with your last aggregator statement.
See pricingFrequently asked questions
How much does WhatsApp marketing cost per message in India?
Meta charges per template message by category. Marketing messages are priced under a rupee each in India on Meta's rate card at the time of writing, and utility messages such as order updates cost a fraction of that. Replies inside the 24-hour window after a customer messages you are currently not charged. Platforms may add a subscription or a per-message markup, so compare the all-in figure.
What is the cost of sending 10,000 WhatsApp messages?
At Meta's India marketing rate, 10,000 marketing messages cost under ₹10,000 in message fees, before any platform subscription or markup. The same 10,000 messages as utility updates would cost far less. Whether that is expensive depends on orders: if 2 in 100 recipients order at ₹400, the campaign produces ₹80,000 in revenue for roughly ₹50 of messaging per order.
Is WhatsApp marketing cheaper than Zomato or Swiggy ads?
They are different costs. Aggregator ads are paid per click or per impression on top of the commission on each resulting order, commonly 18 to 30 percent of order value. WhatsApp marketing is paid per message to customers you already have, and the resulting direct orders carry no commission. For a restaurant with an existing customer base, the per-order cost of a WhatsApp campaign is usually far lower.
Are WhatsApp Business app broadcasts free?
Yes. Broadcasts from the free WhatsApp Business app have no message charge, but each list is limited to 256 contacts, only contacts who saved your number receive the message, and there is no delivery reporting. The per-message cost only applies on the WhatsApp Business API, which removes those limits in exchange for Meta's per-message fee.