WhatsApp Business API: what it costs and who it's for
WhatsApp is where India replies. Email gets ignored, SMS gets skimmed, WhatsApp gets read — usually within minutes. That is why every serious Indian business eventually looks at the WhatsApp Business API.
The API is not the app
The free WhatsApp Business app is fine for a single shop with one person answering. It runs on one phone, cannot be used by a team simultaneously, cannot broadcast beyond a small list, and has no automation.
The WhatsApp Business API is a different product: no app, no phone. It connects your number to a platform where your entire team works from a shared inbox, chatbots handle the repetitive questions, and you can broadcast to your whole opted-in list.
How pricing actually works
Meta bills per conversation — a 24-hour window — not per message. Conversations fall into four categories: marketing, utility, authentication and service. Marketing is the most expensive; service conversations (where the customer messaged you first) are the cheapest.
Watch for providers that add a markup on every message on top of Meta's rate. We pass Meta's rates through unchanged and charge a flat platform fee instead, because per-message markups punish you exactly when a campaign works.
Templates and why they get rejected
Any message you send to someone who has not messaged you in the last 24 hours must use a pre-approved template. Approvals usually take minutes. The common rejection reasons are promotional language in a utility template, missing opt-out wording, and variables that could be filled with anything.
The green tick
The verified badge is not bought, it is earned — Meta grants it based on brand notability and press coverage. A good provider will submit the application for you and be honest about your chances. Plenty of successful businesses run on the API without it.
Who should actually bother
If more than one person needs to answer customer chats, if you want to broadcast to more than a few hundred people, or if you want order updates and cart nudges to go out automatically, you need the API. Below that, the free app is genuinely enough — and we will tell you so.