GrowStart AI › Guides › WhatsApp reply charges
WhatsApp charges · guideWhatsApp replies are free for the first 1,000 a month. Then they cost.
From 1 October 2026, Meta charges a business for its free-form WhatsApp replies past the first 1,000 a month on each number, at the Utility rate, and for booking confirmations and reminders sent while a chat is open. Messages your customers send stay free.
Updated 1 October 2026
What changed on 1 October 2026
| What your business sends or receives | Before | From 1 October 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| A message your customer sends you | Free | Free, no change |
| Your reply within 24 hours of their last message, typed by you, a chatbot or an AI | Free | Free for the first 1,000 a month on each number, then charged at the Utility rate |
| A booking confirmation, reminder or receipt (a Utility template) while the chat is open | Free | Charged |
| The same kind of template when the chat is not open | Charged | Charged, no change |
| A campaign or offer (a Marketing template) | Charged | Charged, no change |
| Any message within 72 hours of a customer tapping a Click-to-WhatsApp ad | Free | Free, no change |
The 24 hours start when your customer messages you, and every new message from them starts them again. Source: Meta’s WhatsApp Business pricing update effective 1 October 2026, as notified to businesses by WhatsApp Business Solution Providers.
What the 1,000 covers, and what it does not.
- It counts replies, not conversations. Every free-form message your business sends inside the 24 hours is one.
- Replies from your team’s inbox, a chatbot or an AI all count the same. Who wrote the reply makes no difference.
- It is per WhatsApp Business number, per calendar month. On GrowStart AI the count starts again on the 1st, India time.
- Templates never use it. A booking confirmation is charged even if you have used only ten free replies that month.
- 1,000 a month is about 33 replies a day.
What it costs when GrowStart AI answers for you.
- Up to 1,000 replies in a month: nothing extra.
- Past 1,000: your AI keeps answering only if you have set a reply budget, daily, monthly or both, on the AI Agent screen. Each reply past 1,000 costs ₹0.15 from your wallet.
- No budget set: your AI stops at 1,000 until the 1st, and so do replies from the GrowStart AI inbox. You can still answer customers yourself from WhatsApp on your phone.
- Booking confirmations and reminders come out of your plan’s automated WhatsApp updates (200 on Growth, 500 on Pro), then ₹0.15 each. Campaigns are unchanged: 30 or 60 messages a month included, then ₹0.99 each.
- You see it coming. The AI Agent screen shows your free AI replies for the month, you get one warning as a limit gets close, and a notice if replies pause.
Is your bot wasting your free replies?
Every reply your business sends inside the 24 hours counts toward the free 1,000, including the ones that say nothing. Here is how a careless bot wastes them, and what GrowStart AI does instead.
- It answers “ok”, “thanks”, “ji” and 👍. Most chats end with a word or an emoji, and a bot that replies to each one spends a reply saying nothing. GrowStart AI stays quiet when a chat is over, in English, Hinglish and Hindi, and on messages that are only emoji. A “ji” that answers its own question, like “Shall I book Sunday?”, still counts as a yes.
- It talks to another business’s bot. When two auto-replies meet, each answers the other. On 20 September, before we had a rule for this, one GrowStart AI bot answered another business’s auto-reply 32 times in five minutes. At that pace the free 1,000 lasts under three hours. GrowStart AI now answers the same message only once in 10 minutes, so a loop ends after one reply.
- It gives half answers. “Please call us for the price” brings back three more questions, and every answer is another reply. GrowStart AI answers from what you put in Train your AI, so with your prices, hours and offers there, the first reply can carry all three.
- It has no limit. A bot that keeps going past 1,000 runs up a bill nobody planned. GrowStart AI replies past 1,000 only within the budget you set, and with no budget it stops at 1,000.
Customers who arrive from a Click-to-WhatsApp ad can be answered free for 72 hours. And set a small budget anyway, so a busy month never leaves a customer without an answer.
Questions, answered
Do my customers pay for WhatsApp messages?
No. Messages your customers send are free, and they are never charged for your replies. The charges fall on the business.
Is the 1,000 per number or per account?
Per WhatsApp Business number, per calendar month. Each business on GrowStart AI has its own number, so each gets its own 1,000.
When does the count reset?
On the 1st of every month. GrowStart AI starts its count again at midnight, India time.
Do booking confirmations count toward the 1,000?
No. They are templates, which Meta charges separately. Since 1 October 2026 they are charged even when the customer’s chat is open.
What does a reply past 1,000 cost on GrowStart AI?
₹0.15 a reply, from your prepaid wallet, and only if you have set a reply budget. Without one, your AI stops at 1,000 until the 1st.
Does the change affect campaigns?
No. Campaign messages were charged before 1 October 2026 and still are, at ₹0.99 each past the messages your plan includes.
Let your AI answer, within a budget you set.
Free for 14 days, no card. Every paid action shows its price before it runs, from a prepaid balance you top up yourself.