Which WhatsApp Business API provider should I use in India?
A Meta Business Partner unless you have developers: AiSensy or Interakt for most small brands, WATI or Gallabox for a shared team inbox, Gupshup for high volume, or Meta's Cloud API directly if you can build on it. Every provider resells the same official platform, so Meta's per-message charge (marketing, utility, authentication; service free for the first 1,000 a month per number from 1 October 2026) is the same everywhere, and what differs is the software fee and any markup per message. Compare: AiSensy, Free Forever plan, Basic ₹1,500 a month, marketing ₹1.09 a message; Interakt, Growth ₹2,799 a month, marketing ₹0.97; WATI, Growth ₹2,699 a month billed quarterly; Gallabox, Basic ₹2,999 a month billed quarterly; Gupshup, no platform fee, prepaid wallet plus 18% GST. Indian businesses billed by Meta directly must move to INR billing by 31 December 2026. The rule: pick the cheapest provider whose inbox and Shopify integration your team will actually use.
A direct, practical head-to-head on the two tools founders ask about most, useful as the tie-breaker once you've narrowed your choice down to these two.
The official source on how the WhatsApp Business Platform actually works underneath every BSP tool, worth understanding directly so you know what your BSP is and isn't doing on your behalf, especially around consent and opt-in rules.
AiSensy's WhatsApp API plans for Indian businesses: a Free Forever plan without broadcasts, Basic at ₹1,500 a month, per-message rates for Indian users from 1 October 2026 (marketing ₹1.09; utility, authentication and service ₹0.145), and AI agent and chatbot add-ons.
Interakt's WhatsApp and Instagram plans: Growth ₹2,799 a month and Advanced ₹3,799 a month plus taxes, with per-message rates shown (marketing ₹0.97, utility ₹0.16) after the 1,000 free service messages.
The direct source for Wati's actual current India pricing tiers, check here before trusting a third-party pricing comparison article that may already be stale.
Gallabox's plans: Basic ₹2,999 a month billed quarterly with 3 users and 500 AI credits, Essential ₹6,999 with AI agents on WhatsApp and Instagram, Pro ₹16,999.
Gupshup's self-serve pricing: no platform fee, a prepaid wallet for WhatsApp, RCS, SMS and voice plus 18% GST, and 1,000 AI messages free a month then ₹1 each.
