WhatsApp vs SMS Cost in India: Which Is Cheaper for Your Messages?

WhatsApp vs SMS cost per message

SMS is billed per delivered SMS part: ₹0.20 on the Starter plan for up to 10,000 SMS a month, or ₹0.15 on Business for up to 1,00,000. There is no monthly fee, and the same rate applies to transactional, OTP and promotional SMS. The minimum purchase is 5,000 SMS, and credits stay valid for a year.

WhatsApp Business API has a monthly plan fee and a one-time setup fee, plus a rate for each template message that Meta confirms as delivered. The rate depends on the category: marketing, utility or authentication. Replies you send inside the 24-hour window after a customer writes to you are service messages, and the first 1,000 each month per number are free.

• SMS: ₹0.15 to ₹0.20 per delivered SMS part, any message type
• WhatsApp utility: ₹0.12 to ₹0.16 per message, plus ₹999 to ₹4,999 a month
• WhatsApp authentication (OTP): ₹0.12 to ₹0.16 per message, plus the plan
• WhatsApp marketing: ₹0.88 to ₹0.98 per message, plus the plan
• All prices exclude 18% GST; WhatsApp setup is ₹2,999 to ₹9,999 once

When SMS costs less

Offers and announcements are where the gap is largest. Sending 10,000 promotional SMS costs ₹1,500 at ₹0.15, while 10,000 WhatsApp marketing messages cost at least ₹8,800 in message charges before the monthly fee. SMS also needs no plan fee, so a business that sends a few thousand messages a month pays only for what it sends.

SMS reaches every mobile number, including feature phones and customers without data, and service SMS reach DND numbers at any hour. WhatsApp reaches only people who use WhatsApp and have opted in to hear from you.

When WhatsApp costs less or does more

A WhatsApp message is charged once whatever its length, and it can carry an image, a PDF invoice or buttons. A long SMS is billed per part: an English message of 161 to 306 characters is two parts, and Tamil or Hindi text splits after 70 characters. So a detailed order update with a bill attached can cost less, and do more, on WhatsApp.

WhatsApp also suits two-way service. Customers reply in the same chat, and replies inside the 24-hour window fall under the free service allowance. At high volumes of utility messages, the lower per-message rate on the Growth or Pro plan can outweigh its higher monthly fee, as the table shows.

Using both: WhatsApp first, SMS as fallback

Many businesses send utility updates on WhatsApp to customers who have opted in, and use SMS for everyone else and for anything that must arrive, such as OTPs and payment alerts. Both run from one AvanceZone account. SMS needs DLT-approved headers and templates, and WhatsApp needs Meta-approved templates, so plan your wording for both when you register.