What Changed
Meta's published pricing documentation confirms a higher marketing message rate for India effective 1 January 2026, alongside India moving to INR billing. A further adjustment on 1 April 2026 raised India's authentication-international rate.
Meta's changelog lists additional rate card changes taking effect on 1 July 2026 and 1 October 2026 across 16 currencies. Billing remains per delivered template message rather than per 24-hour conversation window. Service messages inside the customer service window stay free, and click-to-WhatsApp ad clicks open a 72-hour free window.
Why It Matters
The rate increase itself is small in isolation and brutal at volume. The bigger cost lever is template classification: marketing templates run roughly 7.5 times a utility message, and a lot of brands push messages as marketing that would legitimately qualify as utility.
Audit every template in the account and reclassify what can be reclassified — order confirmations, dispatch and delivery updates, payment and refund status. Then check whether the team is using the free windows properly. The 24-hour customer service window covers replies at no charge, and a click-to-WhatsApp ad click opens a 72-hour free window, which is consistently the most underused cost saving on the channel.
Two things distort budgets when brands compare providers. Meta's published rate is not the landed rate: 18% GST applies to Meta's charges and to the BSP platform fee, and most BSPs add their own markup on top. And with another rate card due on 1 October, any Q4 or festive campaign model built on today's numbers needs re-checking before spend is committed. [Insert your own landed per-message figure across current clients here — it is more persuasive than Meta's list rate.]