WhatsApp marketing for small businesses in India (2026): what's allowed, what it costs, and a plan that works
What WhatsApp marketing is for a small business, the rules (opt-in, templates, daily limits), what a month costs in rupees with a worked example, a seven-step plan, and the mistakes that get numbers restricted.
Rates and limits verified against Meta's published pricing on 20 October 2026 · Meta's page
Getting and keeping leads15 of 19 in this topic
WhatsApp marketing is selling to your customers on WhatsApp: answering enquiries fast, sending offers and updates to people who agreed to receive them, and running ads that open a chat with you. In India it runs on the WhatsApp Business API, where Meta charges ₹0.8631 for each offer delivered and ₹0.115 for each order update, plus GST. A new business can message 250 people a day, and 2,000 once Meta has verified it.
On this page
What it is, and what it isn't
Done well, WhatsApp marketing looks like a good shopkeeper: quick answers, an offer when there's something worth saying, a reminder when an order is due, and nothing in between. It is not messaging every number on your phone. Customers block businesses that do that, and enough blocks get a number restricted.
The rules in one table
| Rule | What it means for you |
|---|---|
| Opt-in | You may message first only people who gave you their number and agreed to hear from you. Keep a record of when and where. |
| Templates | Anything you send first, or after 24 hours of silence, must be a template Meta has approved. An offer is a marketing template. |
| The 24-hour window | When a customer writes, you can reply with anything for 24 hours. Replies are free for the first 1,000 a month on each number. |
| Daily limit | 250 people a day for a new business, then 2,000 after verification, then 10,000, 100,000 and unlimited as you send good-quality messages. |
| Frequency | Meta also limits how many marketing messages one person gets from all businesses, and holds yours back when they've had enough. |
What a month costs: a worked example
A furniture showroom with 1,200 past buyers who opted in sends two offers a month, 300 delivery updates, and answers about 1,500 enquiries a month on one number:
| Messages | Meta's charge, with GST |
|---|---|
| 2,400 offers (marketing) | ₹2,444 |
| 300 delivery updates (utility) | ₹41 |
| 1,500 replies to enquiries | ₹68 (the first 1,000 are free) |
| Total paid to Meta | ₹2,553 |
The offers are most of the bill, so the cheapest way to cut it is to send each offer only to the people it suits.
A plan that works for a small business
- Open the doors. Run Click-to-WhatsApp ads and put a wa.me link or QR code on your website, Instagram, invoices and packaging.
- Answer every enquiry within seconds, with the price, a photo and a question back. This is where most sales are won or lost.
- Ask for the yes. At the end of a good conversation, ask whether they'd like to hear about offers on WhatsApp, and record it. The consent rules explain what counts.
- Send one useful offer at a time, to the customers it suits: a new range to people who asked about that range, a festival sale to past buyers. Once or twice a month is plenty.
- Follow up the quotes that went quiet, once, with something new to say.
- Let people buy in the chat, with your catalogue and a UPI payment request.
- Measure replies and sales, not messages sent. A campaign with fewer messages and more replies is the better one.
Ready-to-use templates by industry are a quick start, and sending to thousands without a ban covers big lists.
Mistakes that get numbers restricted
- Messaging people who never agreed: bought lists, scraped numbers, every contact on the owner's phone.
- Using a "bulk sender" app or browser extension on WhatsApp Web. WhatsApp's terms forbid it, and it's the quickest way to lose a number.
- Sending too often. Three offers a week to the same person turns into blocks by the second week.
- Dressing an offer up as an order update. Meta moves it to the marketing category, and repeated mislabelling gets your update templates suspended.
- No way out. Every offer should say how to stop, and STOP should work at once.
How Linkubit runs it
Linkubit answers every WhatsApp, Instagram and email enquiry from your price list, asks customers for permission to send offers, and sends campaigns only to people who said yes, within your daily limit. Anyone who replies is answered and taken out of the campaign, STOP is honoured everywhere, and you see which campaign and which ad led to each sale. Free plan to start; paid plans from ₹499 a month, with Meta's charges at Meta's rate.
Is WhatsApp marketing free?
Replying to customers who write to you is free for the first 1,000 replies a month on each number. Messages you start are charged by Meta per message delivered: an offer costs about a rupee with GST in India.
Can I send marketing messages from the WhatsApp Business app?
Only broadcast lists of up to 256 people who have saved your number. Anything bigger, or to people who haven't saved you, needs the WhatsApp Business API.
Can I send offers to my whole contact list?
Only to the people on it who agreed to receive messages from you. Messaging the rest risks your number and breaks Meta's policy.
How often should I send WhatsApp offers?
Once or twice a month for most businesses, and only to the customers each offer suits. More often than weekly usually costs you more in blocks than it earns.
Read next
More on Getting and keeping leadsLinkubit vs other toolsWhatsApp templatesCost calculatorPricing
Try it on your own number. Start free, no card, or see the pricing.