Pricing guide · Updated August 2026
Most agencies won't put a number on a page. We will. Below is what we quote, what Meta charges on top, how long each build really takes, and the four situations where we tell people not to bother.
Build cost
The jump from tier one to tier two isn't about features. It's about whether the bot matches keywords or actually understands the sentence. That single difference is what decides if customers keep talking to it.
₹15,000 – ₹40,000
Live in 3–7 days
Answers the same twenty questions your team types out every day. Store timings, price lists, delivery areas, return policy.
Typically: Retailers, clinics, coaching centres, restaurants
₹1,00,000 – ₹3,00,000
Live in 3–5 weeks
Understands what someone actually asked instead of matching keywords. Answers from your real catalogue and books things.
Typically: Service businesses with a real enquiry pipeline
₹3,00,000 – ₹8,00,000+
Live in 6–12 weeks
The bot becomes an operations layer. Order status, payment links, dispatch updates, multi-agent routing across teams.
Typically: E-commerce, logistics, multi-branch operations
Running cost
Build cost is one-time. These four repeat every month, and they're the reason a ₹40,000 bot can cost ₹1.5 lakh in its first year.
Meta revises WhatsApp pricing regularly and moved to per-message billing in 2025. Treat the figures below as planning ranges and confirm the current India rate card before you sign anything.
| What | Typical range |
|---|---|
Meta conversation charges Set by Meta, not your developer. Marketing messages cost most, service replies least. Rates change — check Meta's current India card before you budget. | ₹0.10 – ₹1.10 per message |
LLM API usage Only for AI-powered bots. Scales with conversation volume and how much of your catalogue the model has to read each time. | ₹1,500 – ₹15,000 / month |
Platform or hosting No-code platforms charge a subscription. A custom build on your own server usually costs less at volume. | ₹0 – ₹8,000 / month |
Maintenance Answer updates, new flows, and fixing whatever breaks when Meta changes its API. Skipping this is why most bots quietly stop working. | ₹5,000 – ₹25,000 / month |
Real example. A Delhi clinic doing roughly 3,000 conversations a month runs at about ₹12,000–₹18,000 all-in — messages, AI usage and maintenance together. That's less than one receptionist's salary, which is the comparison worth making.
What it actually replaces
Not “improved customer engagement”. These are the specific, boring, repetitive tasks that a bot does well and your team resents doing.
Someone messages after your team has gone home. Right now that message sits unread until morning, and by then they've messaged two competitors. The bot answers, qualifies, and books.
"What are your charges?" "Do you deliver to Noida?" "Are you open Sunday?" Your team retypes these all day. That's the cheapest thing to automate and the first thing you should.
Clinics and salons lose bookings to phone tag. A bot that reads live calendar availability and confirms a slot inside WhatsApp removes three back-and-forth messages per booking.
"Where is my order?" is the single highest-volume support message in Indian e-commerce. Wire the bot to your order system and that queue mostly disappears.
Don't build one if
We turn down chatbot projects fairly often. A bot that annoys customers costs more than no bot at all, and you only find that out after you've paid.
At that volume a person handles it faster and better than a bot. Build one when the queue starts costing you replies, not before.
If prices or stock shift weekly and nothing is in a system the bot can read, you'll spend more time updating the bot than answering customers.
For high-ticket consultative sales, a bot that pretends to be human damages trust when the customer works it out. Use it to qualify, then hand over.
The free WhatsApp Business app can't run a real bot. You need API access through a provider, which needs a verified business — plan two weeks for that alone.
Questions
Still stuck on something? Send it across — we answer scoping questions without putting you into a sales sequence.
A basic FAQ chatbot costs ₹15,000 to ₹40,000 to build. An AI-powered agent that understands natural language and connects to your CRM costs ₹1,00,000 to ₹3,00,000. A full custom system with order tracking and payments costs ₹3,00,000 to ₹8,00,000 or more. On top of the build, budget for Meta's per-message charges and ₹5,000 to ₹25,000 a month for maintenance.
Three things cost money every month. Meta charges roughly ₹0.10 to ₹1.10 per message depending on category. If the bot uses AI, LLM API usage runs ₹1,500 to ₹15,000 a month at typical SMB volumes. Maintenance runs ₹5,000 to ₹25,000. A business handling 3,000 conversations a month usually lands between ₹8,000 and ₹30,000 all-in.
A menu-driven FAQ bot goes live in 3 to 7 days. An AI agent that reads your catalogue and books appointments takes 3 to 5 weeks. A custom system integrated with your ERP or order platform takes 6 to 12 weeks. Add up to two weeks before any of that for WhatsApp Business API approval, which depends on Meta, not your developer.
Yes. The free WhatsApp Business app supports only basic quick replies and away messages. Anything that reads your data, books appointments, or handles more than one conversation flow needs WhatsApp Business API access through an authorised provider. This requires a verified business name and a number not already registered on regular WhatsApp.
For most Indian businesses, yes. People already have WhatsApp open, the message arrives as a notification rather than a browser tab they closed, and you keep the contact for follow-up. A website chat widget only works while someone is on your site. The exception is products where buyers do heavy comparison research before contacting anyone.
Modern AI models handle Hindi and Hinglish well, and most major Indian languages acceptably. Keyword-based bots do not — they break the moment someone types in Roman Hindi. If a meaningful share of your customers message in Hindi or mix languages, that alone justifies the jump from a menu bot to an AI agent.
Send us a week of your WhatsApp enquiries. We'll tell you which tier you need, what it costs, and whether it's worth building at your volume — before anyone talks about a contract.
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