WhatsApp Marketing Cost: How Much Do You Need in 2025?

Did you know, businesses on average, spend around 9% of their annual revenue on marketing activities? This is because continuously running marketing campaigns can allow you to generate leads and maintain a steady flow of prospects for your business. 

That being said, having a clear idea of your marketing costs and planning a budget beforehand can help you efficiently run promotional efforts. WhatsApp marketing is one of the leading marketing channels used by businesses to promote their offerings. 

So it makes sense to learn about the various pricing points of WhatsApp and decide how much budget you need to properly run your WhatsApp promotional campaigns and drive better ROI for your business. 

Having said that, in this blog post, I’ll go over WhatsApp’s payment structure, allowing you to make a data-driven decision. I’ll also go over additional expenses that may arise from utilizing a marketing platform or the number of conversations you initiate each month. So, let’s dive into it!

WhatsApp Business Platform’s components

Before I start talking about the cost associated with WhatsApp marketing, you have to understand the different variants of WhatsApp Business Platform and the one you can choose according to your business needs. 

The two variants include:

• WhatsApp Business App
• WhatsApp Business API

Let’s look at both of them individually. 

WhatsApp Business App

The Whatsapp Business App is designed for small businesses and startups with a limited number of customers that can be engaged via the app. With the app, you can access the marketing capabilities of WhatsApp and run outreach campaigns to promote your products or services. 

On top of that, the WhatsApp Business App is free to use. This means you don’t have to worry about any subscription or messaging fee while using the app to engage your customers. However, since it is free, it offers a limited number of features and basic options, resulting in a somewhat restricted marketing experience. 

Also, you can engage a maximum of 256 contacts at once with the app. So, if you have a bigger audience base or want to build brand awareness, you need to connect with more people than what the app allows. 

WhatsApp Business API

On the other hand, WhatsApp Business API gives you access to the complete capabilities of WhatsApp, enabling you to interact with more customers and run personalized marketing initiatives for better chances of getting conversions. 

Unlike the WhatsApp Business App, the API is not free to use. The API doesn’t have any front-end UI, so you will have to get a marketing platform that allows you to integrate and use the WhatsApp Business API. Plus, there is conversation pricing, where you will be charged for each conversation you initiate (more on this later.)

Next, let’s delve deeper into the pricing structure of WhatsApp Business API and understand the various costs you will have to pay when using WhatsApp as a marketing channel. 

The pricing structure of WhatsApp API

Unlike the app, the API has a somewhat complex pricing structure, involving a couple of elements: 

• Platform fee
• Conversational charges

The platform charges consist of usage charges and setup costs (if any) for the marketing platform you decide to use. The conversational changes depend on the number and type of messages you send. Below is an in-depth breakdown of these costs. 

What are platform charges?

As I mentioned before, WhatsApp Business API is a backend software and requires a platform that you can use to use it. Additionally, some platforms charge a setup fee for setting up the WhatsApp API. 

However, Zixflow provides you a free setup for the WhatsApp API with no extra or hidden charges. Furthermore, you can enjoy a 7-day free trial of Zixflow by signing up for an account today.

Apart from the one-time setup cost, there is also a monthly subscription cost for using the marketing platform. These charges include the usage cost along with any add-ons that you might have opted for. 

These charges differ from platform to platform. With Zixflow, you can get started with WhatsApp and RCS at ₹1999/month. On top of the marketing capabilities, this plan comes with an inbox and a chatbot to automate your conversations. 

WhatsApp Business API charges

WhatsApp doesn’t charge you for the messages you send but for conversations. A conversation can be of two types, user-initiated and business-initiated. 

User-initiated messages are the ones where a customer reaches out to you first, and you reply back to them within 24 hours from the last received message. In this case, if you reply to user-initiated messages in time, they will not be charged, and you can exchange as many messages as you want, but make sure that you respond back within the 24-hour window.

Business-initiated conversations are the conversations where you, the business, start the conversation with a customer. You can only do this by sending messages via WhatsApp templates that need to be pre-approved by WhatsApp. 

WhatsApp has a conversational pricing structure where it charges you a per-conversation cost for each conversation you initiate. The conversational pricing is based on the amount of messages you send each month and the country your customers are residing in. 

For instance, if you use Zixflow to run your WhatsApp marketing campaigns, you can see the entire pricing list of every country and see which type of message will cost you how much.

So, the overall cost of your WhatsApp marketing revolves around the platform costs and WhatsApp conversational charges. Here is a simple formula to calculate how much budget you need for your WhatsApp marketing efforts:

Total marketing expense = Marketing platform costs + WhatsApp’s conversational charges

Zixflow’s pricing structure

From the formula given above, you can see that the total cost of your marketing activities relies heavily on the platform you have picked to run your initiatives. Zixflow is a multichannel marketing solution using which you can get started with not only WhatsApp marketing but also RCS, email, and SMS. 

Moreover, the platform comes with additional features to further optimize your outreach and communication. For example, there is a native CRM to manage your data, a centralized inbox to efficiently reply to your customers within the 24-hour window, and an automated workflow builder to design a chatbot. 

In addition to that, there are other WhatsApp functions like a WhatsApp chat widget you can add to your website, sync WhatsApp Flows for having structured conversations, and design engaging messaging templates that can be saved for future campaigns. 

Having said that, Zixflow’s marketing structure is divided into four pricing plans: 

Free

The Free plan allows you to access email and SMS, including all the necessary features to run your marketing campaigns across these channels. Plus, you can save up to 250 contacts in the CRM and further segment them into custom lists to create effective marketing lists. 

Starter

The Starter package includes everything covered in the Free plan and lets you run RCS and WhatsApp marketing campaigns. You can also access your inbox and save unlimited contacts to build a WhatsApp CRM. The plan costs ₹1999/month, billed annually, and comes with 3 users by default. 

Growth

With the Growth plan, you can unlock advanced permission settings and automation functionality, further streamlining your marketing efforts. The Growth plan starts at ₹4499/month and supports up to 3 users. You can add more users for an additional cost of ₹1199/user/month.

Enterprise 

Lastly, there is the Enterprise plan, designed for large-scale businesses that need all the administrative and modern features to make the most of the platform. The plan lets you use the solution without any restrictions, maximizing your ROI and driving your bottom line. The pricing for the Enterprise plan starts at ₹11999 /month, and you can get custom plans to meet your particular business needs. 

Furthermore, Zixflow offers a pay-as-you-go payment structure, where there is a unified campaign wallet to manage your multichannel marketing expenses from a single wallet without worrying about the varying costs of each channel and messaging type. Check out our pricing page to learn more.

Know your WhatsApp marketing cost and plan your budget for effective marketing

Learning about WhatsApp’s payment structure is crucial for you to create a marketing budget and efficiently streamline your marketing activities. It is necessary to think about both the platform fee and the conversational charges of WhatsApp before you can kickstart your outreach to get more sales. 

By paying attention to the subscription plans and knowing the ins and outs of the conversational pricing structure, you can enhance your WhatsApp marketing strategies and run cost-effective campaigns that drive results. 

Utilizing the flexible and customizable pricing plans for Zixflow, you can elevate your brand’s presence to the next level. Try out the Zixflow platform yourself or schedule a demo with our sales team to understand how we can help you boost interactions and allow you to stay within a message reach from your customers.