Guide · WhatsApp Business API: WhatsApp Business API for real estate: is it free, what it costs in India, and how to get it

Most property dealers and channel partners start on the free WhatsApp Business app. The questions come when enquiries outgrow one phone: is the API free, what does it cost in India, how many messages can you send, how do you get it, and can you keep your number? This guide answers each one from Meta's own documentation, checked on 8 November 2026.

What the WhatsApp Business API is

Meta calls it the WhatsApp Business Platform, and businesses use it through the Cloud API, which Meta hosts. There are two ways to connect:

• Directly: a developer connects your systems to Meta's Cloud API. You pay Meta for messages and build or buy the rest.
• Through a provider: Meta's partners offer software on top of the API, such as a shared inbox, a chatbot builder and integrations, in return for their own fees.

Either way, the number, the WhatsApp Business Account and the templates should belong to your business, so you can change provider without starting again.

Our WhatsApp automation guide covers when to move to the API and what to automate first.

Is the WhatsApp Business API free?

No, but parts of it are. Meta charges only for messages your business sends that are delivered; messages that buyers send you cost nothing. Since 1 October 2026, two kinds of message are free:

• The first 1,000 service messages each month, per business number. A service message is a free-form reply inside the 24-hour customer service window that opens each time a buyer messages you. From the 1,001st in a month, service messages are charged.
• Everything for up to seven days after a click-to-WhatsApp ad. When a buyer messages you from an ad that clicks to WhatsApp, or from a Facebook Page's call-to-action button, and you reply within the 24-hour window, Meta opens a free entry point window of up to seven days. In it, Meta does not charge for marketing, utility, authentication or service messages.

Everything else is charged per delivered message: templates you send to start a conversation, utility templates such as visit confirmations even inside an open window (free from July 2025, charged again since 1 October 2026), and service replies beyond the free tier. Messages from Meta's own AI agent are billed separately, by the amount of text.

On top of Meta's charges, a provider may charge a monthly fee, per-user fees or a mark-up on Meta's rates. That is the catch in a "free WhatsApp API" offer: the software fee may be zero while the messages are not.

WhatsApp API pricing in India

Meta publishes a rate card for each billing currency. India is a market of its own, and businesses billed in India can pay in rupees. These are Meta's list rates for messages delivered to Indian numbers:

Category	What real estate teams use it for	Rate per delivered message
Marketing	Launches, offers and new-tower news, only with marketing opt-in	₹0.8631
Utility	Enquiry acknowledgements, visit confirmations, reminders	₹0.115
Authentication	One-time passcodes for a buyer login	₹0.115
Service	Free-form replies in an open window, after the first 1,000 a month	₹0.115

Taxes are extra. Meta also publishes volume tiers that lower some rates at high monthly volumes.

Official figures as of 8 November 2026. Source: Meta for Developers, Pricing on the WhatsApp Business Platform (INR rate card). They change, so check the source before you pay or budget.

Two things follow for a sales team. First, a marketing message costs about seven times a utility message, so the reply to a buyer's own enquiry should be written as a genuine utility template: about the buyer's request, with no offer in it. Meta reviews every template and can move it to marketing if it reads like a promotion. Second, click-to-WhatsApp ads come with a week of free messages, which makes them a cheap way to start conversations if your team replies quickly.

Source: Meta, “Pricing on the WhatsApp Business Platform”, Meta for Developers, checked 8 November 2026. Meta may change rates on the first day of a quarter, with notice. Check the current rate card before you budget.

How many messages can you send?

Meta limits how many different people your business can message outside an open customer service window in a rolling 24 hours. The limit is set for your whole business portfolio, so every number in it shares the allowance:

• 250 people a day for a newly created business portfolio.
• 2,000 once you complete one of Meta's scaling paths, such as verifying your business, and your messages pass a quality review.
• 10,000, then 100,000, then unlimited, raised automatically when your messages stay high quality and you have used at least half of your current limit over the last seven days.

Replies inside a window that a buyer opened do not count against the limit. So whether you can send 10,000 messages a day depends on your tier and your message quality, not on what you pay. Messaging people who never opted in is the quickest way to get blocked and reported, which lowers your quality rating and holds your limit down.

Source: Meta, “Messaging limits”, Meta for Developers, checked 8 November 2026.

How to get the WhatsApp Business API

1. Use a Meta business portfolio in your company's name, with at least two admins you trust.
2. Verify your business with Meta, using documents that match your legal name and address. Verification is also one route to the 2,000 limit.
3. Choose the number: a new number, or your existing WhatsApp Business app number through coexistence (next section). A number in use on the personal WhatsApp app has to be removed from it first.
4. Choose direct Cloud API or a provider, and connect through Meta's sign-up flow. Check that the WhatsApp Business Account is created in your business portfolio, not the provider's.
5. Set the display name and profile that buyers will see. Meta reviews the display name.
6. Add a payment method for Meta's charges, or agree how your provider bills them to you.
7. Submit your templates for approval: the first reply, visit confirmation, reminder and handover messages.
8. Connect your lead sources and CRM, test every path, including enquiries at night, then go live.

Keeping your number and the Business app (coexistence)

The most common worry is losing the number buyers already know, and the chats on it. Meta's coexistence onboarding avoids that: it connects an existing WhatsApp Business app number to the Cloud API, so the same number works in both. Your team can keep replying to one-to-one chats from the app while the API handles automation, templates and the CRM. Meta's documentation for it lists no country restrictions, and providers in India offer it.

What to know before you switch:

• The WhatsApp Business app must be version 2.24.17 or later, and onboarding goes through a provider or developer that supports coexistence.
• Your contacts and up to six months of one-to-one chat history can be synced. Group chats are not synced.
• Broadcast lists are switched off, and existing ones become read-only. Disappearing messages, view-once messages and live location stop working in one-to-one chats.
• Linked devices are logged out during onboarding, and WhatsApp for Windows is not supported.
• Some app tools, such as the catalogue, labels and quick replies, are not available through the API.
• The shared number is limited to 20 messages a second, which is far more than a sales team needs.
• Replies typed in the app are not billed; only messages sent through the API are.

Source: Meta, “Onboarding WhatsApp Business app users (coexistence)”, Meta for Developers, checked 8 November 2026. Feature limits change; confirm them with your provider before you onboard.

Questions to ask a WhatsApp API provider

We don't rank providers. Ask each one these questions and keep the answers in writing:

1. Will the WhatsApp Business Account, the number and the templates sit in our business portfolio, so we can leave with them?
2. Do you pass on Meta's charges at Meta's rates, or with a mark-up? What are your own fees, per month and per user?
3. Do you support coexistence, so we keep our number and the app?
4. Can your inbox give a chat to the right salesperson by project, language or area, with the full history?
5. How does each conversation reach our CRM, and how quickly?
6. Can a template go out automatically when a lead arrives from a portal, an ad or our website?
7. Where is our data stored, who can see it, and how do we export it?
8. How are opt-outs handled, and do they reach our CRM?

Propwise Systems is not a WhatsApp provider. We set the platform up on your number, directly or with the provider you choose, and connect it to your lead sources and CRM.

What real estate teams use it for

• An instant first reply to every portal, ad and website enquiry, from your own business number.
• A few qualifying questions in English or Hindi: configuration, budget, location, timeline.
• Site-visit booking, with confirmations and reminders.
• Handover to the right salesperson, with the whole chat.
• Every conversation, answer and opt-out logged in the CRM.

Our WhatsApp automation guide covers what to automate first and what to leave to people. To have it set up on your own number and CRM, see WhatsApp API and chatbot for real estate.

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