Wati vs Interakt (2026): Which WhatsApp API Tool Costs Less in India?

Last updated 30 October 2026

If your team answers customers on WhatsApp all day and also sends offers to a list, Wati and Interakt will both do the job. Both sit on Meta’s official WhatsApp Business API, both give you a shared inbox, broadcasts and a bot builder, and both bill you twice: once for the plan and again for every template message. After setting up both for Indian shops and clinics, the difference that decides it for most businesses is how each one counts people. Wati charges by user seat. Interakt does not.

Our verdict: for an Indian shop, D2C brand or service business with more than three people on chat, Interakt Growth is usually cheaper and simpler: unlimited agents, a lower per-message price in India, and Shopify and Razorpay links built in. Pick Wati when you need its heavier automation and integrations (HubSpot on Pro, Salesforce on Business), more than one WhatsApp number, or you message customers in many countries and want one vendor for all of them. If only one or two people reply and you send a few thousand messages a month, the two cost almost the same, so choose on the inbox you like after the free trial.

Disclosure: This page has no affiliate links. ScaleSaathi earns nothing if you sign up with Wati or Interakt. Read our affiliate disclosure and editorial policy.

Plan prices side by side

Prices seen 30 October 2026 on Wati pricing, the Wati Growth INR rate card (effective 1 October 2026), Interakt pricing and Interakt message rates, before GST.

Three things to notice. Wati’s headline price is the yearly one; pay month to month and Growth costs ₹800 more a month. Interakt’s ₹999 Starter plan is for Instagram only when billed monthly; for WhatsApp it shows “Not Applicable”, and you have to pay ₹3,499 a quarter or ₹11,999 a year to use it on WhatsApp. And Interakt adds GST on top (“+ taxes”), while Wati’s India page did not say whether its rupee prices include GST. Ask Wati before you compare totals to the rupee.

What changed on 1 October 2026

According to Meta’s WhatsApp pricing page, service replies (your answers inside the 24-hour window after a customer writes in) are charged again. Each number gets 1,000 free service messages a month, and unused ones do not roll over. After that, Interakt Growth charges ₹0.128 and Wati Growth ₹0.138 per service message to India.

A clinic that answers 4,000 patient chats a month now pays for 3,000 of them: about ₹384 on Interakt, ₹414 on Wati. And a bot that answers every “Hi” with three messages triples the count. One exception helps ad-led sellers: when a customer starts the chat from a Click-to-WhatsApp ad, Meta opens a free window of up to 7 days in which your messages are not charged. If you buy Meta ads, that window is worth more than any plan discount.

What a month really costs: three businesses

The plan fee is only half the bill. Here is the same month on both, on yearly billing and the India rates above, before GST.

A clinic or salon: 2 people, 3,000 reminders and 2,000 offers

Wati Growth: ₹2,199 + 3,000 utility × ₹0.1495 (₹449) + 2,000 marketing × ₹1.0357 (₹2,071) = about ₹4,719. Interakt Growth: ₹2,200 + ₹450 + ₹1,916 = about ₹4,566. A ₹153 gap is noise. Pick on the inbox and the bot builder you prefer after trying both. What will move this bill is the appointment reminder: keep it a utility template with no offer in it, or Meta can reclassify it as marketing at six times the price.

A D2C brand: 6 people on chat, 5,000 offers and 2,000 order updates

Wati Growth stops at 3 users, so you need Pro: ₹4,899 + one extra seat ₹1,299 + ₹5,179 marketing + ₹299 utility = about ₹11,676. Interakt Growth, with unlimited agents: ₹2,200 + ₹4,790 + ₹300 = about ₹7,290. That is roughly ₹52,600 a year in Interakt’s favour, before GST. Add two festive-season temps and Wati adds ₹2,598 a month; Interakt adds nothing.

A heavy sender: 50,000 marketing messages a month

Here message rates matter more than plan fees. Wati’s India marketing rate costs about ₹51,785 a month and Interakt Growth about ₹47,900, nearly ₹3,900 apart. Meta’s India list rate is ₹0.8631 per marketing message, as reported by Codingclave in October 2026 from Meta’s rate card effective 1 October 2026, so both add a margin: about 11% on Interakt Growth and about 20% on Wati Growth. At this size, ask both for a volume rate in writing. Wati says its Business plan has volume discounts, and Interakt says its Enterprise plan has no markup on message fees.

Features that actually differ

Both sit on the same API, so most features match. These rows differ, per each pricing page on 30 October 2026.

For an Indian D2C brand, the flow that pays for itself is cash-on-delivery confirmation. A one-tap “confirm or switch to prepaid” message to every COD order cuts parcels that come back unopened, and every return you avoid saves shipping both ways plus a dead inventory week. Interakt has it ready-made for Shopify; on Wati you build it as a flow. If you want the same WhatsApp number to stay on your phone for walk-in customers, check Wati’s coexistence page; Interakt did not describe coexistence on its pricing page, so ask it directly.

Who should pick which

Pick Interakt if

• More than three people will reply to customers, or seasonal staff join for a sale. Agents are unlimited, so you never pay per seat.
• You sell on Shopify or take payments through Razorpay or PayU. Interakt lists these as free apps, and Growth includes a WhatsApp catalog, checkout bot, cash-on-delivery to prepaid nudges and abandoned-cart messages.
• Most of your customers have +91 numbers and you want a rupee wallet. Interakt’s prepaid wallet refunds failed campaign messages at the end of the day, according to its FAQ.

Pick Wati if

• You run chat for a larger sales or support team that lives in HubSpot (Pro) or Salesforce (Business). Those integrations are listed on Wati’s plans.
• You need a second WhatsApp number. Wati sells extra numbers at ₹2,499 a month; plan this cost in if you have two branches or brands.
• Your customers also message you on Instagram, Facebook or your website, and you want one inbox and one AI agent across all of them.
• You message customers abroad a lot. Wati publishes country-by-country rate cards for every plan, so you can price a campaign to the UAE or UK before you send it.

Pick neither (yet) if

You send fewer than a few hundred messages a month and one person replies. The free WhatsApp Business app does that job. Move to an API provider when you need several people on one number, bulk offers to opted-in customers, or order updates sent automatically. Our guide to WhatsApp Business API providers in India compares more options, including cheaper ones.

Costs and limits that catch people

• Wati Growth caps broadcasts and has no webhooks. The plan lists 15,000 broadcasts a month, 1,000 automation triggers and no webhooks. Once the triggers run out, Wati says replies must be manual until you buy more.
• No refunds on either. Wati says it does not refund subscription or credit payments. Interakt says subscription and message charges are non-refundable, and its plans run on an auto-debit e-mandate until you cancel. Use the full free trial before paying for a year.
• Add-ons are billed separately. Wati’s extra AI credits start at ₹1,000 a month and its Shopify integration is USD 4.99 a month. Interakt’s WhatsApp AI agents are listed at ₹2,499 a month for 100 AI messages, then ₹0.50 each (another line on the same page says ₹3,000, so confirm the figure on your quote), and its Sales CRM is a separate ₹2,499 a month for 5 sales agents.
• Service replies are not always free. Meta gives 1,000 free service messages per number each month; beyond that, both charge a small per-message fee (₹0.138 on Wati Growth, ₹0.128 on Interakt Growth for India).
• Your sending limit can shrink. Meta lowers a number’s quality rating when people block or report it, and a low rating cuts how many customers you can reach a day. Send offers only to people who opted in, and warm a new number up with order updates first.
• Moving later is work. Your number can move, but templates must be approved again and Wati notes that chat backups cannot be imported. Choose with a year in mind.

How to test both in one week

Use a spare number, not your main one: connecting a number to the API changes how it works in the WhatsApp Business app, and each provider handles this differently. Budget one to three days for Meta business verification and your first template approvals on either tool, so start both trials on the same day. Build the same three things on both: an order-update template, a welcome reply with two buttons, and a broadcast to 20 staff and friends. Let your least technical team member pick the easier inbox, and send the same test campaign on both to see the exact charge in each wallet. That last step is the only way to confirm the real per-message price on your account.

Before you pay, get written answers to six questions on the sales call:

1. What is my per-message rate in rupees for marketing, utility and service to +91 numbers?
2. Is GST included in the plan price, and what will renewal cost after any first-year offer?
3. What does each extra user cost, and is there a cap?
4. What does a second WhatsApp number cost?
5. Is Shopify or WooCommerce included, or an add-on?
6. If I leave, can I export contacts, tags and chat history as a file?

Frequently asked questions

Is Wati or Interakt cheaper in India?

For one to three users sending a few thousand messages, they cost almost the same: about ₹4,570 to ₹4,720 a month in our clinic example, before GST. With more than three people on chat, Interakt is cheaper because its agents are unlimited, while Wati moves you to Pro at ₹4,899 a month billed yearly for 5 users.

Do Wati and Interakt prices include GST?

Interakt shows its plan prices as “+ taxes”, so 18% GST is added. Wati’s India pricing page did not say whether its rupee prices include GST on 30 October 2026, so confirm it with Wati before paying.

How much does one WhatsApp marketing message cost on Wati and Interakt?

For an Indian number, Wati’s Growth rate card shows ₹1.0357 per marketing message and Interakt Growth shows ₹0.958. Meta’s own India list rate is ₹0.8631 as reported in October 2026, so the difference is each provider’s margin.

Can I move my WhatsApp number from Wati to Interakt?

Yes, a WhatsApp Business API number can be moved between providers, but you will need to set up and get approval for your message templates again, and Wati says old WhatsApp chat backups cannot be imported.

Which is better for a Shopify store?

Interakt is the more natural fit for most Indian Shopify stores: Shopify is one of its free apps, and Growth includes catalog, checkout bot, COD-to-prepaid and abandoned-cart messages with unlimited agents. Wati’s Shopify integration is a paid add-on at USD 4.99 a month.

Do Wati and Interakt have free trials?

Wati offers a 7-day free trial with no setup fee. Interakt offers a 14-day free trial. Neither refunds subscription payments, so test fully during the trial.

Who owns Interakt and Wati?

Interakt is run by Jio Haptik Technologies Limited, an Indian company. Wati is sold by Clare.ai Limited. Both names appear on their own pricing pages.

Are service replies still free after 1 October 2026?

Only the first 1,000 a month per WhatsApp number. After that, Interakt Growth charges ₹0.128 and Wati Growth ₹0.138 per service reply to India, before GST. Chats that start from a Click-to-WhatsApp ad get a free window of up to 7 days.

Related guides

• Interakt review
• WhatsApp Business API providers in India
• WhatsApp Business API pricing in India
• WhatsApp API cost calculator
• WhatsApp AI chatbots for Indian businesses

Sources

All seen 30 October 2026 unless noted: Wati pricing (India view); Wati Growth plan INR rate card, effective 1 October 2026; Wati coexistence; Interakt pricing; Interakt WhatsApp message pricing; Interakt FAQs (seen 28 October 2026); Meta WhatsApp Business Platform pricing; Meta’s India list rate as reported by Codingclave (October 2026). Prices are before GST unless stated.

Wati and Interakt names and logos are trademarks of their respective owners. They are shown only to identify the products compared here and do not imply endorsement by or affiliation with ScaleSaathi.