What AI calling and WhatsApp really cost in India, with worked examples
A one-minute AI phone call in India costs roughly ₹6 to ₹7 with Plivo for the line, Sarvam for the voice and OpenAI as the AI. At 20 such calls a day plus 1,000 WhatsApp marketing messages a month, the whole bill is about ₹8,700 a month, including the ₹2,999 Convo360 plan and GST. Provider prices are as published on 17 September 2026 and can change.
Prices as on 17 September 2026. Figures were checked against the provider's official pages on that date. Providers change prices and rules without notice, so confirm on the official page before you budget. Convo360 adds no markup: you pay the provider directly with your own account.
- An AI call has three bills, not one: the phone line, the voice and the AI. The AI is the largest.
- One minute costs about ₹0.38 on Plivo, ₹1.35 on Sarvam and around ₹5 on OpenAI.
- WhatsApp marketing messages cost ₹0.8631 each; utility messages cost ₹0.115, about 7.5 times less.
- The AI line is always an estimate until you measure it on ten test calls with your own script.
- Every third-party price here can change, so check the provider's own page before you fix a budget.
Who you actually pay
Most people ask for one number: the price per call. There is no single number, because an AI call is made of parts and each part is sold by a different company. On a bring-your-own-accounts platform you open those accounts in your own name and each company bills you directly.
| What | Paid to | How it is charged |
|---|---|---|
| Platform | Convo360 | Flat monthly plan |
| Call minutes and phone number | Plivo, Twilio, Exotel or your SIP trunk | Per minute, plus number rental |
| The voice that speaks | Sarvam, Smallest.ai or ElevenLabs | Per character spoken |
| The AI that listens and thinks | OpenAI or Google Gemini | Per token |
| WhatsApp messages | Meta | Per delivered template or reply |
If you would rather not do the arithmetic, the cost calculator does it for any volume and any of these providers. The rest of this guide shows the working, so you can check it.
One AI call of one minute
Take the most common setup for Indian languages: Plivo for the line, Sarvam for the voice and OpenAI as the AI.
| Line | Rate | Per call |
|---|---|---|
| Plivo call minutes | ₹0.38 per minute, in 30-second blocks | ₹0.38 |
| Sarvam voice (Bulbul v3) | ₹30 per 10,000 characters | ₹1.35 |
| OpenAI | Per token, in US dollars | about ₹5.00 |
| Total | about ₹6.73 |
Two assumptions sit behind this. The agent speaks for about half the call, which is roughly 450 characters in a minute. And the OpenAI figure is an estimate: OpenAI publishes a price per token, not per minute, so we assume 600 audio tokens of caller speech, 6,000 text tokens of instructions read across the call, 150 tokens of reply and one minute of transcription. That comes to about $0.05, or ₹5 once bank charges on a dollar payment are allowed for.
The AI is about three quarters of the cost of the call. That is where savings are found, as the last section explains. Each provider's price list is covered in detail in our pages on Plivo, Sarvam and OpenAI.
20 and 30 calls a day
Multiply the single call by your volume. The table assumes every call is exactly one minute and a 30-day month.
| 20 calls | 30 calls | 20 a day (600 a month) | 30 a day (900 a month) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plivo call minutes | ₹7.60 | ₹11.40 | ₹228 | ₹342 |
| 18% GST on Plivo calls | ₹1.37 | ₹2.05 | ₹41 | ₹62 |
| Sarvam voice | ₹27.00 | ₹40.50 | ₹810 | ₹1,215 |
| OpenAI (estimate) | ₹100.00 | ₹150.00 | ₹3,000 | ₹4,500 |
| Calling usage | ₹135.97 | ₹203.95 | ₹4,079 | ₹6,119 |
Two fixed charges come on top: the Plivo number at ₹200 a month plus GST, and the Convo360 Pro plan at ₹2,999 a month plus GST, which covers both WhatsApp and calling.
Real calls are not exactly one minute. Plivo bills in 30-second blocks, so a call of 61 seconds costs ₹0.57 and not ₹0.38. Count blocks call by call when you check your own bill.
WhatsApp: 500 to 10,000 messages a month
Meta charges by the type of message, so the same 5,000 messages can cost ₹575 or ₹4,315.
| Messages a month | 500 | 1,000 | 5,000 | 10,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marketing, at ₹0.8631 | ₹431.55 | ₹863.10 | ₹4,315.50 | ₹8,631.00 |
| Utility or OTP, at ₹0.115 | ₹57.50 | ₹115.00 | ₹575.00 | ₹1,150.00 |
| Chatbot replies: first 1,000 free, then ₹0.115 | ₹0 | ₹0 | ₹460.00 | ₹1,035.00 |
| AI for the replies, GPT-4o mini (estimate) | ₹8 | ₹15 | ₹76 | ₹152 |
Only delivered templates are charged. A button-and-menu bot uses no AI, so its last row is zero. The category rules are explained in WhatsApp Business API pricing in India.
Three full monthly bills
Each example uses one-minute calls, and assumes the WhatsApp volume is sent as marketing messages with the same number of chatbot replies coming back.
| Example A | Example B | Example C | |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI calls | 20 a day | 30 a day | 30 a day |
| WhatsApp marketing and replies | 1,000 each | 5,000 each | 10,000 each |
| Convo360 Pro plan, with GST | ₹3,539 | ₹3,539 | ₹3,539 |
| Plivo number and minutes, with GST | ₹505 | ₹640 | ₹640 |
| Sarvam voice | ₹810 | ₹1,215 | ₹1,215 |
| OpenAI for calls and chat (estimate) | ₹3,015 | ₹4,575 | ₹4,650 |
| Meta | ₹863 | ₹4,776 | ₹9,666 |
| Estimated total | about ₹8,732 | about ₹14,745 | about ₹19,710 |
If the same WhatsApp volume is order updates and reminders, it is charged at the utility rate, and Example C drops to about ₹12,228.
Working out your own figure on Convo360
Convo360 charges the flat plan and nothing per minute or per message. Everything else you can see and control yourself.
- Open the cost calculator, enter your calls a day, the average length and your WhatsApp messages by type.
- Pick the phone line, the AI and the voice. The calculator shows the cheapest combination and a suggestion for Hindi and other Indian languages.
- Start the 14-day trial, add your provider keys under Settings → Provider Keys and build the agent.
- Make ten test calls on your real script. Read the actual cost from each provider's usage page, and replace the estimate with it.
- Raise the volume in stages. If a provider balance runs out, Provider Health shows an alert that tells you what to top up.
Where the bill can be cut, and what can change
- Shorten the instructions. The AI reads them again on every turn, so a long prompt or a large knowledge base is paid for many times in one call.
- Keep replies short. The voice is billed per character. A reply of 120 characters costs half of one with 240.
- Compare the AI. In the calculator, Google Gemini Live comes out well below OpenAI per minute on published prices. Test the quality in your callers' language before you switch.
- Use the right template category. An order update sent as a utility template costs about 7.5 times less than the same text sent as marketing.
- Use buttons where AI adds nothing. A menu or an order-status lookup needs no AI at all.
Every third-party figure in this guide was read from that provider's published price list on 17 September 2026. Providers change prices without asking anyone, dollar bills move with the exchange rate, and taxes charged by Sarvam, OpenAI and Meta are extra where they apply. Treat these as a budget, and the provider's own page as the final word.
Step by step
- Enter your volumesOpen the cost calculator and type your calls a day, the average call length and your WhatsApp messages a month by type.
- Choose the providersPick the phone line, the AI and the voice. Note the cheapest combination and the one suggested for your callers' language.
- Start the trial and connect your accountsAdd your provider keys in Convo360 under Settings, Provider Keys, and build the agent.
- Measure ten test callsRun ten calls on your real script and read the actual cost from each provider's usage page.
- Replace the estimate and scale upUse the measured figure in your budget and raise the volume in stages.
Example conversation
Work out your own monthly cost
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Frequently asked questions
How much does an AI call cost per minute in India?
Roughly ₹6 to ₹7 a minute with Plivo, Sarvam and OpenAI: about ₹0.38 for the call, ₹1.35 for the voice and around ₹5 for the AI. Other combinations cost less. The AI part is an estimate, because AI providers charge per token and not per minute.
Why is the AI cost only an estimate?
OpenAI and Google publish prices per token. How many tokens a call uses depends on the length of your instructions, the size of your knowledge base and how much is said. Ten test calls on your own script, read from the provider's usage page, replace the estimate with a real figure.
Does Convo360 charge per call or per message?
No. Convo360 charges a flat plan, ₹999 a month for WhatsApp or ₹2,999 a month with AI calling, plus 18% GST. Call minutes, AI usage and WhatsApp messages are billed to you directly by Plivo, Sarvam, OpenAI and Meta, with no markup added.
Are incoming AI calls free in India?
Not on every provider. Plivo's India price list shows incoming calls at ₹0.38 a minute, the same as outgoing. Check your telephony provider's current price list before assuming incoming calls cost nothing.
What does a WhatsApp message cost in India?
Meta charges ₹0.8631 for each delivered marketing template and ₹0.115 for each utility or authentication template. Replies to customers are free for the first 1,000 a month per number, then ₹0.115 each. These are Meta's rates as published on 17 September 2026.
Will these prices stay the same?
No one can promise that. Plivo, Sarvam, OpenAI, Google and Meta set their own prices and change them when they choose. The figures here were read on 17 September 2026. Recheck each provider's page, or use the calculator, before you commit to a budget.
Related reading
Available across India — see WhatsApp & AI calling automation by state and city.