Pay-As-You-Go CPaaS India: SMS, OTP, Voice Prices

Quick answer: For pay-as-you-go SMS, OTP, voice and WhatsApp in India, the providers that publish India prices are MSG91 (SMS from ₹0.25 down to ₹0.16), Fast2SMS (₹0.25 to ₹0.11 per SMS by recharge), Plivo (voice ₹0.38/min, SMS $0.0800), and Twilio (SMS $0.0832, voice from $0.0496/min). Exotel, Gupshup and Kaleyra (now under Tata Communications) do not publish India per-message prices on their main pricing pages. Every business SMS sender in India must also register on a telecom operator's DLT portal.

This guide is for startups searching for an OTP service, a bulk SMS sender, voice calls or an omnichannel API that bills in rupees. Every fact comes from the provider's own website. Prices were checked on 28 September 2026 and are quoted exactly as published, including the currency.

Providers with published India pricing

"Not checked" means we did not verify that channel on the provider's site for this article. "Not published" means the provider's own page we checked shows no price.

Pay-as-you-go SMS and OTP providers in India

MSG91 publishes India-to-India SMS rates in rupees on its pricing page: 5,000 SMS at ₹0.25 each (₹1,250), 16,500 at ₹0.20 (₹3,300), 30,000 at ₹0.18 (₹5,400), 60,000+ at ₹0.17 and 9,62,500 at ₹0.16 (₹1,54,000). It says enterprise buyers can "get up to ₹0.13 per SMS". Its WhatsApp page lists a Titan plan at 500 INR/month, with messages charged separately, and states "All prices are exclusive of 18% GST".

Fast2SMS is the clearest wallet model. It sets a minimum recharge of ₹100 and prices SMS by recharge size: ₹0.25 for ₹100–₹3,999, ₹0.21 for ₹4,000–₹7,999, ₹0.19 for ₹8,000–₹13,999, ₹0.17 for ₹14,000–₹59,999, ₹0.15 for ₹60,000–₹1,29,999, ₹0.13 for ₹1,30,000–₹5,99,999 and ₹0.11 above ₹6,00,000. It offers a "Free ₹50 Credit After Signup".

2Factor is an OTP-focused provider, but its website blocked our automated check, so we cannot quote its prices here.

For a deeper SMS comparison, see our SMS and OTP gateway pricing guide.

Outbound calls and voice OTP

Plivo publishes India voice rates in rupees: ₹0.38/min for domestic outbound and inbound calls, ₹0.25/min for browser SDKs and WebRTC, and ₹200.00/month for a domestic number. It lists call transcription at ₹0.81/min and noise cancellation at ₹0.12/min, and bills on a "30-second pulse".

Twilio publishes India voice rates in US dollars: $0.0699/min for local calls and $0.0496/min for mobile calls.

Exotel does not show rates on its pricing page. Its developer documentation says to "contact Exotel Sales or check your account dashboard" for current pricing. See Exotel API and our contact center comparison for its telephony products.

None of the pages we checked publishes a ready-made "voice agent for OTP and payment reminders" price. Plivo does list per-minute speech recognition (ASR at ₹1.70 per 15 seconds) and transcription, which are the building blocks for such an agent.

Prepaid wallet vs postpaid billing

A prepaid wallet means you add money first and each message is deducted from the balance. Fast2SMS says users "must add funds to their account before sending messages". Plivo and Twilio describe their pricing as "pay-as-you-go". Twilio says: "Only pay for what you use." MSG91 sells SMS in packs with volume rates. Exotel and Kaleyra point buyers to sales, so their billing terms are not published. None of the pages we checked describes a real-time spend-tracking dashboard in detail, so check this in a free trial.

Is there a pricing calculator?

Of the pages we checked, none showed an interactive calculator that combines SMS, voice and WhatsApp. MSG91 shows tiered SMS totals, which works as a simple calculator. Fast2SMS shows a recharge table. Plivo and Twilio show per-unit rates you multiply yourself.

Branded sender IDs and RCS in India

In India, the sender name on a business SMS (the "header") must be registered on DLT (see below). Twilio's India page says "Alphanumeric Sender IDs require contacting sales for domestic and discounted rates".

For RCS, Gupshup's RCS API page says messages "Show up with your name, logo, and brand color" and that a message "reroutes to SMS or WhatsApp automatically" if RCS cannot reach the user. Kaleyra's CPaaS page, which now sits on the Tata Communications website, lists SMS, voice, WhatsApp, RCS, MMS, email, video and chatbots. MSG91 has an RCS pricing tab. None of these published an RCS price on the pages we checked.

Adding AI chat and SMS to a startup app

If you want one API for SMS plus WhatsApp chatbots, Gupshup and Kaleyra both list chatbots alongside messaging channels, and MSG91 sells SMS and WhatsApp from one account. For WhatsApp-first chatbots, see our WhatsApp automation category.

Alternatives to Twilio Flex for an Indian startup

Twilio Flex is Twilio's contact-center product; we did not check its pricing for this article. Indian alternatives with contact-center products include Exotel, Ozonetel CloudAgent, Knowlarity and MyOperator Contact Center. Among these, only MyOperator publishes plan prices on its website (from ₹5,000/month for its Sedan plan). See contact center software.

DLT registration and Jio DLT charges

India's telecom operators run DLT (distributed ledger) portals where businesses register as a "principal entity", then register headers (sender IDs) and message templates. Vodafone Idea's VILPOWER portal publishes a "List of Principal Entities Registered in DLT" and a "List of Headers associated with Principal Entities Registered in DLT". Jio's portal is TrueConnect (trueconnect.jio.com).

Jio DLT charges: the Jio TrueConnect page did not load its content for our check, so we could not confirm the registration fee on an official Jio page. Several SMS vendors state a fee, but under our rules we do not repeat a fee that the operator itself does not show. Check the fee on the portal when you register.

FAQs