Engati is a multi-channel conversational-AI platform (WhatsApp, web, Instagram, Messenger) with a strong multilingual bot builder, sold on quote-based plans; RichAutomate is an India-focused WhatsApp Business API platform sold on pure usage pricing with no monthly floor. The pricing verdict in one line: as published on engati.com/pricing (301-redirects to engati.ai/pricing, checked July 2026), Engati publishes no rupee or dollar figure for any plan — every tier is "Contact sales" — while RichAutomate publishes a fixed card of ₹0 setup, ₹0 monthly minimum and ₹1.20 per marketing message or ₹0.30 per utility/authentication message.
What Engati actually publishes (and what it does not)
Engati's pricing page lists three WhatsApp plans — Accelerator, Growth and Enterprise — plus two omnichannel plans (Pro, Enterprise) and three partner tiers (Referral, Preferred, Whitelabel). As published on engati.ai/pricing (checked July 2026), none of these eight plans carries a published price; each routes to "Contact sales". Tiers are published without India rupee figures — pricing is quote-based.
The only headline price signal is the claim "Starts at less than $1 per day", alongside "7 day free trial | No credit card required | 0 setup cost". Engati does not publish which plan that refers to or its INR equivalent. Treat it as a marketing floor, not a quote.
What Engati does publish clearly are the plan inclusions, useful for sizing:
- Accelerator — up to 5 agents, 1 WhatsApp API number, basic automation, broadcasting, inbox, Google Sheets and message templates.
- Growth — Accelerator plus advanced chatbot flows, 1,000 MAUs (monthly active users), native CRM integration, advanced analytics, WhatsApp Flows, intent-based campaigns.
- Enterprise — Growth plus eSenseGPT, multiple digital channels, unlimited flows, custom MAUs, voice integration and LLM integrations.
- Pro (omnichannel) — 1,000 MAUs, up to 5 agents.
Two inclusions are the real commercial levers. Agent seats are capped (5 on Accelerator and Pro), so growing a support team is a plan conversation. And Growth and Pro are metered in MAUs, not messages — 1,000 monthly active users included, overage not published. If your list is 40,000 contacts, MAU decides your invoice, and you cannot model it from public information. The published trial is also sandbox-only: 7 days on Engati's own number, maximum 5 test contacts — a product demo, not a live pilot.
The Meta layer, quoted correctly
Engati's pricing FAQ states, verbatim: "A marketing conversation in India is ₹0.73/conversation, Utility conversation is ₹0.31/conversation, Authentication is ₹0.16/conversation and Service conversation is ₹0.29/conversation." Note the unit — those are per-conversation figures. Meta's own page now states businesses are "charged on a per-message basis for each message we deliver to users", with rates varying by market–category pair and served through an interactive selector rather than a static table (Meta's WhatsApp platform pricing page, checked July 2026). Engati's published figures therefore describe the older billing model; check Meta's live rate card for the per-message rate that will hit your bill. 18% GST applies on top in India either way.
RichAutomate pricing, in full
RichAutomate has one rate card and it fits in a paragraph. ₹0 setup fee. ₹0 monthly floor. No per-agent seat fee. Usage only, in one of two billing modes:
- Client Pay — ₹0.10 per message platform fee to RichAutomate; Meta's conversation charges bill directly to your own Meta account, at cost, no markup through us.
- SaaS Pay — one all-inclusive rate: ₹1.20 per marketing message, ₹0.30 per utility or authentication message, Meta charges included. One invoice, no Meta billing account to manage.
New accounts get a 14-day trial plus 100 free credits on your own number, not a sandbox. No tiers, no annual lock-in, no seat licences to negotiate. The trade-off between the two modes is covered in our breakdown of Client Pay vs SaaS Pay WhatsApp billing; the full card lives on the RichAutomate pricing page.
Engati vs RichAutomate: the cost model side by side
| Cost line | Engati (as published on engati.ai/pricing, July 2026) | RichAutomate |
|---|---|---|
| Published plan price | None — all 8 plans "Contact sales" | Published rate card |
| Setup fee | ₹0 ("0 setup cost") | ₹0 |
| Monthly floor | Not published; claim "less than $1 per day" | ₹0 — usage only |
| Metering unit | MAUs on Growth/Pro (1,000 included); overage not published | Per message sent |
| Agent seats | Up to 5 on Accelerator and Pro | Unlimited, no seat fee |
| Marketing message | Platform fee not published; FAQ quotes ₹0.73/conversation | ₹1.20 all-in, or ₹0.10 + Meta direct |
| Utility / authentication | Not published; FAQ quotes ₹0.31 / ₹0.16 per conversation | ₹0.30 all-in, or ₹0.10 + Meta direct |
| Free trial | 7 days, sandbox, max 5 test contacts | 14 days + 100 credits, your own number |
| Channels | WhatsApp, web, Instagram, Messenger, voice | WhatsApp Business API only |
Want your own number instead of a range? Put your monthly volume into the WhatsApp API cost calculator, or start the 14-day free trial and send from your own number today.
Worked example: what 50,000 messages a month costs
A mid-size Indian D2C brand sending 20,000 marketing and 30,000 utility messages a month, with a 6-person support team:
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Drop your WhatsApp number — we line-item your current invoice against Meta India rates in under 60 seconds. India-hosted, DPDP-compliant.
| Line item | RichAutomate — SaaS Pay | RichAutomate — Client Pay | Engati |
|---|---|---|---|
| Setup | ₹0 | ₹0 | ₹0 (published) |
| Monthly platform fee | ₹0 | ₹0 | Not published |
| Agent seats (6) | ₹0 | ₹0 | Over the 5-agent cap — plan change, price not published |
| 20,000 marketing messages | ₹24,000 (20,000 × ₹1.20) | ₹2,000 platform + Meta direct | Not published |
| 30,000 utility messages | ₹9,000 (30,000 × ₹0.30) | ₹3,000 platform + Meta direct | Not published |
| Total to the platform | ₹33,000 all-inclusive | ₹5,000 + your own Meta invoice at cost | Requires a sales call |
Figures exclude 18% GST. Engati may well quote competitively — the point is that you cannot build its column from public information, and on Growth or Pro the meter is MAUs, so a 40,000-contact list and a 4,000-contact list produce very different invoices at identical volume. For the wider picture see our breakdown of WhatsApp Business API pricing in India and the hidden costs Indian BSPs bury in contracts.
Where Engati is genuinely the better buy
Engati is a mature platform and there are real cases where it wins on merit, not price:
- Multilingual bot building — a long-standing strength, useful if you serve several Indian and international languages from one flow.
- True multi-channel. If WhatsApp is one of five channels you run — web chat, Instagram, Messenger, voice — Engati's Enterprise tier consolidates them. RichAutomate is WhatsApp-only, a real gap on our side.
- LLM and eSenseGPT features on Enterprise, plus unlimited flows and custom MAU allowances.
- Whitelabel and partner programmes — worth evaluating if you resell under your own brand.
Choose Engati when channel breadth decides it, or when procurement expects a negotiated contract anyway. Choose RichAutomate when WhatsApp is the channel, finance wants a forecastable rate, and a ₹0 floor matters because volume is seasonal. Already on another platform? Our guide to migrating your WhatsApp BSP in India covers moving a number without losing template approvals.
How we compared
Sources and date. Every Engati figure was read from Engati's live pricing page on 26 July 2026; Meta billing behaviour from Meta's WhatsApp platform pricing page the same day. RichAutomate figures are our own published card.
Method. Only figures a buyer can verify on the vendor's own page were recorded. Where Engati publishes a plan but no price, this page says "not published" rather than estimating — we do not extrapolate competitor pricing from reseller blogs or old quotes, because those numbers go stale and then get repeated as fact.
Limitations. Quote-based pricing moves and enterprise discounts are normal, so Engati may quote well below or above any benchmark. Meta's rates vary by market–category pair and change periodically. Neither platform can promise template approval or guarantee against account restrictions — that is Meta's decision under its own policies.
Author. Rohan Mehta, Product & Billing Lead at RichAutomate, works on WhatsApp API billing, Meta charge reconciliation and BSP migrations. This is a vendor-published comparison — we sell one of the two products named, which is exactly why every competitor figure is sourced and linked rather than asserted.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Engati cost in India?
Engati publishes no rupee price for any plan. As published on engati.ai/pricing (checked July 2026), all three WhatsApp plans (Accelerator, Growth, Enterprise), both omnichannel plans and all three partner tiers are quote-based "Contact sales". The only public price signal is the claim "Starts at less than $1 per day", alongside "0 setup cost". For a rupee figure you must request a quote.
Is RichAutomate cheaper than Engati?
Not provable either way, because Engati publishes no plan price to compare against. What is verifiable: RichAutomate charges ₹0 setup, ₹0 monthly floor and no per-agent fee, billed on usage at ₹1.20 per marketing message or ₹0.30 per utility/authentication message on SaaS Pay. Engati's published plans cap agents at 5 (Accelerator, Pro) and include 1,000 MAUs on Growth and Pro, with overage rates not published.
What is the difference between Client Pay and SaaS Pay on RichAutomate?
Client Pay: you pay RichAutomate ₹0.10 per message and Meta bills its conversation charges directly to your own Meta account, at cost with no markup. SaaS Pay: one all-inclusive rate — ₹1.20 per marketing message and ₹0.30 per utility or authentication message, Meta charges included — on one invoice. Both have ₹0 setup and ₹0 monthly minimum.
Does Engati offer a free trial?
Yes — a 7-day free trial, no credit card, run in a sandbox on Engati's own number and limited to 5 test contacts. RichAutomate gives 14 days plus 100 free credits on your own WhatsApp number, so you can test real templates with real customers.
Do Meta's WhatsApp charges apply on both platforms?
Yes. Meta charges every business on the WhatsApp Business Platform regardless of provider, and its pricing page states businesses are "charged on a per-message basis for each message we deliver to users", with rates varying by market and category. Engati's FAQ quotes India rates of ₹0.73 marketing, ₹0.31 utility, ₹0.16 authentication and ₹0.29 service per conversation — figures from the older conversation-based model. On RichAutomate's SaaS Pay those Meta charges sit inside the ₹1.20 / ₹0.30 rate; on Client Pay they land on your own Meta invoice. 18% GST applies in India either way.
The bottom line. If the question is "which platform can I budget for today, without a sales call", RichAutomate is the only one of the two with an answer: ₹0 to start, ₹1.20 per marketing message, ₹0.30 per utility message, no seats, no floor. If the question is channel breadth, request Engati's quote — and ask specifically for the MAU overage rate and the per-agent price above 5 seats, because neither is public. Either way, price your real volume with the WhatsApp API cost calculator, scan the wider market in our roundup of the best WhatsApp Business API providers in India, then start your 14-day free trial with 100 credits — no card, no setup fee, your own number from day one.